and kills for purposes other than obedience to Allah and His Messenger is nothing but one of the tyrants. Unless he repents, Allah’s might will come upon him—a might that cannot be averted from the guilty people. Such is Allah’s established way, and you will never find any change in Allah’s way.

How, then, can a Muslim consider it permissible to say of such a person that he is Allah’s vicegerent and deputy? This would entail that Pharaoh, Nimrod, and others like them were Allah’s vicegerents and deputies.

Moreover, these people hold that this description applies to every human being: each is Allah’s vicegerent because he belongs to the species given power over other animal species and empowered to manage affairs in various ways. They make no distinction between those who obey Allah and those who disobey Him. Rather, they treat those who believe and do righteous deeds as being like those who spread corruption on earth, and the God-fearing as being like the wicked. All of this is