The only ones close to them are the “Peripatetic philosophers, the followers of Aristotle,” for there is considerable affinity between them and the Qarmatians. Thus, leading Qarmatians are found to be inwardly adherents of philosophy, such as Sinān, who was in Syria, and al-Tūsī, who was their minister at Alamūt, then became an astrologer to these people and the king of the unbelievers, and wrote a commentary on Ibn Sīnā’s Pointers. He was the one who advised the king of the unbelievers to kill the caliph. Among the unbelieving Turks, he became the head of those whom they call the “Dāsmīdiyya.”

These men and others like them know that the Qarmatians’ outward displays of religion, miraculous gifts, and the like are false. Yet a man may adhere to philosophy and join them because they agree with his outward acknowledgment of the messengers and revealed laws, while interpreting these in ways that are self-evidently contrary to what the messengers brought.

For these adherents of philosophy interpret what the messengers taught concerning faith in Allah and the Last Day through negation and denial, in keeping with their own doctrine. As for the revealed laws governing conduct, they do not reject them as the Qarmatians do. Rather, they consider them binding on the common people, while considering some of them binding on the elite—or not considering them binding.

They say that, in what they reported and commanded, the messengers did not convey the realities of things, but instead brought something conducive to the welfare of the common people, even if it was in fact false. Thus, every proponent of falsehood has chosen to resort to fraudulent tricks with the aim of benefiting the common people, as did Ibn Tūmart, known as al-Mahdī, whose doctrine concerning the divine attributes was that of the philosophers