those who face the qiblah in prayer will enter Hell, we know of no one who holds such a view.

Beyond this is the view of those who say: “There is no punishment at all; it is merely a threat with no reality behind it.” This is among the views of heretics and disbelievers. Some of them may cite His words:

“With this Allah warns His servants.”

Such a person should be told: A warning can inspire fear only if there is something fearsome that could actually befall the person being warned. If nothing could happen, there can be no genuine warning; all it amounts to is deluding frightened people with something unreal, as a small child may be deluded. It is well known that this cannot frighten rational, discerning people, for once they know that there is nothing to fear, their fear disappears.

This resembles the claim of the philosophizing “heretics,” the Qarmatians, and their like: that the Messengers, may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon them, addressed people with outward promises and threats that have no underlying reality, but are merely parables intended to convey the soul’s condition after its separation from the body. According to them, although the promises and threats presented to people have no reality, they are held out solely for their worldly benefit, since people cannot be set right in any other way.

The falsity of “this view” is part of the elementary knowledge of the Messengers’ religion. Moreover, if matters were so, the intelligent among the Messengers’ closest followers would have known it. Once they knew it, they would cease to observe the commands and prohibitions, just as happens among the inner circles of the heretical philosophers and the Qarmatians—the Ismā‘īlīs, the Nusayrīs, and their like. For anyone among them who attains mastery in knowledge