The Ruling on Exaggeration Regarding the Companions and the People of the House

Question:
You mentioned, or your Eminence mentioned, the Khawarij and their declaring 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) a disbeliever. What is your Eminence's opinion regarding those who exaggerated in their praise of 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him)?

Answer:
By Allah, all of them are the calamity that comes from exaggeration and from laxity. It comes from one of the two paths. Those who exaggerated in their praise of the Companions are the counterparts of those who declared them disbelievers; they exaggerated in their praise of the Companions to the point that they held a bad belief about them. These people are not less evil; rather, their evil is greater than that of those who were lax in their rights.
These are the worst of them; they are called the extreme Shi'ah. The extreme Shi'ah only show loyalty to the People of the House and declare as disbelievers everyone else from the people of the Sunnah and the community. They claim that the people of the Sunnah and the community hate the People of the House, and they say, "No, no, except with disavowal."
We show loyalty to the People of the House and we hate those who oppose them. The people of the Sunnah and the community are those who love the People of the House with the correct, moderate love and recognize their status. As for these extremists, they did not recognize their status in the correct way or in the prescribed manner.
Their status is not that they are called upon besides Allah. Their status is not that they are made gods alongside Allah, that they benefit and harm. Their status is not that they are infallible and do not err. This is not their status.
Their status is that they are among the scholars of the Ummah and among the best of the Ummah, and that they are like the rest of the Ummah. They have no distinction except in their kinship with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), along with the faith and knowledge they possess. They have good upon good. As for believing in their infallibility, believing that the Wilayah (authority) belongs to them to the exclusion of the Muslims, believing that they abrogate whatever they wish from the Shari'ah, believing that they have the power to command and prohibit, and that their command and prohibition is from Allah the Glorious and Exalted, that they receive it from Allah, such that nothing passes by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) but this comes to them automatically—we ask Allah for well-being. Is this, is this after this disbelief, from disbelief? Yes.