رسالة الشمعة
The candle and its likeness in tawḥīd, and the likeness of its ranks on the third path. It was raised to the Divine Presence and released by the command of our Lord, the wise al-Ḥākim. We have known the reality of “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.”
Our Lord, our Master, our Hope! There is no god other than You and none to be worshipped except You. We submit to You something concerning which You know and judge more wisely than we. A community of Unitarians requested the Book of the Candle. It concerns the science of interpretation, which belonged to yesterday; yesterday and its knowledge have passed, while today and its law have come. As You have commanded and decreed, there is no opposing Your commands—exalted is Your power.
The servant Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Tamīmī, the Caller and son-in-law of our Lord's servant, the Riser of the Age, Ḥamza ibn ʿAlī, composed this book upon the third path, which is the path of tawḥīd. I presented this book to our Lord so that He might command what He wills, in accordance with His previous favors and His divine decrees. Great is His grace. Praise belongs to the One who made His tawḥīd plain through the establishment of its ranks, made His praise manifest through the stations of His signs, and employed likenesses so that people of understanding might worship Him. He said, “None takes heed except those endowed with understanding.”
The candle, assembled completely with all its parts, is a likeness of pure tawḥīd. The word shamʿa (“candle”) has five letters, pointing to five concealed essences: Will (irāda), Volition (mashīʾa), the Word (kalima), the Preceder (sābiq), and the Follower (tālī). These are the Candle of tawḥīd.
Consider it another way. Wax does not burn except with cotton, and cotton does not burn except with wax. Neither receives the name of a complete, illuminating candle until fire has attached itself to it. The fire that takes hold of it has a subtle and a dense aspect. Its subtle part is the tall red tongue of flame, sometimes touched with blue, now hidden and now visible.
This tongue of flame indicates the Riser of the Age, Ḥamza ibn ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad. The fire that kindles the wax indicates his Proof, Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥāmid. The wax indicates the Word, Muḥammad ibn Wahb. The cotton indicates the Preceder, Salāma ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb. The stand or spike (ḥasaka) supporting the candle indicates the Follower, ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Samūqī.
These five ranks include two dense and two subtle components: the subtle ones are fire and wax, and the dense ones are cotton and stand. The subtle tongue of flame, entering among and rising out of them, is the one who truly declared our Lord's unity. He is Dhū Maʿa, whose heart is with our Lord and never leaves Him. He points toward pure tawḥīd; from him comes its goal, and to him the indications return.
The candle is always found in the homes of great and wealthy people, who make use of it. So, too, people of knowledge understand tawḥīd through these five ranks and no others. They may not neglect knowledge of any of them: they must know the stations and relative excellence of each.
When a person uses fire alone he does not say that he has used a candle. Nor, if he uses fire and wax together, does he say that he has used a candle. When fire, wax, and cotton are brought together, he may say that he has a candle, yet it still needs something to carry it. Without the stand it remains an incomplete instrument. When the stand is provided, the candle is complete; it lights the house and benefits the person who uses it. It is erected among people as a sign indicating tawḥīd.
Likewise, someone who recognizes only the Riser of the Age cannot withstand his subtlety, for he is comparable to the delicate tongue of flame. If that person recognizes the Riser's Proof, the Universal Soul, he is like someone who has kindled fire alone. If he recognizes the Word, he resembles someone who has kindled fire and wax. Recognition of the Preceder, comparable to the cotton, completes the flame; with the stand supporting it, corresponding to the Follower, the ranks of tawḥīd become complete.
Whoever lacks knowledge of these five ranks has not known tawḥīd in our present age; his claim to unity is only an assertion. Let the Unitarians know and believe this, and not worship our Lord without understanding. He said, “These are God's bounds, and whoever transgresses God's bounds has wronged himself.” This refers to the third path, concerning which the Qurʾān says, “A wall will be placed between them, having a gate.” The wall means religious law and the gate means the Foundation, just as the Speaker said, “I am the city of knowledge and ʿAlī is its gate.”
The statement “Within it is mercy” indicates that mercy is not identical with the inward. “Outside it, facing it, is punishment” indicates the Speaker, the possessor of the outward. The Foundation possesses the inward, and the Riser is the possessor of mercy.
