Whoever reflects on the strife that has occurred will recognize this as its cause. He will see that this lies at the root of the strife among the community’s rulers and scholars, the kings and shaykhs who became involved, and the ordinary people who followed them. This includes the causes of misguidance and waywardness: religious and sensual passions, namely, innovations in religion and immorality in worldly affairs. For the causes of misguidance and waywardness—innovations in religion and immorality in worldly affairs—are common to the children of Adam because of the wrongdoing and ignorance within them. Through his sin, a person wrongs himself and others, as in unlawful sexual intercourse, whether sodomy or otherwise; drinking wine; wrongdoing involving wealth through betrayal of trust, theft, or usurpation; and similar acts.

It is well known that although these sins are repugnant and blameworthy according to both reason and religion, they are also desired. It is in the nature of souls to dislike others having exclusive enjoyment of them; rather, they want to obtain what others have obtained. This is the desire to have the same as another, which is the lesser of the two forms of envy. The soul wants to rise above others and reserve things for itself to their exclusion; or it envies another and wishes that person’s blessing to disappear, even if it does not obtain that blessing itself. Within it are desires for supremacy and corruption, arrogance and envy, which impel it to reserve the objects of desire for itself to the exclusion of others. How, then, will it react when it sees someone else monopolizing these things and enjoying them to its exclusion?

The moderate person among them in this regard is the one who desires sharing and equality; the other is deeply unjust and envious. These two attitudes occur both in permissible matters and in matters whose prohibition concerns Allah’s right. Thus, whatever is