fear. If his relatives and friends remain upon their original creed, he voices no objection; rather, he continues to love and cherish them inwardly. A creed, after all, is like one’s homeland, and the soul yearns for its homeland so long as it does not believe that staying there is forbidden.
For this reason many from the People of the Book who have outwardly embraced Islam make no real distinction between Muslims and the People of the Book. Some of them lean more toward the Muslims, while others are more attached to what they previously followed. Still others incline to one side on account of temperament and habit, or because of shared ethnicity, kinship, country, cooperation toward common goals, and the like.
Similarly, the philosophers and those who follow their course—such as the Qarmatians (1), the ittihādīs (2), and those of their stripe—regard it permissible for a person to adhere to the religion of the Muslims, the Jews, or the Christians. Yet it is universally agreed among Muslims that all of this is outright unbelief.
Therefore, whoever does not acknowledge, both inwardly and outwardly, that God accepts no religion other than Islam (3)—
(1) The term al-Qaramata is a well-known designation for the Ismailis, who are called al-Batiniya (esoteric) because they maintain that every manifest (zahir) has a hidden (batin) aspect and that every revelation possesses an interpretation. They have been attributed many additional characteristics by various groups: in Iraq they are known as al-Batiniya, al-Qaramata, and al-Muzdakia, while in Khurasan they are called at-Talimiyya (the didactic) and al-Mulahida (the atheists). They claim to be the Ismailis in order to distinguish themselves from other Shi'a factions. See al-Milal wa al-Nihal by al-Shahristani (vol. 1, p. 192), edition al-Halabi. Note that within their movement the term al-Batiniya denotes different gradations. See al-Furq bayn al-Furq by al-Baghdadi, p. 301.
(2) Al-Ittihadiya: This is a degenerate sect that deviated from the Sunni consensus. Its heretical doctrine (zandaqa) holds that the created is united with the Creator, so that the two become one and the Creator and the created are equal. Likewise, proponents of al-Hulul (indwelling), such as Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi—the author of al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya—claimed that God’s spirit indwells every part of creation. Both the advocates of al-Hulul and those of al-Ittihadiya are regarded as heretics and disbelievers because of their allegorical interpretations and fanciful speculations; they were declared disbelievers by Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn al-Jawzi, and the impassioned scholars of the Salaf committed to the doctrine of tawhid.
(3) This is evidenced by the explicit Quranic text: “Indeed, the religion accepted by Allah is Islam” (al-Imran 3:19), as well as by the verse: “And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him” (al-Imran 3:85). See Tafsir al-Tabari.
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