and they acknowledge Muhammad’s messengership in general, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and hold him in esteem. They say:

“The philosophers of the world agree that no religious code greater than his has ever come to earth.”

Yet despite this, they disbelieve in some of what he brought. For example, they consider it permissible to follow religions other than his, such as Judaism and Christianity. They may also permit polytheism for the common people or the elite, such as invoking the celestial bodies, worshipping them, and prostrating before them. Inwardly, they may deny some of what he conveyed, claiming that what he taught concerning belief in Allah and the Last Day consists merely of parables intended to help the common people understand matters that must not be disclosed or have their true nature explained. This is because they consider it permissible for him to lie for what they claim is the benefit of the common people.

They may also claim that true knowledge of Allah is acquired from sources other than what the Messenger brought, and that some people know Allah better than he does or are superior to him, along with other such assertions. People of this kind have always existed, especially among the esoteric Qarmatians—the Ismāʿīlīs, the Nusayrīs, and the Ubaydid rulers who claimed the caliphate—and among the Khurramites, the Mazdakites, and similar sects.

Their elite are more extreme in disbelief than the Jews and Christians, and than the extremists who claim divinity or prophethood for ʿAlī or other human beings like him. They are hypocrites and heretics; yet among many of their followers