Al-Risāla al-Mawsūma bi-l-Riḍā wa-l-Taslīm ilā Kāffat al-Muwaḥḥidīn wa-ilā Jamīʿ Man Shakka fī Mawlānā wa-fī Walīhi Qāʾim al-Zamān
Addressed to all Unitarians and all who doubted our Lord or His Guardian, the Qāʾim of the Age. Closing notice: Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, second year of Ḥamza's service.
From the servant of our Lord—glorified is His power and exalted His divinity. When he saw that the Responders' affairs contradicted the conditions and instructions he had laid upon them concerning acceptance and submission to our Lord—exalted be His remembrance and mighty His name, besides whom none is worshipped—he wrote to them this book, through the reading of which they may be set right, if our Lord wills. Through Him comes success in all affairs. This is an exact copy, letter for letter.
If our Lord—glorified is He—intends good for them, they shall prosper in religion and worldly life. If He intends evil for them, none can reverse His decree or repel His judgment. He is the Most High, the Magnificent.
I put my trust in our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. Through Him I seek help in all affairs. The Cause-Maker of the Cause of Causes. The attributes of the Cause: In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Praise belongs to the One, the Unique, the Self-Sufficient, the Eternal, who is above the Cause of Causes, exalted without likeness or equal. He did not beget from the First Intellect and was not born from the complete and excellent Soul. Nothing in the worlds or stations is equal to Him. He judges through His own essence and is distinct from His originated and fashioned beings. I praise Him in prosperity and adversity and thank Him in hardship and ease.
I have surrendered my natural body, which our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—manifested from four natures; my soul, through which my body grows; my heart and what dwells within it of pure spirit, universal intellect, spiritual wisdom, material knowledge, corporeal understanding, and the matter of forms through which our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—is known; my flesh, blood, hair, skin, and all my limbs—to the most generous God, the reality of the greatest Lord, the Most High, exalted above antiquity.
I accept for my spirit everything our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has accepted for me. Glorified is He—how great His station and exalted His sovereignty! No human can perceive His reality; none with sight can comprehend the essence of His knowledge. He does whatever He wills, however He wills, and none may object to His judgment. He is the Existent Worshipped One, exalted above the claims of polytheists and unbelievers. “He knows what lies before them and behind them, and they encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills. His Throne extends over the heavens and earth; preserving them does not weary Him. He is the Most High, the Magnificent.”
Now then, community of Responders: I have heard of the weakness that has afflicted your bodies and the doubt concerning the Master of your Age, because you witnessed the rejection of the Truth and the spread of associationism among creatures. You formed evil suspicions about our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and concealed a people who were doomed. Do you not know that our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—builds and demolishes, and overturns things unlike those He builds? Through His wisdom He opens things and afterward bestows upon each of His acts a wisdom corresponding to His divinity, though you are heedless of it. His wisdom becomes apparent to you only after a time. He distinguishes the truthfulness of believing Unitarians from the lies of polytheists, the counterfeit claims of pretenders, and what unbelievers hide in their breasts, so that whoever perishes may perish upon clear proof and whoever lives may live upon clear proof.
Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has power over all things. His light is never extinguished, nor are the veils protecting His friends stripped away. He does not demolish anything without building something better, stronger, and higher in its place. He never abandons the world without purpose.
People say, “God never closes a door of provision without opening other doors.” The door here is the Proof of the world, their teacher, through whom they enter tawḥīd and knowledge of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. “God” here signifies the divinity of our Lord—glorified is He. Our Lord does not permanently conceal His servant, the Guide to His worship, from His servants while the Guide is active, except when He intends to manifest him before the other servants, support him with power, and prepare the earth through his hand until no hypocrite remains standing against the force of our Lord and no polytheist escapes His scourge.
You have heard in the Gatherings of Wisdom, community of Responders, that when the Qāʾim of Truth appears, he will break the cross, kill the pig, turn swords into sickles, and make houses into dwellings. Then rain will fall from heaven, plants will spring from the earth, and the earth will be filled with justice and equity as it had been filled with oppression and wrong.
Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has supported me so that I have done all this, and you have witnessed it with your own eyes. The cross signifies the Speaker, who has twelve ranks, as does every Speaker. Jesus son of Yūsuf, the fifth Speaker, said to his disciples “I ascend to my Father and your Father; gird your waists, carry your crosses, and follow me.” By the cross he meant himself and his twelve ranks. I have broken your law-bound religious dispensation through the true sciences of tawḥīd.
The pig signifies the spiritual Opponent, who likened his spirit to our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. I summoned him, and he accepted, acknowledging servitude to me out of necessity, not conviction.
The swords signify the support our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—gave me for reaping the hypocrites and rebels through His power.
