Al-Risāla al-Dāmigha li-l-Fāsiq, al-Radd ʿalā al-Nuṣayrī
I put my trust in our Lord, the Most High Creator—glorified is He.
Now then—may our Lord aid you with His support—a book has reached me, composed by one of the Nuṣayrīs who disbelieve in our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—associate another with Him, lie about Him, lead believing men and women astray, and seek animal appetites and the license of base nature. His religion is one of lowly wickedness. May our Lord's curse and the curse of those who worship Iblīs and his party fall upon him.
He named his work The Book of Realities and the Unveiling of the Veiled. Whoever accepts his book worships Iblīs, believes in transmigration of souls, permits sexual access without lawful restraint, and treats lying and slander as lawful. Yet he attributes this doctrine to the true Unitarians. Far be such wrongs from the religion of our Lord—great and exalted is He—and far be such obscenities from the Unitarians.
Far be it from the servants of our Lord—glorified is He—that base animal desires and statements of associationism should be attributed to them. Our Lord—glorified is He—knows the treachery of eyes and what breasts conceal. He recompenses every soul for what it has earned, and none is wronged.
After reading his book, I felt obliged to take precautions on your behalf, community of brethren, and protect your religion. I therefore wrote this epistle to refute what that transgressing Nuṣayrī composed—may our Lord curse him—so that no doubt might enter your faith and no accusation fall upon you.
Beware, beware, community of believing women, that any one of you look upon a man, whether believer or opponent, except with the eyes with which she looks upon her son or father. Let each of you seek the salvation of her spirit through knowledge of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. Let each know that our Lord, whose name is mighty and besides whom none is worshipped, sees her wherever she may be and in whatever condition she may find herself.
You know that a woman is ashamed before her female neighbor and conceals herself from her male neighbor if she is in an improper condition. How much more should she be mindful of One from whom nothing is hidden, in secret or in public—glorified and exalted above what the polytheists say.
We seek refuge in our Lord from His wrath and punishment and repudiate all who oppose His tawḥīd and have not drunk from its water. You believing women must know our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—acknowledge His unity and truthfulness, and worship none besides Him or acknowledge any other in any age or time.
Let none of you look back or attach herself to those who passed in former cycles or to religious laws and ages that have disappeared. Nothing is required of you but obedience to our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and His tawḥīd, acceptance of His ranks, and guarding your private parts except for your husbands.
Let each of you know that everyone who passed away and received names and attributes—Preceder, Follower, Grandfather, Opening, Imagination, Speaker, Foundation, Imam, Proof, Caller—were all servants of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and exist among us in our present age. Likewise Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and others are present among us.
Knowledge must be directed toward the servant of our Lord who exists now, and repudiation toward the Opponents who exist among us, so that none of you needs to look backward, whether to a Guardian or an Opponent. Do not believe that our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—is the Imam: the Imam is His servant and possession, unable to repel harm or obtain benefit except through our Lord's power. Our Lord is exalted above names, attributes, and pairs, far above the assertions of polytheists and falsehoods of unbelievers.
The first thing this transgressing Nuṣayrī said—may our Lord curse him—was that everything forbidden, including killing, theft, lying, slander, adultery, and sexual acts between males, is permitted to the man or woman who knows our Lord—exalted be His remembrance.
He has lied about Revelation and Interpretation and distorted both. No one is permitted to steal another's property, nor is lying given license in religion, for lying is the root of unbelief and associationism, while truthfulness belongs to faith as the head belongs to the body. No one approves of killing except someone who denies the favor of our Lord and associates another with Him.
He also said that a believer must not withhold his wealth or standing from his brother, must make his household available to his believing brother, and must not object to what takes place between them; otherwise, his faith is incomplete.
He has lied—may God curse him—and stolen the first part of this statement from the Gatherings of Wisdom: “He must not withhold his wealth or status from his brother.” He uses it to cover his unbelief and lies. A man who has no protective concern for his family is no believer, but a Khurramite, seeking ease and license, following his appetites and error. Sexual intercourse is not part of religion and cannot be attributed to tawḥīd, unless “intercourse” is used figuratively for the joining of true knowledge, the opening of wisdom by one authorized to speak and supported by true wisdom.
He further says that a believing woman must not withhold sexual access from her believing brother, but must offer herself to him whenever he wishes; that inward marriage cannot be complete without outward intercourse; and he attributes this to the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance.
