whether or not a Muslim who opposes the truth is to be declared an unbeliever. He said: “Abū al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī said at the beginning of his book Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn: ‘After their Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the Muslims differed over various matters, declaring one another misguided and dividing into distinct sects. Yet Islam unites and encompasses them.’”

He said: “This is his position, and most of his followers hold it. Some of his followers, however, declare those who disagree with them unbelievers.”

He said: “As for the jurists, it has been reported that al-Shāfiʿī, may Allah have mercy on him, said: ‘I do not reject the testimony of any adherents of deviant sects and doctrines except the Khattābiyya, for they believe in the permissibility of