رسالة التنزيه إلى جماعة الموحدين
I put my trust in our Lord, the Creator, the All-Knowing, the Most High, the Judge of judges, who does not enter thoughts or imaginings, whose remembrance is exalted above the descriptions of those who describe and the comprehension of humanity. “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful”: the Callers of His servant, the Imam.
From the servant who has known our Lord in manifestation and concealment, worshipped Him in every age and season, prostrated before His unity in secret and amid events, guided to tawḥīd and faith, and forbidden indecency and falsehood: the possession of our Lord—glorified is His power and exalted His glory—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.
His servant relies upon no created human being and worships no person or image. Rather, he worships universal Divinity, the Eternal God, the Originating Creator, who manifests His humanity to the world, whose station is named al-Ḥākim, and who is exalted above names, attributes, and intentions. Glorified is He above human comprehension through imagination, and exalted above the Preceder, Follower, Speaker, Foundation, and Imam.
To the community of believers in al-Ḥākim, the Creator, the Most High, who affirm His unity beyond every originated and eternal thing. Our Lord has guided you and us and aided us all through the favors and gifts He has granted you. He is the Guardian, the Powerful, the All-Powerful.
Now then: I praise our Lord, besides whom we have no lord. I command you and myself to thank Him for His favors and gifts, and for what He has manifested to you of His beneficence, and for His divinity being transcendent above His lordship and the servants of His Call. I confirm what I explained to you in The Book of the One Who Is Distinct through His Own Essence, and refute those who say that our Lord is the Speaker, Foundation, or Imam.
Every one of these groups claims to be a believing Unitarian, though he is an unbelieving polytheist and heretic. They adopted religion through opinion, analogy, obstinacy, and deception, and studied the books of the Opponents and of confused beliefs. Thus they strayed from the path and lost sight of the true light, so that they were not guided.
Had they looked with the eye of the heart and certainty, distinguished the realities of faith and religion, surrendered the affair to its rightful possessor, and remained upright upon the middle path, they would have obtained abundant knowledge, acquired pure reason, and followed the clearest road.
Instead they lost their connection with the Imam, followed human appetites, and associated idols and images with the universal Creator. Such people will not prosper.
I have already set out in The Book of the One Who Is Distinct through His Own Essence what invalidates the doctrine of each of their factions. In this book I shall briefly mention the subtleties and the pure realities of tawḥīd, sufficient for a discerning rational person and a cultivated Unitarian. The rational person hears the beginning of speech and understands its middle and end; hears its end and understands its beginning and middle; and hears its middle and knows its two ends. The ignorant person understands neither the outward arrangement nor the meanings of the words.
Know—may our Lord guide you to Him—that all the names familiar among believers, such as Preceder, Follower, Grandfather, Opening, Imagination, Speaker, Foundation, Imam Proof, and Caller, may refer either to praiseworthy or blameworthy beings. Every rank in the Call of tawḥīd has its counterpart in the Call of associationism and rivalry, so that an Opponent stands against it in each age and time.
The earlier teachers said that the Preceder, Follower, Grandfather, Opening, and Imagination were spiritual beings in the heights whom no one could see. They intended thereby to draw believers along gradually and also to deceive them.
Do you not see their saying that each spiritual rank in the heights has a corporeal rank in the lower world standing in its place? The Speaker stands in the place of the Preceder; the Foundation in that of the Follower; the Imam in that of the Grandfather; the Proof in that of the Opening; and the Caller in that of the Imagination. Thus it is established that nothing benefits you except worship of the Existent One and tawḥīd of the Worshipped One.
All the fine names belonging to the ranks of tawḥīd were adopted by the masters of the law-bound religions, who imitated them and usurped their names and stations until the appointed time. As Salmān the Persian—may our Lord's blessings be upon him—said to the Speaker, Foundation, and their companions: “Karziyū, karziyū, ḥaqq mīza bi-tazriyū”. Its Arabic meaning is: “You knew, you knew, until you overcame the master of the affair, imitated his friends, and claimed what was not yours by right.”
The earlier teachers likened the Speaker to the Preceder and placed him above all ranks out of fear of the world and desire for worldly goods. Yet the most exalted and highest station is the Imam. He is the true Preceder, originated by the Creator—glorified is He—before all the ranks.