The houses are the Preceder, Follower, Speaker, and Foundation, in whom the world has placed spiritual meanings. I have explained to you and all Unitarians that they are servants and stations, just as people speak of the stations of the moon and celestial sphere.
Rain from heaven signifies the true knowledge with which our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—has supported me. The earth's vegetation signifies the Responders' hearing and acceptance of that knowledge. The earth being filled with justice and equity means the Caller's open proclamation of the tawḥīd and worship of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. Its former oppression and wrong mean the ornamentation of the two religious laws.
You have heard what was recited in the Gatherings of Wisdom concerning the Imam's trial, his concealment, and his movement from place to place—a movement of concealment, not of transformation or change of essence. The Imam is the servant and possession of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—Ḥamza son of ʿAlī son of Aḥmad, Guide of the Responders, who takes vengeance upon the polytheists by the sword of our Lord and the strength of His authority.
This trial will bring the destruction of rebels and opponents. It is a trial through which our Lord tests you because He has bestowed upon you favors never granted to anyone in the cycles and revealed to you in His tawḥīd and worship what He revealed in no earlier age. He honored you in the time of His servant, the Guide, as He honored no one in the regions. Neither police chief nor governor nor mounted troops had power over you except in ways beneficial to you. Then the hypocrites killed three of your brethren, and our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—commanded the killing of a hundred of them, although the Qurʾān says only, “A life for a life.” Yet you did not give thanks for this or worship Him as He deserved. Your intentions were not sincere in His unity.
You did not accept what I commanded you in my books: truthfulness of the tongue, protection of the brethren, acceptance of the actions of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and submission to His command. Instead you dealt with me deceitfully concerning His worship and tawḥīd, doubted His promises, and feared created beings rather than fearing His punishment and hoping for His mercy and reward.
You altered the guidance I gave you, denied the favor and sufficiency you had enjoyed, and our Lord replaced your pure water with scalding water and mirage, and your safety with fear and punishment. “We did not wrong them; rather, they wronged themselves.” “God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves, and when God wills evil for a people none can reverse His decree.”
You heard in the gathering that some “seek understanding for other than God, learn knowledge without acting upon it, wear sheepskins while their hearts are wolves' hearts, have tongues sweeter than honey and deeds more bitter than colocynth. Are you deceived by Me, or daring against Me? I have sworn to test you with a trial that leaves even the forbearing among you bewildered.”
The forbearing one here signifies the Caller in our present trial, and the address was directed to you. Sheepskins signify the outward appearance of believers adopted without reality or proof. Hearts signify Imams; wolves' hearts mean Imams of error. Tongues signify Proofs. Deeds more bitter than colocynth signify the spiritual Opponent, whom our Lord has banished from His mercy.
This trial resembles the furnace in which silver is refined. Fire burns away the copper mixed with it and leaves pure silver, which receives another designation when it is refined. Likewise, when a Responder who harbors doubt undergoes this trial, his counterfeit nature is exposed and what was concealed within him becomes manifest. But a believer mature in religion, truthful in speech and upright in action, grows more certain and faithful as the age's trials increase, just as pure white silver becomes more refined the longer it is subjected to the furnace. Thus a Unitarian accepts whatever trial our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—decrees and patiently submits to His judgment.
One of them says, “If you cut me into pieces in your trial, the trial would only increase my love.” Such a person is among the successful. As the Qurʾān says, “We shall surely test you with something of fear”—fear in religion—“and hunger”—the starvation of spirits deprived of true knowledge—“and loss of wealth”—the books mentioned—“and lives”—the ranks of tawḥīd—
“—and fruits,” meaning the benefits of knowledge. “Give glad tidings to the patient,” meaning the Unitarians, “who, when disaster strikes them” in religion, say, “We belong to God,” meaning we surrender our affairs to Him, “and to Him we return,” meaning to strength and victory, certainly and necessarily, through the will and power of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance.
I had already promised and warned you of the trial that has afflicted you and cautioned you against the deeds for which you would deserve punishment. First I warned you about Anūshtakīn al-Darazī, al-Bardhaʿī, and their companions, and the corrupt deeds they practiced. I explained to you in The Epistle of Communication and the Ultimate Goal that truthfulness signifies the Imam, and I am that Imam.
Lying signifies the Imam's Opponent. Truthfulness and lying each consist of three letters in Arabic and thus resemble one another in the number of their letters while differing in form and meaning.
Know that al-Darazī and al-Bardhaʿī spoke without knowledge or understanding, acted without seeking our Lord's pleasure, and raised a building without foundations. What befell each of them came through their own deserts and the justice of our Lord—glorified is He—at my hand.
I submitted al-Darazī's name to the Divine Presence among many other names. He repeatedly begged me to give him some of the books of tawḥīd I had composed, but I refused because I foresaw his evil end. The possessor of the religious law said, “Beware the believer's insight, for he sees through the light of God.” Here the believer is the Imam, and “God” refers to the divinity of our Lord—glorified is He.
