to whom Allah has given the Scripture, wisdom, and prophethood, to then say to the people, ‘Be my servants rather than Allah’s.’ Rather, ‘Be devoted to the Lord through your teaching of the Scripture and your study of it.’”

“Nor would he command you to take the angels and prophets as lords. Would he command you to disbelieve after you have become Muslims?”

Allah Most High said:

“Say: Call upon those you claim to be gods besides Him. They have no power to remove harm from you or to shift it elsewhere.”

“Those whom they invoke themselves seek the means of drawing near to their Lord, striving to be nearest to Him. They hope for His mercy and fear His punishment. Indeed, your Lord’s punishment is something to beware of.”

Allah, glory be to Him, commanded us to ask Him in every prayer to guide us to the straight path: the path of those whom Allah has favored—the prophets, the steadfastly truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous—who are distinct from those who have incurred wrath and those who have gone astray. This shows that there is reason to fear that a servant may stray onto either of these two paths. This has indeed happened, just as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, foretold when he said:

“You will surely follow the ways of those before you, as precisely as one arrow feather matches another. Even if they entered a lizard’s burrow, you would enter it.”

They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, do you mean the Jews and the Christians?”

He replied, “Who else?”

This is an authentic hadith.

The early generations held that a scholar who deviates from the straight path bears a resemblance to the Jews, while a worshipper who deviates bears a resemblance to the Christians. This can be seen among those who deviate from among the people of knowledge: they distort words from their proper places, their hearts become hard, they withhold knowledge, display arrogance, and command others to do good while forgetting themselves, among other things.

Likewise, among those who deviate from among people devoted to worship and spiritual states, one sees excess concerning righteous prophets and innovations in worship, monasticism, images, and sounds. For this reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Do not praise me excessively as the Christians praised