in Syria; he led the people of that region astray, and remnants of his following remain among them to this day, professing the divinity of al-Hākim. He led them out of Islam, so they do not recognize the obligation of the five daily prayers, fasting the month of Ramadan, or pilgrimage to the Sacred House, nor do they acknowledge the prohibition of what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, such as carrion, blood, pork, wine, and other things. These people initially invite anyone who responds to their call to embrace Shiism, observe what the Rāfidīs deem obligatory, and regard as forbidden what they forbid.

They then lead him, step by step, until they finally bring him to abandon Islam altogether and to believe that the aim is to learn their secrets—the knowledge through which the soul attains perfection, as the heretical philosophers maintain. Whoever acquires this knowledge has reached the ultimate goal: the acts of worship incumbent upon ordinary people, such as the five daily prayers, fasting Ramadan, and pilgrimage to the House, are no longer obligatory for him, and forbidden things that remain unlawful for others become lawful for him.

Thus, when these people exalt the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and say that his knowledge was perfect, they place him in the same category as their heretical leaders, claiming that he presented the common people with teachings contrary to those he concealed for the elite. Elsewhere we have explained the falsity of their claims in a discussion beyond the scope of the present occasion.

The point here is that those who deny Allah’s being above creation and His attributes known through revelation, such as the author of al-Lumʿa and others like him, make claims about the Messenger similar to theirs: what he openly taught was not the actual truth, because he could not disclose that truth to the common people. Thus, if