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If this was the state of the early generations(1)—their era lying so close to the days of Christ, the righteous still present among them, political power and public voice in their hands, their scholars more numerous than ever, and their devotion to the affairs of their faith as earnest as you have seen—yet, for all that, they wandered in confusion, some cursing, others being cursed, with no firm footing and no settled word about knowledge of their Deity. Indeed, each one took his own desire as a god and openly pronounced curses and disavowal against anyone who followed a different way.

What, then, should one expect of the dregs(2) of those past generations(3), the refuse of ages long gone, the sweepings of the bewildered, the offspring of the misguided, after the span has grown long for them, the covenant has become remote, and their religion has dwindled to whatever they pick up from monks(4)? When you uncover their reality, you find them closer to cattle than anything else, though outwardly they bear human forms; rather, they are exactly as Allah says—and whose word is truer than Allah’s?—“They are but like cattle; indeed, they are even further astray from the path” (25:44).

These are the very people Allah, exalted is He, had in view when He said: “Say, People of the Scripture, do not go to extremes in your religion beyond the truth, and do not follow the whims of a people who went astray before, led many others astray, and strayed far from the right way” (5:77).

Thus, they belong to the community of misguidance, as attested by Allah and His Messenger against them, and to the community of curse by their own testimony upon themselves, for they heap curses upon one another.