رسالة بني أبي حمار
I place my trust in our Lord al-Ḥākim, glorified and exalted above the attributes of His creatures.
A reply to those who say that the form called al-Ḥākim passed into the form called ʿAlī.
Know, community of brethren, that the visible form through which the Existent One was worshipped appeared to bodily sight. We found the people of the world to be born ignorant, knowing only what was familiar and established before them. They could not understand intelligible realities as they truly are except by way of sensible things. Wisdom therefore required that a form should appear to them according to their own condition. They became familiar with that form because it belonged to the same visible kind as their own forms.
Their physical eyes perceived different appearances as divine power willed, through the changing of visible human garments or bodies; this subjected the world to a trial. People disagreed because they were tested by the change of these garments. The change in these visible garments itself constituted the trial imposed upon the human community.
You know, brethren—may the Lord grant you success in obedience and strengthen you in seeking what pleases Him—that our Lord al-Ḥākim has brought this worldly life to its end and that you now stand at the beginning of the hereafter. Your evidence is clear. Our Lord manifested to you the Imam of His tawḥīd, who summoned you, instructed you, indicated the way, and guided you to the unity of your Creator, until the argument had been established against you. Not one of you failed to write his covenant and bear witness against himself that he had no god in heaven and no worshipped one on earth other than our Lord al-Ḥākim, the Existent One.
Then you saw the One whom you worship, who received your covenants and knows your confession of unity. Thus no excuse remained to you, doubt and uncertainty disappeared, and you knew with reason and knowledge the Worshipped One who received your covenants and knew your tawḥīd.
At that point it was established for you that the world had departed—that is, the systems of religious law, religions, and customary forms of worship—and that you were among the people of the hereafter through writing your covenants and witnessing against yourselves concerning the worship and true tawḥīd of the One whom you worship. The proof therefore stands against you by what you have witnessed and confessed. For all people agree that in the hereafter the Creator will manifest Himself to humanity, address them, and recompense them according to their deeds. In this way they attain enduring existence, and dissolution and annihilation depart from them; they remain under their recompense forever, without perishing.
Know also, brethren, that in no earlier age has the true tawḥīd of the Lord of the Abode been disclosed as it has in our own time. The people of the world remain hidden within their deeds, free to do what they choose; what is concealed from them is the true oneness of the Creator and His manifestation to them. All people together are powerless to disclose what the Creator—exalted be His power—has kept hidden. But if He wills, He makes the outward signs manifest. He manifested His tawḥīd particularly in the form named al-Ḥākim, because in that form He received the covenants, called people to His unity and worship, and appointed the guiding Imam who proclaimed and magnified His transcendence.
He disclosed the unrestricted spiritual ranks of the Call to tawḥīd, made them publicly known, and opened to the world the House of Emigration which gathers the ranks together. He stripped the Call down to the unity of the Worshipped One, extinguished the summons to the doctrine of composition, removed the hand of the religious law from the guiding Call, and caused the friends to stand before the visible, revealed form in praise and sanctification. All this occurred while the people of the world, differing in their religions, united in opposition to us; their alliance and enmity could not frustrate divine power.
An instance of this was the rising of the world's people against the first two Unitarian servants, the brothers of Banū Abī Ḥimār, who practiced concealment. The Lord granted them success, supported them, strengthened them, and guided them. Our Lord, glorified be He, did not give the world power over them. Some people suspected them and wished to destroy them, but could neither achieve what they hoped nor obtain what they wanted. Nothing rescued them from their enemies except the soundness of their religion and the purity of their intention in the tawḥīd of their Creator.
Another witness to this is what we saw concerning the servant and possession of our Lord, ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Ilyās, the heir apparent of the Muslims. He possessed wealth, kingship, followers, dependants, servants, and slaves; nevertheless he was devoid of the tawḥīd of his Creator, denying the favors bestowed on him by his Benefactor. All his authority, strength, glory, and numbers could not protect him when the command of his master reached him through a weak and lowly servant. He was seized despite his sovereignty, his wealth, and his men. The cause was his denial of the favors bestowed upon him and his ingratitude toward the Benefactor who made him known. By contrast, the Creator rescued His friends from the hands of tyrants through their acknowledgement of His unity, sincerity in worship, and purity of intention, though they were few, lacking in worldly resources, and abandoned by relatives and families. Their lack of worldly wealth did not prevent their deliverance.
Know, brethren, that if the Worshipped One—glorified be He—were to pass after this manifestation from one human garment into another, this would be an affair without benefit and without end. It would undo the religion's final purpose. The consequence would be that anyone who performed a deed would never receive its reward, whether for or against him. Recompense and worship themselves would fall away under the opinion that the Worshipped One continues to transfer among bodies after the word of tawḥīd has been publicly declared.
Beware, beware, brethren, of falling into doubt about the One whom you worship because the divine form is hidden from the sight of your bodily eyes. This concealment belongs to the new dispensation and to the fulfillment of promise and warning. You know that the familiar covenant taken for human Imams was a bodily, public covenant gathering together the ranks of the religious law. The Worshipped One—glory be to Him—manifested a form to the world and had the familiar covenant taken for that form. Yet the covenant declaring the tawḥīd of our Lord al-Ḥākim remained distinct. It negated the customary bodily covenant and the associationism that accompanied it. For our Lord had already abolished the religious laws and their differing interpretations without contradiction or ambiguity.
Then He manifested tawḥīd and the covenant; afterward He manifested the form named ʿAlī and had the customary covenant taken for that form. This was done as a test of the associationists, to make visible what they had concealed in their souls once certainty and awareness had arisen. His manifestation of the form called ʿAlī and the taking of the accustomed covenant signified that this form belonged among the last of the former Imams who had served our Lord, indicated His tawḥīd, and guided people toward it.
The covenant declaring the unity of our Lord remained particular to the form named al-Ḥākim. He shared it with none of His creations or servants. Glorified be our Lord above what they imagine and exalted above the descriptions of those who describe Him. He is sufficient for me, an excellent Protector and Helper. Through Him we seek assistance in all affairs.
Completed. Praise belongs to our Lord alone, and thanks to His servant, the Riser of the Age.