He has lied about our Lord—mighty is His name—associated another with Him, spoken impiously of Him, and distorted the statements of His Unitarian friends. May the curse of Jews, Christians, and Magians fall upon him and those who believe him. This transgressor sought to bring accusations upon your persons and corruption into your religions. If you, community of Unitarian women, examined the misleading religions, the realities would become apparent to you; you would refrain from lust and prostitution and reflect upon the inward, interpretive gatherings.
None of the intermediaries of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—ever asked women for outward sexual relations or claimed that what they heard in instruction could not be completed without physical contact. Know that this transgressing Nuṣayrī—may our Lord curse him—sought nothing but the corruption of the religion of our Lord and the believers. The religion of our Lord can never be corrupted, but this man sought animal desire, which benefits neither religion nor worldly life and instead causes harm. Such desire is compounded of the four natures found in animals. Whoever prefers it to religion is worse than donkey or cow. As it is said, “They are only like cattle; indeed, they are further astray.”
Whoever restrains the self from animal appetites is better than the angels brought near.
As for his argument that physical intercourse increases one's standing in religion and that the inward cannot be completed without it, he lies. If a believing, knowledgeable Unitarian man lived a hundred years without ever marrying and without committing anything forbidden, his religious station would not be diminished. Likewise, if a believing, knowledgeable Unitarian woman worshipped our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—as she ought, lived a hundred years without marrying, and died a virgin, her religion would not be diminished. Conversely, if an unbelieving man and woman had intercourse day and night, it would not benefit them or save them from punishment. All this transgressing Nuṣayrī says is impossible and false.
He says: “Woe, all woe, to a believing woman who denies her brother sexual access. The female organ signifies the outward, and penetration signifies the inward meaning and the disputation with outward believers. The forbidden act of adultery is really speaking to someone unworthy of hearing; whoever knows the inward meaning is released from outward restrictions.”
He has lied about the clear teaching of our Lord, distorted it, led believers astray, and corrupted chaste believing women. Knowing the inward meaning of a thing does not require abandoning its outward practice. Some outward practices must be maintained even if one knows seventy interpretations of them.
One example is purification. Its inward meaning is repudiation of the Iblises, purification of your hearts from love of them, and attachment to the Imam. But no rational person would approve of someone who knows this inward meaning entering the latrine, urinating or defecating, and leaving without washing his private parts, body, or face, rinsing his mouth, or cleansing his nose, claiming that he has understood the inward meaning. If he abandons outward cleanliness, his body becomes dirty, his odor foul, and he is called impure. Rather, someone who knows the inward meaning should increase bodily cleanliness, for purification is a practice whose outward and inward forms are both praiseworthy.
Likewise, suppose a man knows the inward meaning of clothing and garments: prudent concealment, observing the law among its adherents, and treating them gently. If he then removes his clothing, throws it away, and walks naked in the markets, he is called mad, has abandoned decency, and has exposed his nakedness. In the same way, one who knows the inward meaning of adultery may not commit its outward act, thereby bringing disgrace, hostility among brethren, and public condemnation upon himself.
Beware, community of believing women, of corrupting your religion through something that benefits neither this world nor the next. Any man who approaches a believing woman without fulfilling the conditions required by truth and the spiritual law acts hypocritically toward our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—for he violates religion and demolishes tawḥīd. We seek refuge in our Lord from that and repudiate all who believe it. A woman who has a husband has obligations toward him.
I shall explain the conditions binding upon you in the book entitled The Spiritual Law, concerning the subtle, simple, and dense. I shall explain to you and all believing men and women what is required from beginning to end and its purpose, if our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—wills. Through Him I seek help in all affairs. Your conditions, speech, manner of addressing one another, congratulations, condolences, and written petitions to the sacred Presence must differ from those of the common literalists and the polytheists attached to books of Interpretation, who worship non-being without knowledge or insight.
There is no difference between those people and those who worship idols, the sun, or the moon. You must instead be among the exalted Unitarians of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—who exists in every age and time, exalted beyond description.
As for the transgressing Nuṣayrī's claim—may our Lord curse him—that he has unveiled the Beloved for you, meaning tawḥīd, he lies. He has unveiled unbelief, manifested it, explained associationism, and adopted it, choosing the worst and foulest of paths. He has spoken in secret and public words from which we seek refuge in our Lord.
In his book he says that our Lord is the pure Spirit of whom the Qurʾān says: “They ask you about the Spirit. Say: the Spirit is of my Lord's command.” He also says that our Lord—exalted far above this—is the one who fashions the human being in its mother's womb at the time of intercourse.
