As for “prohibitions,” Allah Most High has forbidden them shameful deeds, whether open or secret, sin, wrongful aggression, associating with Allah anything for which He has sent down no authority, and saying about Allah what they do not know. He has likewise forbidden wine, marriage to women within the prohibited degrees of kinship, usury, gambling, and other such things.
These people claim that such injunctions do not mean what Muslims understand them to mean. Rather, they have hidden meanings known to these Ismā‘īlī imams who trace their descent to Muhammad ibn Ismā‘īl ibn Ja‘far, whom they claim to be infallible and possessors of esoteric knowledge. For example, they say: “Prayer” means knowing our secrets, not these prayers involving bowing, prostration, and recitation. “Fasting” means concealing our secrets, not abstaining from food, drink, and sexual intercourse. “Pilgrimage” means visiting our holy shaykhs, and so forth.
Those who lay claim to hidden meanings do not regard these acts of worship as obligatory or these forbidden things as unlawful. Rather, they deem shameful deeds lawful, whether open or secret, as well as marriage to mothers and daughters and other abominations. It is well known that their disbelief is greater than that of Jews and Christians. How, then, can anyone like this be infallible?
As for “revealed accounts,” they do not acknowledge that people will rise from their graves before the Lord of all worlds, nor the reward and punishment Allah has promised His servants. They do not even acknowledge what the Messengers reported concerning the angels, or indeed what they related concerning Allah’s names and attributes. Rather, in the accounts they accept, they follow the Peripatetic philosophers, the followers of Aristotle, and they seek to reconcile