an answer?”
He said, “Yes.”
I replied, “What Allah intended was: so grant him security.”
Thereupon he turned his horse’s head and rode off (1).
Some people have asked at this point: “Allah—Exalted be He—visited upon the People of the Elephant, who were Christians, yet these Qarmatians are worse than they. Why did He unleash upon the former the punishment He describes in His Noble Book, while sparing these?” He says:
“Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the People of the Elephant (1)? Did He not make their plot go astray (2)? He sent against them birds in flocks (3), pelting them with stones of baked clay (4), and He made them like chewed straw (2).” ⦗al-Fīl 105: 1-5⦘
It is well known that the Qarmatians are more evil than Jews, Christians, Magians, and even idol-worshippers (3). So why were they not struck down as swiftly as the People of the Elephant?
The reply is that the People of the Elephant were destroyed in order to manifest the honor of the Sacred House, which was soon to receive even greater distinction through the mission of the noble Prophet who would be sent from the very town in which that House stood. Their intent was to disgrace the place that was about to be exalted; therefore Allah annihilated them quickly and without delay, as He relates in His Book (4).
These Qarmatians, however, appeared after the divine laws had been firmly established and their foundations laid, and after the sanctity of Mecca and the Kaʿbah had become a matter of certain knowledge in the religion of Allah. Every believer knows—on the basis of Allah’s Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger—that these people (5) are among the most brazen unbelieving heretics. Hence there was no need to hasten their punishment; rather, the Lord—majestic is He—postponed them to the Day when eyes will stare in horror. Allah, sublime and exalted, grants respite, extends the term, and lures on; then He seizes with the grasp of the All-Mighty, the All-Powerful, just as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Allah surely grants the wrong-doer respite, but when He seizes him He never releases him” (6).
He then recited: “Such is the seizing of your Lord when He seizes the towns while they are doing wrong; indeed, His seizing is painful, severe.” ⦗Hūd 11: 102⦘
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ also said:
“No one is more patient than Allah regarding the abuse He hears: they claim that He has a son, yet He provides for them and grants them well-being” (7).
And Allah says: “Do not think that Allah is unaware of what the wrong-doers do; He only postpones them to a Day when eyes will stare in terror.” ⦗Ibrāhīm 14: 42⦘
And He says: “Do not be deceived by the movement of those who disbelieve throughout the land (196); it is but a brief enjoyment, then their abode is Hell—an evil resting place.” ⦗Āl ʿImrān 3: 196-197⦘
And He says: “We grant them brief enjoyment, then We shall drive them to a harsh punishment.” ⦗Luqmān 31: 24⦘
And He says: “A brief enjoyment in this world; then to Us is their return, after which We shall make them taste a severe punishment for their disbelief.” ⦗Yūnus 10: 70⦘
In that same year a disturbance broke out in Baghdad between the followers of Abū Bakr al-Marrūdhī the Ḥanbalī (8) and a group of commoners; they disputed