but delusion for the disbelievers.”

“Or who will provide for you if He withholds His provision? Yet they persist in insolence and aversion.”

The Most High also says:

“Say, ‘Who guards you by night and day from the Most Merciful?’ Yet they turn away from the remembrance of their Lord.”

The more correct of the two interpretations of this verse is that it means: Who is there to guard you in Allah’s stead? Who wards off the harms you fear from humans and jinn?

The Messenger is the intermediary and emissary between them and Allah, mighty and majestic. He conveys to them Allah’s commands and prohibitions, His promises and warnings, and what He has made lawful and forbidden. Thus, the lawful is what Allah and His Messenger have made lawful; the forbidden is what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden; and the religion is what Allah and His Messenger have prescribed. No one may depart from anything prescribed by the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. This is the revealed law that those in authority must require people to observe, that those engaged in jihad must fight to uphold, and that every individual must follow and support.

The revealed law binding upon all creation does not mean “a judge’s ruling,” even if the judge is the best person of his time. Rather, the ruling of a knowledgeable, just judge binds particular people who have brought a particular case before him; it does not bind all creation. Nor is any Muslim scholar obliged to follow a judge’s opinion in any matter, great or small, if he knows what Allah and His Messenger have commanded. Indeed, no individual among the general public is obliged to follow the judge’s opinion in any matter. Rather, he may seek a fatwa from anyone he is permitted to consult, even if that person is not a judge. Whenever a scholar abandons what he knows from