, exalted is He:

“Have you not seen those who claim to believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you? They wish to seek judgment from false authorities, though they were commanded to reject them. And Satan wishes to lead them far astray.”

“When they are told, ‘Come to what Allah has revealed and to the Messenger,’ you see the hypocrites turn away from you in utter aversion.”

“How will it be when a calamity strikes them because of what their own hands have done, and then they come to you, swearing by Allah, ‘We intended only goodwill and reconciliation’?”

“Those are the ones whose hearts Allah knows. So turn away from them, admonish them, and speak to them in words that reach their hearts.”

“We sent no messenger except to be obeyed by Allah’s permission. Had they, when they wronged themselves, come to you and sought Allah’s forgiveness, and had the Messenger sought forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah ever Accepting of repentance, Most Merciful.”

“But no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you judge in their disputes, then find within themselves no discomfort at your judgment and submit wholeheartedly.”

Anyone who goes against any part of what the Messenger brought, following someone whom he believes to be a friend of Allah, bases his position on the assumption that this person is a friend of Allah and that a friend of Allah must never be contradicted in anything. Yet even if this man were among the greatest friends of Allah, like the foremost Companions and those who followed them in righteousness, nothing from him that contradicted the Quran and Sunnah would be accepted. How much more so if he were not of their standing!

You will find that many of these people base their belief that someone is a friend of Allah on his having had certain matters unveiled to him or performed extraordinary feats, such as pointing at someone who then dies, or flying through the air to Mecca or elsewhere