It is, therefore, essential that this stage be carefully...

It is, therefore, essential that this stage be carefully examined, so that ordinary Sunnis do not walk in the footsteps of the Wahhabis, who themselves cannot appreciate the importance of the Shi‘ah characteristics except through an awareness of the importance of this level. This is why we expect the reader not to content himself with a mere inattentive study of this section, but ponder on the issue to arrive at a conclusion.

We expect that the Wahhabis’ conscience will awaken and perceive the critical point, since it was an error at this particular stage that triggered all the Wahhabis’ later misinterpretations of the Imamiayyah realities. Here, we desire that the Wahhabis return to a true approach in their Shi‘ah research; an approach taken up by the Sunnis of the past and the present and favored by Islam, too.

In my book “ An Undetachable Link between the Shi‘ahs and the Ghulat ”—a product of the time I was a Wahhabi—I mingled the Shi‘ism and the Ghulat , and as a result considered the Shi‘ahs as infidels. This was because I had been unable to view the Shi‘ism and the extremist Ghulat as two separate things and had entirely relied on the Wahhabi literature—not even on the Sunnis’—in my attempts to identify the Shi‘ah. This is the justification for crowning the pyramid with this very critical stage.

While I was still in my reverie of negligence, I used to attribute to the Shi‘ahs myriad beliefs taken from the Zoroastrians, idolaters, stories of the Age of Ignorance [ Jahiliyyah ], Sufi nonsense and the extremists’ conception, despite the abundant apostasy found in them. I crammed all these in my book “ An Undetachable Link between the Shi‘ahs and the Ghulat ”.[^2] I thought I was doing the right thing.

Then having known of this stage of investigation, I realized my mistake and learned that the error of taking the Shi‘ahs and the Ghulat as identical would inevitably end in an inaccurate conclusion. After I had corrected the crookedness of my mind, I was able to distinguish between what was attributed to the Shi‘ism but in fact did not belong to it and what was not recognized as part of the Shi‘ah school of thought but actually belonged to it.

As a result, I burned the above book a little before it was supposed to be printed. When I was a Wahhabi, I used to think it was acceptable to call the Shi‘ahs by such designations as the Zoroastrians, Jews, or Gnostics.[^3] But when I recognized my mistake I became confident that such names befit the Ghulat .