رسالة الوادي
I place my trust in the Lord, transcendent above all causes, the God al-Ḥākim, and give thanks to His servant and effect, the master, the guiding Imam who rises.
From the servant al-Muqtanā Bahāʾ al-Dīn, tongue of the believers and support of the Unitarians, the left wing, the fourth, last, and lesser rank: a reminder to the Callers to tawḥīd in the blessed, pure district of the Valley and to all within it whom the Call of Truth has reached and who have responded to the religion of the guiding Imam, the Riser. Peace upon the people of insight and discernment who have been tested. May the Lord's mercy and blessings rest upon my brethren, the true messengers.
Now then: might, exaltation, glory, reverence, majesty, and praise belong to the Lord, who transcends the meanings of limitation and apprehension, exalted above offspring, opposites, and the attribution of partners. He is beyond the Cause of causes and is the Originator of the first mover of moving things, greater than eternity or a beginning and free from incorporation and totality. By the miracle of His originated beings and creatures He has indicated the wonder of His appearance in divine stations. He has dealt justly with creation by establishing proof against them through the beginnings of successive ages, and manifested the proof of tawḥīd in the most honorable age and most excellent time. Pure and chosen souls prepared themselves to receive it, while the souls of stubborn deniers turned away in defeat. Their former apostasy and wickedness have reappeared in our day as confusion and departure from the faith, distinguishing those who have broken faith and worshipped the calf from those who possess the genuine descent of pure Unitarians. These latter have endured injury and tribulation, cooperated in righteousness and reverence, and believed the signs of the unseen as proofs of the appearing of the greatest Sign.
You, Unitarian brethren, are a true company that has been tested. Your noble lineage of faith has been established; you have taken hold of the firmest handles and strongest bonds of truth. Preserve the merits of your earlier deeds and do not let Iblīs triumph over you by speech or action. He has set the snares of treachery for you and people like you; he has cut off the ways of right guidance for people of truth and filled them with folly, difference, and stubborn resistance.
People of knowledge and tawḥīd, guard yourselves against the accursed Satan by submitting to your Imam, who guides to the straight path. Fortify the roads leading to knowledge of the realities by purifying your intentions, entreating your Creator, repenting for the duties you have neglected, humbling yourselves before the ranks of truth, and discarding obedience to the impostors before the Day of Meeting arrives. Abandon the bitterness and grudges you harbor against the company of Unitarian men and women. The Book expressly makes an exception for one who is compelled while his heart remains tranquil in faith (Qurʾān 16:106).
Do not use your standing in tawḥīd as a pretext for pride or superiority over anyone whose belief is sound. Trials can be gifts as well as tests. This is where the assemblies of error, the paths of forbidden conduct, the marks of deception, and the ways of sin are distinguished. You may hold against a person demonstrated dishonesty of speech, failure in the rights owed to brethren, ignorance of the stations of the Proofs of the Guardian of the Age, or inclination toward the Iblises of this time. Anyone in whom one of these blameworthy dispositions becomes evident belongs among the opponents who have broken the covenant and entered the company of associationists and obstinate deniers. The evidence against such people has been established by the premises of demonstration, and it is then incumbent upon the Unitarians to distance themselves from them and cease close association.
Brethren, this reminder is for all. Is there anyone who will hear and obey, or gaze by his intellect toward the exalted assembly, so that the purity of his inner substance may rise above the defilement of accidental qualities, and his transparent soul be freed of the diseases of doubt that enter into the souls of disobedient humans? Such diseases send them into the lowest bodies and most disfigured forms as the consequence of turning from truth and doubting the promised Riser.
Know, brethren in religion, and establish with certainty, community of Unitarians, that the best outcome belongs to those who endure their trials patiently in the abode of truth. Painful chastisement and terrible loss on the Day of Return belong to those who associate partners and break their covenants. Lower your wings in kindness to your brethren who have been weakened and accept their explanations for the injury brought upon them by the forces of the accursed Antichrist. You have degrees of precedence and a right to take pride in earlier service; they have the stations of those who follow you in doing good. Let your strength and vigorous force be directed against enemies of religion, and your sympathy and gentleness toward your Unitarian brethren.
