The Infamies (Enormities) of the Batinites and the Virtues (Merits) of the Mustazhirites

Being a translation of

Al-Ghazali’s

Fada'ih al-Batiniyya wa Fada'il al-Mustazhiriyya

by

McCarthy

 

PREFACE

Fada'ih al-Batiniyya wa Fada'il al-Mustazhiriyya This is the book to which Ghazali refers in the Munqidh, Para. 61 (Note 122). I translate its title as The Infamies (Enormities) of the Batinites and the Virtues (Merits) of the Mustazhirites. By the Mustazhirites Ghazali means the reigning Caliph, al-Mustachio Billah, and his family. He was Caliph from 478/1094 to 512/1118. The book was partially edited and translated by Goldziher in his Streitschrift des Gazali gegen die Batinijja-Sekte, Leiden, 1916. He used a manuscript of the British Museum. The complete text (which is the basis of my translation) was edited by Dr. ‘Abdurrahman Badawi, Cairo, 1964, who used the British Museum manuscript and another of the Qarawiyin Mosque in Fez (Morocco). Goldziher’s book contains a good deal of useful and interesting information.

            My translation is fairly literal, without, I hope, being too barbarous. Some parts are summaries of certain sections completely translated in Goldziher’s splendid book. I have added certain explanations, references, and alternate translations in square brackets. For more complete details on Ghazali’s “politics” I refer the reader to: H. Laoust: La Politique de Gazali, Paris, 1970.

 

TRANSLATION

Laudatory Preface [Khutba]

1 Praise be to God, the Living the Subsistent, the essence of Whose Subsistence cannot be mastered by the description of a describer; the Glorious, the quality of Whose Glory cannot be encompassed by the knowledge of a knower; the Mighty-and there is no mighty one save that he clings to the threshold of His Might with the foot of infants; the Splendid-and there is no monarch save that he circumambulates the pavillions of His Splendour; the Coercer [Omnipotent, Compeller]-and there is no ruler save that he hopes for the gusts of His pardon and fears the outbursts of His wrath; The Imperious [Proud, Great]-and there is no holy one [wali: master, governor, proprietor, holy one] save that his heart is the mortmain of His Love and his soul stands ready for His service; the Compassionate [ All-merciful]-and there is no thing save that it would mount the back of danger in terrifying situations, were it not for its expectation of His Mercy by reason of His prevenient and previous promises; the Gracious  [Beneficent, Benefactor]-if He wish good for you, nothing can repel or turn away His favour; the Avenger-if He afflict you with harm, none but He can remove it; sublime His Majesty and hallowed His Names, unbeguiled, by any intimate, and unharmed by any adversary; mighty His power, unduped by any covert trickster and unopposed by any overt enemy!

2 He created men parties and quantities [different factions and descents ?], and ordered them, with respect to the vanities of the world, as base and noble; and brought them into proximity, with respect to the truths of religion, as attached and deviate, ignorant and learned; and divided them, with respect to the bases of belief [fundamental dogmas], into sects and classes [categories] agreeing with each other harmoniously and separating from each other in disagreement, so that they were divided regarding dogmas by denial and confession, arbitrariness and fairness, moderation and excess. They likewise differed in origin and qualities. This one is a wealthy man whose riches multiply daily and who receives wholesale [on a large scale] and spends wholesale. This other is a weak man who has to support frail offspring and who lacks a day’s supply of food so that he has been reduced to importuning people. Another finds a ready welcome in men’s hearts and in his need meets only with compliance and aid. But another is hated by men and his claims are unjustly treated with inequity and unfairness. This one is godly and aided by God and grows daily in his piety and godliness in boundlessness and loftiness. But this other is forsaken [by God] and grows with the passage of the days [p. 2] in his transgression and wickedness in excess and deviation. That is the ordaining of your Lord [cf. Qur. 6.95-96], the Powerful, the Wise, from Whose domination no sultan can turn away, the Irresistible, the Omniscient, Whose decision no one can withstand, despite the Batinite unbelievers who deny that God appoints disagreement among the People of the Truth, for they know not that mercy follows disagreement among the Community just as admonition [warning, example] follows their differing in ranks and qualities.

3 Thanks be to God Who has aided us to profess His religion publicly and privately [openly and secretly], and Who has guided us to submit to His rule [authority] outwardly and inwardly. He has not made us of the number of the erring Batinites who make outward confession with their tongues while they harbor in their hearts persistence and willfulness [in their error]. They bear heavy loads of misdeeds, and manifest regarding religion piety and gravity, and store up [fill their saddle-bags with] burdens of iniquities, because they do not hope for forbearance from God [do not ask gravity of deportment of God, or, do not show grave deportment toward God]. And were the summoners to Truth to address them night and day, their appeal would only make them flee the more [from the Truth]. When the sword of the People of the Truth dominates them they quickly choose the Truth, but when its shadow lifts from them they persist in their arrogance. So we ask God not to leave any of their dwellings on the face of the earth. And we ask God’s blessings upon His Elect Apostle and his family and his orthodox Caliphs who came after him-blessings as numerous as the drops of the clouds which pour forth abundant showers, which will continually increase with the passage of the days and will be renewed as the years succeed uninterruptedly and repeatedly!

 

[Introduction]

4 Now then: During the length of my stay in the City of Peace [Baghdad] I never ceased longing to serve the sacred, prophetic, caliphal, Mustazhirite positions [stands, policies, attitudes, positions]-may God multiply their glory and extend their shadow [protection, patronage] over all the strata [classes] of men-by composing a book about the science [or: bi’alam- the star, luminary, eminent person-i.e. the Caliph?] of our religion, by which I would pay my debt of gratitude for his kindness and fulfill my obligation to serve, and, by the trouble I would take, reap the fruits of approval and closeness [to him]. However, I tended to temporize because of my perplexity about specifying the area of learning which I would aim at in my composition and particularizing the discipline which would meet with the approval of the [Caliph’s] noble and prophetic opinion. This perplexity was surpassing my intent and preventing my natural disposition from compliance and submission until the noble, sacred, prophetic, Mustazhirite orders came with an instruction [suggestion, intimation, command] to the servant to compose a book on the refutation of the Batinites which would contain the exposure of their innovations and their errors, and of the kinds of their cunning and artfulness, and of the way they allure common and ignorant men. It would also make plain the hidden dangers in their deception and their dupery, and their slipping out of the noose of Islam and their abandoning and being stripped of it [Islam]. And it would bring out their infamies and their abominations by what would result in rending their veils and revealing their depths. Thus the [Caliph’s] precedence in employing me in this weighty matter was, in appearance, a favour which answered before the request and responded before the appeal, although in reality it was a goal which I was seeking and a wish at which I was aiming.

5 So I considered obedience a duty and hurrying to comply a firm obligation. And how could I not hasten to do that?! For if I considered it from the standpoint of the commander, I found it to be a command forwarded by the Leader of our Community and the Glory of our Religion and originating [p. 4] in the Delight of the Nations, the Commander of the Faithful, obedience to whom is enjoined by the Creator of Creatures and the Lord of the Worlds-for God Most High has said: “Obey God, and obey the Apostle and the Rulers among you” [4.62/59]. And if I considered the command, it was to defend the plain truth and to stand up for the Proof of our Religion and to eradicate the godless. And if I consulted myself-and I, among all creatures, had been honoured with a message about it-I saw that hastening to submit and comply was, on my part, a personal duty. For rare in the world is the man who, in the matter of the fundamental dogmas, can independently [undertake to] establish proof and demonstration in such fashion that he raises it from the lowlands of conjecture and reckoning to the highlands of positiveness and certainty. For it is a momentous concern and a weighty matter to the essentials of which the resources of the jurists are not equal and with the basic elements of which only he is conversant who has devoted all his attention to this problem become devilish [“hairy”] because of the capricious tendencies regarding the fundamentals of religions which have appeared and become intermingled with the method of the early philosophers and sages. For it is from the depths of the latter’s error that these Batinites seek provision, since they vacillate between the doctrines of the dualists and the philosophers and buzz around the limits of logic in their wranglings. I had indeed long sought the like of its [Batinism’s] antagonist [opposition], when it was appointed for me to subdue and overcome it. In a similar case the poet has said: 

                        I got to know evil, not

                             For evil’s sake, but to guard against it:

                        And he who knows not the evil

                             Of men falls into it.

6 [p. 5] The reasons of obligation and necessity made common cause against me and I welcomed the inevitable with the embrace of one duty bound. I hurried to obey and comply and applied myself to composing this book built on ten chapters, begging from God-Praised be He!-help to pursue the right course. I have called it The Infamies of the Batinites and the Virtues [Merits] of the Mustazhirites. And God Most High is He Who gives help for the fulfillment of this intention!

 

 

 

 

7 Here is the list of the chapters:

Chapter One: The clear statement of the method I have chosen to follow in the course of this book.

Chapter Two: Explanation of their appellations and disclosure of the reason which moved them to institute this misleading propaganda.

Chapter Three: Explanation of the degrees of their artifices in deceiving and disclosure of the reason for men’s being misled by their artifices despite their patent wrongness.

Chapter Four: Account of their doctrine in general and in detail.

