upon the earth, bowing, facing a particular direction by way of drawing near to God, and kissing a stone they told us was God's right hand.
They came to magnify newly originated rites and signs which they attributed to God, making our magnification of them—that is, those rites and observances—part of the hearts' reverent awareness, and joining our felicity to that magnification when it appeared from us.
This increased their reliance upon the gods and laws they had established and set up. They did not distinguish between what God institutes among His creation and what they institute for themselves from their own selves.
Our discourse concerns only the leaders of the original consideration who instituted these things as objects of worship for themselves by way of drawing near to God, mighty and majestic.
Another thing that misled them (was) what they saw and heard in the divine laws concerning the felicity, without qualification, of one exercising independent judgment, whether mistaken or correct. His reward is assured after exhausting consideration as it applies to him and exercising independent judgment, as he supposes, according to the preparedness God gave him within himself.
They imagined that what was not a proof was a proof of what they sought. They took it as a god only through what they supposed to be a proof. This is His saying, “Whoever calls upon another god with God, for whom he has no proof” [al-Muʾminun 23:117]—meaning, in his own supposition.
This indicates that whoever has a proof established in his consideration is not taken to task even if mistaken. Error was not his intention; rather, his
