The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—also wrote concerning the words of Allah Most High:

“It is only Satan who makes you fear his allies. So do not fear them, but fear Me, if you are believers.”

This is the correct interpretation, held by the majority of Quran commentators, including Ibn 'Abbās, Sa'īd ibn Jubayr, 'Ikrimah and al-Nakha'ī, and by linguists such as al-Farrā, Ibn Qutaybah, al-Zajjāj and Ibn al-Anbārī. Al-Farrā phrases it as “He frightens you by means of his allies,” just as Allah says, “to warn of a severe punishment from Him,” meaning “of a severe punishment”; and His words, “to warn of the Day of Meeting.” Al-Zajjāj phrases it as “He makes you afraid of his allies.”

Ibn al-Anbārī said: “Our preferred interpretation of the verse is: ‘He makes you fear his allies.’ The Arabs say, ‘I gave the wealth,’ meaning, ‘I gave the people the wealth.’ They omit the first object and mention only the second.”

This is because Satan makes people fear his allies in a general sense; he has no particular need to frighten certain people by means of others. Thus, omitting the first object is not an end in itself. This is called “omission for brevity,” as when one says, “So-and-so gives wealth and dirhams.”

Some commentators have said that it means: “He frightens his allies, the hypocrites.” This interpretation has been transmitted