in some respects, that between the adherents of the two faiths: one group says, “The other has no sound foundation,” and the other says, “They have no sound foundation.”

They may think that through their path they attain something greater than what can be attained through books. Some imagine that they can learn the Quran without being taught. They relate that someone attained this, but this is false. He may, however, have heard Allah’s verses and then, after purifying his soul, remembered and recited them. Spiritual discipline refines the soul, enabling a person to recall things he had forgotten.

Some of them say—or it is related that one of them said:

“They took their knowledge from one dead man transmitting from another, whereas we took our knowledge from the Ever-Living, who never dies.”

This does occur. Yet some of them imagine that whatever is imparted to them, whether words addressed to them or a thought arising within them, comes directly from Allah Most High, without an intermediary, when it may come from Satan. They have no criterion by which to distinguish what comes from the Most Merciful from what comes from Satan. The unfailing criterion is the Quran and the Sunnah: whatever accords with the Book and the Sunnah is true, and whatever contradicts them is erroneous.

Allah Most High has said:

“Whoever turns away from the reminder of the Most Merciful, We appoint for him a devil to be his companion. These devils turn them away from the path, while they think they are rightly guided. Then, when he comes to Us, he says, ‘If only there were between you and me the distance between east and west! What an evil companion!’”

The reminder of the Most Merciful is what He revealed to His Messenger. Allah Most High said:

“This is a blessed reminder which We have sent down.”

He Most High also said:

“It is nothing but a reminder to all the worlds.”

And He Most High said: