mere recitation, and they do nothing but conjecture. So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands, then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ to sell it for a paltry price. Woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn.”

Thus He censured those who distort it, the unlettered who know it only through mere recitation, and those who lie by saying that what they write is from Allah, when it is not from Allah. Likewise, He censured those who twist their tongues when reciting the Scripture so that you may think it is part of the Scripture, when it is not. Elsewhere, He also censured those who conceal what Allah has revealed of the Scripture.

All four of these types are found among those who turn away from Allah’s Book and oppose it with their own opinions and desires. At times they conceal hadiths that contradict their views, and among them are groups who fabricate Prophetic hadiths that accord with their innovations, such as the hadith cited by the philosophers:

“When Allah first created the intellect.”

And the hadith cited by the Jahmiyyah:

“Allah existed, and nothing existed with Him, and He is now as He was.”