the situation and convey my warning: “If I attend, it will bring dire consequences upon you and provoke much talk about you. Whoever sits or stands before the spears of the people of faith has brought humiliation upon himself.”

The messenger returned and reported that they had met with their senior shaykhs, who knew the reality of their secrets. These shaykhs had advised them to comply with what they had been commanded: to follow the Sharia and abandon the reprehensible innovations for which they were being censured. Their shaykh who travelled throughout the lands, including the lands of the Turks, Egypt and elsewhere, said:

“Our spiritual states manifest themselves among the Tatars, but not before the Law of Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allāh.”

The messenger also reported that they had removed the shackles from their necks and agreed to comply. Then I was told that some of the governor’s senior attendants had come to them and said that they must attend the appointed gathering.

That night, I sought Allah’s guidance in making my decision, and asked Him for help, victory and guidance. I followed the path of Allah’s servants in such circumstances, until it was put into my heart that I should enter the fire if the need arose, and that it would be cool and safe for whoever followed the faith of Allah’s intimate friend, while burning those who resembled the Sabians and departed from this path.

Remnants of the Sabians—the enemies of Abraham, the leader of those devoted to pure monotheism—were in the region of al-Batā'ih, allied with those among the Christian masses who resembled them. There is an affinity between the Sabians and the misguided worshippers affiliated with this religion, which anyone who knows the manifest truth will recognize. Thus, the extremists among the Qarmatians and the esotericists, such as the Nusayrīs