The Assassins' training was a difficult one. Not only were they trained physically, they were also trained mentally and spiritually. They went through what was called the Nine Degrees, which were as follows:
1. A long process of teaching and misleading to create doubt and skepticism about religion and philosophy, and to create blind faith and obedience in his teacher.
2. The assassin was required to believe that the Imams were appointed by Allah and had supreme wisdom concerning spiritual matters, such as the validity of the Koran.
3, Next, he is taught about the significance of the number seven, and that there are seven Imams.
4. Then he is taight about the Seven Prophetic Periods, Natiq, Sus, and about the seven Silent Imams.
5. Numerology was then used to further explain things. The assassin was taught of the importance of the number twelve, and that there were twelve Hujjas for each Imam.
6. The religious practices of things like prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage are told to be unimportant, as they are taught to be trivial outward observances of faith. Since the assassin is under the instruction of the Imam, he has no need for trivial practices that are meant to keep the common and unelightened in line.
7. Only a select few were granted the seventh degree, where the teachings were designed to attenuate the belief of Divine Unity.
8. The eighth degree taught that teachers, the afterlife, worship, etc. were all meaningless. It further stated that a prophet was known by his ablility to create a political, social, religious, and philisophical system, and not by his ability to work miracles.
9. Finally, the Assassin reached the ninth degree when he believed the following, probably familiar, phrase: "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."
