to seek judgment from false authorities, although they were commanded to reject them. 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 turning away from you in utter aversion.”

“How will it be when a calamity befalls 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 penetrate their souls.”

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

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

A detailed discussion of such people belongs elsewhere.

Some of these people appeal to His words:

“And worship your Lord until certainty comes to you.”

They claim that this means: Worship your Lord until you attain knowledge and understanding; once you attain these, worship is no longer required.

Some of them may say: Perform acts of worship until you attain a spiritual state; once you attain a Sufi spiritual state, worship is no longer obligatory for you. Among these people are those who, when they think they have attained the knowledge and spiritual state they seek, consider it permissible to abandon obligatory duties and commit forbidden acts. This constitutes disbelief, as explained earlier.

Others think that they then have no need of voluntary acts of worship. Such a person has deprived himself of gain and is deficient, ignorant, misguided, and at a loss because he believes he no longer needs voluntary acts of worship and treats them lightly at that point.