Brethren in religion, rejoice at the preliminary signs of truthfulness. You possess the honor of having gone before and of having held fast to genuine conviction. Take strength from the memory of your praiseworthy deeds. Beware of fighting against doubts about the fulfillment of the Creator's promise to His pure Unitarian friends. The hearts of people of truth have seethed within them and their livers burned with longing because the devil's wind has continued to blow. Follow their example in patience. Though you stand upon burning coals of decree, be firm: the good outcome belongs to those who restrain themselves, endure, and bear suffering without complaint. Await the emergence of light from the celestial sphere of the signs, and be alert to the truthful cry on the Day of Coming Forth.
The lights of the realities have flowered through the noble ones of the nations, the Proofs of the guiding master, the Imam. By the rays of their brightness the mists of the Iblises have been dispersed and the curtains of darkness torn apart. The divine signs with which they are invested have become manifest for the reform of humanity. The heavens of religious law have been folded away by the Guide's proof, and the destruction of the tower of injustice, the abode of people of uncleanness, falsehood, and invention, draws near. The stars of the spheres have joined with ill omens, and the souls of false claimants, rebellious doubters, have been warned of disgrace, destruction, and ruin. Their bodily appetites have overcome their insight, and their blindness and deafness have returned them to this impure and inverted world. They departed from the Guardian of the Age and denied the proofs of the signs and demonstrations. They sought the barren paths of the devils, and the devils of the intervals trampled them under their hooves. These turned them away from clear, intelligible, and illuminating signs toward obscure and deceptive fancies out of ignorance of the transmitted principles of wisdom and its established symbols.
Brethren in religion, wake from the slumber of heedlessness and take advantage of the strength of this brief respite. The summons of resurrection is drawing near, and what lies hidden in hearts and breasts will be brought into the open. Do not imitate people who lie asleep in the intoxication of their conduct, heedless of the guidance of the Guide and unaware of what will befall them. The graves have been scattered and what breasts and hearts concealed has been brought forth. Await the cry of manifestation when the horn sounds and the third blast is blown into the trumpet. Then the victorious will rejoice in the works they have prepared, while those who doubted and neglected their duties will regret what they have done.
Remove from your souls the beginnings of vainglory and arrogance. Train them in contentment, submission, patience, and reflection. By the truth of the Truth, the winds of the signs of the Companions of al-Aʿrāf have begun to blow, overthrowing the reversing and contradicting schemes of the evil, oath-breaking Antichrist. Flashes of light have shone through the darkness; the helpers of the realities have openly prepared themselves at these fortunate times and in these excellent years. They have defeated with truth the souls of rebellious and unjust people whose stubbornness made them deny the Guardian of the Age, and have returned them to the covering of impurity and made them pass through bodies one after another, shrouded in what they had earned. The bright stars of the cycle have risen and hurled their meteors against the offspring of the one-eyed Antichrist and Satan.
Brethren, reflect upon this warning and instruction and awaken through this explanation. I have kept my exhortation and warning brief and made their meaning clear. Since the ordinary means of communication between us were interrupted, and so many fell away apart from those protected by the Creator, I have sent to your community my daughter Sāra, complete in chastity and purity, who has offered her blood in obedience to the Most High through certainty of the truths of the highest world. With her is my brother and close companion, the respected teacher Abū al-Ḥasan Taqī, whom the Lord strengthen and support. I have known his service in the presence of the Guardian of Truth and found his religion, reliability, and integrity praiseworthy in important affairs. They are sent for the protection of the sincere community and to strengthen its standing in religion, so that its members may support one another in fellowship, cooperate in attaining reward and nearness, clarify your circumstances, and provide an accurate understanding of your affairs. They also provide occasion for gratitude to the Creator for the great favors reported to me from among you. I have concealed the names of my revered shaykhs to safeguard and protect them, while disclosing my own name as a screen against harm and a means of protecting them.
To the Lord who brings the ages into being and originates the Cause of causes I pray earnestly and humbly for guidance for you all. Through His Guardian I entreat Him to reunite the scattered friends who profess tawḥīd, to inspire in them goodness and compassion toward their weakened brethren, to protect them through obedience to His Guardian from the incitements of accursed Iblīs and his misguided Callers and helpers, and to place them in the cave of His mighty protection and under the shelter of His secure guardianship. Again and again I beseech the exalted Lord, the God al-Ḥākim, through His Guardian, transcendent above disappearance and change, to grant your community respite and relief so that it may witness the punishment, dishonor, and terrible chastisement that will descend upon the forces of the accursed false Messiah. He has the power to do this and to answer this prayer.
Received and authenticated. Praise belongs to our Lord alone, and thanks to His servant, the guiding Imam.