whom they call saints. They claim that some philosophers and saints know more about Allah and the Last Day than the Messengers do.

This is the position of the extreme heretics among the philosophers and esotericists—both Shia esotericists and Sufi esotericists.

Others among them say: Rather, the Messenger knew these realities but did not explain them. Instead, he spoke in terms that contradicted them and intended people to understand the opposite of those realities, because people’s welfare lay in holding these beliefs, which do not correspond to the truth.

These people say: The Messenger must call people to believe that Allah is corporeal, even though this is false; to believe in bodily resurrection, even though this is false; and tell them that the inhabitants of Paradise eat and drink, even though this is false.

They say this is because people cannot be called except by this method, which involves lying for their welfare. This, then, is their position concerning the texts about belief in Allah and the Last Day.

(As for religious practices, some of them uphold them, while others treat them in the same manner. They say that only some people are commanded to observe them, not others: the general public is commanded to observe them, but not the elite. This is the way of the heretical esotericists, the Ismā'īlīs, and others like them.

(As for the proponents of interpretation, they say that, through the texts concerning the divine attributes, the Messenger did not intend people to believe falsehood. Rather, he intended certain meanings but neither explained those meanings to them nor directed them to them. Instead, he wanted them to reflect and discover the truth through their own reason, then strive to turn those texts away from what they signify. His purpose was to test them and impose burdens upon them