just as ‘Alī burned the extremists who claimed that he was divine, and said concerning those who held him superior:

“Anyone brought before me who considers me superior to Abū Bakr and ‘Umar, I will flog as a slanderer is flogged.”

Through such lies and slander, these misguided fabricators—hypocrites who follow heretics—abandon Islam’s distinctive observances and fail to uphold its pillar, foremost among these observances being the practices of guidance established by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Thus, they perform neither Friday prayers nor congregational prayers.

Someone who holds this belief may equate shrines with mosques, treating acts of worship—such as prayer, supplication, recitation, remembrance of Allah, and other acts—as prescribed at graves just as they are prescribed in mosques. He may even, through his conduct or words, give preference to worship at graves and shrines over worship in the houses of Allah, which are the mosques. You may therefore find that when one of them wishes to devote himself earnestly to supplication, repentance, or similar acts, he goes to the grave of someone he venerates, whether his shaykh or someone else. There he exerts himself in supplication, humble entreaty, reverence, and tenderness of heart to a degree he does not match in mosques, in the hours before dawn, or when prostrating to Allah, the One, the All-Subduing.

Many of their ignorant followers have gone so far as to invoke the dead and seek their aid, just as Christians seek the aid of the Messiah and his mother. They ask the dead to relieve distress, facilitate the fulfillment of their requests, grant victory over enemies, remove calamities and afflictions, and accomplish other such things that none but the Lord of the earth and heaven can accomplish. Indeed, when one of them wishes to perform Hajj, his chief concern is not the obligation imposed by