These are the [true] religious obligations, and not any other exoteric obligations.

Among the famous reports mentioned in the books of the Unitarians (al-Muwahḥidūn) regarding Abdullah bin Saba in this regard is what was narrated by Abu al-Qasim Ali bin Muhammad al-Baghdadi, who said: I came across a hadith in some books on the authority of Abu al-Tayyib Muhammad bin al-Hasan al-Jami‘i, who said: Abu al-Abbas Ahmad bin Yusuf al-Shasi narrated to me, from al-Hasan bin Razin bin Sadaqah, from Ja‘far bin Muhammad bin al-Mufaddal, from his father, from his grandfather al-Mufaddal, from Jabir bin Yazid al-Ju‘fi, from Yahya bin Umm al-Tawil al-Thumali, from Abu Khalid Abdullah bin Ghalib al-Kabuli, from Rushayd al-Hajary, from Samia bin al-Jarrah, who said:

I used to seek Abdullah ibn Saba after the Burning (al-Iḥrāq). People were talking, saying they saw him walking in the markets and the pathways. Whenever I saw him, I would hasten in pursuit of him and follow him, longing to speak with him; but whenever my pursuit intensified, he would vanish from me and I would not see him.

When this had gone on for a long time, I saw him one day on the Great Street. I rushed toward him while he was walking slowly (al-huwaynā), yet I found that my speed did not bring me any closer to him. So I made an oath to God that He join me with him, and I found him. I said to him: