he should be asked, “Do you mean Allah’s command, conveyed through His Messenger and revealed in the Quran, or a command that came into your heart?”

If he says, “The former,” his falsehood becomes evident. Allah’s commands to His Messenger do not include bringing unbelievers—polytheists and People of the Book—to kill Muslims, take them captive, and seize their wealth because of sins those Muslims have committed; or turning the land into a place where idols are worshipped, bells are rung, reciters of the Quran and scholars of Islamic law are killed, and the Najsiyya—the scholars of the polytheists—and Christian priests are honored; or other such things. For these people are far more hostile to Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and are like the Arab polytheists who fought him at Uhud. Those Muslims, by contrast, are sinners among his nation. Although there are many hypocrites among them, those hypocrites conceal their hypocrisy.

If he says, “A command that came into my heart,” he has not lied. But he should be asked, “How do you know that this comes from the Most Merciful? Why could it not be Satan who commanded you to do this? You know that what comes into the hearts of the polytheists and the People of the Book comes from Satan.”

If he falls back on affirming Allah’s oneness in His lordship, arguing that everything occurs by His will, he should be told, “In that case, what Satan, the polytheists, and the People of the Book do is also done on command.” There is no doubt that it occurs by the command pertaining to creation and divine decree, to which all creation is subject. But whoever acts solely on the basis of this command, rather than the Messenger’s command, is merely one of the devils among humankind and jinn. He deserves Allah’s punishment in this world and the Hereafter, worships something other than Allah, and follows his own desires. He is among those concerning whom Allah said:

“I will surely fill Hell with you and with those who