succeed in practising it, as Allah protects them because of their good intentions. I know of no man among the best of the Muslims who has spent any of its proceeds or derived his sustenance from it.

As for the claim some people make that the friends of Allah practise it, this can only be one of two things: either it is a lie, or someone practising it has imagined himself to be one of Allah’s friends singled out for such a miraculous favour. This is ignorance, for alchemy is practised by polytheists, Jews, Christians, evildoers and religious innovators; it is not exclusive to the friends of Allah. Indeed, no one whose standing as a friend of Allah is established is known to practise it.

As for those who have spoken of it while claiming to be among Allah’s friends, such as the author of al-Fusūs and others like him, their statements about religion contain errors and misguidance far greater than those found in their statements about alchemy. If their statements about Allah’s oneness, prophethood and the Last Day contain misguidance contrary to the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger and the consensus of the Muslims—indeed, things that even the Jews and Christians have not said—then what must their statements about alchemy be like?

Furthermore, as for anyone misled by what the author of Kitāb al-Saʿāda (The Book of Happiness) says in that work, in Jawāhir al-Qurʾān (The Jewels of the Quran), and in similar books, these books contain objectionable statements contrary to the Quran, the Sunnah and the consensus of the Muslim community’s early generations and leading scholars, as is plain to anyone knowledgeable about these matters. Muslim scholars have refuted the philosophical assertions contained in these books and similar forms of misguidance that contradict the Quran and the Sunnah.

Some people challenge the transmission of these books from the person to whom they are attributed, saying that it is a lie