and the Abbasid caliphs. Indeed, even if someone believed all Muslim rulers—who are Muslims both outwardly and inwardly—to be infallible, he would still be better than someone who believes these people to be infallible.

It has thus become clear that whatever ignorance may be found among even the most ignorant adherents of the Sunnah, still greater ignorance [than it](1) is found among the Shia. This is especially so because the ignorance of those Shia is rooted in hypocrisy and heresy, not in misinterpretation and innovation. By contrast, these people’s ignorance was not rooted in hypocrisy and heresy, but in innovation, misinterpretation, and scant knowledge of the revealed law.

For this reason, when these people come to understand the truth of the message with which Allah sent [Muhammad](2), His Messenger, they renounce their ignorance and innovation. As for the leaders of the heretics, they know inwardly that what they say contradicts what Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—brought. Nevertheless, they oppose him because they believe that he devised a religious code through his own intellect and excellence, and that they may therefore devise a code just as he did. For, in their view, prophethood is acquired and is [in their view](3) akin to the excellence of devout scholars, while revealed laws are akin to the ordinary statecraft of kings. They therefore hold that his revealed law may be abrogated by a law devised by any one of their imams.

They say, “The revealed law is only for the common people. As for the elite, once they know its inward meaning, their obligations are lifted and what is forbidden becomes permissible to them.”

These people and others like them are more numerous than the Jews and Christians. Indeed, even if one were to suppose that there were people who believed one of the Umayyads or Abbasids to be infallible, or believed that they were free of sin, or that Allah