and his followers, as the Most High says:

“And that He may punish the hypocrites, men and women, and the polytheists, men and women, who harbor evil thoughts about Allah. Upon them is an evil turn of fortune. Allah is angry with them, has cursed them, and has prepared Hell for them—an evil destination.”

They cling to His words, “He is not questioned about what He does,” and to the fact that He “does whatever He wills.”

Thus, when the polytheist Tatars and the People of the Book gained ascendancy, many among their devout worshippers and scholars sided with the polytheists and the People of the Book and apostatized from Islam, either inwardly and outwardly, or inwardly alone. Such a person would say that he was in accord with reality and with the divine will. To those who revered the messengers and would not agree to reject them, they began arguing that their practices—polytheism, departing from the revealed Law, allying themselves with the polytheists and the People of the Book, embracing their religion, and fighting alongside them against the Muslims—were commanded by the Messenger.

At times, their devils would bring them something they made them imagine was written in light, declaring that the Messenger had commanded them to fight alongside the unbelievers against the Muslims because the Muslims had been disobedient.

When it became apparent that the polytheists and the People of the Book had protectors accompanying them from among Muslim men—the “men of the unseen”—and that these men possessed extraordinary powers implying that they were friends of Allah, the people of learning divided into three groups. One group denied that such men existed. Yet people had seen them, and this was established through those who had witnessed them or received accounts from trustworthy eyewitnesses. If these deniers see them or become certain of their existence, they submit to them.