calling people to Allah: the rebuttals they endured, the charges of falsehood hurled at them, and the many kinds of harm deliberately inflicted upon them—until, by Allah’s leave, the summons of those whose call was destined to prevail did prevail and they established the religion of Allah.

Now observe how swiftly people rally to the propagandists of the Rafidah, the Qaramitah Batiniyyah, the Jahmiyyah, and the Muʿtazilah. They revere their missionaries, lavish wealth upon them, and obey them (1) without a single proof offered or sign displayed. All that reaches them is an interpretation novel to their souls and intriguing to their minds (2). They are led to believe that it is the exclusive preserve of a spiritual elite, raised thereby above the rank of ordinary folk, so that whoever embraces it is counted among the elect and separated from the masses.

You will not find any purveyor of these spurious doctrines and corrupt opinions—concocted through such reinterpretation—met at first with denial or refutation. Instead, the duped and the deluded rush headlong toward him, flocking in droves, urged on by their devils and their own selves (3), driven and herded until they enter his fold in swarms. They plunge into it like moths into a flame and return to it as birds to their nests.

Another of its grave afflictions is the ease with which the re-interpreters can detach those they invite from their former schools, transfer them to their own reprehensible creed, and erase guidance from their hearts. They may well select for the task a man famed for piety and probity, known for trustworthiness, of fine character and pleasing appearance, eloquent of tongue, patient in asceticism and self-denial, and skilled at addressing people of all social strata. Coupled with this, they manage to discover and publicize every real or imagined blemish in the people of truth, assailing, disparaging, and belittling them with every defect a fault-finder could desire.