who is wicked—or invoking divine decree or his spiritual experience and ecstasy as justification while turning away from the Quran and Sunnah—in which case he is the ignorant worshipper—such a person is outside the straight path.

This illustrates the perfection of the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—and why they are the best generation of this community. During the prophetic caliphate, they observed the distinctions prescribed by revealed Law in matters great and small, despite the vast scope of their responsibilities. Someone of a later generation may be unable to discern the distinctions prescribed by revealed Law even in his own affairs, just as one of these people may follow his desires in a minor matter. Despite the immense responsibilities they undertook in carrying out commands and observing prohibitions, the Companions possessed the knowledge by which they distinguished good deeds from bad, and the good intent by which they performed good deeds.

Many later scholars and worshippers lack knowledge concerning numerous good and bad deeds, to the point of considering a bad deed good, or vice versa. Or they lack sound intent in many actions, so that they follow their desires even where the commands and prohibitions are clear to them. We therefore ask Allah to guide us to the straight path, the path of those He has blessed among the prophets, the steadfastly truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous.

All this, by my life, assumes that the scholar truly knows the Lawgiver’s actual commands and prohibitions, and that the worshipper truly possesses good intent free from personal desire.

As for those who mix revealed law with altered and interpreted law, and mix good intent with following personal desire, such people—