الكتاب المعروف بالنقض الخفي
The book known as the Hidden Refutation, submitted to the Divine Presence.
I put my trust in our Lord, the Creator, the All-Knowing, the Most High, the Highest, the Judge of judges, who does not enter thoughts and imaginings. The letters of “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful” are the Callers of His servant, the Imam.
My letter to you, community of Unitarians who worship our Lord—glorified is He—alone, Responders to the realities of the true essences, who look by the light of radiant lights, who renounce impossible, literalist sciences, who recognize the errant Iblises, and worship the One worshipped by creation, who rules through His own essence and is distinct from His originated beings. His essence is His divinity, and His originated beings are the Speakers, Foundations, their successors, and the Callers. Glorified is He above duality and exalted far above what the wrongdoers say.
Now then: before this epistle you heard of the abrogation of the religious law through the abolition of almsgiving for you, and that almsgiving constitutes the religious law in its entirety. In this epistle I shall explain its overturning pillar by pillar, outwardly and inwardly. What is intended for salvation lies beyond both of these.
You have heard that the concealed inward doctrine now in your hands will become outwardly manifest, while the outward doctrine will fade away, and the meaning of the reality of the pure inward doctrine will appear. This is its time and season: its explicit exposition is for the Unitarians, not the polytheists, until the sword appears and it becomes publicly manifest, willingly or by force. The poll tax will be taken from Muslims and polytheists as it is taken from the protected communities. That time is near, if our Lord wills; through Him comes success.
The first foundation upon which the law-bound communities stand is the testimony, “There is no god but God; Muḥammad is the Messenger of God.” By it blood has been protected, private parts guarded, and property preserved. The first testimony consists of two expressions, indicating the Preceder and the Follower. It has four divisions, indicating the two Origins and the two Foundations. It consists of seven pieces, indicating the seven Speakers, the seven Legatees, the seven days, seven heavens, seven earths, seven mountains, and seven spheres. There are many similar groups of seven. It contains twelve letters, indicating the twelve Proofs of the Foundation.
The second part of the profession, “Muḥammad is the Messenger of God,” contains three words, indicating three ranks: the Speaker, the Follower above him, and the Preceder above them all. It consists of six pieces, indicating six Speakers, and twelve letters, indicating twelve Proofs corresponding to those of the Foundation. Likewise the heavens have twelve zodiacal signs and seven governing bodies; the earths are seven, the regions are seven, and the islands of the Call are twelve.
The origin of both worlds, according to them, is one, the Cause of causes, which they identify as the Preceder, the source of stillness and coldness; the Follower is the source of heat and motion. The accursed Iblīs appeared from the Preceder before the Follower. He was subtle and spiritual, and had been obedient to his Creator, but he manifested rivalry and sought leadership. From his spirituality the accursed one formed a person standing opposite the Preceder. He manifested opposition and disputed with his Creator; his name was Ḥārith. Thereupon his Follower appeared from him, and the Preceder and the Follower became the origins of both worlds. From them emerged the Speaker and the Foundation. The Preceder manifested his coldness and stillness, the Follower his heat and movement, the Speaker his dryness, and the Foundation movement. Thus the four natures arose, and the seven spheres and twelve zodiacal signs were formed. Each group of three signs possesses a nature different from the other three groups, so that the world is governed by four natures.
The religious natures are likewise four, as already explained, while the Creator—glorified is He—is exalted above them all.
Each group of seven among the spheres has twenty-eight letters, so that those who understand may know that all these sevens point to one meaning and one indication. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon have twenty-eight letters in their Arabic names. From the first sign of the year, Aries, signifying the Preceder, to the seventh sign, Libra, signifying the Speaker, there are seven signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and Libra. Their Arabic names have twenty-eight letters. The governance of the world, its fortunate and unfortunate influences, derives from the Moon, which travels through twenty-eight stations and cannot move outside them.
From Muḥarram to Rajab, which resembles Muḥarram in excellence, there are seven months. Muḥarram signifies the Preceder, for it is the first month of the year. Rajab signifies the Follower and adjoins Shaʿbān and Ramaḍān; those two months signify the Speaker and Foundation. Muḥarram, signifying the Preceder, stands apart from the months, whereas Rajab is joined to the next two, just as the Follower is joined to the Speaker and Foundation. There are seven months from Muḥarram to Rajab. Similarly the Preceder has seven ranks: Preceder, Follower, Grandfather, Opening, Imagination, Speaker, and Foundation. Their Arabic names comprise twenty-eight letters.
