[contrary to that which the advanced scholars and the monotheist masters commended] 1 so every envious one among the wrongdoers opposed me.
And the first of those who persisted in arrogance, ill expectation, and open hostility, and sought the [the path to] 2 of leadership and ruling without policy, was Rabiah ibn Nasr al-Asidah from the village of Isfin, and he was the weakest of them in knowledge and the least of them in understanding, and no one used to follow him for seeking knowledge except out of envy toward me due to what [he saw] 3 of the brothers, may God guard them, of inclination toward me and reliance in knowledge upon the favor of God upon me.
THE AXES OF DEBATES WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE MOUNTAIN
So the disputation took place between me and him upon the affirmation of the existence of the form and its negation, and his belief concerning the Commander of the Faithful, lofty is His remembrance,