As for declaring individuals superior to others, this may not be needed at all times. Obligatory religious practice, however, must be acknowledged as superior, since superiority is implicit in obligation. If adhering to it rather than its opposite is obligatory, then believing in its superiority is all the more obligatory.

As for recommended religious practice, the conviction that it should be performed may be prescribed only for those for whom performing it is prescribed. Otherwise, some people who follow one of Islam’s paths of peace are harmed by regarding another path as better: they aspire to the better path but cannot follow it, while turning away from the less excellent one. Just as it is not in a person’s interests to learn of a path better than his own if he would abandon his path without following the other, neither is it true that his own path is superior to all others. Rather, his interests lie in following that path which leads him to the mercy of Allah Most High.

Some students of jurisprudence call a man to what they consider better than his own path—and they may be mistaken—so that he ends up following neither the first nor the second. Among some Sufis, meanwhile, a disciple believes that his shaykh is the most accomplished shaykh on earth and that his path is the best of all paths. Both attitudes are deviations.

Rather, every person should be instructed to obey Allah and His Messenger to the best of his ability. He should not be moved away from the obedience to Allah and His Messenger that he practices through his own path, even if it contains some deficiency or error. Its deficiency should be explained to him only if he is moved to a better path. Otherwise, his heart may turn away from the first path altogether, until he abandons the truth that he is not permitted to abandon, without holding fast to anything else.