they used to beguile others towards ruin, and parading their claimed spiritual states and absurd pretensions, which the ignorant people they had led astray accepted from them. When the governor saw this, he was alarmed by the spectacle and asked about them. He was told, “They have come to complain.” He said, “Let some of them enter.” Their shaykh entered and spoke at length, complaining about me and claiming that I had mistreated them. Not everything he said reached me, but someone who was present told me that the governor said to them:

“Does he say these things on his own authority, or does he convey them from Allah and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace?”

They replied, “Rather, he conveys them from Allah and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

He said, “Then what objection can be made to him?”

They said, “We have spiritual states and a path that are accepted on our authority.”

He said, “Then we shall hear what he has to say, and support whoever has the truth on his side.”

They said, “We want you to lend us your support.”

He said, “No. Rather, I support the truth, whether it is with you or with him.”

They asked, “Must he attend?”

He replied, “Yes.”

They repeated this, so he ordered that they be taken out. He then sent me one of his trusted attendants, a truthful and devout man familiar with their misguidance, who explained the situation to me and told me that the governor wanted to expose the reality of these people.

When I learned this, it was put into my heart that this was something Allah intended: to make the religion prevail and expose the condition of these hypocritical innovators, who had spread throughout the lands. Yet I had no wish to wrong or attack them, or to treat them with anything less than the utmost kindness possible. So I sent someone to explain to them the nature of