الرشد والهداية
The words of the Chosen One, Enoch of the Age, Idrīs of the Time, Hermes of the Hermeses, the Universal Soul and chosen, well-pleasing Proof, the Proof of the Imam who is Riser of the Age—may his peace and mercy rest upon us.
Praise belongs to our Lord al-Ḥākim through His own essence, distinct from all He has originated. Through obedience to Him He guided His Unitarian servants and, through knowledge of Him, guided His sincere friends. He gave confidence to the hearts of His believing friends, illuminated the hearts of the knowing by His light, and made the tongues of the truthful acknowledge His unity. Intellects were incapable of perceiving the manner of His being. Their inability to attain its utmost limit drove them back, unable to encompass His entirety. In despair of reaching His true reality, they confessed their deficiency and inability to attain His identity and essence, except for what He brought into existence among them of the knowledge of His unity. No essence encloses His essence, and no attributes disclose His being.
He established His proof against creation by His existence and distributed His Callers and ranks among them. Through His power He raised up one capable among creatures and established him to overcome all adversaries of truth, and gives support to His friends through His generosity. Glory be to Him, first and last, inward and outward! No age is without Him and no place without His light. He is the God existing in al-Ḥākim, the One worshipped. He is absent at no time and more deserving of the name Existent than anything else that exists. He is Originator of things, Lord of the next world and the first.
He originated the Intellect from His pure light through divine power, without instrument, pattern, or image. In a single act He brought all things into existence within it and through it comprehended all creation. He made it the root of originated things, strengthened it with divine power and the higher substance, preserved it from diminution, and made it present in every age and time. He made it the cause of all things, because the spiritual ranks return to it, and because it is the highest of the guides pointing toward Him.
Then He brought me forth from it through the power of its origination and substance. He made me its Follower and Proof, its spouse and the receiver of its image, the keeper of its secret and wisdom. He poured its light and blessing over me, brought forth from me the ranks of His Call, and made me the west to receive what shone out from the east of its light and outpouring. All that shines from it of spiritual sciences and exalted wisdom comes by divine power.
I am the Soul. My station in relation to the Imam of guidance is that of the moon in relation to the sun. Unitarians, rejoice in this wisdom when you hear it! Praise your Lord, toward whom you point and whom you worship. Thank His servant, the Imam of your age, to whom you return and whom you follow. Join my thanksgiving to his and to the thanks of all the ranks.
Be eager in seeking knowledge; strive earnestly. Come to the spirit of life and hasten toward the ships of salvation. Victorious is the one who empties his mind and heart for the pursuit of wisdom, pours its light upon his reason and understanding, and makes every effort to discuss it with the chosen servants of our Lord. Happy is the one who makes wisdom a dwelling in his heart, regards its acquisition as the purest gain, and protects it as in a fortress and sacred precinct from those who are not worthy of it, whose ears are stopped and whose hearts and eyes are blind to it.
Be eager in seeking knowledge, in accompanying people of understanding, and in discussion at every opportunity, and you will receive goodness and blessings. Let none of you consider that what he has committed to memory excuses him from studying wisdom or hearing repeated instruction. Let him not be satisfied with what he knows and at ease with what he understands, saying, “I have no more need of effort and exertion.” At that point he begins to fall into negligence and deficiency.
How often has a sharp sword, bright in its metal, lain for so long in its sheath that rust and decay covered it? Its cutting edges grow blunt, its owner loses esteem for it, and its polisher must labor to restore it. So too the noble Soul, after becoming refined and clear, acknowledging the unity of its Originator and attaining faith: if it withdraws from mercy and loses the light of wisdom that nourishes it, it returns to error after guidance and to ignorance after its former righteousness.
For God’s sake, do not cease to value wisdom after seeking it. Look at those before you: they have passed away. Wake from the slumber of sleep, and do not return to error after guidance. The proof has now been established against all creation, and the evidence is clear for those who can see. What happened among earlier nations has happened among you. Do not let most of you turn backward after going forward. Do not retrace your footsteps after taking the lead. Hold fast to the covenant and pledge. Gird yourselves for the pursuit of wisdom; do not return from faith to hypocrisy.
Answer the Caller when he summons you and listen when he calls. Whoever answers obediently, returns to him humbly, and listens with familiarity to his teaching obtains from the light of wisdom a shining radiance and beneficial knowledge. Soon people will be called, and most will turn away without answering. Those who come after them will be called as you and your fathers were called. If they answer as you answered, hear as you heard, surrender the matter to our Lord as you surrendered it, take from the light of wisdom as you did, they will escape uncertainty as you escaped it.