No Jew would approve such a claim concerning a stone he reveres, nor a Christian concerning what he holds sacred. I would not attribute even to one of our Lord's servants the work of shaping creatures in their mothers' wombs, or say that he is present during intercourse and watches the formation of embryos. Formation results from the celestial spheres and their four natures, and the spheres are inanimate bodies without intellect.
Human beings take shape in their mothers' wombs and develop sensation, growth, discernment in eating and drinking, and recognition of mother and father through natural intellect. Dogs, monkeys, pigs, and all animals and wild creatures develop in similar fashion.
Some animals show greater intelligence than human beings. A carrier pigeon can be trained along a route once, then released twenty days' journey away and return to its nest in a single day. Yet some descendants of Adam may be taught a single word a thousand times, though it would bring them benefit and salvation, and still not understand it; with others, one struggles without their learning.
Some animals grow larger and are keener in sensation than human beings, such as elephants, camels, horses, and mules. We therefore know that physical forms arise from the male seed, the warmth of the womb, and the influences of the spheres, with the power of the natures governing the embryo. Formation does not occur at the instant of intercourse, as this transgressing Nuṣayrī alleges and attributes to our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. The seed remains in the womb for a day and becomes blood, then changes from one state to another until the natures produce a fully formed creature.
Likewise a hen incubates an egg, and from it develops another creature like the hen. More remarkable still, he says, are beetles, scorpions, worms, ants, and similar creatures, which he believes arise without male seed or the warmth of a womb, from the natures and inanimate matter.
Thus we know that such physical formation is not attributed to our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—or to His religious servants. True spiritual fashioning and creation, however, belong to His servants who instruct others in religion. As it is said, “God's handiwork—and who is better than God in handiwork?” Here “God” means the Caller, whose handiwork is the people of outward religion, whom he transforms toward Interpretation and inward knowledge. Whoever fashions something has created it.
Christ likewise said, “Whoever is not born from his mother's womb twice cannot attain the Kingdom of the heavens” and knowledge of the earths. He meant birth in religion and knowledge of the Speakers and Foundations. The Speaker said, “I and ʿAlī are the fathers of the believers,” meaning the outward and inward.
This spiritual creation and formation belong to our Lord's servants who call to tawḥīd. Our Lord—great and exalted is He—does not enter numbers or become counted among units, for numbers, single things, pairs, beginnings, and endings all proceed from Him and return to Him. Glorified is He above what they associate with Him.
As for the Nuṣayrī's assertion that the souls of opponents and enemies return in dogs, monkeys, and pigs, then eventually in iron that is heated and beaten with a hammer; that others return among birds and owls; and others into the wombs of animals that produce young he has lied about our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and uttered a tremendous falsehood. Reason and the justice of our Lord—glorified is He—cannot accept that an intelligent man who disobeyed Him should be punished in the form of a dog or pig, unable to understand his former human existence or remember his wrongdoing, or be turned into iron to be heated and beaten. Where would wisdom and justice be in that? Wise punishment must be experienced by a man who understands the suffering, so that it disciplines him and provides a way to repentance.
Punishment that falls upon a human being is removal from a higher to a lower religious rank, diminution of livelihood, and blindness of heart in religion and worldly life. Likewise there is passage from one “shirt” to another in this order. Reward, while one remains in one's shirt, is an increase in rank through knowledge, ascent from one degree to another through stages, until one reaches the rank of Mukāsir; wealth increases and one advances through religious degrees until reaching the Imamate.
These are the souls of the people of inward knowledge and their rewards; the previous examples concern the souls of the Opponents and their punishments. Whoever understands this knows the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. Good works among brethren benefit a person and receive reward now and later. One fears our Lord's punishment now and later, performs good deeds, and avoids evil. Whoever believes in transmigration in the manner of the Nuṣayrīs who attribute divinity to ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib and worship him loses this world and the next. That is the manifest loss.
As for the claim that the polytheists are the so-called Nāṣibīs who associate Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī he lies and his argument is false. If that were associationism, ʿAlī himself accepted it when he pledged allegiance to Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān. They also report that ʿAlī struck his shoe and twenty thousand men of Nahrawān died. A person with such power would not be incapable of refusing allegiance. We therefore say that he accepted it, and Muḥammad appointed their positions alongside him.
