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Text and translation
English translation
168. It was narrated that 'Abdullāh bin Mas'ud said: "The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: 'At the end of time there will appear a people with new teeth (i. e., young in age), with foolish minds. They will speak the best words ever uttered by mankind and they will recite the Qur'ān, but it will not go any deeper than their collarbones. They will pass through Islam like an arrow passes through its target. Whoever meets them, let him kill them, for killing them will bring a reward from Allāh for those who kill them.'" (Sahih)
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Commentary
Innovation in religion, be it in belief or action, is a sign of lack of understanding or stupidity. In other words, only a person who either has no understanding of religion, or considers it imperfect and incomplete, indulges in acts of innovation.
The Qur'ân 'not going any deeper than the people's collarbones' would either mean that they would repeat the Qur'ân by the tongues, but it would not create any effect upon them, or that they would be denied the true understanding of it.
An innovator considers his self-invented words and actions as true Islam. That is why he is deprived from the real face of Islam.
We must first try to instruct them into true Islam and make manifest their error. In case they refuse to see reason and become a source of misguidance for others, the Islamic government should treat them as traitors and crush their mischief by force.
