Groups of the Khawārij and the Rāfidah had also made their way to the Maghreb, just as such groups existed in the East and in many Muslim lands. Yet the leading cities did not remain committed to any of these doctrines. Rather, whenever one of them prevailed there for a time, Allah reestablished the guidance and the religion of truth with which He sent Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—which prevails [over] their falsehood (1).
Banū Ubayd openly professed Shiism, seized territories in the Maghreb, and built al-Mahdiyyah. They then came to Egypt and controlled it for two hundred years. They also controlled the Hijaz and Syria for approximately one hundred years and held Baghdad during the turmoil of al-Basāsīrī (2). Heretics from the East and West joined them, and the people of religious innovation and caprice welcomed what they were doing. Despite this, they remained dependent upon the people of the Sunnah and needed to conciliate them and practice taqiyyah toward them.
For this reason, taqiyyah is the Rāfidah’s stock-in-trade: it means outwardly displaying the opposite of what one inwardly conceals, as a hypocrite does. Yet at the beginning of Islam, the Muslims were extremely weak and few, but they openly professed their religion and did not conceal it.
The Rāfidah claim that they act in accordance with this verse—the words of the Exalted:
“Let not the believers take the disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Whoever does so has nothing to do with Allah, unless you guard yourselves against them as a precaution. And Allah warns you of Himself.”
[Surah Āl Imrān: 28]
They claim that they are the believers and that all others who face the qiblah are disbelievers, although they hold two positions on declaring the majority unbelievers. Yet I have seen more than one of their imams state explicitly in his books