and of the Qadariyyah and the Jahmiyyah, together with all who walk their path, aping them in both verdict and evidence, you will see that reporting the purport of their claims about Allah and His Messenger is in no way inferior—in its offense—to narrating the fabricated, contrived ḥadiths forged by the hands of impostors and coined by the tongues of liars. Those fabricators invented words and pinned them on him, while these have invented meanings and inserted them into his speech.

Alas for the Book and the Sunnah between these two camps! What a calamity has befallen Islam at the hands of both factions! Each is an enemy to Islam, plotting against it—swerving from the straight path, deviating from the right way.

Were you to witness to what ends the distorters divert the finest, clearest, most eloquent words—words most deserving of every guidance, exposition, and knowledge—twisting them into false notions and corrupt interpretations, you would be struck with amazement and long to burrow deep beneath the earth. At one moment you marvel, at another you grow angry; now you weep, now you laugh; then you groan over what has befallen Islam and over what has been inflicted upon the precincts of revelation by people more astray than cattle.

Unveiling the nakedness of these people—laying bare their scandals and the rottenness of their foundations—is among the best forms of striving in Allah’s cause. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to Ḥassān ibn Thābit, “The Holy Spirit is with you so long as you champion His Messenger.” (1) He also said, “Satirize them—or assail them—for Gabriel is with you.” (2) And he said, “O Allah, support him with the Holy Spirit as long as he defends Your Messenger.” (3)