Likewise the seven months—Muḥarram, Ṣafar, Rabīʿ, Rabīʿ, Jumādā, Jumādā, and Rajab—comprise twenty-eight letters.
The seven days—Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday—likewise have twenty-eight letters in Arabic. The seven Speakers—Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muḥammad, and Saʿīd—have twenty-eight letters. The seven Legatees—Seth, Shem, Ishmael, Joshua, Simon, ʿAlī, and Qaddāḥ—have twenty-eight letters.
The Qurʾān was revealed in seven kinds: abrogating and abrogated, decisive and ambiguous, narratives, reports, and parables. It was recited in seven modes. The circumambulation of the Kaʿba is sevenfold. A person's height is seven spans measured by his own hand, and his breadth likewise; the human face has seven openings. Many more such sevens exist than this epistle can contain. All indicate seven Imams, seven Speakers, and seven Legatees. All begin from one; and that one too is a servant, not the Worshipped One.
As He said, “Your creation and resurrection are only as a single soul.” This signifies the Preceder. The Speaker was made an indication of the Caller, for he precedes the Imam. Likewise the lām returns to the alif; the alif within the lām signifies the Imam. The second alif signifies the Follower; the lām signifies the Speaker, because the Speaker proceeds from the Follower and derives his substance from him. The third alif of “illā” is in the position of the Preceder, and as the fourth of the ranks indicates the Proof, Caller, and Authorized Instructor (al-maʾdhūn).
The alif within the lām has only one rank following it, the Follower. Likewise the Caller returns only to the Imam, and the Speaker returns to the Follower, who stands over all the ranks. In the word Allāh the alif and the two lāms joined to it correspond to the Speaker and Follower, while the final hāʾ occupies the rank of the Speaker's Foundation. Thus he said, “There is no god but God,” negating the other spiritual meanings and indicating his Foundation. He also instructed them to say, “Muḥammad is the Messenger of God,” which consists of three words, for he is third in relation to the Preceder. Its six parts signify that he is the sixth of the Speakers. Its twelve letters signify twelve outward Proofs corresponding to twelve inward Proofs. We examined the Preceder, Follower, Speaker, Foundation, Imam, and Proof, and found them all to be paired servants. We therefore knew that the Worshipped One is other than them.
Through the success our Lord—glorified is He—granted us, we learned that the final hāʾ, marking the completion of the name Allāh, stands with the two lāms and the alif after the Follower, the last and fourth of them, through whom power is completed. No rank has received the designation given to him: the Mahdī, upon whom this supreme name fell through the title “Father of the Qāʾim.” This name can belong only to the greatest and last of the ranks, just as the hāʾ is the end of “There is no god but God.”
Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—did not manifest that Mahdī until the completion and termination of Muḥammad's cycle. He was the last of the cycle of the four concealed ones, through whom their affair was sealed; when it ended, our Lord appeared to the world through sovereignty and humanity.
He indicated Himself through Himself, not through the Mahdī, and from him He manifested the reality. The Foundation was not the end of the ranks, nor did he possess the divine power possessed by the Mahdī, through whom our Lord the Qāʾim, al-Ḥākim—exalted be His remembrance—appeared in his own age.
You know that ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib pledged allegiance to Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān, and dealt with Muʿāwiya on many occasions. In the end he could not overcome Muʿāwiya; rather, Muʿāwiya prevailed against him, his children, and his companions. ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib had more men, greater wealth, and stronger outward connections than the Mahdī. Yet the Mahdī manifested miracles and victory without wealth or men, such as ʿAlī could not perform.
Our Lord, the Qāʾim al-Ḥākim, ruling through His own essence and distinct from His creations—exalted be His remembrance—showed the world a divine power that no Speaker in his age and no Foundation in his time possessed. Abū Yazīd appeared; he was Ḥārith, the Iblīs of that age, and gathered his horsemen and foot soldiers, as the Qurʾān says. Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—waited while some of the adherents of falsehood died, others disbelieved, others apostatized, and all were tested. As He said: “We shall certainly test you with something of fear and hunger and loss of wealth, lives, and fruits; give good tidings to the patient.”
