they actually give precedence to his word over the speech of Allah and His Messenger, saying, “He knows Allah and His Messenger better than we do.” ⦗24b⦘ It was by this very tactic that the Rāfiḍah, the Bāṭiniyyah, the Ismāʿīliyyah, and the Nuṣayriyyah (1) managed to market their falsehoods and forced interpretations. Realizing that the Muslims are unanimous in loving, honoring, befriending, and venerating the Prophet’s Household, they laid claim to them (2) and displayed such professions of love, loyalty, and incessant praise of them and their virtues that the listener is led to imagine they are their true allies and the people most closely attached to them. They then promoted their fabrications and lies by attributing them to that noble family (3).

There is no god but Allah! How much heresy, atheism, innovation, and misguidance has gained currency in the world simply by being ascribed to them—while they are as innocent of it as the prophets are of tajahhum and taʿṭīl, as Jesus is of worshiping the cross and the Trinity, and as the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) is of every innovation and deviation.

When you reflect on this cause, you will notice that it dominates most souls; they rely on nothing but a favorable opinion of the speaker, without any proof from Allah and without a single piece of evidence leading them to that stance (4). It is a legacy, inherited in the male line, from those who opposed the religion of the messengers on the strength of what their forefathers practiced.