Chapter Five: On their interpretations of the literal meanings of the Qur’an and their arguing from numerical matters. It contains two sections:

            Section 1-On their interpretation of the literal meanings.

Section 2-On their arguments from numbers and letters.

Chapter Six: Presentation of their rational proofs in defence of their teaching and disclosure [p. 6] of their argument which they embellished with their allegation in the form of apodeictic proof of the invalidation of intellectual reasoning.

Chapter Seven: Refutation of their argument from textual designation to the appointment of the infallible Imam.

Chapter Eight: On the necessity of the legal opinion about them with respect to taxing with unbelief and charging with error and the shedding of blood.

Chapter Nine: Establishment of the canonical and legal proof that the true Imam in this age of ours is the Caliph al-Mustazhir Billah-God preserve his sovereignty!

Chapter Ten: On the religious duties by persistence in which the Imamate [Caliphate] is continuously merited.

8 This is the account of the chapters. It is suggested to the noble, prophetic view [of the Caliph] that he read the book as a whole, then single out Chapters Nine and Ten for him who wishes to make a close study. Thus he will learn from Chapter Nine the extent of the Most High’s favour to him, and perceive, from Chapter Ten, how to render thanks for that favour, and he may also know that if God Most High is not content to have a servant of His on the face of the earth higher in dignity than the Commander of the Faithful, then the Commander of the Faithful will not be Content that God should have on the face of the earth a servant more devoted and more grateful than he himself. We beg God Most High to supply him with His succour and to guide him to His own right path. This is the sum total of the book-and God is the resort for help in following the thoroughfare of the Truth and in treading the road of sincerity!

CHAPTER ONE

The Clear Statement of the Method I Have

Chosen to Follow in the Course of This Book

9 [p. 7] You should know that the method of discoursing in books differs (1) with regard to meaning, in profundity and precision as against carelessness and meretriciousness, and (2) with regard to expression, in prolixity and elaborateness as against brevity and conciseness, and (3) with regard to intention [aim, purpose], in multiplying and prolonging as against restricting and reducing. These, then, are three standpoints [aspects, approaches], and each of these divisions has its advantage and its disadvantage.                                                  

[The First Standpoint]

10 As for the first standpoint, its purpose-in profundity and precision and plumbing the mysteries and meanings to their farthest limits-is to guard against the ridicule of experts and the reproach of specialists. For if they look attentively at this book and do not find it in conformity and agreement with what thinkers [speculators] regard as the rules of dialectic and the prescriptions of logic, they will find the author’s performance feeble and his discourse nauseating [or, from another root: scrawny, weak, thin] and will think him unacquainted with the goal of inquiry [investigation] and one affiliated with the masses.

11 But this has a disadvantage, viz. its small benefit and utility with respect to most men. For if the discourse be to the taste of disputation and dialectic, and not to the point of persuasive speech, [p. 8] only the experts will be able to understand it and only skilled researchers will know how to fathom its abstruse meanings. As for following the way of indulgence [simplicity, ease] and restricting oneself to a kind of discourse which is deemed nice in addresses to others, this has the advantage of being pleasing to men's ears and most natures are not too dull to understand it and to grasp its aims, and it induces conviction in everyone who has brains and intelligence, even though he has not delved deeply into the sciences. This kind of discourse is a cause of praise and commendation-on the part of the superficial; its disadvantage is that it is a motive for contempt on the part of experts. So I have thought it best to follow the via media [middle way] between the two extremes. I shall not leave my book devoid of matters apodeictical which the skilled researchers will understand, nor of rhetorical remarks from which those who proceed by conjecture will derive profit. For the need for this book is general, with respect to both the elite and the common folk, and embraces all the strata of the adherents of Islam, and this procedure is the closest to the straight path. How often has it been said: Each of the two extremes of seeking things is reprehensible.

The Second Standpoint

On Prolixity and Conciseness in Expressing the Aims

12 The advantage of prolixity is explanation and clarification which spare one the trouble of thought and long reflection; but its disadvantage is being boring. The advantage of conciseness is uniting and compacting intentions and conveying them to minds quickly; but its disadvantage is the need for intense scrutiny and reflection to deduce the subtle meanings from the concise and elegant expressions. The best procedure in this standpoint is to adopt a middle course between remissness and excess, for prolixity is inseparable from boring, while conciseness [p. 9] is not free from harm. So it is preferable to lean toward brevity-and many an utterance is brief and to the point while not boring.

The Third Standpoint

On Reducing and Multiplying

13 I have already read the books written about this subject and I have found them filled with two kinds of discourse. One concerns histories of accounts of them and their circumstances from the beginning of their affair until the appearance of their error, and naming every one of their propagandists in each and every region, and enumerating their events in bygone times. This is a kind [of writing] engaging in which I consider a preoccupation with long talks more suitable for historians and chroniclers. But the discourse of those learned in the Law should be restricted to the important religious matters and to establishing apodeictic proof of what is the clear truth. For each job there are men.

14 The second kind [of discourse] is concerned with refuting doctrines of theirs which are beliefs they have taken from the dualists and the philosophers, and which they have twisted from their places and changed their terms with the aim of obscuring and deceiving. I also do not think it worth occupying myself with this [kind of discourse], because argument against such things and laying bare their falseness is not the concern of the group which constitutes their present generation. So the duty designated is to strip down one's intent to reporting their peculiar doctrines which they alone believe in contradistinction to all the other sects. Hence a writer should direct himself in his book only to the intention which he seeks to attain and the aspect which he desires to pursue. For it belongs to the excellence of a man's Islam that he leave aside what does not concern him-and that is something which does not concern him in this standpoint. And even though [p. 10] engaging in it is, in general, a defence of Islam, yet each piece of writing has its own standpoint. So in this book of ours let us confine ourself to the amount which will make known the peculiar features of their doctrine and call attention to the ways of their artifices. Then we shall disclose the falseness of their specious objections in such fashion that the attentive observer [intelligent man] will have no doubt about it and the muddiness of misrepresentation will be removed from the face of the truth.

15 Then we shall close [our] book with that which is [its] heart and essence [underlying reason and core], viz. the establishment of the legal apodeictic demonstrations of the validity of the holy, prophetic, Mustazhirite positions on the basis of rational and juristic proofs, as its [the book's] contents were clearly stated in the account of the chapters.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

Explanation of Their Appellations and Disclosure

of the Reason Which Moved Them to Institute This Propaganda: It Contains Two Sections

Section One

16 On their appellations [designations, nicknames, agnomens] which have been current on men's tongues in different ages and times. These are ten appellations: (1) the Batinites [al-Batiniyya]; (2) The Qaramita [al- Qaramita]; (3) the Qarmatiyya [al-Qarmatiyya]; (4) the Khurramites [al- Khurratmiyya]; ( 5 ) the Khurramdinites [al-khurramdiniyya]; (6) the Ismailis [al-Isma'iliyya]; (7) the Seveners [al-Sab'iyya]; (8) the Babakites [al-Babakiyya]; (9) The Muhammara, or, Muhammira [al-Muhammara, nl-Muhammira]; (10) the Ta'limites [al-Ta'limiyya]. And there is a reason for each appellation.

17 (1) al-Batiniyya: They were thus named simply because of their claim that the literal texts [zawahir, pl. of zahir: outward, exterior] of the Qur’an and the Traditions have inner meanings [bawatin, pl. of batin: inward, interior] analogous, with respect to the literal meanings, to the kernel with respect to the shell, and that the literal meanings by their forms [representations] instill in the ignorant and foolish clear forms, but in the view of the intelligent and discerning they are symbols and indications [signs] of specific [or: spiritual, reading ma'nawiyya] truths [realities]. [They also claim] that he whose mind is unequal to delving deeply into hidden things and mysteries and inner meanings and depths and who is content with their literal meanings as he hastens to be deluded, is in bonds and fetters and tormented by heavy loads and burdens. By “fetters” they mean the prescriptions [p. 12] of the Law. For he who rises to the knowledge of the inner meaning is relieved of prescription and freed from its encumbrances, these are the ones meant by the Most High’s saying: “and who removes [l. yada‘u] from them their burden and the fetters which were upon them” [7.156/157]; and often they falsify their witness against him [or: for their doctrine] by asserting that the ignorant men who deny the inner meaning are those who were meant by the Most High’s saying: “And a wall shall be set up between them having a door in the interior [batinuhu] of which is Mercy, and facing its exterior [zahiruhu] Torment” [57.13]. Their ultimate goal is to destroy revealed Laws [religions]. For if they tear away from creeds the exigency of the literal meanings, they will be able to impose the claim of the inner meaning in accordance with what will necessitate the abandonment of the bases of religion, since confidence [trust] in the binding force of plain expressions will fall away and thus there will remain for the Law no resort and support.

18 (2) and (3) al-Qaramita and al-Qarmatiyya: from a man named Hamdan

19 Qarmat [cf. EI(2)], one of their early propagandists. The story of Hamdan.. . .

20 (4) and (5) al-Khurramiyya and al-Khurramdiniyya [Basqillani: Tamhid, 190.6 has al-Khurramdaniyyal-so called from the substance and essence of their teaching which comes down to libertinism “khurram,” a Persian word for something pleasurable and delightful. Was also a name for the Mazdakiyya. The Khurramdiniyya differ on some nonessential points from the Khurramiyya.

