EL BAKA'y'S letter OF RECOMMENDATION. 65 L 
careful that he be not hindered in anything; for the Prophet 
used to love the Kuraish in spite of their unbelief in him 
and their hostility to him. God says, ' There has come to 
you a Prophet from yourselves ; grievous to him is your 
wickedness; he is anxious about you.'* And he said to 
him, * Thou wilt not direct whomsoever thou lovest.'f And 
he used to love his uncles, and to delight in their conversion 
to El Islam, especially A'bu Taleb ; except that he knew the 
decrees of God about the community, and was liable to them 
together with the community. The most ignorant of men is 
he who is ignorant of the Book of his Lord and the Sunna 
of his Prophet, so that he licenses for himself what is unlaw- 
ful, and forbids what is lawful, and draws near to Him with 
that which removes him to a distance from Him, and keeps 
aloof from that which brings him near to Him ; who fancies 
that he does well as to his actions, while he does evil as to 
what is enjoined. God is not worshipped by any act (or 
rite) but what he has ordered, and is not approached by a 
worshipper that he should remit anything but what is re- 
mitted. Now salutation is what is reiterated to you, and 
honour is what is wished to you ! Farewell ! 
* Sur. ix. 129. 
f Sur. xxviii. 56. 
