This argument of theirs is of the same kind as the argument advanced by their brethren among the heretics and the Ismāʿīlis. They call people to (1) the infallible imam who imparts instruction, and say:

“The validity of the means of acquiring knowledge through scriptural and rational proofs cannot (2) be known except through the instruction of the infallible teacher.”

It is as though they took this corrupt principle from their brethren, the Rāfidis. When the Rāfidis claimed that an infallible imam was indispensable for preserving the revealed law, while acknowledging (3) prophethood, the Ismāʿīlis made an even more far-reaching claim. They said:

“An infallible person is indispensable in every field of scriptural and rational knowledge (4).”

If these people are inwardly heretics, while outwardly professing belief in the prophetic missions (5) and the revealed laws, and claiming (6) that these have esoteric interpretations contrary to what people understand (7) them to mean; and if they maintain that acts of worship are no longer required (8) and that prohibited things become lawful for the initiated elite who have attained their goal—then they have various ranks within their missionary system, the details of which are not relevant here.

The point is simply that both (9) groups claim that an infallible person other than the Messenger is needed. The Twelvers, however, identify the infallible person as one of the twelve and hold that he is needed to preserve and convey the revealed law, whereas these people are heretical disbelievers.