21 (6) al-Babakiyya-a group who swore allegiance to a man named Babak al-Khurrami, who emerged in the mountains near Adharbaijan in the days of al-Mu‘tasim Billah. A group of them has survived [cf. Laoust: Les schismes dans l‘lslam, p. 95].

23 (7) al-Isma’iliyya-from Muhammad bin Isma’il bin Ja‘far. They claim that the stages of the Imamate ended with him, since he was the seventh from Muhammad, and in their view the stages of the Imamate are seven by seven. . . .

24 (8) al-Sab’iyya-so called (1) because of their belief that the stages of the Imamate are seven, and (2) because of their view that regulation of the lowest [sublunary] world belongs to the seven planets: the highest Saturn, then Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon-a doctrine filched from the godless astronomers [al-munajjimin] and turned to the teachings of the dualists about the mixture of light and darkness in these seven planets.

25 (9) al-Muhammira-so called because they dyed their clothes red in the days of Babak. Also said that it was because they judged their adversaries to be hamir [donkeys]. The first explanation is more correct.

26 (10) al-Ta‘limiyya-so called because the basis of their doctrine is the invalidation of individual reasoning [al-ra’y] and the invalidation of the exercise of intellects and the call to men to instruction issuing from the infallible Imam and the affirmation that the only way to acquire knowledge(s) is instruction [teaching]. They say at the beginning of their disputation: “Truth must be known either by individual reasoning or by [authoritative] instruction; but reliance on individual reasoning is useless because of the mutual contradiction of individual reasoning and the mutual opposition of the passions [al-ahwd‘] and the disagreement of the results of the speculation of the intelligent: so recourse to [authoritative] instruction and learning [from an Imam] is obligatory. This name is the most appropriate for the Batinites of this era, because their greatest reliance is on summoning to [authoritative] instruction and invalidating individual reasoning and imposing the following of the infallible Imam and putting him-with regard to the necessity of believing him and following him-on a par with the Apostle of God-God’s blessings and peace be upon him!

Section TWO:

Explanation of the Reason Which Led Them to Institute This Propaganda and to Elaborate This Innovation

27 All the transmitters of views agreed that this propaganda was not initiated by anyone belonging to a religion or believing in a creed and supported by a prophetic mission, because its course is being gently pulled from religion as the hair is gently pulled from the dough [?]. Rather a group of the Zoroastrians and the Mazdakites and a gang [party] of the godless dualists and a large band of the godless early [?] philosophers deliberated and actively devoted their individual reasoning to finding [devising, contriving] a measure [plan] which would relieve them from what had befallen them of the domination of men of religion and give them a respite from the distress which had come over them from the power of the Muslims. So they gagged [held] their tongues from speaking of what their belief was-viz. denying the Maker and branding the Apostle with lying [or: calling the Apostle a liar] and rejecting the Assembling and the Resurrection and the return to God at the end of the affair.

28 They alleged: “After we have come to know that all the Prophets are swindlers and cheats, because they enslave men by what they make them believe through different sorts of legerdemain and shrewd analysis [cf. Dozy under Zaraq-Sab’iyya usage]-and the matter of Muhammad has become grave and his call has spread in (all countries, quarters) and his rule has become widespread and his means and might are well organized. As a result they [Muslims] have possessed the property of our forebears and abandoned themselves to a life of luxury in their governments [administrative districts], disdaining our minds. Indeed they have covered the face of the earth in its length and its breadth. There is no hope of opposing them by a fight. The only way to make them forego what they have made up their minds about is by cunning and guile. Were we to address to them a call to our doctrine, they would rage against us and be unable to listen to us. So our way is to take over the creed of a group from their sects [a group] who are the feeblest in minds and the most fatuous in individual reasoning and the most pliable in disposition to accept absurdities and the most compliant in believing embellished lies-and these are the Rafidites.

29 “We shall strengthen our position by affiliating with them and by tracing our descent to the people of the [Prophet’s] house to avoid their evil [i.e. their being against us], and we shall ingratiate ourselves with them by that which suits their character, viz. the mention of the great injustice and terrible humiliation effected against their forbears. We shall pretend to weep with them over what befell the family of Muhammad-God’s blessings and peace be upon him!-and thereby we shall succeed in denigrating the leaders of their forbears who are their model and pattern. The result will be that, once we have made the circumstances of their [forbears] repulsive in their eyes, and also what their ‘Law’ transmits to them by the transmission and report of those [forbears] the door of recourse to the Law will be closed [or: hard] for them and it will be easy for us to entice them into being stripped of [forfeiting, losing] religion. If there then remains among them anyone holding fast to the literal meanings of the Qur’an and unimpeachable Traditions, we shall suggest among them that those literal texts contain secrets and inner meanings, and that the mark of the stupid man is being deceived by their literal meanings and the sign of acumen [intelligence] is believing their inner meanings. Then we shall communicate to them our beliefs, alleging that they are what is meant by the literal meanings of the Qur’an. Then when we have duped [read: makarna] these, it will be easy for us to entice the rest of the sects after joining [siding with] these [Rafidites] and pretending that they support us.”

30 Then they said: “Our method will be to choose such a man as will help us in our doctrine. We shall claim that he belongs to the ‘People of the House’ [Muhammad’s family], and that all men must swear allegiance to him and are bound to obey him, for he is the Caliph of the Apostle of God and preserved from error and slip by help from God Most High. [p. 20] Moreover we shall not make this propaganda known near to the vicinity of the Caliph whom we have characterized with infallibility, because the proximity of his abode might rip apart these veils. But if the distance be remote and far away, then when will the one who responds to the propaganda be able to investigate his condition and to get to know the reality of his real situation?”

31 Now their aim in all that was power and domination and making free with the wealth and women of the Muslims, and revenging themselves on them for what they believed about them and for what they had over taken them of pillage and bloodshed and had poured upon them of various kinds of misfortune. This, then, is their ultimate aim and the fundamental principle of their affair. The confirmation of that will become clear to you through our clear exposure of the evils of their teaching and the infamies of their creed.

CHAPTER THREE

On the Degrees of their Artifices and the Reason Why

Men are Seduced by Them Despite their Patent Falsity-

It Contains Two Sections

(185) Section One:

On the Degrees of their Artifices

32 They have arranged [classified] their artifices according to nine ordered degrees, and each has a name. The first is shrewd analysis [discernment] and scrutiny [detection of qualities-cf. Dozy], then (2) putting at ease, (3) inducing doubt, (4) suspending, ( 5 ) binding, (6) swindling [cheating], (7) duping [making unclear, confusing], (8) stripping [denuding], (9) skinning [flaying]. Let us now explain in detail each of these degrees, for in becoming aware of these artifices there are numerous advantages for the masses of the Community.

33 (1) Discernment and scrutiny: This consists in their saying: “The propagandist [emissary] must be astute, intelligent [sharp-witted], correct in surmising, true in discerning, understanding the inner [qualities] by looking at the characteristics [?] and exterior [signs, qualities]. Let him be able to do three things: (a) the first and most important-to discern one regarding whom it can be hoped to entice him and one can rely on the pliability of his disposition to accept what is presented to him contrary to his belief. For many a man is inflexible about what he has heard (and) it is impossible to wrest from his mind what is firmly rooted therein. So let not the emissary waste his speech with such a one. Let him cut off any hope regarding him and let him seek out one who is passive and is influenced by what is said to him. Such are those characterized by the qualities which we shall mention in Section Two, which follows this Section. In any case, we must be wary of scattering seed in salty soil and of entering a house in where there is a lamp [light]. By this is meant warning away from summoning the ‘ Abbasids-may God prolong their dynasty in defiance of its enemies!-because that [propaganda] will never become implanted in their minds, just as seeds will not take root in the salty marsh, as they allege. They also warn against propagandizing the intelligent among eminent men and those who possess insight into dialectic [argument] and the ambuscades of trickery-this is what they mean by warning away from a house which contains a lamp.

34 (b) [He must also] be on fire with intuition and [be] clever minded in interpreting the literal texts and reducing them to the inner meanings, either by [linguistic] derivation from their wording, or by learning [?] from their number, or by likening them to what resembles [?] them. In general, if the responsive man will not accept from him denial of the Qur’an and the Sunna, he ought to draw forth from his heart its meaning, which he has understood, leaving with him the wording reduced to a meaning which is conformed to this innovation-for were he to speak directly of the denial to him, it would not be accepted from him.

35 (c) The third element of discernment and scrutiny is that he should not invite each one to one and the same way [course of action]. [p. 23] Rather he should first inquire into his belief and what he inclines to in his nature [character] and his belief. As for his character, if he sees him inclined to asceticism and mortification and piety and purification, he calls him to obedience and submission and following the command issuing from the [one to be] obeyed, and warns him away from following [his] passions, and charges him with the duties of the religious observances and the execution of the things he is entrusted with, viz. veracity [sincerity] and right behaviour [conduct] and good morals and the lessening of trouble [?] for those in need and holding fast to commanding the good and forbidding the evil. But if he is naturally inclined to buffoonery and wantonness he fixes it in his mind that worship is foolishness and piety stupidity and that those afflicted by the injunctions of the Law are like asses tormented by heavy loads; but intelligence is simply in following passion [desire] and procuring pleasure and getting what one wants out of this moribund life for the delights of which there will be no way to make up once one’s days are ended.

