So every hypocrite and denier followed *** the path of the Batiniyyah Qarmatians (Explanation of the Doctrine of the Batiniyyah Qarmatians)
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh :"So every hypocrite and denier followed" "Followed" here means to adopt or follow this path, which is distortion. "Every hypocrite and denier *** from the Batiniyyah Qarmatians"
The Batiniyyah, my brothers, we have mentioned their doctrine before. What is their doctrine? They say: Everything the messengers brought is on the apparent level, but the inner reality of matters is not so. The inner reality is not as the messengers brought it. For this reason, their religion is an inner one that no one knows. They say: There is no Paradise, may Allah save us, no Hellfire, no Lord, and no Last Day; there is nothing. Some of them even said: There are no acts of worship, no prayer, no fasting, and no Hajj; there is nothing. The messengers brought this, they say, to address the common people and mention these things so that the common people would remain upright on what the messengers brought. The messengers also had no sender; they had no sender, but they were a group of geniuses and intelligent people who saw that nothing would reform the people except this path, so they legislated this path and surrounded it with a veil of encouragement and warning. For what purpose? So that the people would remain upright. If a boy wants to go to the market, I say, "Come, there is a wolf there." Does he go or not? He goes. And if he wants to turn back on his heels from a path, and you want him to go with you, I say, "There is someone there distributing apples." Does he go or not? He goes. So they say there is no Paradise and no Hellfire, but the messengers were geniuses and intelligent people who said to the people, "There is a Paradise and there is a Hellfire; whoever obeys us will enter Paradise, and whoever disobeys us will enter Hellfire." This is the doctrine of whom? The Qarmatians and the Batiniyyah. They do not even acknowledge prayer. They say prayer is a form of physical exercises that the common people are ordered to perform, while the elite are not. The Hajj to Makkah is ordered for the common people, not the elite. Fasting, which is abstaining from food, drink, and desires, is ordered for whom? The common people, not the elite. What is the Hajj of the elite? Their fasting and their prayer. They say the Hajj of the elite is traveling to visit the awliya (close friends of Allah). Their awliya are the awliya of the taghut (tyranny). Prayer is knowing the secrets, because prayer comes from the word "connection" (silsilah); the person connects with the awliya and knows their secrets. Fasting is keeping the secrets, because fasting means holding back; the person holds back what he knows about their doctrine. For this reason, they are called Batiniyyah (inner ones); they do not allow anyone to enter the doctrine until they have trained them. Al-Safarini mentioned in *Sharh al-'Aqidah al-Safariniyyah* (Explanation of the Safarini Creed) that they have ten levels that a person ascends. In reality, we do not say he ascends them; he descends them, descending level by level until he reaches the lowest point, which in their view is the peak. At that point, these Qarmatians, the Batiniyyah, the disbelievers, by what path did they arrive at this? By ta'wil (figurative interpretation). They said everything the messengers brought is metaphorical, and the reality is such and such. These are the Asha'irah and others who denied the attributes. They said what the messengers brought regarding the attributes is what? Metaphorical, and the reality is such and such, contrary to what the messengers brought. For this reason, he says:
"So every hypocrite and denier followed *** the path of the Batiniyyah Qarmatians".
The Batiniyyah, my brothers, we have mentioned their doctrine before. What is their doctrine? They say: Everything the messengers brought is on the apparent level, but the inner reality of matters is not so. The inner reality is not as the messengers brought it. For this reason, their religion is an inner one that no one knows. They say: There is no Paradise, may Allah save us, no Hellfire, no Lord, and no Last Day; there is nothing. Some of them even said: There are no acts of worship, no prayer, no fasting, and no Hajj; there is nothing. The messengers brought this, they say, to address the common people and mention these things so that the common people would remain upright on what the messengers brought. The messengers also had no sender; they had no sender, but they were a group of geniuses and intelligent people who saw that nothing would reform the people except this path, so they legislated this path and surrounded it with a veil of encouragement and warning. For what purpose? So that the people would remain upright. If a boy wants to go to the market, I say, "Come, there is a wolf there." Does he go or not? He goes. And if he wants to turn back on his heels from a path, and you want him to go with you, I say, "There is someone there distributing apples." Does he go or not? He goes. So they say there is no Paradise and no Hellfire, but the messengers were geniuses and intelligent people who said to the people, "There is a Paradise and there is a Hellfire; whoever obeys us will enter Paradise, and whoever disobeys us will enter Hellfire." This is the doctrine of whom? The Qarmatians and the Batiniyyah. They do not even acknowledge prayer. They say prayer is a form of physical exercises that the common people are ordered to perform, while the elite are not. The Hajj to Makkah is ordered for the common people, not the elite. Fasting, which is abstaining from food, drink, and desires, is ordered for whom? The common people, not the elite. What is the Hajj of the elite? Their fasting and their prayer. They say the Hajj of the elite is traveling to visit the awliya (close friends of Allah). Their awliya are the awliya of the taghut (tyranny). Prayer is knowing the secrets, because prayer comes from the word "connection" (silsilah); the person connects with the awliya and knows their secrets. Fasting is keeping the secrets, because fasting means holding back; the person holds back what he knows about their doctrine. For this reason, they are called Batiniyyah (inner ones); they do not allow anyone to enter the doctrine until they have trained them. Al-Safarini mentioned in *Sharh al-'Aqidah al-Safariniyyah* (Explanation of the Safarini Creed) that they have ten levels that a person ascends. In reality, we do not say he ascends them; he descends them, descending level by level until he reaches the lowest point, which in their view is the peak. At that point, these Qarmatians, the Batiniyyah, the disbelievers, by what path did they arrive at this? By ta'wil (figurative interpretation). They said everything the messengers brought is metaphorical, and the reality is such and such. These are the Asha'irah and others who denied the attributes. They said what the messengers brought regarding the attributes is what? Metaphorical, and the reality is such and such, contrary to what the messengers brought. For this reason, he says:
"So every hypocrite and denier followed *** the path of the Batiniyyah Qarmatians".