false, and he will therefore not be with Moses, who gave glad tidings of Jesus the Messiah (1) and Muhammad.
It is authentically established (2) that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said:
“A person will be with those whom he loves.” (3)
Yet the Jew loved only something that has no existence in external reality. He will therefore not be with Moses, who gave glad tidings of Jesus (4) and Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—for he did not love Moses as thus described. Love, volition, and the like follow knowledge and belief; they are derivative of awareness (5). Thus, whoever believes something false and loves it loves that falsehood. His love is false and will not benefit him.
The same applies to anyone (6) who attributes divinity to a human being and loves him on that account, such as one who believes in the divinity of Pharaoh or someone like him (7), or of the Ismaili imams; or who attributes divinity to certain shaykhs, certain members of the Prophet’s Household, or (8) certain prophets or angels, as do the Christians and those like them (9). Conversely, whoever recognizes the truth and loves it directs his love toward that truth; his love is therefore true and benefits him (10).
(1) A and B read: “Jesus the Messiah”; all other manuscripts read: “the Messiah.”
(2) A and B read: “And it was established.”
(3) The hadith is narrated from Abd Allah ibn Masʿūd and Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī—may Allah be pleased with them both—in: al-Bukhārī, 8/39–40 (Book of Manners, chapter “The Sign of Love for Allah, Mighty and Majestic”); Muslim, 4/2034 (Book of Virtue, Maintaining Family Ties, and Manners, chapter “A Person Will Be with Those Whom He Loves”); and Sunan al-Tirmidhī, 4/22 (Book of Asceticism, chapter “A Person Will Be with Those Whom He Loves”), where it is narrated from Anas ibn Mālik. Al-Tirmidhī said: “Reports on this subject are also narrated from Alī, Abd Allah ibn Masʿūd, Safwān ibn Assāl, Abū Hurayra, and Abū Mūsā.” The hadith also appears in Sunan al-Dārimī and in numerous places in al-Musnad.
(4) A and B read: “Jesus”; all other manuscripts read: “the Messiah.”
(5) A reads: “Thus, it is a branch of al-suʿūd.” The entire phrase is omitted from B.
(6) A reads: “Likewise, whoever”; B reads: “That is like one who.”
(7) “Or someone like him” is omitted from B alone.
(8) The preposition fī (“to”) is omitted from A and B.
(9) A and B read: “as in the Christians’ belief concerning the Messiah”; W reads: “like the Nusayris and those like them.”
(10) A and B read: “and so it benefited him”; N and M read: “and so it benefits him.”