Then came the rightly guided imams who followed their example, the followers who traced their footsteps, and those who strove to follow the way of the God-fearing and kept company with those who fear Allah and do good.

[The Salvation of Those Who Follow the Way and the Ruin of Those Who Turn Away]

Whoever sets out upon such a clear path and persists in adhering to the way of the Sacred Law through these proofs will be safe, in his religion, from blame in this world and the Hereafter. He will hold fast to the firmest handhold, which will never break, and will protect himself with the shield by which harm is warded off, so that he may fortify himself with it in its entirety, hasten to receive its blessings, and find its outcome praiseworthy at the time of return and final abode, if Allah wills.

But whoever turns away from it and seeks the truth elsewhere, in whatever he desires or in something beyond it, has erred in choosing the object of his quest. It will lead him astray, set him upon the path of misguidance, and cast him into the depths of ruin through objecting to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger by drawing analogies, rejecting them both with various absurdities, and evading them through idle talk and disputation—matters for which Allah has sent down no authority, which neither those learned in interpretation and language have known, nor any rational person has conceived on the basis of any proof, and toward which the heart of no one who affirms Allah’s oneness has ever opened, whether through reflection or direct observation. Satan has taken possession of him, divine abandonment has encompassed him, and he has enticed him into disobedience to