To proceed:
A delegation arrived from the vicinity of your land and told us much the same as we had already heard about the people of your region: that they hold firmly to the Sunnah and the united Muslim community, observe Allah’s law as conveyed by His Messenger, and shun the practices of pre-Islamic ignorance to which many of the Bedouins still cling. These include shedding one another’s blood, plundering one another’s wealth, severing family ties, casting off the bond of Islam, granting inheritance to males but not females, letting garments trail, and invoking the rallying cries of pre-Islamic ignorance—saying, “O sons of so-and-so!” or “O so-and-so!” They also include supporting one’s tribe in wrongdoing and neglecting what Allah has prescribed concerning marriage, such as the waiting period and similar obligations.
They also shun the deviant notions that Satan has made appealing to a group of those people, through which they have departed from the beliefs of the earliest forerunners among the Emigrants and the Helpers. They have contravened what Allah prescribed for them concerning seeking forgiveness for those who preceded them, as He, Exalted is He, says:
“And those who come after them say, ‘Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith, and do not place in our hearts any resentment toward those who believe. Our Lord, You are indeed Most Kind, Most Merciful.’”
They have reviled the Companions of Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with abuse that could not come from anyone in whose heart faith has taken firm root.
All praise is therefore due to Allah, who has spared us and you the afflictions with which He has tested many of His creatures, and has greatly favoured us above many of those He created. We ask Allah, the Magnificent, the Bestower of favours, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, to perfect His blessing upon us and you, to guide us and you to the words and deeds He loves and is pleased with, and to make us among those who follow the earliest forerunners in righteousness.