*Kashf al-Asrār wa ʿUddat al-Abrār* is known as the oldest complete surviving Persian commentary on the Qur'an, and due to its mystical inclination and beautiful prose, it has attracted great attention among Persian speakers. Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī had inclinations toward Ahl al-Ḥadīth in theology and was a Shāfiʿī in jurisprudence, and for this reason, the critique of the beliefs of other schools is evident in his work. One of the schools criticized is Shiʿism, which he mentions using various terms such as Rāfiḍa, Mutashayyiʿa, Imāmiyya, and Ithnāʿashariyya. In this article, an attempt has been made, alongside pointing to the course of semantic transformation of the most common term, namely Rāfiḍa, to identify and categorize the beliefs that are criticized, and, due to the severe conceptual transformation of "Shīʿa" and "Rāfiḍa," to determine the referent of the criticisms. This study, using a descriptive-analytical method, explores the course of development and semantic dimensions of Rāfiḍa, especially in the historical, theological, and sectarian context of the Seljuq era and before it. Then, the references to Shīʿa and Rāfiḍa in *Kashf al-Asrār* are classified into four categories and discussed, and it is shown that Maybudī, in his capacity of identifying and criticizing currents, has not necessarily targeted the precise boundaries of "Twelver Shiʿas"; rather, the term Rāfiḍa in his mentality, as an all-encompassing concept, includes currents such as the "Ghulāt and Mufawwiḍa," the "Ismāʿīlīs/Bāṭiniyya," and to some extent the "Zaydiyya." In fact, the identification of these currents in *Kashf al-Asrār* proves that accusations such as incarnation (ḥulūl) and the abrogation of religious obligations pertain to the beliefs of marginal and extremist currents of the Seljuq era, which have been mistakenly attributed to all Shiʿas, or at least to the mainstream of Shiʿism.Abu al-Faḍl Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī is a great Sunni exegete and mystic of the first half of the sixth century [AH]. The exact year of his death is not known, but according to the introduction to his commentary, he began it in the year 520 AH. His most important work is the commentary *Kashf al-Asrār wa ʿUddat al-Abrār*, which holds the title of the oldest complete extant commentary on the Qur'an in Persian. The name of *Kashf al-Asrār* and its exegete had been consigned to oblivion for many centuries, inasmuch as his commentary, due to the lack of sufficient transcription, had been covered by the dust of forgetfulness. A researcher, by referring to authoritative historical and biographical sources such as *Ṭabaqāt al-Mufassirīn*, *Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya*, *Ṭarāʾiq al-Ḥaqāʾiq*, *Rayḥānat al-Adab*, *Shadharāt al-Dhahab*, *al-Bidāya wa al-Nihāya*, *al-ʿIbar*, *Rawḍāt al-Jannāt*, *al-Kunā wa al-Alqāb*, *al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh*, *Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ*, *Muʿjam al-Buldān*, *Muʿjam al-Udabāʾ*, and *al-Ansāb*, has reported finding no trace of Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī in these works.



Probably the first person in the later period to mention Maybudī was Ḥājjī Khalīfa (d. 1067 AH) in *Kashf al-Ẓunūn*; he introduced Maybudī with the phrase "Kashf al-Asrār li-l-Imām Rashīd al-Dīn Abī al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Maybudī dhakarahu al-Wāʿiẓ fī Tuḥfat al-Ṣalāt." The obscurity of Rashīd al-Dīn and his commentary was dispelled in the year 1337 SH [1958 CE] with the critical edition of *Kashf al-Asrār* by ʿAlī Aṣghar Ḥikmat.