in what he reports and submitting to him in what he commands—just as acknowledging Allah entails recognizing Him and worshipping Him. Hypocrisy frequently concerns one’s relationship with the Messenger, and this is the predominant form of hypocrisy that Allah mentions in the Quran concerning the hypocrites during his lifetime. Disbelief is the absence of faith, whether accompanied by denial, arrogance, refusal, or aversion. Whoever lacks affirmation and submission in his heart is therefore a disbeliever.
There are, then, “two kinds of hypocrisy”: hypocrisy among people of learning and speculative theology, and hypocrisy among people of religious practice and worship.
As for outright hypocrisy, whose perpetrator is unquestionably a disbeliever, it consists in not considering it obligatory to believe what the Messenger reports or to obey what he commands, even while believing that the Messenger possesses great knowledge and excellence in practice, and that believing and obeying him is permissible. Such a person nevertheless says that differences between religions do not matter so long as the One worshipped is the same. He holds that salvation and happiness can be attained both by following the Messenger and without following him—through philosophy and Sabianism, or through Judaism and Christianity. This is the position of the Sabian philosophers on this question and on others. For even if they believe and obey him, they do not consider this obligatory for everyone on earth, such that whoever fails to believe and obey him will be punished. Rather, they regard it as comparable to adhering to an imam’s school, following a shaykh’s path, or obeying a king. This is the religion of the Tatars and those who join them.
As for the lesser degree of hypocrisy, it consists in seeking knowledge of Allah independently of what the Messenger reports, or seeking to act for Allah independently of what he commands. Many speculative theologians are afflicted with the former, and many Sufis with the latter. They believe that he must be believed or that he must be obeyed, yet in their pursuit of knowledge