the interpretation adopted by the other sect, claiming that its own was what the Lawgiver intended, until the revealed Law was torn to pieces and taken far from its original purpose.
Knowing that such things would inevitably occur within his revealed Law, the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
‘My community will split into seventy-three sects, all of them in the Fire except one.’
By this one sect, he meant those who followed the apparent meaning of the revealed Law and did not subject it to an interpretation that they publicly disclosed.”
He said: “If you reflect on the corruption that has afflicted this revealed Law in the present time as a result of interpretation, you will see that this analogy is sound.
The first to alter this supreme remedy were the Khawārij, followed by the Muʿtazilah, then the Ashʿarīs, then the Sufis. Then came Abū Hāmid, whose intervention was like a flood engulfing the villages: he openly presented all of philosophy to the general public, along with the opinions of