At times they base their teachings on the doctrines of the natural philosophers or the metaphysicians; at other times, on the teachings of the Magians who worship light. To this they add Rāfidī doctrine.

They seek support for this in prophetic teachings, either through fabricated statements they transmit—as when they attribute to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the saying:

“The first thing Allah created was the intellect.”

The hadith is fabricated by the unanimous agreement of hadith scholars. Its actual wording is:

“When Allah created the intellect, He said to it, ‘Come forward,’ and it came forward. Then He said to it, ‘Go back,’ and it went back.”

They alter its wording to say, “The first thing Allah created was the intellect,” to bring it into agreement with the assertion of Aristotle’s followers among the philosophers that the first emanation from the Necessary Existent is the intellect.

Or they take words authentically transmitted from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and distort their meaning, as do the authors of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity and others like them, who are among their leading authorities. Much of their falsehood has infiltrated the thinking of many Muslims and gained acceptance among them, even finding its way into the books of groups associated with learning and religion, although they do not share the fundamental unbelief of these people.

These people disclose their accursed mission, which they call “the Guiding Mission,” in several stages. They call the final stage “the Supreme Disclosure and the Supreme Law.” The substance of the Supreme Disclosure is denial of the Creator, exalted is He, and mockery of Him and of those who acknowledge Him—to the point that one of them may write Allah’s name on the sole of his foot. It also includes denial of His revealed laws, His religion, and what the prophets brought, along with the claim that the prophets were people like themselves seeking power: some pursued it skillfully, while others went wrong in