He is the Intellect, concerning which ordinary people relate that God created it before all things. He said to it, “Approach,” and it approached. Then He said, “Turn away,” and it turned away. He said, “By My might, I have created nothing and shall create nothing finer than you.”
This is the Imam in whom everything has been enumerated. The true “things” are the ranks who stand before humanity. The Imam is a single light that our Lord—glorified is He—transfers as He wills. He knows the worlds, while they do not know him.
Whoever is appointed by the Imam as his deputy is the Follower, because he follows him in knowledge. He is also called Foundation, because he is the foundation of the Responders and the origin upon which their building rests. The Responders must obey him as long as he obeys our Lord—glorified is He—and the Imam who appointed him.
The Imam is called Imam because he leads them and guides them to worship our Lord—glorified is He. He is called Preceder because he was the first to precede others in knowledge of our Lord. He is truly called Speaker because in every age and time he speaks the truth and calls the world to the tawḥīd of our Lord—glorified is He.
His deputy is called Foundation because the Responders build their religion upon his words. He is called Follower because he deputizes for the Imam and follows his knowledge. The Caller is named Grandfather because he strives (jadda) to seek knowledge from the Imam and exerts himself in the affairs of Responders until he brings them to high degrees. The Authorized Instructor is called Opening because he opens the gate of the pledge and covenant to the Responders. The Mukāsir is called Imagination because he alludes through his knowledge and disputation like an image or apparition, having permission to hint in speech but not to disclose and explain openly.
These are five praiseworthy persons belonging to tawḥīd. All the names appearing in the Qurʾān apply to these five. But the earlier teachers concealed them, granted partnership to the masters of the religious laws, and placed the name of the servant above that of the Worshipped One. They established the five. Our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—will complete His light through my hand even if the polytheists dislike it.
They said that the Preceder, Follower, Grandfather, Opening, and Imagination were spiritual beings in the heights, invisible to the world. Their statement was correct in one meaning, for these five are the spirits of the Responders and are hidden from the eyes of the ignorant. But they did not explain their individual persons to the world. They withheld understanding and placed them in non-being, seeking thereby to keep people with the Speaker of the law, his Foundation, and their ranks.
They set against the five spiritual ranks of tawḥīd five corporeal ranks of the law-bound religion, so that everything might be paired and opposed, and the unity of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and His distinctness from all creation might become clear. He is the Originator of them all, their Knower, and the Fashioner of their religious forms. He does not enter numbers or become measurable by the one. Glorified and exalted is He above their descriptions.
The discerning rational person does not seek the non-existent and abandon the Existent One. Reports about what is absent are subject to increase and decrease; the Existent One is witnessed through intellect, proof, and direct observation. Thus you recognize the falsity of non-being and remove from our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—all falsehoods and accusations.
Among the greatest ordered rational proofs and clear satisfactory signs that our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—is transcendent above the Speaker and Foundation, and that they are His servants, is that both are present in our own age and employed in His dominion.
They are ʿAbd al-Raḥīm son of Ilyās and ʿAbbās son of Shuʿayb. Two decrees bestowed upon them titles that can belong only to the Speaker and Foundation. There is another clear rational and visible proof: the protected communities and the people of religion agree that ʿAbd al-Raḥīm son of Ilyās, titled Heir-Apparent of the Muslims, is closer to our Lord—glorified is He—than ʿAbbās son of Shuʿayb, titled Heir-Apparent of the Believers.
Even if ʿAbd al-Raḥīm had no excellence over ʿAbbās beyond the mention of his name in the sermon, coinage, and public proclamation, that would suffice for the discerning rational person. The adherents of the religious laws agree that faith is superior to Islam and believers superior to Muslims.
Were it not for the profound wisdom He manifested to the worlds through making their persons known and their stations visible, ʿAbd al-Raḥīm son of Ilyās would have had to be called Heir-Apparent of the Believers, and ʿAbbās son of Shuʿayb Heir-Apparent of the Muslims, according to their degrees of nearness and the outward order of their ranks.