All this afflicted the troops of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. Then He went out against Iblīs and his soldiers in His visible person and human manifestation, and showed those who understood something of His divine power. Outwardly His followers were then few and weakened by their trials, whereas Iblīs had one hundred thousand households of soldiers, with many men in each. Within a single hour they were like the hollow trunks of fallen palm trees.
Abū Yazīd—may our Lord curse him—was Iblīs. Iblīs was a spirit who set himself in the station of his Creator and disputed with Him. He was the elephant mentioned in the gathering as one who was transformed, because he imitated the Eye of the Age, who is the Preceder. Likewise Iblīs placed a spirit in the station of the Preceder and disputed with him; this teaches us what Abū Yazīd represented. As Muḥammad said: “Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant?”—meaning Abū Yazīd. “Did He not make their plotting go astray?”—meaning the Qāʾim. “He sent against them birds in flocks”—meaning servants of our Lord the Qāʾim—“pelting them with stones of baked clay”—meaning the support of our Lord the Qāʾim joined to their firm certainty—“and made them like eaten straw.”
These miracles are not disputed by opponent or ally, Speaker or Foundation. There are further miracles and signs that cannot be explained in the space available. I shall recount them in the Book of the Conduct, concerning the human manifestation of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—in every age and time, if our Lord wills.
Thus the sincere knower sees that the ultimate indication proceeds from Muḥammad son of ʿAbd Allāh to the Mahdī, who is the Imam, the completion of God's design, and a servant of our Lord the Qāʾim al-Ḥākim, ruling through His own essence and distinct from His creations. Glorified and exalted is He above their descriptions.
After the two testimonies, the Speaker established prayer in five periods, through himself and his Foundation. Many Muslims relate from the Speaker that he said, “Whoever intentionally abandons his prayer three times has disbelieved,” and, “Whoever intentionally abandons prayer three times may adopt whatever religion he wishes.” Yet we have seen many Muslims abandon prayer, including some who never prayed at all, without being called unbelievers. We therefore know that the situation differs from what the report states.
All Muslims agree that when a man leads others in prayer, his prayer is the congregation's prayer, his act their act, and his recitation their recitation. Even in an obligatory matter without which prayer is invalid, the congregation must repeat the prayer if the leader must repeat it. If one man who leads prayer stands in the place of his community, and his prayer counts as theirs, what then of our Lord—glorified is He—who cannot be included in the categories of likeness? For many years He has neither led people in prayer, nor prayed over a funeral, nor sacrificed an animal at the festival, although sacrifice is joined to prayer in the saying, “Pray to your Lord and sacrifice.” This was established as an obligation.
By leaving it, our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has overturned both things: prayer and sacrifice. He destroys His enemy without these two practices, and He has granted leave to abandon them, for to Him belongs the end and from Him comes the beginning of all affairs. We therefore recognize their abrogation. The festival prayer and the Friday prayer in al-Azhar Mosque—the first mosque built in Cairo—have been suspended. Thus is outward prayer overturned.
As for the inward meaning, you heard in the gatherings that prayer is the established covenant, called ṣalāt because it is a connection (ṣila) between Responders and the Imam, meaning ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib. They cited the saying, “Prayer restrains from indecency and wrongdoing,” explaining that one who is connected to the covenant of ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib ceases to love Abū Bakr and ʿUmar.
But we have seen many people connected to the covenant of ʿAlī who nevertheless loved Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, went to Muʿāwiya, and abandoned ʿAlī. They also said that the covenant in our present age is prayer, for it connects people with our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and that “indecency and wrongdoing” signify Abū Bakr and ʿUmar.
Many people, too numerous to be counted except by the one who received their covenants, have entered the covenant of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—in our age. Yet they have not abandoned love of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, nor opposition to our Lord and disobedience to His commands. Thus we know that the meaning is other than what we heard in the gatherings. Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has overturned the inward meaning we heard, because He permitted all those whom they call Nāṣibīs to express love for Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. A public decree was read before witnesses that anyone who wished to wear a signet on the right or left could do so without objection, both sides being equal before our Lord. You heard in the gathering that right and left signified outward and inward. Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has made them equal in rank.
