on Eid al-Adhā, in full view of the Muslims who were present. No one found fault with him for it, nor did anyone criticize him. Rather, they approved of what he had done and deemed it right.

Likewise, had these people appeared in the time of the Companions of the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the Companions would have dealt with them only by putting them to death, as with the apostates, and as Alī killed and burned those of them who appeared in his time. One of them also appeared in Medina in the time of Sa‘d ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Abd al-Rahmān ibn Awf, who advised the governor of Medina at that time to put him to death.”

He said:

“For a person of sound judgment, sufficient evidence to declare them unbelievers lies in our explanation of the relevant passages of the Book of Allah, the reports we have narrated from Alī and Ibn Abbās, and our account of their manifest unbelief and abhorrent doctrine. We shall narrate reports from some of the scholars in whose midst these views appeared.

Muhammad ibn al-Mu‘tamir al-Sijistānī narrated to us; he was among the most trustworthy people of