“Point to me among all created beings,
tell of what you have chosen concerning me;
for I am, in truth, the sum of all things,
and every source of things proceeds from me.”
They raised his standing so high that no one could obtain either livelihood or office unless his signature authorized it. Thereupon the believers were tried and shaken with a violent shaking, until God banished their influence from the Muslims, humbled them after strength, destroyed whom He willed among them, exposed their secrets, and rent their veils.
These people keep company with the unbelievers just as the Bāṭinite Qarmaṭians did, for unbelievers and hypocrites share a common enmity toward the people of faith. Hence the Bāṭinites and their Rāfiḍite followers in Syria and elsewhere maintained close ties with the infidels while opposing the believers; they are cut from the same cloth.
One cause of their misguidance is that, having observed perfection in both knowledge and practice—and with knowledge preceding practice on the spiritual path—they made theoretical knowledge the ultimate goal, claiming that the soul’s perfection lies therein. They therefore deemed jurisprudence, the practical science, the lowest of the ranks. Above it they placed dialectical theology, for in their view it is theoretical knowledge suited to the masses: the mutakallim asserts that he supports the revealed creed with decisive textual and rational proofs, rendering it a demonstrated creed. These sectarians maintain that the Prophets’ proclamations are for the common folk, whereas the reality known only to the elect is an inner truth that cannot be gleaned from the explicit wording of the Messengers. Thus they ranked the mutakallim above the jurist and split the creed into two forms: a bare creed for the laity and a creed accompanied by its evidences for the elite.
Next, in their hierarchy, comes the philosopher, because he—so they claim—penetrates the esoteric theories that the Prophets did not lay bare but only hinted at and symbolized. After him stands the Sufi, who, they say, combines speculation with inward devotion so that knowledge becomes direct witnessing. Finally, at the summit, is the “Realized One” in their system: the person who has witnessed that all existence is a single entity.