This is why the advocate of the doctrine of the godless Bātinīs structured his missionary appeal in stages. First, he calls the recruit to Shiism. Then, if he finds him receptive, he tells him, “Alī is no different from anyone else,” and invites him to disparage Alī as well. If he still finds him receptive, he invites him to disparage the Messenger. Then, if he again finds him receptive(1), he calls him to deny the Creator.

This(2) is the sequence set out in their book, which they call “al-Balāgh al-Akbar” and “al-Nāmūs al-Azam.” Its author was the one who conveyed it to the Qarmatian who had risen in Bahrain, when the latter seized Mecca; they killed the pilgrims, took the Black Stone, declared forbidden acts lawful, and set aside the religious obligations. Their conduct is well known to scholars.

How could the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—have said:

“Whoever dies while hating Alī dies as a Jew or a Christian,”

when all the Kharijites declare Alī an unbeliever and hate him?! Yet Alī himself did not regard them as equivalent to Jews and Christians. Rather, he counted them among the Muslims who faced the qiblah in prayer, and applied to them rulings different from those he applied(3) to Jews and Christians.

The same applies to those among Banū Umayya and their followers who reviled and hated him. How could anyone who performs the prescribed prayers, fasts the month of Ramadan, makes pilgrimage to the House, and pays zakat be like Jews and Christians?! The most that can be said of such a person is that he may(4) have been unaware that Alī was an imam, or disobeyed him after recognizing his imamate.

Everyone knows that the religiously observant and the majority have no personal grievance against Alī, nor does any of them have any motive to reject the Messenger’s word. Had they known that the Messenger had appointed Alī as imam, they would have been the first to affirm it.