because they had departed from the Prophet’s Sunnah and his prescribed way. I believe I also mentioned al-Shāfi‘ī’s statement:

“For a servant to be afflicted with every sin other than associating partners with Allah is better than being afflicted with any of these deviant doctrines.”

When the ugliness of religious innovations in Islam became clear—that they are a greater wrong than fornication, theft, and drinking wine, and that these people practised reprehensible innovations, making their condition worse than that of the fornicator, thief, and wine-drinker—their shaykh, ‘Abd Allāh, began saying:

“Our master, do not assail this august company”—meaning the followers of Ahmad ibn al-Rifā‘ī.

I rebuked him harshly:

“Woe to you! What is this ‘august company’? Those who oppose them are more deserving of honour, you trickster (1)! You want to nullify the religion of Allah and His Messenger!”

He said, “Our master, the Sufis will burn you with their hearts.”

I replied, “Just as the Rāfidah burned me when I intended to ascend to their mountain! Everyone began warning me about them and their evil, while their followers said that they had a secret between themselves and Allah. Yet Allah granted me victory and helped me against them.”

The commanders present already knew the blessings of what Allah had facilitated in the campaign against the Rāfidah in the mountain.

I said to them:

“You who resemble the Rāfidah! You house of lies!”

For their extremism, their association of partners with Allah, and their departure from the prescribed religious law give them some of the same characteristics as the Rāfidah; and their lying is such that they may approach the Rāfidah in this respect or equal them