Editing Openai/690e264c-c9e4-800c-ae44-f3cf949de7b4 (section)

==== The batini (esoteric) sects often blended: ====
* Zoroastrian dualism (light vs. darkness, hidden vs. manifest),
* Gnostic hierarchy (truth unveiled through initiations),
* and messianic cycles (saoshyant → mahdi parallels).

In the 8th–9th centuries, this merged with Shi‘i theology, producing the ghulat and later Isma‘ilism.

So, Sufism and Isma‘ilism — especially early on — were rural and popular reactions to an urban religious elite (which included the hadith establishment).
Both claimed: “The scholars have the letters (ẓāhir), we have the meaning (bāṭin).”

That’s why early Sufis were often accused of heresy by hadith scholars — think of al-Hallāj, or even Junayd being cautious with language.
They represented opposite epistemologies:
* Hadith = transmitted proof (riwāya).
* Batini = inner unveiling (kashf).