We therefore know that He has abolished the inward just as He abolished the outward. We looked to what would save us from both punishments, and deliver us swiftly from both religious laws, and entered the Garden of Delight He promised us, namely the Proof of the Qāʾim, which encompasses the other ranks.
Know, then, that the true prayer required at five times, whose abandonment three times by any person entails unbelief, is the connection with our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—who has no partner, through five ranks: the Preceder, Follower, Grandfather, Opening, and Imagination. They are present in our age. This is the true prayer, apart from the outward and inward forms of prayer.
“Whoever dies without knowing the Imam of his age while he is living dies a death of ignorance”: this refers to knowing the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. “Living” means that the Imam is continually present in every age and time. “Indecency and wrongdoing” signify the two laws, outward and inward. Whoever has found our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—is prevented by His tawḥīd from looking backward and waiting for the absent non-being.
The saying “Whoever intentionally abandons prayer three times has disbelieved” refers to the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—through three ranks: Dhū Maʿa, Dhū Maṣṣa, and the Wing, who exist and are manifest among the Unitarians in our age, though not among the polytheists.
I shall explain their persons, the persons of their ranks, and the persons indicated by “There is no god but God” and “Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds” in another book, through the support of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance.
Our Lord al-Muʿizz—peace upon his remembrance—said, “I am the seventh of the two weeks, the one who stood over the two pledges, and no week comes after me.” He meant that he was present at the covenant of the Speaker and Foundation. The two sevens are the outward and inward, the two cycles of the religious laws. “No week after me” means that no further seven of the religious law will be established after him. The affair returns to its Owner, our Lord al-Ḥākim, ruling through His own essence and distinct from His originated beings. Glorified and exalted is He above what the polytheists say.
Next comes almsgiving. Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has abolished it for you altogether. You heard in the gatherings of inward wisdom that almsgiving signifies allegiance to ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib and the Imams of his descent, and repudiation of his enemies Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān. But our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—forbade the harming of any Nāṣibī, and a decree was publicly read forbidding the cursing of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar.
It was also recited in the gathering that right and left signify the Speaker and Foundation; then the gathering declared that right and left are two paths of error, and that the middle is the path, the ultimate goal, and the middle way.
We therefore know that our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has abolished the inward almsgiving centered upon ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib just as He abolished its outward form. True almsgiving is not what all the gatherings indicated. Rather, it is the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and the cleansing and purification of your hearts from both conditions, abandoning what you formerly followed.
As He said, “You shall never attain righteousness until you spend what you love.” Righteousness means the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and spending what you love means abandoning the outward and inward. Spending something means parting with it, for what has been spent does not return to its owner.
The outward literalists say that spending means giving dinars and dirhams. Both, however, signify what we have said: the Speaker and Foundation. Whoever does not abandon the absent non-being of the Speaker and the partners of the Foundation will not attain the tawḥīd of our Lord al-Ḥākim, ruling through His own essence and distinct from His creations—exalted be His remembrance.
Fasting: the outward believers and all Muslims hold that the Speaker told them, “Fast when you see it, and break your fast when you see it”. They believe that one who breaks his fast for a single day of Ramaḍān while acknowledging that he has erred must fast two months and ten days as expiation. If he considers breaking that day's fast permissible, he has destroyed fasting in its entirety.
Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has overturned fasting in its entirety for many years, contradicting the report “Fast when you see it and break your fast when you see it.” He commanded us to break the fast on the day which all Muslims believe to be the final day of fasting, without which they do not accept the month's observance. No overturning of fasting could be greater or clearer to anyone who looks, reflects, and considers.
As for fasting's inward meaning, the earlier teachers said that fasting signifies silence, citing the words addressed to Mary, who was the Proof of the Master of her Age: “Eat, drink, and be comforted.” Eating signifies knowledge of the outward and drinking knowledge of the inward; comfort signifies increase. “If you see any human being”—meaning adherents of the outward—“say, ‘I have vowed a fast to the Compassionate,’” meaning restraint or silence; “today I shall speak to no human being,” meaning I shall not address anyone belonging to the outward law.
Likewise “Whoever among you witnesses the month, let him fast it” is interpreted as ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib; the month has thirty days, and ʿAlī has thirty ranks. Whoever knows him and his ranks must keep silent before everyone except trusted brethren.