36 As for the state of the one called with reference to orientation, if he be of the Shi’ites, then we begin by telling him that the whole matter lies in hating the Banu Tamim and the Banu ‘Adiyy and the Banu Umayya and the Banu ‘Abbass and their factions and in having nothing to do with them and their followers and in being partisans of the Good Imams and in waiting for the emergence of the Mahdi. And if the one called be a Nasibite [dissenter violently hating ‘Ali], he mentions to him that the Community agreed only on Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, and precedence is to be given only to him to whom the Community gives it. Finally, when his mind tranquilly accepts it the emissary thereafter begins to communicate the mysteries [secrets] according to the way of enticement which will be mentioned later. Similarly, if the one responding be a Jew or a Zoroastrian or a Christian, the emissary will discuss with him what corresponds t a [resembles] their doctrine from his own beliefs-because the creed of the emissaries is gleaned from various kinds [p. 24] of innovations and unbelief, so that there is no species of innovation but that they have adopted some of it that thereby it might be easy for them to address these sects, as we shall relate of their doctrine.

37 As for the artifice of putting at ease [cultivating togetherness or intimacy], it is that he conform to [harmonize with] him who pays attention to his summons [propaganda] in actions which he undertakes with him whose mind inclines to him, and the first thing by which intimacy is effected is by observing what in his own Law [? the da‘i?] accords with the belief of the one called. They prescribed for the emissaries and the licensed [ma’dhunin] to pass the night at the home of one of the responders [mustajibin] and to strive to take along one who had a good voice for reciting the Qur’an to recite for them for a time. Then the emissary should have all that followed by some tactful discourse and bits of fine sermons which captivate hearts. Then he should complement that by defaming the authorities [Sultans] and the ulema of the time and the ignorant masses and mention that relief from all that is awaited by the benediction of the People of the House of the Apostle of God-God’s blessing and peace be upon him!-and during that he should weep at times and sigh deeply. And when he mentions a verse of the Qur’an or a Tradition he should mention that God has a secret meaning in its [His] words which is made known only to him whom God has chosen from His creatures and favoured with a superabundance of His bounty [lutf]. And if he is able to watch the night, praying and weeping, in the absence of the master of the house, so that the latter will get to know about him, and he then perceive that he has come to know about him, let him return to his lodging and lie down like one who intends to keep secret his worship-and all that so that his intimacy with him [the one called] will take deep root and [the latter’s] heart will incline to hearkening to what he has to say. This, then, is the degree of ta’nis [cultivating intimacy].

38 [p. 25] As for the artifice of inducing doubt, it means that the propagandist, after al-ta’nis, must strive to change the belief of the respondent [prospect, candidate] by shaking his conviction regarding what he firmly holds. The way to achieve this is to approach him first by questioning the wisdom in the things laid down by the [revealed] laws [al-shari‘a’] and in obscure problems [questions] and about the ambiguous verses [of the Qur’an] and about what does not immediately yield a rational sense. Thus he should say about the sense of the ambiguous [verses]: “What is the meaning of the ‘R,’ and of ‘KHY’S,’ and of ‘Ha’ Mim ‘Ayn Sin Qaf‘ [HM‘SQ]. and of the likes in the beginnings of the suras [chapters of the Qur’an]? And one should say: ‘Do you think the assignment of these letters took place in accord with the outstripping [anticipation] of the tongue, or that their specification was intended because of mysteries depicted under them and not found elsewhere? I do not think that could be in jest or in vain and useless [meaningless].” And he should induce doubt regarding the legal ordinances: “Why should the menstruating woman be free from the fast, but not the prayer? [And] why is a major ritual ablution obligatory with respect to pure semen and not obligatory regarding unclean urine?”

39 And he should induce doubt regarding the reports of the Qur’an and say: “Why are the gates of the Garden eight, and the gates of the Fire seven? And what is the meaning of God’s utterance ‘And upon that day eight shall carry above them the Throne of the Lord’ [fi9.17]? And of His utterance-Exalted He!-‘over it [Saqar, “Fire”] are nineteen’ [74.30]? Do you suppose (think) that the rhyme (the ‘r’) was too confined [cramped, narrow?] and therefore the [number] twenty was not completed? Or did that take place in accord with the force of the outstripping [?] of the tongue? Or was this restriction intended to give the impression that there is a mystery beneath it, and that in itself [it] is a mystery knowable only to the Prophets and the Imams ‘rooted in knowledge’? I do not think that that is devoid of a mystery and without a secret sense: and the amazing thing is that men ignore it and do not strenuously seek it out!”

40 Then he should induce doubt about the constitution of the world and the human body and say: “Why are the heavens seven rather than six or eight? And why are the planets [p. 26] seven and the stations of the zodiac [buruj] twelve? And why are there seven holes in man’s head-the eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth-and only two holes in his body? And why is man’s head made in the shape of a mim, and his hands-when he extends them-in the shape of a ha’ and his rump in the shape of a mim, and his legs in the shape of a dal, so that when the whole is combined it is shaped in the form of MHMD (Muhammad)? Do you therefore think that it contains a simile and a symbol? How great are these wonders! And how great is man’s indifference to them!” And he should keep on presenting to him this sort of thing until he makes him doubt and he has a glimmering [a sudden flash] that beneath these literal texts [senses] there are mysteries barred to him and his fellows and there springs up in him a desire [longing] to seek that out.

41 As for the artifice of suspending (al-ta‘liq), it consists in concealing from him the aspects of these doubts if he inquires of him about them and in not reassuring him at all, but leaving him in suspense and making the matter seem terrible to him and making it seem great in his mind and saying to him: “Don’t be in a rush! For religion is too serious to be toyed [played] with or to be put in the wrong place and to be revealed [disclosed] to those unworthy of [unfitted for] it-absolutely not!”

The two of you have come to me to learn the secret of my happiness!

You find me stingy [niggardly] with the secret of

my happiness!

Then he will say to him: “Don’t be in a hurry! If good fortune favours you we shall divulge to you the secret of that. Have you not heard the utterance of the Master of the Law: ‘This religion is strong [solid]; so penetrate [apply yourself to] it gently, for the one cut off [from it?] has not traversed the land nor left behind a rear part[1. Zahr*-or wala zahr* baqiya-nor has remained behind ?].’ ”

42 Thus lie will not cease driving [urging] him, then resisting him, until, if he sees him turning from him and despising [p. 27] him and saying: “What have I to do with this meddling?” and the vehemence of these doubts does not leave a mark on his interior, he will give up any hope of [winning] him [over]. But if he sees him yearning [thirsty] for him he will make an appointment with him and will bid him to offer fasting and prayer and penance before it, and he will make much of this hidden mystery. Then, when the appointed time comes, he will say to him: “These mysteries are hidden; they will not be entrusted save to a fortified [pure] heart. So fortify [purify] your sanctuary and strengthen its entrances so that I may entrust this matter [mystery] to it.” And the prospect will say: “And what is the way to do this?” And he will reply: “That I exact the pact and covenant of God on concealing this mystery and keeping it from being dissipated, for it is the precious pearl and the priceless treasure. The least degree of the one coveting it is to guard it from being Appendix II 189 dissipated. And God entrusted these mysteries to His prophets only after exacting their pact and covenant: and he will recite the Most High’s utterance: ‘And when We took the compact from the Prophets, and from thee. and from Noah, and Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, Mary’s son; We took from them a solemn compact’ [33.7]; and the Most High said: ‘Among the believers are men who were true to their covenant with God’ [33.23]; and the Most High said: ‘and break not the oaths after they have been confirmed’ [16.93/91].

42 The Prophet-God’s blessing and peace be upon him!-divulged it only after exacting the pact of the caliphs [successors] and exacting fealty from the Helpers beneath the tree. So if yon covet (it), swear to me to hide it, and thereafter you will be of the elite [or: well-off, blessed], and if you are divinely helped to grasp its reality [truth], you will be extremely happy. But if your soul recoils from it, small wonder, for every one is facilitated for that for which he was created. And we shall presume that it is as though you have neither heard nor sworn and no harm will come to you regarding a true oath.” So if he refuses to swear, he should leave him; but if he is graciously disposed and complies, he should direct the oath to him and exact it fully.

