at times, and at other times from a donkey laden with books (1).

Whoever accepts the fabricated reinterpretations foisted upon Allah and His Messenger—reinterpretations that (2) distort the words of Allah and His Messenger, wrenching them from their proper meanings—is of the same ilk as those who embraced the concocted, bogus “Qur’an” of Musaylimah, who claimed to be a partner of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Such a person appoints a leader (3)—a prominent, obeyed figure—making him a partner of the Prophet in matters of affirmation, obedience, and acceptance, if not even preferring him to the Prophet himself. This is especially true of the extremists among the Jahmiyyah, the Bāṭiniyyah, the Rāfiḍah, and the Ittihādiyyah. For within their circles are statements of their masters and elders that they set alongside the words of Allah and His Messenger, and they often give those statements precedence in belief and practice. They boast that these utterances possess depths of verification, precision, knowledge, and gnosis unmatched by the Sunnah and the Qur’an.

Those of them who outwardly don the mantle of Islam say: “Our discourse leads to Allah, whereas the Qur’an and the Prophet’s words lead to Paradise. Our speech is for the elect, the Qur’an is for the common folk.”

Many of them say: “Our words are demonstrative proof; the way of the Qur’an is mere rhetoric.”

Others say: “The Qur’an and Sunnah are the path of safety, but our discourse is the path of knowledge and realization.”

And many of them say: “The Companions were not concerned with this discipline; they were unlettered people who conquered lands and established religion by the sword, then handed the texts over to us so that we might dispose of them as we please.”