or intending to follow the Messenger of Allah, concerning whom Allah said:

“Say, ‘If you love Allah, then follow me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins’”—to the end of the verse.

These people of religious innovation and misguidance belong to Satan’s party, not to the friends of the Most Merciful. Whoever testifies that they are friends of Allah is a lying, false witness who has strayed from the right path. Moreover, if he knows that these people oppose the Messenger, yet nevertheless testifies that they are friends of Allah, he is an apostate from Islam. He either rejects the Messenger as a liar, doubts and questions what he brought, or refuses to submit to him, opposing him instead out of denial, obstinacy, or obedience to his own desires. Every such person is a disbeliever.

If, however, he is ignorant of what the Messenger brought, while nevertheless believing that he is Allah’s Messenger to everyone in both inward and outward matters, and that there is no path to Allah except by following him, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, his case is different. He mistakenly supposes that these innovated acts of worship and satanic realities are among what the Messenger brought. He does not know that they come from Satan because he is ignorant of the Messenger’s Sunnah, law, approach, path, and the truth he brought—not because he intends to oppose him. Nor does he hope to find guidance anywhere other than in following him. The truth must be made clear to such a person, and he must be shown what the Sunnah and the Book say about his condition. If he repents and turns back to Allah, well and good; otherwise, he is classed with the preceding category and becomes a disbeliever and an apostate. Neither his worship nor his asceticism will save him from Allah’s punishment, just as these did not save the monks, the worshippers of crosses, the worshippers of fire, or the worshippers of idols, although many among them possess satanic supernatural powers and satanic unveilings. He said: