even while they fought and transgressed and were commanded to be reconciled. Let the believer reflect on the distinction between these two kinds, for how often one is confused with the other! Let him know that loyalty to a believer is obligatory even if that believer wrongs him and transgresses against him, while enmity towards a disbeliever is obligatory even if that disbeliever gives him gifts and treats him kindly. For Allah, Glorified is He, sent the messengers and revealed the Scriptures so that religion would be devoted entirely to Allah: love for His allies and hatred for His enemies, honour for His allies and humiliation for His enemies, reward for His allies and punishment for His enemies.

When good and evil, wickedness, obedience and disobedience, adherence to the Sunnah and religious innovation coexist in one man, he deserves loyalty and reward in proportion to the good within him, and enmity and punishment in proportion to the evil within him. Thus, grounds for both honouring and humiliating a person may coexist, and he receives a share of each. This is like a poor thief whose hand is cut off for his theft, yet who is given enough from the public treasury to meet his needs.

This is the principle upon which Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah agree. The Khawārij, the Muʿtazilah, and those who agree with them oppose them on this point. They did not regard people as neither deserving of reward alone nor deserving of punishment alone.

Ahl al-Sunnah say:

Allah punishes in the Fire those perpetrators of major sins whom He punishes, then brings them out of it through the intercession of those whom He permits