of this was that Satan now, through his subtle cunning, beguiles everyone who senses in himself superior understanding, exceptional intelligence and mental acuity. He makes him imagine that if, in his learning and doctrine, he were content with the plain meaning of the Sunnah and confined himself to its clear exposition, he would be on a par with ordinary people and counted among the common multitude, and that his understanding would have failed him and his subtle discernment and mental acuity would have faded away.

Thus he spurred them to excess in speculation and to introduce innovations contrary to the Sunnah and transmitted reports, so that they might stand apart from the common masses and distinguish themselves in rank from those they regard as beneath them in understanding and intelligence. With this premise he deceived them until he led them astray from the clear path and entangled them in specious doubts, to whose embellishments they clung, and strayed