from among the Persians, Arabs, and others are worse than the Turks and others who were unbelievers to begin with. Yet after professing the two testimonies of faith, those Turks—even though they neglect many of the religion’s laws—are better than the apostates among the Persians, Arabs, and others. This makes it clear that those in their ranks who were Muslim to begin with are worse than the Turks who were formerly unbelievers. For someone who was originally Muslim and then abandons some of its laws in apostasy is in a worse position than someone who has not yet embraced those laws. Such were those who withheld zakat and others whom al-Siddīq fought.

Even if someone who apostatizes from some of these laws is versed in jurisprudence, a Sufi, a merchant, a scribe, or something else, such people are worse than the Turks who have not embraced those laws but have persisted in Islam. Thus, Muslims suffer harm to their religion from these people that they do not suffer from those Turks. Those Turks also submit more fully to Islam and its laws, and to obedience to Allah and His Messenger, than these people who have apostatized from part of the religion and practised hypocrisy in another part, even though they outwardly claim an affiliation with religious learning and devotion.

At their most extreme, such people are heretics: Nusayrīs, Ismāʿīlīs, or Rāfidīs. Even the best of them is a Jahmī Ittihādī or the like. For no one who outwardly professes Islam joins them voluntarily unless he is a hypocrite, a secret unbeliever, or a wicked evildoer. Whoever they compel to accompany them will be resurrected according to his intention. We, however, must fight the entire army, since those under compulsion cannot be distinguished from the others.

It is authentically established in the Sahīh that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: