—namely reward and punishment—yet they denied many of the attributes He has reported of Himself. Such is the stance of several schools of speculative theology, including the Muʿtazilites and those who side with them.

3. The third group denied both matters: they rejected the realities of reward and punishment and they rejected the divine attributes alike. Examples are the Qarmatian Bāṭinīs, the philosophers who follow the Peripatetic school, and other unbelieving freethinkers who repudiate the truths Allah has conveyed about Himself and about the Last Day.

The Bāṭinī Allegorization of Command and Prohibition

Many among them extend this approach to the divine commands and prohibitions. They claim that the prescribed duties and the forbidden acts possess hidden, esoteric meanings that contradict what Muslims universally understand. Thus they allegorize the five daily prayers, the fasting of Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to the Sacred House, asserting that the five prayers are merely knowledge of their own secrets, that fasting in Ramadan is the concealment of those secrets, and that the pilgrimage is simply travelling to their shaykhs. These and similar interpretations are self-evidently lies and fabrications against the messengers—may Allah’s blessings be upon them—distortions of the words of Allah and His Messenger, and a willful perversion of the Qur’anic verses.

They also claim that the sacred law binds only the common people, not the elite; once a person, in their view, becomes one of their “knowers,” “realized ones,” and “true monotheists,” they exempt him from the obligations and permit him the prohibitions.