Yet descriptions of ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib were recited in the gatherings which opponents could not accept. Many obstinate hypocrites left the gatherings and disclosed to the Nāṣibīs, Imāmīs, Zaydīs, Qaṭʿīs, and other opponents what they had heard. We therefore know that what was recited in the gatherings and what the teachers described as inward fasting and its silence has been overturned. Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—caused people to break the outward fast and the inward one.
The true fast is different from the two fasts known to the two religious laws. It is the protection of your hearts through the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance.
No one attains His tawḥīd except by distinguishing thirty ranks and knowing them in both their spiritual and corporeal forms. They are the Word, Preceder, Follower, Grandfather, Opening, Imagination, Speaker, Foundation, Completer, Proof, Caller, seven Imams, and twelve Proofs. Together these amount to thirty ranks. Whoever knows these ranks and knows their symbols and their allusions, and knows that all of them are servants employed by our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and that our Lord is their Originator and Owner, transcendent above them, inside them yet outside them, knows that there is none among them except that His strength [or word]—exalted be His sovereignty—is within him. He is distinct from them through His own essence, glorified is He.
There is another explanation, better and higher. When the word tawḥīd is calculated by the lesser numerical reckoning of letters, it totals exactly thirty-two: tāʾ, four; wāw, six; ḥāʾ, eight; yāʾ, ten; dāl, four. Likewise the Will and Volition, the two highest hidden degrees; the Word, Preceder, Follower, Grandfather, Opening, and Imagination; seven Speakers, seven Foundations, seven Imams, and three caliphs: these complete thirty-two. At that point our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—manifested His greatest veil, the fourth of the caliphs, Saʿīd son of Aḥmad. Whoever knows these ranks spiritually and corporeally and understands the degree of each knows the tawḥīd of our Lord, the Qāʾim al-Ḥākim, ruling through His own essence and distinct from His creations—exalted be His remembrance.
Pilgrimage: He said, “Pilgrimage to the House is owed to God by people who can find a way to it.” The adherents of the outward law relate from the Speaker that pilgrimage means going to Mecca, standing at ʿArafāt, and fulfilling its prescribed conditions. Yet we have seen things contrary to His saying, “Whoever enters it shall be safe.” They say that the sacred precinct lies in Mecca and extends twelve miles in each direction. Yet we have witnessed killing, plunder of property, and theft even inside the Kaʿba within that precinct. This is contradiction and impossibility. All the conditions they perform in pilgrimage are kinds of madness: uncovering heads, exposing bodies, throwing pebbles, and chanting the response when no one has summoned them. These are madness.
Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—interrupted the pilgrimage for many years and withheld the Kaʿba's covering. To remove a thing's covering is to uncover and expose it, so that the world may understand that what is intended lies elsewhere and that the structure itself brings no benefit.
The teachers of inward knowledge said that the sacred precinct signifies the Call and extends twelve miles in each direction; similarly the Call has twelve Proofs. The House signifies the Speaker, the Stone signifies the Foundation, and seven circumambulations signify acknowledging him through seven cycles. Standing at ʿArafāt signifies knowing them through the Speaker's science. Minā signifies what the seeker wishes for, namely reaching the Speaker, Foundation, and their ranks, the explanation of which would take too long. All their indications concern the Speaker, Foundation, and their ranks. Beginning the circumambulation at the Black Stone and completing it there signifies that the Foundation receives from the Speaker and returns to him.
We have seen our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—abolish pilgrimage by allowing the manifestation of love for Abū Bakr and ʿUmar and the fading of the remembrance of ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib. We heard in the gatherings that the left signifies the Speaker and the right the Foundation. It was also related there: “Do not face the qibla”—meaning the Imam—“when urinating or defecating”—meaning the knowledge of outward and inward. What we heard in the gatherings is thus overturned: pilgrimage is something other than what they believed outwardly and inwardly.
As our Lord al-Manṣūr said in verse:
Come, let me show you the House, and you will know
That it is God's House, not what we imagined.
Is a house made of stones greater in sanctity,
Or the chosen Guide who appointed the House?
The House is the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—the dwelling and refuge in which the Worshipped One is sought.
Thus the Unitarians, friends of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—have their spirits dwelling in it. The Lord of the House is our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—in every age and time. As He said, “Let them worship the Lord of this House,” meaning our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—“who fed them against hunger,” meaning the outward, “and secured them against fear,” meaning fear of remaining with the Foundation, as the believers who associate others with God allege.