Likewise He said, “From it We created you,” meaning the outward; “into it We shall return you,” meaning the inward; and “from it We shall bring you out once again,” meaning the departure of Unitarians from outward and inward into the third path, the path of tawḥīd.
People are thus of three kinds. The people of the outward are called Muslims. The people of the inward are called Believers. The people of the Riser of the Age are called Unitarians. Consider, seeker of guidance, these three meanings; there is no fourth. The pair, the single one, and what lies between them.
Someone who calls himself a Unitarian while clinging to anything of religious law has invalidated and falsified his own statement: rather, he is a disbelieving denier. Someone who belongs to the inward and its interpretation, yet calls himself a Unitarian, has likewise uttered falsehood and nullified his assertion. He is an associator and unbeliever, for he associates something with our Lord and opposes Him. The inward is the companion of the outward; the two are a pair.
As it was said in the assembly: know that God created everything in pairs so that He alone should be one and without pair, with nothing like Him. He created heaven and earth, land and sea, truth and falsehood, sweet and bitter, Preceder and Follower, Speaker and Foundation, Imam and Proof. There are many such pairs, for tawḥīd must be fulfilled by the Single One who is not paired.
Thus someone who claims tawḥīd while maintaining both outward and inward is false in his claim. Whoever enters obedience to the Riser of the Age and follows the third path becomes a Unitarian, for he has left the pair and followed the Single One.
Reflect, reader, on these proofs, and compare them with what you have heard in your gatherings and in the revealed Book, so that the truth becomes clear to you. The Qurʾān says through the tongue of Muḥammad, “We sent down the Book to you in truth.” The Book is ʿAlī, the one addressed is Muḥammad, and the Truth is the Riser. Thus they are three: the single one between the pair.
Know that wax comes from bees. The bees represent the Callers, and honey is the science of the Speaker. Wax is separated from and has left the honey. Likewise the Word has risen above the Speaker’s knowledge and has separated itself from him, proceeding toward the third path, the path of tawḥīd. Cotton comes from what grows out of the earth, and the earth signifies the Foundation. Cotton emerges from the earth and parts from it. Likewise the possessor of this rank, the Preceder, has left revelation and interpretation, become refined, and ascended to the third path, the path of tawḥīd.
The candle-stand (ḥasaka) is made from copper. In the language of the Arabs, copper is associated with smoke, and heaven was formed from smoke. Likewise, the Preceder supplied the Follower until all the dense parts took form from him. The stand has three legs; likewise the Follower has three ranks that hold fast to him. The first is the Grandfather (al-jadd), Ayyūb ibn ʿAlī. The second is the Opening (al-fatḥ), Rifāʿa ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith. The third is the Imagination (al-khayāl), Muḥsin ibn ʿAlī. These five and these three together make eight, a number composed of pairs. The tongue of flame indicates tawḥīd: our Lord does not enter the number of His servants; He stands alone, exalted above them. Such is the Candle of tawḥīd.
As for the tongue of flame and the fire, these are Dhū Maʿa and Dhū Maṣṣa, subtle and dense, Will and Volition. The Book speaks of the two lights: “Light upon light; God guides to His light whomever He wills.” The first light is the Riser of the Age; the second is his Proof. “God guides to His light whomever He wills”: here “God” is applied to the Riser of the Age. He guides whom He wills to His light—that is, whoever receives speech through the inspiration of our Lord, by permission of His Proof, and whose speech brings life to one who hears it when the Volition has already ordained it.
This is the nature of the Candle of tawḥīd. Whoever has it lit before him can see and find guidance. These words do not come from my own strength or power, but from the gifts of our Lord—glorious and exalted—to the Riser of the Age, and from him to his miserable, impoverished servant. Whatever here is correct comes from our Lord's success and the benefits received from the Riser of the Age; whatever is mistaken comes from this humble, lowly servant, who asks forgiveness from our Lord and asks that His favor be confirmed and made to endure, if our Lord wills. Through Him comes success.
May His peace, blessings, and greetings be upon the one whom He has chosen from among all creatures, the Riser of the Age, greatest Imam and perfect light; and upon the high spiritual ranks, with our Lord's mercy and blessings. In Him we seek help.
Here ends the Epistle of the Candle, its likeness and its ranks in tawḥīd on the third path. It was raised to the Divine Presence and released. Praise belongs to our Lord alone, and thanks to His servant, the guiding Imam.