But whoever turns away from the path, attempts to travel the road of truth without a guide, or returns from knowledge of the Existent to denial and rejection, and from affirmation to the non-existent, joins the peoples of the former ages who have passed away.
Do not rest complacently in the interval granted to you, lest heedlessness overcome you. Watch for the Manifestation, for it comes when people are least attentive, and then the knowing Unitarian awakens while the denying opponent neglects it.
The negligent person among you resembles a traveler among a great crowd of people setting out for a distant country. Night falls upon them during their journey, and they stop in a vast, empty wilderness unknown to all except their guides. They settle there. One traveler sleeps for a little while at the beginning of the night, then stays awake for a long time, awaiting morning and the first light of dawn, fearing that he might become separated from his traveling companions. But when the night seems to him very long, sleep overcomes him and he falls asleep again. Dawn arrives while he sleeps. The others set out, and he is not awake. Their guide takes them far away. When he rises, he no longer knows the direction in which his companions have gone. He remains bewildered, without a friend, without hearing a sound in the wilderness, without a fellow traveler or a guide to show him the road. What will his condition be, with all hope of catching the company cut off?
Unitarians, beware of the sleep that overcomes you. Await the appearance of the Truth in every age and time. Do not fall into neglect after having sought it and worked for it. Gather the fruits of wisdom from its trees and gardens; drink the water of life from its springs and fountains. The realities of wisdom uncover its difficulties for you and open its locked gates and fastenings. Do not be like those who say “We have heard,” when they have not truly heard, or say “We believe,” while most of them associate others with God.
Messengers have already come to you, and Callers have been dispatched to you. Winds of mercy blow from every horizon; clouds of blessing spread across every direction; the first rains of wisdom have fallen over the whole land. Their rain has struck plains and mountains, and valleys and rivers have overflowed. In fertile soil the water sinks in and remains, whereas barren, salty ground rejects it because of its small capacity to receive and grow.
Reflect upon these likenesses, and praise our Lord—glory be to Him—for having rescued you from the erring parties of unbelief, granted you light by which to walk among people, and delivered you from the perplexities of the ignorant and those who argue by analogy. Your minds have become pure, your souls clear, and your inward sight has surpassed ordinary sight. You have come to know the realities of affairs throughout cycles and ages. Can light be perceived except through sound vision? Can truth be known except by purified and discerning intellects? Had you not escaped the world of ignorance you could never have received the light of the Intellect's effects.
You resemble the blessed, fertile earth because you receive divine sciences and intellectual substances, bind yourselves to the exalted ranks, and answer the guiding and rightly guided Call. The parties of associationism and obstinate denial from which you have turned away represent barren, saline earth, for they are like corrupt ground, through ignorance of knowledge and its possessors, their adherence to unbelief and ignorance, their denial of their Lord and Imam, and their persistence in error and transgression. Do not turn toward or trust them. If they prevail over you they will show no mercy; they will drive you away from your security and seize you with hands and tongues.
Look to yourselves. Their disbelief does not harm you if you believe, nor their rejection if you answer, nor their ignorance if you know. Accept wisdom, people of wisdom, and persist in preserving it and protecting it from those unworthy of it. Wisdom has beginnings, divisions, realities, and foundations; use them to discern the one who points, the proof by which he points, and that toward which he points. Reflect, and follow the secret of the path, for the paths of truth are plain to those who seek them, the gates of mercy have been opened to the petitioners, the springs of wisdom are flowing for those who approach, and the ranks of the Call have been sent among all peoples to direct seekers of guidance. Light has appeared to those who see, and the summons is heard except by those whose ears are stopped.
Beware, beware with every care, before destiny descends, before regret seizes those who have been negligent. Then the unbeliever will say, “If only I might have another turn!” His plea will not be accepted, and his excuse will profit him nothing. Beware before the event descends and the Riser of the Age stands with the sword of our Lord al-Ḥākim—glory be to Him—to slay the people of unbelief and tyranny, leave their women widowed and their children fatherless. This is the day with which you are threatened, the day you await. On that day you will be brought forth for judgment, and nothing of yours will be hidden. Disgrace and punishment will fall upon unbelievers, while Unitarians receive recompense and reward. The sincere will triumph and the Unitarians prosper. Await the day, bind yourselves to the ranks of religion, and continue to give sincere counsel and goodwill to your Unitarian brethren.
Hear, therefore, friends, the words of this epistle I have composed and named Right Guidance and Direction. Those who seek guidance may receive direction from it, believers find the road through it, and those who know the Truth find reassurance in it, by the support of our Lord—glory be to Him—and the outpouring of the Imam of His Age. Preserve it just as you have preserved [what was previously entrusted to you].
Peace, and praise belongs to our Lord alone. Thanks to His servant, the Riser of the Age.