so as to attract their hearts to him, and all of that was a plot and a deception, and their objective was nothing but a spectacle, establishing dominance, and raising accounts to those who do not deserve them without benefit, because they were limited in understanding of that which we were [in] 1 of the debate of the sheikh, and their following of him was only to feel mighty through him and through his affection 2 and to seek thereby pride and loftiness, and every one of them had strayed from the fatherhood and denied [the causes of brotherhood] 3 and they manifested innovations in the councils, and every one of them is sitting next to the side of Satan, just as Abu Said, may God sanctify him, said:
Like a devil wagging its tail when it calls To its defiled, seductive devil
And they inclined toward amusement and singing, and they saw that as the greatest objective and desire, so when I approached them [I greeted them] 4 , and I did not greet the sheikh when I saw at his side a man from the companions of Hatim,