44 [p. 28] As for the artifice of binding, it is that he bind his [the prospect’s] tongue by sacred oaths and confirmed pacts which he will in no circumstance dare to break. This is the text of the pact: “The propagandist [emissary] will say to the prospect: ‘You impose on yourself the pact of God and His covenant and the compact of His Apostle-Peace upon him!-and the pact and covenant which God exacted from the Prophets, that you will keep secret what you have heard and will hear from me, and what you have learned and will learn about me and about the representative, resident in this country, of the Master of the Truth, the Rightly guided Imam, and about his brethren and his fellows and his children and the members of his household, and about those who obey him according to this religion, and the sincere following of the Rightly guided One and sincerity toward his faction, men and women, young and old; and you will not disclose of that little or much by which you would show [indicate] it [him?], except for what I permit you to speak of or [what] you are permitted by the “Master” residing in this country or in another; and then you will do just so much as we prescribe for you and not go beyond it. You have obliged yourself to carry out what I have mentioned to you and you have obligated yourself to it in the state of desire and of fear, of anger and of satisfaction, and you have bound yourself by God’s pact and covenant to follow me and everyone I shall name to you and disclose to you of what you will keep yourself from, and to be very sincere to us and to the Imam, the Friend of God, outwardly and inwardly, and not to betray [be disloyal to] God or His Friend or anyone of his brothers and his friends and anyone who is related to him and to us by any reason such as kinship and property and favour; and that is our view [ra’y] and no promise [pact] will you accept against this pact which would render it vain. 45 [p. 29] “If, then, you do anything of that, knowing that you have contravened it, you will be quit of God and His Apostles, early and recent, and His favoured Angels, and all of His Books revealed to His preceding Prophets, and you will be outside of every religion, and outside of God’s party and that of His Saints, and you will be included in Satan’s party and that of his friends; and may God forsake you most patently [in a way that] will quickly bring upon you vengeance and punishment if you violate anything of what I have made you swear to, with an interpretation or with no interpretation, And if you violate any of that you will owe God thirty pilgrimages, as of binding vow, on foot and unshod. And if you violate that, then all you possess at the time you go back on your words will be alms [to be given to] the poor and destitute unconnected with you by any kinship. And every slave you possess on the day you violate it will be free. And every woman you have or marry in the future will be triply and irrevocably divorced if you violate any of that. And if you intend or secretly harbor, regarding this oath of mine, the contrary of what you have [outwardly] purposed, this oath, from its first to its last, will be binding on you. God is the witness of the sincerity of your intention and the bond [contract, document] of your conscience [innermost mind]-and He is the best of witnesses between me and you!-Say ‘Yes’!’ and he will say: ‘Yes!”’ This is [the artifice of] binding.

46 As for the artifice of swindling [cheating, falsifying], it is that after the oath and the confirmation of the pact it is not allowed to divulge [p. 30] the mysteries [secrets] to him all at once, but that is done gradually and with regard for several things. The first is that at the beginning one confirm oneself to mentioning the [prime] fundament of the doctrine and say: “The lighthouse of ignorance is men’s making judges of their defective minds and their clashing views and their turning away from ‘following’ [compliance] and receiving [taking, learning] from God’s best friends and His Imams and the tent pegs [poles, sustainers] of His earth and those who are the Vicegerents of His Apostles after him. Among them are those to whom God has consigned His hidden mystery and His secret religion. He has revealed to them the inner meanings of these literal expressions and the secrets of these allegories. Right guidance and salvation from error are by returning [resorting] to the Qur’an and the People of [the Prophet’s] household. That is why he said-Peace be upon him!-when someone asked: “Whence will the truth be known after you?” he replied: “Have I not left among you the Qur’an and my family [kin]?” By this he means his progeny-and it is they who are familiar with [aware of] the meaning of the Qur’an. He will confine himself at first to this much and will not clearly state the detail of what the Imam says.

47 The second is that he use artful means [stratagems] to nullify the second way of the ways of attaining the truth, viz. the literal meanings of the Qur’an. For the seeker of truth either takes refuge in thought and reflection and consideration of the sources of the intelligible [?] as God Most Praiseworthy has commanded: and the reflection of the mind is spoiled for him by the imposition of the obligation of learning and following; or he takes refuge in the literal meanings of the Qur’an and the Sunna. If one were to state openly to him that it is deception and a contrived thing, he would not be listened to. So let him concede to him the formal expression, but let him snatch from his mind its meaning by saying: “This literal text has an interior [meaning] which is the quintessence [core, pith], and the exterior is a skin in relation to it which contents the man beset by inability to grasp the real meanings [of things]”- so that there will remain for him no intellectual support or traditional help.

 

48 The third is that he give no personal indication that he is opposed to the whole Community and that he has cast off the Religion and the Creed, for hearts would shun him. Rather he should ascribe himself to the sect farthest from the right way and readiest to accept fables. He should hide behind them and adorn himself with affection for the people of the [Prophet’s] family, i.e. the Rawafid [cf. Laoust, p. 35].

49 [p. 31] The fourth is that he place at the head of what he says that the false is evident and clear, but the truth is so subtle that, were most men to hear it, they would reject it and shun it; and that the seekers of truth and those who profess it are, among the seekers of ignorance, single persons and individuals, so that he will make it easy for him to be distinguished from the masses regarding the denial of intellectual speculation and the literal traditional texts.

50 The fifth is that, if he sees him shunning being singular among the masses, he says to him: “I shall divulge to you a secret, and you must keep it.” And if he says “Yes!” he will say: “Such a one and such a one believe in this doctrine, but they keep it a secret”-and he will mention some distinguished person who is believed by the prospect to possess acumen and astuteness. But let the one mentioned be far from his country so that it will not be easy for the prospect to have recourse to him-just as they make their propaganda far from the abode and country of their Imam. For if they were to manifest it in his vicinity they would be exposed by the impeccable report of his views and his circumstances.

51 The sixth is that he awaken his desire [raise his hopes] for [by?] the appearance of the power of this sect and the spread of their affair and the loftiness of their view and the victory of its supporters over their enemies and the vastness of their wealth and [the fact that] every one of them attains his desire so that there will be combined for them the happiness of this life and the afterlife; and let some of that be attributed to [p. 32] the stars, and some of it to the [true] vision in sleep-if he can make u p some dreams that will reach the prospect on the tongue of another.

52 The seventh is that the emissary prolong not his stay in one and the same country, for his affair might become known and his blood shed. So he must be careful about that, and deceive people about himself and make himself known to each group of people by a different name [lit. by one name and another]. At times, let him change his appearance and dress for fear of hurt so that that may be a more effective means of precaution. Then, after these premises, gradually and little by little he will make known the detail of the doctrine to the prospect and mention it to him according to what we shall report of his belief.

53 As for the artifice of duping [confusing, making unclear] it is that he agree with the prospect on premises which he will accept from him, outwardly acceptable and well known and widespread among men, and he will implant that in his mind for a time. Then he will lure him from them by false consequences, e.g. his saying: “Those engaged in speculation hold contrary views, though the circumstances [read wa l-ahwal] are the same-and ‘each faction is happy about its own beliefs’ ” [23.55/53; 30.31/32]. The one perfectly cognizant of the substance [essence] is God. And it cannot be that God hides the truth, and there is no one-[gap of two words]-all the matter to men: they fumble about it like a nyctalopic she-camel and plunge into it in blind ignorance [folly]-and other such premises-[gap containing four or five words] [deemed] baffling [puzzling].

54 As for the artifice of stripping [denuding] and [that of] skinning [flaying], they are in accord and differ only in that denuding has to do with action-so if they lead the prospect to give up the precepts and ordinances of the Law, they say: I have reached the degree of denuding. As for skinning, it has to do with belief-which is the denuding [stripping off] of religion. So if they pluck that from his heart they call that skinning [flaying]. And this rank [stage] is called “the ne plus ultra” [the ultimate attainment]. This, then, is the detailing of their step by step ensnaring of men: so let the observer consider it and let him ask God’s forgiveness for erring about His Religion.

[P. 33]                                   

Section Two:

Explanation of the Reason for the Ready Circulation [Marketability] of Their Trickery and the Spread of Their Propaganda [Call] Despite the Weakness of Their Argument [Proof] and the Wickedness of their Creed

55 Someone may say: “It is inconceivable that the enormities you have disclosed be hidden from an intelligent man. But we have indeed seen many men and a large number of people who follow them in their belief and have followed them in their religion. So perhaps you have wronged them by transmitting these opinions from them contrary to what they [really] believe! And this is likely and possible. For if they had divulged these secrets hearts would have eschewed them and minds would have known their cunning [trickery]. (But they divulge them) only after pacts and covenants and they guard them save from one agreeing with them in belief-so whence has it happened to you to become cognizant of them, since they hide their religion and strive to keep their beliefs secret?”

56 I reply: As for becoming cognizant of that, we came across it simply through many men who had professed their religion and responded to their propaganda, then they became aware of their error and returned from their seduction to the plain truth and [then] reported the views those men had proposed to them. As for the cause of men’s submission to them in some countries of the earth, they divulge this matter only to some of those who answer their call, and they advise the propagandist and say to him: “Beware of following the same way with all: for not everyone who can accept these doctrines can put up with ‘stripping’ and ‘skinning,’ nor can everyone who can stand ‘stripping’ stand ‘skinning’; so let the propagandist speak to men in accordance with the capacity of their minds.” This, then, is the reason for the attachment and [ready] circulation of these artifices.