Through our Lord's light and support I perceived his condition and did not hand him what he requested. He then grew arrogant and said, “I am better, stronger, and higher than he.” He did not understand that the victor is the one whom our Lord helps. “When He wills a thing, His command is only to say to it, ‘Be,’ and it is. Glorified is He in whose hand is the dominion of everything, and to Him you return.”
As for al-Bardhaʿī, I sent to him and invited him to the tawḥīd and worship of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance. He swore by our Lord that he would not enter this doctrine without a written authorization from our Lord. But when al-Darazī sent him a messenger with three dinars and promised him a mount and robes of honor, he went to him, opening for himself the gates of calamity and unbelief.
All his companions are recorded by me, and I possess documents witnessed by trustworthy people that they would never renounce what they heard from me. If one of them recants, he is repudiated by our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and our Lord repudiates him, punishing him as He wills without objection.
If our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—wills to punish them with death, we acknowledge that the will and choice belong to Him.
I instructed them, as I instructed you, not to curse anyone among those previously mentioned and not to approve of obscenities, whether outward or hidden. When they exceeded the bounds, our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—took vengeance upon them and upon the “shirt” in which they had worshipped Him. His will and choice govern them. If He punishes them, it is for their evil deeds; if He shows them mercy, it is through His generosity and compassion, not because of any claim they deserve.
I had written an epistle to Anūshtakīn al-Darazī, explaining that every outward thing has an inward aspect, every spirit a body, and neither can stand without the other. The Unveiling you seek is beyond your power and capacity to accomplish, for it has a spirit and body and neither can be perceived. Its spirit is true knowledge, of which you possess nothing; you do not know its nature. I have manifested true, creative knowledge beyond your capacity and that of all the worlds. This is through the support of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—not my own power or strength. Praise and thanks belong to Him alone. Its body is the sword which our Lord has promised me, and He does not break His promise.
If you claim to be a believer, acknowledge my Imamate as you did at first, so that you may address the people of the Psalms from their Psalms, the people of the Torah from their Torah, the people of the Qurʾān from Revelation, the people of inward knowledge from Interpretation itself, and the people of logic through horizons, celestial spheres, rational proofs, and their own selves. Then each will see the defects in what he possesses, and the worship and tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—will be established, together with repudiation of Iblīs and his party.
Do this without cursing anyone mentioned earlier, for curses neither increase religion nor diminish it. Address people in the best manner, for our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—loves those who do good. If you act thus, the hearts of the worlds will incline toward us and their tongues will cease speaking against us, until our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—wills their destruction and delivers them to the sword of His vengeance.
Then spirit and body, time and place and possibility, sword and knowledge and sovereignty will come together. No hypocrite will remain without his power being broken, and no polytheist without his end drawing near. Whoever survives the sword will pay the poll tax, as I explained in The Epistle of Communication and the Ultimate Goal.
The opponents (Nāṣibīs) will have the end of the left sleeve dyed violet and wear two lead pendants in their ears, weighing twenty dirhams. Their poll tax will be two and a half dinars; they are called the Jews of Muḥammad's community.
Those who adhere to the Foundation without our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—will wear two iron pendants in their ears, weighing thirty dirhams, and have the end of the right sleeve dyed black. Their poll tax will be three and a half dinars; they are called the polytheists who are the Christians of Muḥammad's community.
The hypocrites who apostatized from the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—will wear two pendants of black glass, weighing forty dirhams, have the breast of their garment dyed dusty lead-gray, and wear a pointed cap of fox skin. Their poll tax will be five dinars annually; they are called the hypocrites who are the Magians of Muḥammad's community.
Then our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—will manifest Himself to His servants, and the question will be asked, “To whom belongs sovereignty today, and on every day?” The answer will be, “To our Lord al-Ḥākim, the Mighty, the Compelling.” Glorified and exalted is He above the assertions of polytheists and unbelievers.
Community of Responders, beware of disliking any act of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—concerning you or forming evil suspicions about Him, lest you lose your religion. Surrender the affair to Him and you will be saved. Accept His decree, remain patient under His trial, and give thanks for His favor and gifts. Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—never breaks His promise and does not wrong His servants. He will complete His light through my hand, even if the polytheists dislike it. Rejoice in His promise and worship Him as He ought to be worshipped until certainty comes to you.
The copy was presented to the Divine Presence in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, the second year of the servant and possession of our Lord, Ḥamza son of ʿAlī son of Aḥmad, Guide of the Responders, who takes vengeance upon the polytheists by the sword of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—besides whom none is worshipped. Praise belongs to our Lord alone in prosperity and adversity, hardship and ease. He suffices me; upon Him I rely, and He is the best Helper.
Completed with the praise of our Lord alone.