–people: to believe him in everything he reports and to obey him in everything he commands, making him the dividing line between His friends and His enemies, between the people of Paradise and the people of the Fire, between the blessed and the wretched. Whoever follows him is counted among Allah’s pious allies, His victorious troops, and His righteous servants; whoever does not follow him is among Allah’s ruined, criminal foes. Opposition to the Messenger and siding with that other person first drags one into innovation and misguidance, and in the end into disbelief and hypocrisy.

Such a person will have a share of the Almighty’s words:

“On the Day when the wrongdoer will bite his hands and say, ‘Would that I had taken a path alongside the Messenger! Woe to me—would that I had never taken so-and-so as an intimate friend. He led me away from the Reminder after it had come to me; and Satan has always deserted the human being.’”

And His words:

“On the Day their faces are turned about in the Fire they will say, ‘If only we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger!’ And they will say, ‘Our Lord, we obeyed our leaders and our elders, and they led us astray from the path. Our Lord, give them double punishment and curse them with a mighty curse.’”

[Their resemblance to the Christians]

And His words:

“Among people are those who take others besides Allah as equals, loving them as they should love Allah; but those who believe love Allah even more. If only the wrongdoers could see—when they behold the punishment—that all power belongs to Allah entirely, and that Allah is severe in punishment; when those who were followed will disown those who followed them, and they all behold the punishment and every bond between them is severed. Those who followed will say, ‘If only we had another chance, we would disown them just as they have disowned us.’ In this way Allah will show them their deeds as sources of bitter regret…”