57 If it be said: “This also, despite the secrecy [concealment], is patently false: how, then, could an intelligent man be deceived by the likes of this?” We say: The only ones deceived by it are those who deviate from a state of equilibrium and soundness of opinion. And for the intelligent there are impediments which make them blind to the ways to what is right and condemn them to being deceived by the shimmering of the mirage- and they are eight classes [kinds]:

58 The first class is a group of men with weak minds [p. 34] and little insight [intelligence] and with silly ideas about religious matters because of their ingrained stupidity and silliness-like the masses and the rude Arabs and the Kurds and the uncouth foreigners [Persians?] and silly youngsters-and perhaps this class is the largest in number. And how can their acceptance of that be considered farfetched when we see a group in one of the towns near Basra who worship men, claiming that they have inherited divinity from their fathers, who are known as the Shabasiyya. And a group believed about ‘Ali-God be pleased with him!-that he is the God of the heavens and the earth, the Lord of the Worlds; and they are numerous men unrestricted by a number and uncontained by a country. So wonder at man’s ignorance ought not to increase when Satan gets mastery over him and abandonment [by God] overwhelms him.

59 The second class is a group of men whose forebears’ power [dynasty, empire, rule] was cut off by the power [rule] of Islam-like the descendants [scions, sons] of the Khosraws [Persian kings] and the [Persian] grandees and the children of the arrogant Zoroastrians. These are wronged persons [wronged by the murder of a relative but still denied blood vengeance] in whose hearts rancour is hidden like a secret malady: then, when the suggestions of the liars stimulate it, its fires flare up in their hearts and they submit to the acceptance of every absurdity out of a longing to attain their vengeance and to redress their affairs.

60 The third class is a group of men who have ambitions directed toward the exalted [heights] and are bent on mastery [influence, authority] and domination. However, the time does not help them, but rather misfortunes [the current calamities] make them lag behind their contemporaries [comrades] and peers. So when these are promised the attainment of their aspirations [desires, longings] and are enticed by victory over enemies, they hurry to accept what they think will lead to their aims and be a path [way] to their desires and demands. And how often it has been said: “Your love for a thing blinds and deafens.” And there shares in this everyone whom a master from the class of Islam overcomes, and he can find a way to triumph [p. 35] and taking vengeance only by seeking the help [backing] of these gullible dolts, so he has many motives for accepting that in which he sees his desire.

61 The fourth class is a group of men with a natural propensity for love of being distinguished from the masses and of being marked off from them because they deem themselves above resemblance to them and claim the honour of siding with a special class which claims that it possesses the cognizance of realities [truths], and that the people in their ignorance are like frightened asses and wandering [forlorn] beasts. This is the chronic disease which overcomes the intelligent, to say nothing of the ignorant [and] stupid. And that is a love for the rare [and] the unusual and an aversion for the common and the ordinary. This is a natural trait of some men, as is witnessed to by experience and indicated by observation.

62 The fifth class is a group of men who have followed the ways [methods] of reasoning, but they have not fully attained the degree of independence [competence] [in their reasoning], although they have indeed risen above the rank of the ignorant. So they are always craving [longing for] [a show of] indolence and indifference and the manifestation of intelligence to attain things which the masses imagine to be remote and shun, especially if the thing be ascribed to someone renowned for superiority, so that the longing to be like him takes possession of [their] nature. How many groups of men have I seen believe in pure unbelief [in downright infidelity] out of servile conformism to Plato and Aristotle and a group of philosophers who had become noted for superiority! Their motive for that servile conformism was the desire to be like the philosophers and to side with [be numbered among] their crowd [ghumarihim] and against whoever is believed to be inferior to them in intelligence and excellence. So they are drawn [yustajarruna] to this innovation by attributing it to someone of whom the respondent has a good opinion and so [then] he rushes to accept it, seeking to be like him who is reported to be one of its followers.

63 [p. 36] The sixth class is a group of men who happened to grow up among the Shi’ites and the Rawafid [Rafidites] and who believed in the profession [of their creed] because of association. They saw this sect helping them to that [?], and so their minds inclined to help them and to be friendly with them, and they were drawn with them [the Batinites] to what was beyond that, viz. the special features of their doctrine.

64 The seventh class is a group of the godless philosophers and dualists and those baffled about religion who believe that revealed Laws are compiled laws [rules, codes], and that apologetic miracles are elaborate tricks. So when they see these [Batinites] honouring those affiliated with themselves and pouring out the treasures of [their] wealth upon them, they stand ready to aid them, seeking the vanities of the world and disdaining the outcome of the matter. This group of men are those who have contrived [fabricated] for them [Batinites] specious arguments and adorned for them, by way of misrepresentation, proofs, and arranged them, with respect to the exterior, according to the requisites of dialectic and the prescriptions of logic, and covered [concealed] the hidden places of deception and deceit in them beneath compendious words and general and vague expressions, of which the weak reasoner is rarely rightly guided to untying their intricacy and removing the veil from the hidden place of their deceit, as we shall present their fabrication [falsification] and call attention to the way and path [method] they have followed and pursued and reveal its viciousness [wrongness] from a number of aspects.

65 The eighth class is a group of men who have been mastered by passions and lured by the pursuit of pleasure and for whom the threats of the Law have become unbearable and its injunctions burden- some; so their life is not happy, since they are loathed because of [their] sinfulness and depravity and are threatened by a bad end in the abode of the afterlife. So when they encounter one who opens the door to them and removes from them restraint and barrier and depicts to them as desirable [good] what they themselves deem good by [their] nature, they rush to believe passionately and spontaneously-and every man gives credence to what accords with his inclination [passion, craving, caprice, pleasure] and suits his purpose and desires. These, and those who follow the same course, are they who are deprived of [divine] assistance [guidance] and are deceived by these tricks and swerve from the straight path and the borders [limits] of verification [i.e. of what is true].

[P. 37]                                               

CHAPTER FOUR

On the Report of their Doctrine, Summarily and in Detail

66 As for the summary, it is that it is a doctrine, the exterior of which is rafd [rejection, i.e. of first three Caliphs], and its interior out-and- out infidelity [unbelief]; and its beginning is the restricting of the ways to attain knowledge [sure cognitions] to the utterance of the Infallible Imam, and the removal [isolating] of minds [intellects] from being [able to] perceive [grasp] the truth because of the doubts which befall them and the disagreements to which reasoners are open, and imposing, for the seeking of the truth, the way of instruction and learning, and the judgment that the Infallible Imam is the seer [the only one able to see], and that he is informed-from the part of God-of all the secrets of the revealed Laws: he guides to the truth and explains problems [difficulties], and that every age must have an Infallible Imam to whom recourse is to he had concerning any ambiguities in religious matters.

67 This is the beginning [basis, starting point] of their propaganda. Then, in the end they present [produce] what contradicts the Law. And it is as though this is their ultimate aim. For the manner of their propaganda is not fixed in one way, but rather they address each group with that which accords with its opinion, after they have obtained from them submission to themselves and friendship for their Imam: thus they agree with Jews and Christians and Zoroastrians on the sum of their beliefs and they confirm [?] them in them [their beliefs]. This, then, is the sum of their doctrine.

68 As for its detail, it is concerned with matters pertaining to God, and prophetic missions, and the Imamate, and the Gathering and the Resurrection [eschatology]: and these are four areas. And I shall limit myself, in each area, to a small part of the account of [p. 38] their doctrine, for the report from them differs [disagrees]. Most of what is related from them, when it is presented to them, they disown, and when those who have answered their summons are consulted about it, they deny it. And what we have premised about the sum of their doctrine undoubtedly requires that the report from them be different and disordered, since they do not address men in one and the same way, but rather their aim is to seduce and to dupe: therefore their words disagree and the transmission of the doctrine from them differs. For they bring forth what is related from them about “stripping” and “skinning” only with him who has reached the ultimate stage: nay, but they may speak of “stripping” to one with whom they would deny “skinning.” Let us then return to the exposé of the areas of [their] doctrine.

69 [The First Area] On their belief about matters pertaining to God. The statements of the transmitters of views [maqalat] are unhesitatingly agreed that they profess two pre-eternal Gods, whose existence had no beginning with respect to time: however, one of them is the cause of the existence of the other. The name of the cause is al-sabiq [The Preceder], and the name of the caused is al-tali [the Follower]. [They hold] that the Preceder created the world by the intermediary of the Follower, not by Himself. The first may also be called ‘aql [Intellect], and the second nafs [Soul]. And they claim that the first is the perfect in act, and the second, in comparison with Him is imperfect, since He is His effect. And they sometimes confuse the masses by concluding to that from certain verses of the Qur’an, like the Most High’s saying: “Surely We have sent down” [15.9 and 76.23] and “We have divided” [43.31/32]. They claim that these [i.e. verses] are an allusion to a plural [jam‘-combination] which does not proceed from one: and therefore He said: “Glorify the Name of Thy Lord the Most High” [87.1], alluding to the Preceder of the two Gods, for He is the Most High-and were it not that there is with Him another God Who also possesses “highness,” it would not be correct to apply the expression “the Most High.” And sometimes [p. 39] they say: The Law calls the two of them by the name al-Qalam [the Pen] and al-Lawh [the Tablet]. The first is the Pen, for the pen benefits and influences and the tablet derives benefit and is influenced-and what benefits is superior to what derives benefit, And sometimes they say: the name “al-tali” is “qadar” [divine foreordaining] in the language of revelation, and it is this by which God created the world, where He said: “Surely We have created everything in measure [Blachere: selon un decret]” [54.49] [Pickthall: by measure; Rodwell: after a fixed decree; Dawood: according to a fixed decree; Yusuf Ali: in proportion and measure; M. Zafrulla Khan: in due measure].

