The Devils Deception by Imam Ibn AL-Jawzi

T H E D E V I L ' S
D E C E P T I O N S
[ 6:3 ]
The Devil's Deception of al-Ba_tin[yyah ( Lll)
Batiniyyah is a group of people who pretended to be Muslims and
leaned toward Shtism. Their beliefs and actions were totally inconsistent
with Islam. The crux of their beliefs was the denial of the
Creator, Prophecy, rituals and resurrection. However, they did not
show this at first as they pretended to affirm that Allah was the
Truth, that Mubammad was His Messenger and that the religion
was true. But they said that there was a hidden secret behind all of
these beliefs, so Iblis played with them and beautified their doctrine
in their eyes. They had varying doctrines, and scholars gave them
eight different titles:
The first title was al-Bafin[yyah ( 411 ):
They were called this because they claimed the apparent texts of
Qur'an and Sunnah had hidden meanings. To them, the apparent
meanings were meant for simple folk, and hidden meanings were
signs that only wise people could understand. They claimed that
whoever did not stimulate his intellect, into the hidden meanings
was just like a person who was chained with religious obligations.
Whoever elevated himself to understand the hidden meanings was
free from fulfilling religious obligations.
They believed that it was they whom Allah referred to in saying:
,,, "" • v--- """ \:\t..t""; • > .. . ,\ .. > .,,, > """""'
;_1£:....:...;bl:al_,..J
"He relieves them of their burden and the shackles which
were upon them."
[al-A 'rtif (7): 1 57]
182