The Meaning of Excess (Ghuluww)

The Jews, out of negligence (tafrīṭ) in enmity, and the Christians, as a result of excess (ifrāṭ) in love, have committed excess in God’s religion. Excess has two types:

1. Absolute excess, whether in friendship or in enmity, as the Commander of the Faithful said: “Two types of men will perish because of me: an excessive lover (muḥibb ghālin) and a slanderous hater (mubghiḍ qālin).”(131) Excessive friends took that personage beyond the boundary of being human, and spiteful enemies, out of negligence, declared him an unbeliever (takfīr).

What can justify the expansion of the meaning of excess is another saying of that personage: “Two groups will perish because of me: an excessive lover (muḥibb mufriṭ) whom love leads to other than the truth, and an excessive hater (mubghiḍ mufriṭ) whom hatred leads to other than the truth.”(132) In the case where the word “mufriṭ” in the second instance, like the first instance, is vocalized as an active participle of the ifʿāl form.

2. Excess in the sense of excess (ifrāṭ) as opposed to negligence (tafrīṭ), and also “ghālī” (excessive) as opposed to “qālī” (enemy), which encompasses only excessive friendship.

Excess in the verse under discussion - considering that its addressees are Jews and Christians - can mean absolute excess that includes both friendship and enmity.