they share in speech; for speech requires reason, and articulate speech is distinctive to human beings. Will in general, however, is an attribute shared by all animals: there is no animal without a will. These people shared the desire to worship, but differed over whom they worshipped and how they worshipped. Thus Allah described Christian monasticism in the Quran as something they had invented, and condemned the polytheists for the acts of worship and prohibitions they had invented. These were more numerous than their invented beliefs, for they were generally ignorant in matters of belief, and so their innovations in that sphere were fewer. Hence, the closer people were to the Messenger, the less grave their innovations were, and these concerned doctrines. Among the Successors and their followers, there was no one who worshipped through dancing and devotional listening, although there were Khārijites, Mu‘tazilites, and Shiites among them. There were those who denied divine decree, but none who invoked divine decree as a justification.

Most of the numerous innovations that arose among later devotees, ascetics, the poor, and Sufis did not exist in the time of the Successors and their followers. By contrast, the doctrines of those who introduced doctrinal innovations appeared during the age of the Companions and the Successors. This shows that the specious reasoning behind those doctrines was stronger and their adherents more rational. As for the innovations of these later groups, their adherents are more ignorant and further removed from following the Messenger. Thus, among them are those who claim divinity, divine indwelling, and union with Allah, and those who claim that they are superior to the Messenger, that they have no need of the Messenger, and that