Allah Most High, through the rule of Sunni kings such as Nūr al-Dīn, Saladin, and others, who rescued most of Syria from the Christians. Remnants of the Rāfidah and the hypocrites remained in Mount Lebanon and elsewhere. At times, the Christians would wrest control of it from them, until these Rāfidah and hypocrites became farmers working for the Christians. Mount Lebanon and similar places thus passed back and forth between the Christians and the Rāfidah. It possesses no special virtue. Residing among Christians or Rāfidah who prevent a Muslim from openly practising his religion is not prescribed; indeed, it is not even permissible.

Yet some groups who favour withdrawing from people out of asceticism and devotion came to suppose that the merit of this mountain and similar places lay in the seclusion they offered and the permissible fruits growing there that one could eat. They therefore sought it out for that purpose, mistakenly and in error. For Muslims are not prescribed to dwell in mountains, caves, and wildernesses, except when turmoil in the towns forces a person to abandon his religious practice—performing his obligations and refraining from prohibited acts. In that case, a Muslim migrates from a land where he cannot practise his religion to one where he can, for the true emigrant is one who abandons what Allah has forbidden.

At times, some of these devout ascetics may be either wronging themselves or following a moderate course, yet making mistakes for which they are forgiven. As for the foremost—