believe in Allah, His angels, His Books, His messengers, [the Last Day] (1), resurrection after death, and the divine decree, both its good and its evil.”

He did not mention the Imamate. He said:

“Spiritual excellence is to worship Allah as though you see Him; for though you do not see Him, He sees you.”

The authenticity of this hadith is unanimously accepted. It has been received with universal acceptance, and scholars versed in transmitted reports unanimously affirm its authenticity. The compilers of the Sahīh collections transmitted it through multiple routes. Thus, it is agreed upon (2) as narrated by Abū Hurayra, while [among the reports unique to] (3) Muslim it is narrated by Umar (4).

Although these people (5) do not acknowledge the authenticity (6) of these hadiths, the author [indeed] (7) cited fabricated, false hadiths that experts unanimously recognize as such. Either both we and they must cite as evidence reports whose authenticity is established by proof, or neither (8) we nor they may cite any of them. If they abandon transmitted reports altogether, we can likewise set them aside. But if they themselves transmit reports, then one report must necessarily be countered [with another report] (9), and reliance placed upon that which is supported by