and His Messenger.” Likewise, He made matters dependent upon pleasing Allah and His Messenger, as He says:

“Allah and His Messenger are more deserving that they should please Him.”

And upon accepting the judgment of Allah and His Messenger, as He says:

“When they are called to Allah and His Messenger so that he may judge between them.”

And His words:

“When it is said to them, ‘Come to what Allah has revealed and to the Messenger.’”

He commanded that disputes be referred to Allah and the Messenger, saying:

“Obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. If you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger.”

He also assigned the spoils of war to Allah and the Messenger, saying:

“They ask you about the spoils of war. Say, ‘The spoils of war belong to Allah and the Messenger.’”

There are numerous similar examples. As for making matters of love and hatred, loyalty and enmity, support and abandonment, agreement and disagreement, pleasure and anger, giving and withholding dependent upon something that contradicts these principles revealed by Allah—something “narrower than them,” “broader than them,” or “broader in one respect and narrower in another”—the broader category is exemplified by the position of those who engage in philosophy and their followers—among the misguided speculative theologians and Sufis, and the kingdoms founded upon that position, such as that of the king of the Turks and others—in permitting adherence to a religion other than that brought by Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, even if one reveres Muhammad and regards his religion as the best of religions. The same applies to anyone who considers salvation and felicity possible, after he was sent as a messenger, through something other than his revealed law.

The category that is “broader in one respect and narrower in another” includes, for example, lineages, tribes, Arab, Persian, Roman, and Turkish peoples, or cities and lands.