70 Then they say: al-Sabiq is described [qualified] neither by existence, nor by nonexistence, because nonexistence is a negation and existence is its cause: so He is neither existent nor nonexistent; nor is He known [knowable] nor unknown [unknowable]; nor is he qualified nor unqualified. They claim that all the Names are to be denied of Him-and it seems that, in general, they have in mind denying the Maker. For if they were to affirm that He is nonexistent, it would not be accepted from them. Rather, they prevent people from calling Him existent-and this is the very same denial with a change of expression; but they are clever and call this denial deanthropomorphism, and they call its contrary anthropomorphism, so that minds may incline to accepting it. Then they say: The world is pre-eternal, i.e., its existence is not preceded by a temporal nonexistence, but rather it had its inception from al-Sabiq-al-Tali-and He is a first producer. And from the first producer the universal soul had its inception whose particulars are diffused [spread] in these composite bodies. From the motion of the soul hotness was engendered, and from its quiescence coldness; then wetness and dryness were engendered from both of them. Then, from these qualities were engendered the four elements, viz. fire and air and water and earth. Then, when they were mingled in an imperfect equilibrium the minerals were engendered from them. Then, when their proximity to equilibrium increased and the activity of mutual contrariness destroyed from them, plants were engendered from them; and when it increased, animals were engendered; and when it increased in proximity, man was engendered-and he is the ultimate in equilibrium.

71 [p. 40] This, then, is what is related of their doctrine, along with other matters more monstrous than what we have mentioned. We did not think it well to blacken the white [paper] by transmitting them or by explaining how to refute them, for two reasons. One of them is that those deceived by their deceit and falsehood and those dangling by the rope of their deception in this age of ours have not heard this from them, [and] so they would deny all that if it were reported of their doctrine and they would say in themselves that these [adversaries] are opposed simply because they do not possess the true nature of our doctrine: and were they to know it, they would concur with me about it. So we think it best to busy ourselves with refuting them in what they agree on-viz. invalidating reasoning and summoning to learning from the Infallible Imam. For this is the main point of their belief and the essence [fresh butter] of their churning-so let us turn our attention to it. What is beyond that is divided into patently false drivel and unbelief filched from the dualists and Zoroastrians about the profession of the two gods, with the change of the expression “the Light and the Darkness” into “al-Sabiq and al-Tali,” and error taken from the discourse of the Philosopher, in their saying that the First Principle is a cause of the existence of the Intellect [Intelligence] by way of necessary following from it, not by way of purpose and choice, and that it comes to be of itself, without any intermediary distinct from it. Yes indeed! They affirm pre-eternal existents, necessarily following one from another, and they call them “intellects” [“intelligences”]. And they assign the existence of each sphere to an intellect of those intellects-in a long mishmash of theirs. We have already gone deeply into the way to refute them on that in the discipline [science] of kalam, and in this book we are devoting ourselves only to what is peculiar to this sect, viz. the invalidation of ra’y [reasoning] and the affirmation of ta‘lim [authoritative teaching].

72 [The Second Area] On the Explanation of their belief about matters concerning the Prophetic Missions. What has been transmitted from them is close to the doctrine of the Philosophers, viz. that “the Prophet” is an expression for an individual [a person] upon whom there emanates from the Sabiq, by means of the Tali, a pure, holy power disposed [prepared], when united to the Universal Soul, to have impressed in it what the latter contains of particulars, just as that may happen to certain pure souls [p. 41] in sleep so that they see one of the courses of events [?] in the future, either clearly and as it is, or embodied in an example [image] which bears some resemblance to it, so that there is a need regarding it for an interpretation. However, the Prophet is he who is disposed for that while awake. Therefore, the Prophet perceives [the] intellectual universals at the shining of that light and the clarity of the prophetic power, just as the likeness of the sensibles is imprinted in the eye’s visual power at the shining of the sun’s light on the surfaces of the sublunary bodies [or: polished bodies].

73 They also pretend that “Jibril” is a designation of the Intellect emanating upon him [Prophet] and a symbol of it, and not that he is a materialized individual composed of a body, subtle or dense, compatible with a locus so that he can move from high to low. As for the Qur’an, in their view it is Muhammad’s interpretation [expression] of the cognitions [information, lore] which emanated upon him from the Intellect, which is what is meant by the name “Jibril.” I t is called “the speech of God Most High” figuratively, for its ordering [arrangement] is from Him. But what emanates upon him [the Prophet] from God through the intermediary of Jibril is simple, without any composition in it; it is also interior, without having any exterior [external manifestation]. But the speech of the Prophet and his interpretation of it is external without possessing any “interiorness.” They also pretend that this holy power emanating on the Prophet is not perfected at the beginning of its descent, just as the sperm descending into the womb is not perfected save after nine months. So it is with this power: its perfection lies in its being transferred [conveyed] from the speaking Prophet to the silent asas [foundation]. And thus it is transferred to [p. 42] individuals one after another, and becomes perfect in the seventh-as we shall relate the meaning of their doctrine about al-natiq and al-asas and al-samit.

74 These doctrines are also extracted [drawn] from the doctrines of the Philosophers on Prophetic Missions, with some alteration and change. But we shall not plunge into the refuting of them concerning it. For some of it can be interpreted in a way we do not reject, and the amount which we reject we have already gone deeply into the way to refute the Philosophers regarding it. In this book we aim only at the refutation of what is currently prominent regarding the doctrine of theirs which is unique to them as opposed to others, viz. the enjoining of ta‘lim and the invalidation of ra’y [personal reasoning].

75 [The Third Area]: Exposé of their belief about the Imamate. They are indeed agreed that there must be, in every age, an Infallible Imam, practising in charge of the truth, to whom recourse is to be had regarding the interpretation of the literal meanings and the solution of difficulties in the Qur’an and the Traditions and rational matters [intelligibles, objects of thought or reasoning]. They are [also] agreed that he is the one who undertakes this matter, and that that goes on among their lineage uninterruptedly and forever, and it cannot be interrupted, because in that would be the neglect [dereliction] of the Truth, and the concealment of it from men, and the falsifying of the Prophet’s statement-Peace be upon him!-“Every relationship and lineage will be interrupted [cut off] except my relationship and my lineage,” and his utterance “Have I not left among you the Qur’an and my family [relations]?” And they are agreed that the Imam equals the Prophet in infallibility-impeccability and in knowledge of the realities of the truth in all matters, except that revelation [al-wahy] is not sent down to him, but he simply receives that from the Prophet, for he is his vicar [deputy, successor] and of comparable status. And it is inconceivable that there be two Imams in one and the same age, just as it is inconceivable that there be two Prophets with different [religious] Laws.

76 To be sure the Imam seeks help from al-hujaj and ma’dhunin and al-ajniha [proofs-authorized-wings]. The hujaj [Proofs] are the summoners [propagandists]. They affirmed that the Imam in every period must have twelve “Proofs” who are assigned among countries and scattered among cities. And four of the total of twelve must be constantly in his presence and not leave him. And each “Proof” must have his helpers in his business, for he is not of himself the sole possessor of the summons [call, propaganda]. And among them the name of the helper is “al-ma’ahun” [“authorized”?]. And the propagandists must have messengers to the Imam who will carry the circumstances to him and proceed from him to them. And the name of the messenger is “the wing” (al-janah). [p. 43] And the propagandist must be extensive in knowledge. The ma’dhun, though he be inferior to the former, yet there is no objection to his being learned in general, and so also the janah.

77 Then they asserted that each Prophet’s Law has a certain duration [limited period]. So when one’s period is finished God sends another Prophet to abrogate his Law. The period of the Law of each Prophet is seven lifetimes, i.e. seven generations. The first of them is the “speaking Prophet,” and the meaning of “the speaking” is that his Law abrogates what preceded it. The meaning of “silent” [al-;samit] is that he keep [preserve, look after] what was established [founded] by another. Then there arise, after his death, six Imams: Imam after Imam. Then when their lifetimes are terminated God sends another Prophet to abrogate the preceding Law. And they claim that the affair of Adam proceeded according to this pattern, and he was the first Prophet sent by God at the opening of the door [category, field] of bodily things and the termination of the stage [phase, period] of spiritual things.

78 And every Prophet has a sus [? spokesman, mouthpiece, representative lit.: root]. The sus is the door to the Prophet’s knowledge during the latter’s lifetime and the executor [curator, authorized agent, trustee] after his death, and the Imam for his contemporaries, as the Prophet-Peace be upon him!-said: “I am the City of Knowledge and ‘Ali is its Gate.” They allege that Adam’s sus was Seth, arid he was the second, and [each one] after him is called “Finisher” [mutimm] and “Appended” [Lahiq: attached, subsequent] and “Imam.” The completion of the period of Adam was seven, because the completion of the turn [rotation] of the Upper World is by seven of the stars. And when Adam’s stage was finished, God sent Noah to abrogate his Law, and Noah’s sus was Sam [Shem]. And when his stage was finished by the passing of six others and seven including him, God sent Abraham to abrogate his Law, and his sus was Isaac; and among them are those who say: No, but rather Ishmael.

