to the straight path.”

Allah Most High said:

“This is your Lord’s straight path. We have made the signs clear for people who take heed.”

He said concerning Iblīs:

“Because You have led me astray, I will surely lie in wait for them on Your straight path. Then I will come at them…”

And the rest of the verse. Allah Most High said:

“Iblīs certainly proved his assumption about them true, for they followed him, except for a group of believers.”

These heretics are among his foremost followers. He lay in wait for them on Allah’s straight path and turned them away from it until they disbelieved in their Lord and believed that their own selves were the object of their worship and their god.

Allah Most High said concerning the Seal of the Messengers:

“Indeed, you guide to a straight path—the path of Allah.”

And the rest of the verse.

Furthermore, Allah says:

“They were returned to Allah, their true Master.”

Allah Most High said:

“Indeed, to Us is their return. Then, indeed, it is for Us to call them to account.”

Allah Most High said:

“To Allah you will all return.”

And the rest of the verse. Allah Most High said:

“O mankind, you are indeed striving toward your Lord with great exertion, and you will meet Him.”

According to these people, there is nothing but you: you have already been returned to Allah and have always been returned to Him. He is not anything other than you, such that you could be brought back to Him, return to Him, strive toward Him, or meet Him. For this reason, they related to us that, when Ibn al-Fārid lay dying, he recited two lines of verse:

“If my standing in love, in your eyes,
Is what I have encountered, then I have wasted my days.
A wish my soul attained for a time—
Today I deem it a jumble of dreams.”