= In al-Muntaẓam, vol. 5: 110–119 (edited by Muḥammad al-Ṣabbāgh and issued separately, pp. 29–72); al-Kāmil by Ibn al-Athīr, vol. 7: 493ff., vol. 8: 143; al-Bidāya wa-al-Nihāya by Ibn Kathīr, vol. 11: 91, 180; al-Qaramita by Maḥmūd Shākir, p. 5ff. (1) al-Bāṭiniyya: A sect holding that the ẓāhir (outer aspect) of the Qurʾān and the reports (akhbār) conceal bāṭin (inner meanings) akin to a kernel beneath its shell. They teach allegorical images to the uninstructed and convey symbols and signs of hidden realities to the discerning. According to them, those who cease to explore these secrets are spiritually faltering, while those who attain the science of the bāṭin are relieved of religious duties. They claim exclusive access to secret teachings, received directly from the infallible Imam. Early propagators included Maimūn ibn Daisān (al-Qiḍāḥ) and Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn (nicknamed Dandān). For a detailed account of their doctrine, errors, and dangers, see: • Abd al-Qāhir, Al-Firaq bayna al-Firaq, pp. 281–312. • al-Isfarāʾīnī, At-Taṣbīr fī al-Dīn, pp. 140–147. • al-Ghazālī, Faḍā’iḥ al-Bāṭiniyya, p. 11ff. • Ibn al-Jawzī, al-Qaramita (a long chapter in al-Muntaẓam, vol. 5: 110–119, ed. Muḥammad al-Ṣabbāgh, also published separately), pp. 36–72. (2) In the original manuscript (siglum S): al-Sufustāʾiyya; in the printed edition (siglum Ṭ): the same. al-Sufustāʾiyya (the Sophists): A pre-Islamic school active in the fifth century BCE that denied objective truths. Ibn Taymiyya divides their sophistry into four types: 1. The agnostic sophists (al-mutajāhila al-lā-adrīyah), who claim ignorance about whether truths exist or not and whether they can be known. 2. The absolute deniers (ahl al-takdhīb wa-l-juhūd), who assert definitively that truths neither exist nor can be known. 3. Those who subject truths to individual belief: for the believer, a thing is real; for the denier, it is non-existent—denying any intrinsic status to truths. 4. Those who admit that truths exist but hold them unknowable, either because the knower is in continual flux and thus cannot apprehend their essence, or for other reasons.