nullifies deeds; thus, whatever obedience had preceded (1)—if it truly was obedience—was nullified by his disbelief and apostasy *) (2). As for the sins he commits, no one can equal him in them. It is therefore impossible for anyone to be worse than he is. This is analogous to an apostate who, after a former life of obedience, kills people, commits fornication, and perpetrates all manner of vile deeds. Someone who comes after him, did not precede him in those now-nullified acts of obedience, and shares in only a few of his sins would not be worse than he is. How, then, could anyone be worse than Iblīs?

This overturns the Shia’s principles, both sound and unsound. The least that their claim entails is that Ali’s followers who fought alongside him, yet sometimes disobeyed him, were worse than those Companions who refrained from pledging allegiance to him, because the latter had worshipped Allah before them, while the former ran alongside them in the arena of disobedience.

Third, it may be said: What evidence is there that Iblīs [was] (3) the most devout worshipper among the angels; that he (4) bore the Throne by himself for six thousand years; that he (5) was among the bearers of the Throne at all; that he was the peacock of the angels; or that he left no space in heaven and no spot on earth without having bowed and prostrated there? The same applies to other such claims made by some people.

Such matters can be known only through reliable transmission. Yet nothing of this appears in the Quran, nor is there any authentic report concerning it from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Who but one of the grossest of the ignorant would invoke such claims as evidence regarding the foundations of religion?!