As He said, “Most of them do not believe in God without associating others with Him.” For they say that ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib is our Lord al-Ḥākim—exalted be His remembrance—in our present age. We seek refuge in our Lord from doubt about Him, associating another with Him, and pairing Him with any of the ranks. Glorified and exalted is He above them all.
Jihād: through it Muḥammad established and manifested Islam, making it obligatory upon all Muslims. Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has lifted it from the whole community, because its purpose was coercion; Muslims engaged in jihād and polytheistic believers fight you in your own homes and are enemies of the people of tawḥīd. Any jihād in which the Imam of the Age does not participate is abolished for the people.
As for what was recited in the gatherings and written by the teachers, that inward jihād means fighting the misguided, literalist Nāṣibīs, our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has forbidden hostility toward them and disputation with them. We therefore know that He has overturned both the outward and inward forms of jihād.
True jihād is seeking and striving for the tawḥīd and knowledge of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—without associating any of the ranks with Him, and repudiating the absent non-being.
Allegiance (wilāya): He said, “Obey God, obey the Messenger, and those vested with authority among you.” The adherents of the outward law and all Muslims say that allegiance belongs to Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī. It then passed to the Umayyads and returned to the Abbasids. Each time one of them occupied the caliphate, allegiance to him was obligatory upon all Muslims. Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—overturned that allegiance, wrote the curse of the first and the last on every door, and exhumed them from their graves.
As for inward allegiance and knowledge of its reality, the gatherings and teachers' books taught that it meant declaring love for ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib and repudiating his enemies. They cited the saying, “Today I have perfected your religion for you and completed My favor upon you”—meaning the inward—“and approved Islam for you as religion,” meaning surrendering the affair to ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib.
Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—overturned this by having a decree read before the assembled witnesses: “Do not prostrate to the sun or moon,” meaning the Speaker and Foundation, “but prostrate to God who created them,” meaning the greatest Proof, who is Volition, “if it is Him you worship,” meaning the greatest Imam, worship being obedience. We therefore know that He overturned the inward allegiance centered upon ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib as well as its outward form.
The Imam is a servant of our Lord—great is His power—as He said, “We have enumerated everything in a manifest Imam.” The One who enumerated everything within the Imam is our Lord—exalted be His remembrance.
The outward and inward ranks formerly belonging to the Speaker and Foundation have been assigned by our Lord to His servants and angels, such as “the possessor of the two presidencies,” “the possessor of the two guardianships,” “the possessor of the two majesties,” “the possessor of the two excellences,” and “the possessor of the two ranks”.
All these are indications pointing toward knowledge of Him and His tawḥīd. He wished to show the discerning rational person that every rank formerly assigned to the Speaker and Foundation has been granted to His servants, whereas He is exalted above names and attributes.
All the names people apply to Him, such as Imam, Master of the Age, Commander of the Faithful, and Our Lord, properly belong to His servants. He is higher and more exalted than anything that can be measured, delimited, or described. We employ such titles figuratively, not literally, from necessity rather than to establish attributes.
We say “Commander of the Faithful—exalted be His remembrance” because convention and established usage have put this expression upon the tongues of distinguished and ordinary people. If we spoke otherwise, they would not know whom we meant, and their hearts would be blind to it. Yet He—glorified is He—is unlike anything; He is the Most High, the Magnificent.
You, community of Responders and Unitarians who worship our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—must know our Lord alone, without partner; may His peace and mercy be upon us. Then know His ranks and seek His existence for His sake, not the absent non-being, knowledge of which brings no benefit and attachment to which is useless. Yet the world persists in associationism, error, pride, and ignorance. People look without seeing and hear without understanding. May the Lord strike them; they cannot escape His punishment.
Praise and thanks belong to our Lord alone, without partner. His peace is upon us, His greetings with us, and His blessings upon us and all His righteous servants. He suffices us and is the best Trustee. Praise belongs to our Lord in prosperity and adversity.
This book was submitted to the Divine Presence in the month of Ṣafar, year 408 AH, the first year of the manifestation of our Lord's servant and possession, the Guide of the Responders, who takes vengeance upon the polytheists by the sword of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—who has no partner and besides whom none is worshipped. Our Lord alone suffices us.
Compared against the exemplar and found correct.