Here follows what I have learned from the Shaikh Hossen, as well as from Mulla Aádil. A Shiâh is no Muselman, and when he brings forth his faith, it is not right, according to the saying of the prophet:
“Reviling the two shaikhs is an infidelity without repentance (remission).”
I heard from Mulla Yâkub Tarfánî, that these words for restraining the tongue exceed all bounds, and are an exaggeration in the veneration of the two Shaikhs (the grace of God be upon them); that yet repentance (remission) is admitted; he said besides that it is agreed, reviling is no infidelity.
Shaikh Manśur Máterîdî[531] became a follower of the lord Imám Abú Hanífa of Kufa, and _Hujjet ul islam_, “the proof of Islam,” the Imám Muhammed Ghazáli,[532] who was a traveller on the same road with the lord Jmám Sháfâyat[533] (the peace of God be upon them!) said in their literary compositions, and in books we read, that the root and the foundation of the seventy and two branches of religion are six doctrines, namely: the _Tashbíah_, _Tâtîl_, _Jaber_, _Kadr_, _Rafs_, and _Naseb_.[534]
In the _âmedat ul mâtekad_, “the pillar of believers,” composed by _Shaháb ul hak_, “flame of truth,” Shaikh of Islamism and of the Muselmans, _Abu abd ulla Faselella_, son of the Imám, the blessed, whom God has taken in his mercy, and whose sins are forgiven, _Taj eddin_, “the crown of the faith,” _Abu Sâid al Hassan_, son of _Hassan_, son of _Yúsef al Súrí_, is to be found, that the _Tashbîhîan_, “assimilators,” have attached to the most high God improper and unsuitable attributes, inasmuch as they have connected his creation partly with an elementary principle, and partly with accidents. The _Tâtîlîan_, “the indifferent,”[535] have denied God and his attributes. In the before-mentioned book we find, the creed of this sect is, that the world has no Creator, and that it always was such as it is, and that, except what is surely perceived, there is no other existence.
We have also heard from Shaikh Hossen, that the _Tât´íl_ maintain what some philosophers asserted, that God is the cause of things, and that the matter of the world was always in him. We learned also from Azîzî, that, according to this sect, God, the Almighty, when he created the world, attached its destiny to every thing that appeared, and that now, without God’s taking any active part in it, every thing exists or perishes.[536]