and in the hadith of the Slander, it states that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, asked Zaynab about her. Thus, it is established that hijab preceded the Incident of the Slander.”

The dispute between them then intensified over this matter, until one of the zealous brothers, who was keen to preserve the unity of the ranks, sent me a letter explaining the situation and urging me to travel to them before the matter worsened and the bond of the group came apart. So I travelled by plane—for the first time—to Aleppo, accompanied by two brothers. We went to the man at his home, and I suggested to the two of them that we have lunch at his house, in order to win him over; they thought this a good idea.

After lunch, we began discussing with him the assertion he had introduced. The discussion continued until after the night prayer, but to no avail. He was firmly entrenched in his own view, like the fanatics who defend their opinions without the slightest concern for evidence that contradicts them. Indeed, he went beyond them: during the gathering, he openly declared anyone who disagreed with him on the aforementioned assertion to be an unbeliever. After great effort, however, he withdrew that declaration of unbelief and contented himself with openly pronouncing any dissenter—whoever he might be—to be misguided.

When we despaired of him, we said to him: “Your imposing your view upon another person when he is not convinced by it violates a fundamental principle of the Salafi mission: that authority to rule belongs to Allah alone.” We reminded him of Allah’s words concerning the Christians: “They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords besides Allah.” Therefore, it is enough for each of you to remain upon his own view, so long as neither of you is convinced by the other’s view. Do not declare him misguided, just as he does not declare you misguided. In this way, you can continue cooperating with him in the fundamental and subsidiary matters of the mission upon which you agree.

Yet he insisted that his view be imposed upon the other man; otherwise, there would be no cooperation—despite the fact that the one upon whom he wished to impose his view was more knowledgeable than he and more learned in the principles and subsidiary matters of the Salafi mission, even though the other was more broadly educated. On the following morning, we informed his close associates of the outcome of the discussion, and that the man