our shaykh, Shaykh ‘Alī al-Harīrī, in the year he died. He said: ‘O Najm, I saw the uvula at the roof of my mouth above the heavens and my jaw beneath the earths. My tongue uttered a word which, had it been heard from me, would have meant that not a drop of my blood reached the ground.’”

Some time later, someone said in the presence of my master, Shaykh Hasan ibn ‘Alī al-Harīrī:

“My master Hasan, Allah has created no one more foolish than those who claimed to be gods, such as Pharaoh, Nimrod, and their like.”

He replied: “Only the most ignorant of Allah’s creation or the most knowledgeable among them would make such a claim.”

I said to him: “You have spoken the truth, for I heard your grandfather say: ‘I saw such and such.’” He then recounted what Shaykh Najm al-Dīn had related from the shaykh.

It also contains a saying of one of the predecessors:

“Whoever is himself the very veil over himself—there is neither a veil nor anyone veiled.”

The respected scholars are therefore requested:

• To explain these statements: Are they true or false? By what can their meaning be understood? What establishes their truth or falsehood? Is it obligatory to reject them, affirm them, or defer to those who uttered them? Do they admit of an acceptable interpretation? What is the ruling concerning someone who believes in their meaning, whether knowing their true import or merely accepting, in general terms, the authority of whoever uttered them?