from the time of the Prophet’s death, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; that the Rightly Guided Caliphs were unqualified to govern; that Muslims’ contracts are invalid; and that Allah is a cross, while he endorses the religions of the Jews, Christians, and Magians. Such a man is among the worst heretics, of the same kind as the Qarmatian esotericists, such as the Nusayrīs, the Ismāʿīlīs, and their followers.

This is why his statements are contradictory. Someone who endorses the religions of the Jews, Christians, and Magians, yet attacks the faith of the rightly guided Caliphs, who were themselves guided aright, and of the earliest pioneers among the Emigrants and Helpers, can only be among the most ignorant of people and those most deeply steeped in unbelief. If he were among the believers who know that this community is the best community brought forth for mankind, and that its best generation is the first, followed by the next, and then the next, he would not endorse the religion of the disbelievers while attacking the faith of the Emigrants and Helpers.

The refutation of this and similar claims is set out at length elsewhere. In our refutation of the Rāfidah, we have discussed this matter at greater length than space here permits. No one who believes that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah would make such a statement. We therefore answer someone who acknowledges that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah by explaining to him what the Messenger brought that dispels his misconception. As for someone who attacks his prophethood, we address him from another angle: each situation calls for its own manner of discourse.