The first is that He has ordained for us both the shared religion—Islam and faith in their general sense—and the religion specific to us—Islam and faith in their specific sense.

The second is that He has commanded us to establish this religion in its entirety, both what is shared and what is specific to us, and has forbidden us to become divided in it.

The third is that He has commanded the messengers to establish the shared religion and has forbidden them to become divided in it.

The fourth is that He conveyed this meaning by placing His words, “and that which We have revealed to you,” between His words, “what He enjoined upon Noah,” and His words, “and what We enjoined upon Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.”

He then said:

“They did not become divided until after knowledge had come to them, out of transgression against one another.”

He thus stated that their division arose only after knowledge had come to them, making clear what they should guard against. For Allah would not lead a people astray after guiding them until He had made clear to them what they should guard against. [He also stated that they became divided only out of transgression. Transgression is overstepping the bounds, as Ibn Umar said . . . (1): arrogance and envy.] This differs from division arising from independent scholarly reasoning in the absence of knowledge, without any intention of transgression, such as permissible disagreement among scholars. Transgression consists either in neglecting what is right or in overstepping a limit; it is therefore either abandoning an obligation or committing something forbidden. It is thus clear that this is what brings about division.

This accords with His words concerning the People of the Book:

“And from those who say, ‘We are Christians,’ We took their covenant; but they forgot a portion of what they had been reminded of, so We stirred up enmity and hatred among them until the Day of Resurrection.”

He thus stated that their forgetting a portion of what they had been reminded of—that is, failing to act upon some of what they had been commanded—caused enmity and hatred to be stirred up among them. The same occurs among the followers of our religion, as we find among the factions disputing over the fundamentals of their religion and many of its subsidiary matters, among those versed in