and he recited this verse. Another example is the Prophet’s statement (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) when ʿUthmān ibn Mazʿūn died: “As for ʿUthmān ibn Mazʿūn, certainty has come to him from his Lord.”

These people may initially witness the divine decree—the cosmic reality—and suppose that the ultimate aim of one who possesses spiritual knowledge is to witness the decree and lose awareness even of this witnessing. In that state of witnessing, no distinction is made between what is commanded and what is forbidden, between what Allah loves and what He hates, or between His allies and His enemies.

One of them may say: “The spiritual knower first witnessed obedience and disobedience, then witnessed obedience without disobedience”—meaning obedience to the divine decree. Thus one of their shaykhs said: “I disbelieve in a Lord who can be disobeyed.” When he was told concerning a certain wrongdoer, “This man’s wealth is unlawful,” he replied: “Even if he has disobeyed the command, he has obeyed the will.”

They then advance “to the third state of witnessing”: neither obedience nor disobedience. This is the state of witnessing of those who profess the oneness of existence. This is the furthest extreme of the heresy of the innovators—the Jahmiyyah among the Sufis—just as Qarmatianism is the furthest extreme of Shiite heresy. These two forms of heresy closely resemble one another. Both contain forms of disbelief not found in the religion of the Jews, the Christians, or the Arab polytheists. And Allah knows best.

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Thereafter, people disagreed extensively over the terms “believer” and “faith,” some of this disagreement being merely verbal,