When we saw that their titles ran contrary to the outward ranking, we knew with certainty that ʿAbd al-Raḥīm son of Ilyās is the Speaker Muḥammad son of ʿAbd Allāh, and that ʿAbbās son of Shuʿayb is the Foundation ʿAlī son of ʿAbd Manāf. Their Completer is Khutakīn, the Caller, corresponding to the one surnamed Abū Bakr. Their successor Jaʿfar the Blind corresponds to ʿUmar son of al-Khaṭṭāb. Beneath them stands the Chief Judge Aḥmad son of al-ʿAwwām, corresponding to ʿUthmān son of ʿAffān.
These five are the ranks of the outward religious law. They are forms without spirits, because the true spirit is acknowledgment of the tawḥīd of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and undertaking His worship. All of them deny His power, disbelieve in His favor, associate others with His worship, and are ignorant of the foundations and sources of religion. They are heedless of the enmities of the past and do not know what is to come: the killing of apostates and the sale of their offspring in the market of Māzin, on a day when no soothsayer will speak and the intercession of a treacherous polytheist will be of no benefit.
You will see the polytheists like drunkards, although they are neither drunk nor suffering from wine; rather, their minds will be stunned by the awe of the Compelling King and by the sword and destruction that overtake them. Every soul will be recompensed for what it has earned, and they will not receive mercy.
Community of Unitarians of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—I have explained the path to you and opened a wide way through the narrow passage. Avoid the roads of associationism and error and follow the paths of guidance and perfection.
Know that every man who leads a people and stands before them is their imam, because he leads them in speech and action. But there are praiseworthy and blameworthy imams, as He said: “Fight the leaders of unbelief, for they have no faith, so that they may desist.” These are the leaders of the law-bound religion.
Muslims have attributed the Imamate to many scholars, such as al-Shāfiʿī, Abū Ḥanīfa, Mālik, Sufyān al-Thawrī, and others too numerous to discuss here. They called them imams because by their words they prohibited what was forbidden and permitted what was lawful, and people accepted their authority.
Likewise each of the five men I mentioned is an imam to those who obey, follow, and accept his words. The Heir-Apparent of the Muslims is their leader and greatest imam, because he occupies the station of the Speaker Muḥammad son of ʿAbd Allāh.
Fight them in your hearts by repudiating their beliefs concerning our Lord, the Creator, the All-Knowing, the Most High, the Judge of judges—glorified and exalted above their descriptions. They confine Him within form and humanity, whereas the power of our Lord is exalted and His divinity transcendent above their descriptions.
Just as there are five corporeal ranks of the law-bound religion, visible and existing to uphold its Call, there are five spiritual ranks, existing to uphold the Call of tawḥīd.
First among them, and greatest in excellence, is Dhū Maʿa. After him is Dhū Maṣṣa, followed by the Word and the two Wings, who are known as Preceder and Follower. But the corporeal Preceder is not the spiritual Preceder, for the true Preceder is the greatest Imam, Dhū Maʿa, whom our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—appointed to guide His servants and serve as the gate to His worship and tawḥīd.
Each of the four who follow him may be called an imam because he stands before the Responders and leads them to knowledge of our Lord, Lord of the worlds, through the mediation of their common Imam, the Universal Intellect, Dhū Maʿa, who manages their affairs. He raises the Callers through knowledge and forbearance and nourishes the Responders through discipline and learning.
From him they receive knowledge and to him they return in fear and peace. He is the means of reaching the mercy of our Lord—glorified is He—the gate through which they enter His tawḥīd, and the instructor from whom they learn the conduct of tawḥīd and the worship of our Lord, the Originator and Restorer who does whatever He wills, glorified and exalted above their descriptions.
No one among the ranks may compose a book or have one read to a Responder except by command of the one appointed as their guide and Imam. If someone reads a book to them without authorization, both reader and listeners disobey, because the Imam speaks through the spiritual support of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—without intermediary. The Callers speak from the knowledge he has taught them directly. If they act without his command, they act through opinion and analogy.
The first to act according to his own opinion and measure knowledge by desire was Iblīs. He was removed from his rank and expelled from the Call and his station. Whoever obeys Iblīs belongs to his party and followers. Whoever among the ranks obeys his Imam and hears from him everything supported by our Lord—glorified is He—belongs to the angels brought near in the highest stations.
