He has made them steadfast with the firm word, He manifests Himself to them in the form they recognize, and they prostrate before Him; and how, when they raise their heads from prostration, they find that He has changed to the form in which they first saw Him; and how they then follow Him until they cross the Bridge—will necessarily know that the One who comes to them in this form is the Lord of the worlds Himself, not an angel or merely one of His signs.

Whoever interprets such hadiths and these explicit, clearly stated expressions as referring to an angel, or to the coming of some punishment or bounty from Allah, not only denies what is necessarily understood from these expressions, but has also opened a door to Qarmatianism and the distortion of words from their proper meanings that cannot be closed. For the matter being reported cannot be stated more clearly than in this fully explicit account. If someone regards this as open to other interpretations, no one could ever communicate anything to anyone else in words that convey his intended meaning with certainty. All this is among the most extreme forms of sophistry and denial of