79 And when his [Isaac’s] stage was finished by the seventh, including him, God sent Moses to abrogate his Law, and his sus was Aaron: and Aaron died in Moses’ lifetime, then Joshua son of Nun became his sus. And when his stage was finished [p. 44] by the seventh, including him, God sent Jesus to abrogate his Law, and his sus [was] Simon. And when his stage was finished by the seventh God sent Muhammad-God bless him!-and his sus [was] ‘Ali-Peace be upon him! And his stage finished with Ja‘far son of Muhammad.*** For the second of the Imams was al-Hasan son of ‘Ali, the third al-Husain son of ‘Ali, and the fourth ‘Ali son of al-Husain, and the fifth Muhammad son of ‘Ali, and the sixth Ja‘far son of Muhammad- Peace be upon him!-and were finished seven including him [Muhammad] and his Law became abrogative [nasikha]. And thus the matter goes on perpetually. This is what has been transmitted from them, along with a lot of nonsense which we have left out to spare the white [papers] from being blackened by it.

80 [The Fourth Area:] Exposé of their Doctrine on the Resurrection and They have agreed completely on the denial of the Resurrection [of the body], and that this order [situation, regularity] seen in this world, viz. the succession of night and day, and man’s coming to be from sperm and sperm from man, and the generation of plants, and the generation of animals, will never, never finish: and that the nonexistence of the bodies of the heavens and the earth is inconceivable. They interpreted the Resurrection and declared: it is a symbol of the emergence of the Imam and the rising of the Head of the Age [Master of the Time] i.e. the seventh who abrogates the Law and changes the ordinance. Sometimes some of them say: The celestial sphere has universal rotations, [and] the circumstances of the world change completely by reason of a universal flood or some cause. So the meaning of the Resurrection is the finishing of our stage in which we are.

81 As for the Hereafter [afterlife, Return], they deny what the Prophets have brought, and affirm neither the gathering and resurrection for [of] bodies nor the Garden and the Fire. Rather they say: the meaning of the Hereafter is the return of everything to its origin [principle]. Man is composed of [something from] the spiritual and the corporeal world. And the corporeal part of him, i.e. his body, is composed of the four humours: the yellow bile, the black bile, the phlegm and the blood. Then the body is resolved [disintegrates] and each humour returns to the higher [high] the Return [to God] nature [element]: [p. 45] the yellow bile becomes fire, the black bile earth, and the blood air, and the phlegm water-and that is the ma‘dd [here- after] of the body.

82 As for the spiritual [part], i.e. the perceptive rational soul of man, if it be purified by the assiduous performance of the acts of worship, and cleansed [rendered sinless] by the shunning of caprice and the passions [appetites], and nourished with the food of learning and lore received from the Imam-Guides, when it leaves the body it is united to the spiritual world from which it was separated [detached], and it is made happy by the return to its original homeland. Therefore it is called “a return,” and it has been said: “(O soul at peace), return unto thy Lord, well-pleased, well-pleasing!” [89.27-28]-and this is the Garden. The symbol of it occurred in the story of Adam and his being in the Garden, then his separation from it and his descent to the lower [base] world, then his return to it in the end.

83 They also claim that the perfection of the soul is realized by its death, because thereby it is freed from the straitness [confinement] of the body and of the corporeal world-just as the perfection of the sperm is in freedom from the darknesses of the womb and emergence into the space of the world. Man is like the sperm, and the world is like the womb, and knowledge is like nourishment, and when the latter is effective [operative] in him it [soul] truly becomes perfect and is freed [delivered]. So when the soul is disposed for the emanation [outpouring] of spiritual cognitions [lore], by the acquisition of cognitions from the Imams and following their [the cognitions’] ways, profitable by their [Imams’] guidance, it is perfected when it leaves the body and there appears to it what had not appeared.

84 Therefore the Prophet-Peace be upon him!-said: “Men are asleep: then, when they die, they awake.” And the more remote the soul becomes from the world of sensible things, the more disposed it is for spiritual cognitions [lore]. Similarly, when the senses are still [suspended?] in sleep, the soul becomes aware of the invisible world and becomes conscious of what will appear in the future, either as it is, and then it needs no interpreter, or by a likeness [example], and then there is need of interpretation. So sleep is the brother of death, and in it becomes evident the knowledge of what did not exist in wakefulness: and thus, by death, things are revealed which did not occur to a man’s mind in [his] lifetime. This [will be] for the souls hallowed by practical and theoretical askesis.

85 But the inverted [upside-down, topsy-turvy] souls which were immersed in the natural world [p. 46] and turned away from their right guidance [received] from the Infallible Imams will remain forever and ever in the Fire i n the sense that they will remain in the material world, transmigrating [into] bodies in which they will ceaselessly be subjected [exposed] to pain and sickness, and will not leave one body but that another will receive them. Therefore the Most High said: “as often as their skins are wholly burned, We shall give them in exchange other skins, that they may taste the chastisement” [4.59/56]. This, then, is their doctrine of the Philosophers.

86 And it spread among them simply when a group of the Dualists and the Philosophers devoted themselves to the support of their doctrine. And each one supported their doctrine out of greed [covetousness] for their possessions and their robes of honour and to seek the backing of their followers for what he had become familiar with in his own doctrine. So most of their doctrine came to agree with the Dualists and the Philosophers interiorly, and with the Rafidites and Shi’ites exteriorly. Their aim, by these interpretations was to wrest exterior [literal] beliefs from the souls of men that desire and fear might thereby come to naught [be abolished, become void]. Furthermore, their deceptive drivel is not understandable in itself, nor does it effect any awakening of desire or any incitement to fear. We shall indicate a concise discussion on refuting them in this field, and information about it at the end of the chapter.

87 [The Fifth Area]: On their belief concerning legal prescriptions What is transmitted from them is absolute licentiousness [libertinism, license], and the lifting of the barrier, and the deeming forbidden things lawful and licit, and the rejection of the [religious] Laws. However, they will all of them deny that when it is ascribed to them. What is authentic of their belief about it is simply that they say: There must be obedience [submission] to the Law regarding its ordinances [injunctions] according to the detail set forth by the Imam, without following al-Shafi‘i and Abu Hanifa and others. That is incumbent on men and those who respond [to the propaganda] until they obtain the rank of perfection in the sciences. Then, when they comprehend through the Imam the real natures [realities] of things and become aware [informed] [p. 47] of the “interiors”[inner meanings] of these “exteriors” [literal texts] these fetters are loosed from them and the action-oriented injunctions fall away from them. For the aim of the acts of the members is to alert the mind that it may under- take the quest for knowledge. So when one has obtained it, he is ready for the maximum happiness, and the enjoining of the members drops from him. Indeed, the enjoining of the members is with respect to him who. by his ignorance, is analogous to asses which can be trained only by hard labours.

88 But the intelligent and those who perceive [grasp] realities are higher in rank than that. This is a kind of seduction [enticement] very effective with the intelligent. Their purpose is to destroy the precepts of the Law. But they try to deceive each weak man by a way [method] which allures him and suits him. This is a weak [inane] kind of leading astray, and it is equivalent to giving an example: like one’s saying that abstaining from harmful foods is obligatory only on one whose temperament [mixture of humours, physical constitution] is impaired: but let him who has acquired a well-balanced complexion [constitution] persist in eating what he wants when he wants. For the man who hears this error will lose no time in overindulging in harmful comestibles until they vie in bringing about his ruin! [injunctions].

89 Someone may say: You have reported their doctrines, but you have not mentioned how to refute them: what is the reason for this? We say: What we have reported from them is divided into matters which can be explained in a way we do not reject and into what the Law enjoins is to be rejected. And what is to be rejected is the doctrine of the Dualists and the Philosophers. Refuting them on that would be a lengthy affair. But that is not one of the things peculiar to their doctrine so that we should busy ourselves with it. But we shall refute them simply regarding what is peculiar to their doctrine, viz. the invalidation of reasoning [ra’y], and the affirmation of ta‘lim [instruction] by the Infallible Imam. However, along with that, we shall mention one way which is really a mortal blow [to them], we mean regarding the refutation of their doctrine on all that we shall report, and have reported, from them. 90 This is that, regarding all their claims by which they are distinguished from us-such as the denial of the Resurrection, and the pre- eternity of the world, and the denial of the resurrection of bodies [p. 48] and the denial of the Garden and the Fire according to what the Qur’an has indicated [regarding those beliefs] with the fullest explanation in description of them, we say to them: Whence do you know what you have mentioned? From necessity? Or from reasoning? Or from transmission from the Infallible Imam and aurally [by hearing]? If you have learned it by necessity [necessarily], then how is it that men with sound minds have contradicted you on it? For the meaning of a thing’s being necessary and in no need of reflection is that all intelligent men share in perceiving [grasping] it. And if it were allowable for a man to talk wildly about the claim of necessity regarding anything he fancied, then it would be allowable for their adversaries to claim necessity regarding the contrary of what they claimed. And at that [point] they find no escape in any way at all!

91 And if they allege: We have known that by reasoning, this i