the well-known sects of innovation, such as the Khawārij, the Rawāfid, the Qadariyyah, the Murji’ah, and the Jahmiyyah. Rather, all these groups arose only among those who came after them.

Nor did Satan hope to appear to any of them in human form and say, “I am al-Khidr,” or “I am Abraham,” or Moses, or Jesus, or the Messiah; or to speak to anyone at a grave so that he would think its occupant had spoken to him. He achieved this only among those who came after them.

He also achieved this among the Christians, when he came to them after the crucifixion and said, “I am the Messiah, and these are the marks of the nails”—he does not say, “I am a devil,” for a devil does not have a body—or words to that effect. This is what the Christians relied upon in believing that he had been crucified, not their having witnessed it. None of them witnessed the crucifixion. Rather, some Jews attended it and knew the man who was crucified, believing him to be the Messiah. For this reason, Allah counted it among their sins, even though they had not crucified him. Nevertheless, they intended this deed and rejoiced in it. Allah Most High says:

“And for their disbelief and their uttering against Mary a tremendous slander,”

“And their saying, ‘We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah.’ But they neither killed him nor crucified him; it was only made to appear so to them. Those who differ concerning him are indeed in doubt about him. They have no knowledge of it, following only conjecture. They certainly did not kill him.”

“Rather, Allah raised him to Himself.”

A detailed discussion of this belongs elsewhere. The point is that Satan did not hope to mislead the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, as he misled others among the people of innovation who interpreted the Quran contrary to its true meaning, were ignorant of the Sunnah, or saw and heard extraordinary phenomena and imagined them to be signs like those of