“Indeed, this is a devil intent on leading you astray.” The wayfarer replied, “A foot that has stepped into disobedience to Allah and obedience to the devil shall have no part with me.” God did not remove it from its place until it departed this world, and He, Exalted be He, recorded its mention in some of His books, saying: “and the one of the foot…” (previous source). Wahb reported: A man of his time came to a king who was enticing people to eat pork. The people revered the king and were alarmed by his proposal. Secretly, the king’s chief of police said to a certain scholar, “O learned one, slaughter a young goat whose flesh is lawful for you, then hand it to me and I will prepare it. When the king calls for pork, I will place this goat meat before you, so you eat lawfully while the king and the onlookers think you are eating pork.” The scholar slaughtered the goat and gave it to the chief of police, who prepared it. He instructed the cooks that, when the king ordered pork served to the scholar, they were to set before him only this goat meat. The people gathered to see if the scholar would eat, saying, “If he eats, so will we; if he refuses, we refuse.” When the king arrived and commanded the pork to be set before them, they placed actual pork before the court and the goat meat before the scholar. God inspired the scholar to reflect, “If I eat this goat meat, people will think it is pork and will follow my example, committing sin while ignorant of the truth. I would bear their sins on the Day of Resurrection. By Allah, I will not do it—even if I am killed and burned in fire.” He refused to eat. The chief of police gestured that it was only goat meat, but the scholar persisted. The king ordered him again; he refused. Finally, the king commanded the police chief to execute him. As they led him away, the chief asked, “Why did you not eat the meat you yourself slaughtered and entrusted to me? Did you think I would betray you?” The scholar answered, “I knew it was goat meat, but I feared people would follow me in error, believing pork was lawful. I would thus be a cause of misguidance.” So he was killed. (May God have mercy on him.) (Reported by Abu Nu‘aym in al-Hilya 4/55–56.) It follows that a scholar must guard against his faults and avoid questionable matters, for his slip is observed and imitated by the ignorant. Mu‘adh ibn Jabal said, “Beware the wavering of the wise.” (Mentioned by Ibn al-Jawzi in Sifat al-Safwa 1/495 and by Ibn Rajab in Jami‘ al-‘Ulum wa al-Hikam, p.253: “Indeed, Satan may speak a word of misguidance through the mouth of a wise man.”) Another warned, “Beware the error of the scholar, for when he errs, many err through his error.” (Reported by Ibn al-Mubarak in al-Zuhd, p.520, on the authority of ‘Isa, peace be upon him.) He should not belittle even a minor slip, nor rely on the juristic concessions (rukhas) on which scholars differ, for in the eyes of the unthinking layperson the scholar becomes the very advocate of their wrongs. They will say, “I saw so-and-so, the scholar, doing this or that.” He must also avoid mere habitual practices that the ignorant may assume to be permissible, Sunnah, or obligatory. As the saying goes: “Ask the scholar and he will speak the truth, but do not imitate his unusual actions—question him if he is truly devout.” How much harm has come from merely observing most scholars of your time—let alone associating closely with them! Yet Allah says, “Whom Allah guides—he is rightly guided, and whom He leads astray—you will find for him no guiding friend.” (al-Kahf 18:17) Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Zanjawī said: ‘Abd al-Razzaq narrated to us from his father: I said to Wahb ibn Munabbih, “You used to observe… ”