because he was broadly like them. Yet he was not a hypocrite who rejected the messengers and set aside the revealed laws, nor did he posit an inner meaning for the practical religious law that contradicted its outward meaning. Rather, he held some Jahmī views that accorded with those of the philosophers, and some views of the Khawārij, who advocate recourse to the sword and declare people unbelievers on account of sin.

These Qarmatians are, inwardly and in reality, greater unbelievers than the Jews and Christians. Outwardly, however, they profess Islam; indeed, they even claim descent from the Prophet’s family, esoteric knowledge unavailable to the prophets and saints, and that their imam is infallible.

Thus, outwardly they make some of the greatest claims to possessing the realities of faith, while inwardly they are among those who disbelieve most deeply in the Most Merciful. They are like the liars who claimed prophethood. Allah Most High says:

“Who does greater wrong than someone who fabricates a lie against Allah, or says, ‘Revelation has come to me,’ when nothing has been revealed to him, or someone who says, ‘I will send down the like of what Allah has sent down’?”

These people may make both kinds of claim.

Anyone who seeks to rival the truthful Messenger must fall into one of the following categories:

Either he makes a claim like the Messenger’s, saying, “Allah has sent me and sent revelation down to me,” thereby lying about Allah;

or he claims to receive revelation without naming its source, saying, for example, “I was told,” “I was called,” “I was addressed,” and the like, while lying. In this case, he has omitted the agent;

or he makes neither claim, but claims that he can produce the like of what the Messenger brought.

The basis of this classification is that, in claiming to rival the Messenger, he attributes what he claims either to Allah, to himself, or to no one.