Fate: Al-Ghazali’s Fadaih al-Batiniyya (Infamies of the Esotericists, ~1095 AD) is the definitive Sunni condemnation — one of the most influential heresiographical works in Islamic history. The label ‘Batini’ became a general slur for anyone accused of dissolving the literal meaning of Islamic law under the cover of hidden interpretation.

The Batiniyya (from batin, inner/hidden) is not a single movement but a label applied by Sunni orthodoxy to any Islamic thinkers who claimed that the Quran and Islamic law have a hidden esoteric meaning (batin) that supersedes or relativizes the outward literal meaning (zahir). The category covers Ismaili theology, certain Sufi interpretations, Qarmatian revolutionary theology, and some Shia approaches to the Quran. The Sunni objection: if texts have secret meanings known only to initiates, the plain meaning of the law can be dissolved for anyone who claims initiation — prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage become merely symbolic, and moral law becomes flexible. Al-Ghazali identified this as the most dangerous theological tendency in Islam because it undermines the entire structure of Sharia from within, using the language of spiritual depth rather than outright rejection.