met him and said to him: 'Why do I see you, O Abu Bakr, terrified?' He told him the story. Umar said: 'This is but a little of the sorcery of Bani Hashim; if you do that, I and you shall be cursed until the end of time.'"

And you related: "That Muhammad is the Messiah." and with us and in our Book is that the Messiah ascended to heaven, and that when he was placed upon the cross and taken into its scalding water, some of the disciples saw him and said: "Is not this the one who revived the dead? How then does the one who revives the dead die?" He opened his eye, looked at him, and said to him: "Are you serious in what you are upon?"

He [the Indian] said: "I shall not burden myself with any of this, for I have not seen anything more amazing than you, O Muslims! We, the assembly of Christians who are in the lands of India—he only came to us one day and manifested only one miracle, yet a nation of people believed. But you were given the clear proofs and saw the miracles, yet you treated them as lies and turned away from the path. Will you mention to me, O Hijazi, the discourse of the people's difference after the absence of the Messenger of Allah — Exalted Glory —?" The Hijazi said: "The people split into two groups: a specific group (khāṣṣa) and a general group ('āmma). As for the general, their outward is ugly and their inward is ugly. As for the specific among the Shia, their outward is beautiful and their inward is beautiful."

The Indian said: "Mention to me the general among the Nawāṣib (the enemies), and what is the meaning of your saying: 'their outward is ugly and their inward is ugly'?" The Hijazi said: "Because they manifest wickedness and immorality, and they kill the soul which Allah has forbidden to be killed without right. They make theft lawful and permit it. They hate Amir Al-Muminin and prefer Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman over him. They curse his Shia and those who love him. They speak by personal opinion (ra’y) and analogy (qiyās) and believe in treachery. They rush into fornication and do not desist from anything else; most of them are children of fornication. This is their outward and