reached others. He thus attained such patience and certainty that Allah blessed and favoured him with leadership in the foundations of religion as taught by the Sunnah and the Sharia. Allah Most High made these two qualities the means to leadership in religion, saying:

“And We made leaders from among them, guiding by Our command, because they were patient and had certainty in Our signs.” {24} [al-Sajdah 24]

His followers, therefore, cannot, while professing agreement with him, deviate as far as others who have not found statements from their own leaders on this subject that would restrain them from contradicting those leaders. Thus, others exhibit more deviation than his followers towards both extremes of negation and affirmation in matters concerning the divine attributes, divine decree, threats of punishment, leadership, and other issues. This is evident from a survey of the cases.