could not, they say, lay bare the truth—which, in fact, is what we proclaim—so they offered the people illustrative parables from which the masses might profit, all the while inwardly embracing the very doctrines espoused by the philosophers. Hence they contend that religious duties fall away from the spiritual elite, a claim echoed by certain Qarmaṭī Bāṭinite sectarians, philosophers, antinomian Sufis, and others. Their rationale is that the sole objective is knowledge and gnosis; once that goal is reached, worship, in their view, serves no further purpose.
They also allege that the Prophet—may God bless him and grant him peace—confided to a select circle of Companions teachings that accord with their own. Yet anyone acquainted with the life of our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and with the state of his Companions knows, with absolute certainty, that such people contradict and slander him and are among the worst of hypocrites. The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, together with his closest Companions, were among the most devout of all people toward God, the most diligent in fulfilling obligatory acts and avoiding the prohibited. Those select Companions were also the foremost in affirming what he brought concerning God’s Names and Attributes, His angels, the Last Day, and all other matters he reported, and they were equally foremost in upholding what he brought of commands and prohibitions. Thus, what they concealed of knowledge and spiritual state fully matched what they displayed in word and deed; they harbored nothing that contradicted their outward practice, nor did they subscribe to the creed of the negators.
In fact, the doctrine of denying the divine Attributes only appeared in the ummah after the era of the Companions and the leading Successors had passed. During the lifetime of the Companions no one uttered any of the Jahmite, attribute-negating notions—let alone the even more extreme views of these atheists, for whom the denial of the Attributes is but a single aspect of their unbelief!
For this reason scholars have differed over the Jahmites: are they even to be counted among the seventy-two sects