As for the majority of earlier and later authors—including even Judge Ibn Khallikān in his history—they declared their claimed lineage invalid. So too did Ibn al-Jawzī, Abū Shāmah, and other scholars knowledgeable about the matter. Indeed, scholars wrote works exposing their secrets and stripping away their concealment. Judge Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī, for example, wrote his well-known book exposing their secrets and stripping away their concealment. He stated that they were descendants of Magians and described aspects of their doctrines, demonstrating that these were worse than the doctrines of the Jews and Christians, and even those of the extremists who claim that Ali is divine or a prophet. Their disbelief is thus even greater than that of these extremists.

Likewise, Judge Abū Yaʿlā included in his book al-Muʿtamad (The Authoritative Work) a lengthy section explaining their heresy and disbelief. Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī likewise discussed them in the book he entitled Fadā’il al-Mustazhiriyyah wa-Fadā’ih al-Bātiniyyah (The Merits of the Mustazhiriyyah and the Scandals of the Bātiniyyah). He said: “Outwardly, their doctrine is Rāfidī Shiism; inwardly, it is pure disbelief.”

Similarly, Judge ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Ahmad and others like him among the Muʿtazilīs with Shīʿī leanings—who regard no one as superior to Ali, and indeed declare those who fought him and did not repent of doing so to be wicked—count these people among the foremost hypocrites and heretics. Such is the Muʿtazilīs’ judgment of them; what, then, must be the judgment of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah?

Even the Imāmī Rāfidīs—although they are among the most ignorant of people and possess neither reason nor transmitted authority, neither a sound religion nor worldly ascendancy—do indeed know that these people’s doctrine is that of hypocritical heretics; and they know that the doctrine of these people