The Book of the Highest Initiation (also known as “The Book of the Policy and the Highest Initiation” - Arabic: “Kitab as-Siyasa wa’l-Balagh al-Akhbar”) is a text that falsely claims to be of Ismaili origin and is wrongfully attributed to ‘Ubayd Allah, or Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah, the first Fatimid Caliph-Imam.
For example, texts such as the Baghdad Manifesto, which was written and signed by Abbasid scholars, claimed that the Fatimid Caliph-Imams were not descendants of ‘Ali.
[2] The text claims to be a letter written by Fatimid Caliph-Imam Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah to his missionaries working to convert people to Ismailism.
The account begins with instruction about how to attract converts from a multitude of different backgrounds, including Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Manichaeans, philosophers, and Sunni Muslims.
Stern relates that even in the beginning of the 20th century, some Western academics thought that this account revealed the “secret doctrine of the Isma’ilis.”[4] With the publication and circulation of authentically Ismaili texts, a wide non-Ismaili readership can now recognize the falsity of this text and appreciate the genuine teachings of the Isma’ili da’wah.