Whoever responds to the Imam through his hand and receives instruction by his command is guided to command what is right and forbid what is wrong. He permits them the good things our Lord—glorified is He—has permitted, forbids them impurities and the worship of created beings and customary idols, and urges them toward the tawḥīd and worship of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—the ultimate goal of every goal.
The ranks resemble the imams of mosques, each of whom is an imam in his own mosque and neighborhood. The Guide resembles the greatest Imam, who leads all the worlds in the Friday prayer and recites aloud in a manner no other mosque imam may imitate. He reduces the prayer by two cycles, which no other imam has authority to do.
Likewise the preacher: the imams of the mosques follow him, remain silent during his sermon, and pray behind him, for he is the imam of them all. Whoever speaks during his sermon or turns to look behind himself loses the excellence of Friday prayer, and his prayer is broken.
Whoever prays in his own mosque on Friday without praying behind the Imam who delivers the sermon disobeys God and contradicts his own beliefs. When the preacher appears upon the pulpit, the other mosques and their imams cease to exercise their usual authority, for he possesses evident signs that none of them possesses.
In all the mosques, the muezzins stand higher than the imam during the call to prayer, except on Friday, when the muezzins stand in one row before the Imam. The Imam stands twelve degrees above them. They stand while he sits upon the pulpit with his right hand on the hilt of his sword.
Likewise the Callers are imams over those who respond through them, until they stand in the presence of their Qāʾim and Guide. Then none of them may speak in the Call—of which the call to prayer is the likeness—except under his command and prohibition, while he sits upon the pulpit. The pulpit signifies his rank and excellence above the twelve dispersed Proofs. He wears a sword, signifying the support our Lord—glorified is He—has granted him beyond what any of them possesses.
He recites aloud, signifying his unveiling of knowledge that none of them may unveil. He drops two cycles of prayer, signifying his abolition of the Speaker and Foundation, which none of the other ranks can accomplish. He faces the people from the pulpit, signifying that he stands over all the worlds through support and the sword from on high.
When he prays, he faces the prayer niche, signifying his turning toward the sovereignty of our Lord—glorified is He—seeking His mercy. Each Friday he recites only the two suras known as The Hypocrites and Friday, signifying that he appears in each of the seven cycles and that his Call is one.
The beginning of the Call is repudiation of the ornamented religious laws, which are the very substance of hypocrisy and associationism. Its end is striving for the worship of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—and gathering in His tawḥīd.
At the end of the recitation comes the supplication (qunūt), signifying worship of our Lord in secret as well as openly, so that their worship is not hypocrisy or display before people.
Bowing in a single manner signifies submission to divine support. The bending of the body signifies acceptance and humility until that support is received in its entirety. Rising signifies establishing the Call spiritually, without obligatory ritual burdens. The two prostrations signify worship of our Lord in the station of humanity and worship of Him through the reality of divinity. Sitting between them during the testimony signifies the dignity and stillness manifested between the two conditions. Sitting at the final greeting signifies the relief that spirits will enjoy in his age from obligatory rituals and religious laws.
At that time nothing will be required of people except worship of our Lord—exalted be His remembrance—His tawḥīd, and acknowledgment of the Qāʾim of the Age and his ranks, through whom He has supported His righteous servants and guardian angels against the two religious laws.
The worshipper then offers greetings to the right and left, signifying surrender of his affairs to the Creator of all creatures. He frequently attributes power and strength to Him and acknowledges that everything he has done comes through the support of our Lord—glorified is He—and the strength of His sovereignty. Like all His servants, he is subject to weakness and incapacity, and his superiority over them consists only of the Imamate and the support he receives.
Thus these five persons have five counterparts, existing as opposed pairs: one group belongs to religion and the Call of tawḥīd, the other to worldly affairs and the Call of impiety. Our Lord—glorified is He—is transcendent above the ranks of religion and worldly life. He does not enter thoughts or imaginings. Glorified and exalted is He above their descriptions.
Praise and thanks belong to Him alone. He suffices us and is the best Helper and Supporter.
Its draft was written in the month of Jumādā al-Ākhira, in the second year of our Lord's servant and possession, 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 alone, without partner.
Completed.