ambiguous expressions and are so given to leading people to understand the opposite of what they themselves harbor that no other people on earth equal them in this. The Rāfidīs share this trait with them, but these Jahmīs are greater in disbelief and hypocrisy. Hence ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī said, “They are two religions: the Jahmīs and the Rāfidīs.” Al-Bukhārī cited this in his book The Creation of Actions. Al-Bukhārī also said:

“It makes no difference to me whether I pray behind a Jahmī or a Rāfidī, or behind a Jew or a Christian. They are not to be greeted with peace or visited when ill; no marriages are to be contracted with them, nor are they to serve as witnesses, and the animals they slaughter are not to be eaten.”

This has been explained elsewhere. The Jahmīs have impugned the very essence of monotheism: the testimony that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah. As for the Rāfidīs, the essence of their doctrine impugns the second foundation: the testimony that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

If a person combines Rāfidī and Jahmī doctrines, he then draws close to the heretical Qarmatian esotericists, who surpass all other people on earth in hypocrisy, in concealing what they harbor, in professing the opposite of what they believe, and in addressing people with ambiguous expressions through which they lead people to understand