Earlier Shīʿīs agreed that the Foundation is the Speaker's counterpart, likeness, and partner in inward knowledge. The Speaker said that associationism is hidden and imperceptible, like the movement of a black ant upon black cloth in a dark night. We thus know that associationism is something other than what this transgressing Nuṣayrī claims.
When he mentions ʿAlī, he says, “Upon us be his peace and mercy”; when he mentions our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—he says only, “Upon us be his peace.” He seeks mercy from an absent non-being and denies the Existent One who judges through His own essence and is distinct from His creations. No unbelief is greater than this. A knowledgeable Unitarian understands that the unforgivable associationism is to place ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib alongside our Lord—exalted be His remembrance.
The Nuṣayrī says, “ʿAlī is our existent Lord, and our Lord is ʿAlī; there is no difference between them.” This is the unbelief he has adopted: worship of ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib. Existence belongs to our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. Speaker, Legatee, Imam, and Proof are all servants of our Lord in every age, supported by Him alone without partner.
He further claims that Muḥammad son of ʿAbd Allāh is the greatest veil through whom our Lord al-Ḥākim appeared, and that anyone who disbelieves this book belongs to the companions of Hāmān, Satan, and Iblīs and has become blind in the heart.
The transgressing Nuṣayrī has lied in all this. He knows neither religion nor the veil. Muḥammad was the veil of ʿAlī son of Abī Ṭālib, not the veil of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. Such a claim belongs to one weak in intellect and religion. A veil conceals a thing; it is not the thing's outward manifestation.
The one through whom our Lord—mighty is His name—manifested Himself as He wills, without anyone's right to object, is called the Proof of the Qāʾim, the Mahdī. Through him He called creation from Himself to Himself, giving the servants glad tidings in a visible form and addressing humanity. Our Lord cannot be encompassed by thoughts and imaginings, for the worlds cannot behold His totality or comprehend His description. Exalted is He far above what the polytheists say.
As for Iblīs, Hāmān, and Satan, the Nuṣayrī has erred in his conjectures and analogies, speaking according to opinion and pursuing animal appetite. He intended these names to refer to Abū Bakr al-Taymī, ʿUmar al-ʿAdawī, and ʿUthmān al-Umawī. But the Qurʾān says, “Wine, gambling, standing stones, and divining arrows are abominations of Satan's work; avoid them.” Four things are mentioned together, not three, and all four are attributed to Satan. Satan must therefore stand above them in the causal hierarchy, for work is a product, the maker fashions it, and the fashioner is its creator, as explained earlier.
Human bodies are produced from male seed, womb heat, and the natures of the spheres. True religious creation comes from the words of the teacher, the hearing of the learner, and the learner's rational acceptance. He becomes a mature Responder, is appointed to a rank, and thus becomes a fully formed creation. People say, “This man is the work of so-and-so,” meaning that he is his creation.
These four things constitute a religious order. Their leader is their Satan, who opposed the reality of tawḥīd, departed from truth, and resisted our Lord. Upon him and his companions falls our Lord's wrath, and they are far from Him in body and in heart. Thus you know, community of pure believing men and women, that this transgressing Nuṣayrī has known neither our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—nor Iblīs nor Satan. Through ignorance he has worshipped Iblīs and affirmed his unity out of ignorance and denied our Lord and His favor. We seek refuge in our Lord from doubting Him, associating another with Him, or disbelieving in Him. Our Lord alone has no partner among corporeal, material, spiritual, psychic, or luminous beings. Glorified and exalted is He above attributes.
Beware, community of believing men and women, of indulging whims, obscenities, animal appetites, and forbidden practices. Know our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—who judges by His own essence and is distinct from His creations. Know His Guardian and the ranks of tawḥīd, and accept from them what pleases our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. Worship Him completely and no one besides Him—not the Speakers, Legatees, Imams, Proofs, or Callers who preceded you, for all are His servants.
Hear and obey what the servant and chosen one of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—the Guide of the Responders, who takes vengeance upon the polytheists by the sword of our Lord and the might of His authority—has commanded you. “The Hour has drawn near and the moon has split.” I have called you to a strange and difficult thing: the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. What was concealed has appeared; I have explained what lies within breasts and brought forth what lies within graves.
Our Lord knows you well. Peace be upon believing men and women, and upon the men and women who affirm the unity of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. Praise and thanks belong to our Lord alone. He suffices us and is the best Helper and Supporter.
The epistle is complete. Peace.