nor is it a condition of theirs that they abstain entirely from minor sins. Indeed, it is not even a condition that they have never committed major sins or disbelief followed by repentance.

Allah Most High has said:

“The one who brings the truth and those who affirm it—these are the pious.”

“They will have whatever they wish with their Lord. That is the reward of those who do good.”

“So that Allah may absolve them of the worst of what they have done and reward them according to the best of what they used to do.”

Allah thus describes them as the pious, and “the pious” are Allah’s friends. Yet He also states that He will absolve them of the worst of what they have done. This is a matter of agreement among people of knowledge and faith. The only dissenters are the extremists among the Rāfidah and those who resemble them in their excessive veneration of certain shaykhs and people they believe to be Allah’s friends. The Rāfidah claim that “the Twelve” are protected from error and sin, and regard this as one of the foundations of their religion.

Those who excessively venerate shaykhs may say, “A friend of Allah is safeguarded, whereas a prophet is infallible.” Many of them, even if they do not say this aloud, behave as though they believe that a shaykh or a friend of Allah neither errs nor sins. Both groups have gone so far in their excesses as to place some of those they venerate on the same level as a prophet, or even above him. When this goes further, they attribute a kind of divinity to such a person. All these are misguided beliefs born of ignorance, resembling the misguided beliefs of Christianity. For Christians have shown excessive veneration of the Messiah, religious scholars, and monks, for which Allah has condemned them in the Quran and made this a lesson for us, lest