Censure of Ta'wil (figurative interpretation) In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. With His help we seek assistance and upon Him we rely. 1. All praise is due to Allah, the Knower of the unseen and the seen, whose decree and will are carried out, who alone directs the origination and the return, and who apportions misery and felicity. He created one group for dissension and another for worship, and He assigned the revealed promises between the two: for those who do evil there is the worst recompense, and for those who excel there is the best reward and even more. May Allah bless our master Muhammad, the Chosen One, and his family with a blessing that ennobles his final return. 2. To proceed: I have wished to record the doctrine of the early generations (al-salaf) and of those who have followed them with excellence—may Allah have mercy on them—concerning the names and attributes of Allah Most High, so that whoever desires to emulate them may follow their path and be with them in the Abode of the Hereafter. For every follower in this world shall be with his leader in the next, treading where he trod and being promised what his leader was promised, whether good or evil. Allah the Exalted has indicated this, saying, “The foremost—the first of the Emigrants and the Helpers—and those who follow them with excellence: Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him” (Qur’an 9:100); and, “Those who believed, and whose descendants followed them in faith, We shall join their descendants to them” (Qur’an 52:21); and He related from Abraham, upon him be peace, “Whoever follows me is truly of me” (Qur’an 14:36). Conversely, He said, “Whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows a path other than that of the believers—We shall turn him to that to which he has turned” (Qur’an 4:115).