I put my trust in our Lord al-Ḥākim, exalted above the imagined nonexistence of those who wear the disguise of truth, and I seek His help through His Guardian, the Qāʾim of the religion, who knows what is concealed within intellects and souls.
From the acquired servant, submissive and obedient, to those who have distorted, changed, and neglected the truth among the people of the two Iraqs, Baghdad and its surroundings, and the people of Persia and its regions and the countries beyond them, and all the nations of past and future bearing different, related, and overlapping names. This is a reminder to those capable of hearing and understanding, an awakening for souls that have passed through descent, ascent, embodiment, and return, yet have forgotten the resurrection and repeated return of disobedient souls and the reward of obedient Unitarians. Their heedlessness is bound up with their past actions and their response to the manifestation of the Guardian.
Now then: honor, might, glory, sanctity, praise, and thanks belong to the one Lord God al-Ḥākim, exalted in His own reality above attribute, description, and limit. To describe Him by categories belonging to creation is in itself limitation and denial; to stop before that which souls cannot encompass by imagination is to acknowledge true tawḥīd and worship. Through His Guardian He has set an end to the appointed ages of the misleading laws which summon people to nonbeing, destroyed the states of the Iblīses, revived the dead, and struck down the peaks of the fabricated religious codes. Peace upon His Guardian, who guides the nations, exposes error, annuls sects, doctrines, and teachings, uncovers inventions, and makes the decisive signs clear. He stands over souls according to what they acquired through the justice of choice in earlier ages, and possesses the judgment of return, account, reward, and punishment.
Awaken, possessors of bodies empty of spirits, structures standing like the shadows of phantoms! The dark night and its days have come to an end. Its veil has been removed and the earth has shone with the light of its Lord. Its darkness has withdrawn, and truth has become clear through the wisdom of the people of the Heights [aʿrāf].
You heedless ones are captivated by the banners of the devils, obeying the Pharaohs of the ʿAbbāsid house and drawing near to them in your prayers, while you are unaware of the Resurrection and its conditions. Your sight has been blinded to the straightest road. The snares of the ill-omened one-eyed figure have reversed your understanding, fastening it to deceptive outward appearances, weakening it before the true substances and the evident signs of wisdom. Your heedlessness has turned you from the doors of truth to rebellion and kept you before the doors of error, deprivation, and apostasy.
Will you not awaken? Months and years of respite have passed. The shaking calamity overshadows you, followed by another great disaster, but you remain intoxicated and uncomprehending, drowned in the sea of ignorance and neglect. You are like wandering cattle, or dumb beings prevented from understanding and speech. You tread upon the cushions of wisdom without knowing where mercy is found or how blessings flow.
You broke the covenant and rejected the pledge, accepting theft and flight, blind to the day promised to all humanity and obstinately denying the manifestation of the Lord, the Qāʾim, the guiding Imam. Having once approached the truth, you retreated. Your souls descended from their proper activity, the fruit of perfection; they sought readiness from outside themselves, departing from truth and right measure, and pursued lower things contrary to their own nature. They clung to lower objects unlike their own nature, forgetting their spiritual distinction and neglecting the loss of the knowledge they once possessed.
Their whole being has sunk into the depths of evil. After the gain of obedience, they returned to rebellion and loss, wandering in idleness and ignorance. Too weak to conceive the meanings of truth and the substances flowing from intellect, they have become feeble through sickness, lost in confusion, and eager to return to the corrupt element. By the deliberate evil of their actions they stripped themselves of knowledge and sank into degradation. How is a world sunk into loss to be delivered? How can a people who have returned to Iblīs after knowledge and acknowledgment of divine unity be saved, when they refuse the advice of the truthful Guide?
Awaken, people of despair, delusion, and blindness. The one-eyed Antichrist's sun has set; his moon has passed into eclipse; his stars dwindle and burn as they descend from their stations. His earth shakes and his sky approaches collapse, for the sun of realities rises from behind its veil, the moons of truth send out rays in longing for manifestation, and the stars that restore what Iblīs corrupted in the worlds shine forth.
The sea of religion has surged forth from Hajara, sparkling with the substances of divine invention, and its light has spread across the horizons through noble spiritual angels, whose ranks rise above material composition. They are free from the doctrines invented by the Iblīses of the ages and falsely imposed upon the people of truth. They are the illustrious leaders of the Heights, the Proofs of the guiding Lord, the suns of the Resurrection and the full moons. By their swords vengeance comes upon the devils of earlier cycles and their sinful followers. Their blessing answers the blood of Unitarians who suffered affliction and illuminates the regions.
In truth these are the possessors of sharp Indian swords, courage, and strong arms. Their helpers are descendants of the pure prophets and righteous tribes of truth: the light of the regions of religion, the chosen of Naphtali and Benjamin, and the descendants of Manasseh and Gad. They will exact justice for the people of truth when the guiding Qāʾim appears. He chose them with knowledge, concealed them from the world, and announced their coming on the Last Day as victory and mercy to believers.
Thus the words, 'When the promise of the Hereafter comes, We shall bring you together in one gathering,' are interpreted as the assembly of all these people to serve truth, save its adherents, and destroy lying deniers after every soul has acquired the deeds for which it is responsible and the party of apostasy has been separated from the party of fidelity.
When the morning of that radiant night breaks and its darkness disappears, the head of the associating sects will be cut off, their lofty claims overturned, and the religious codes and their structures demolished. The great sign of this announcement will be the uncovering of the founder of those codes—identified with Iblīs—and the exposure of his corrupt and base works. The nations will tremble, and the buildings of truth rise through the movements of the religious elements, distinguishing the dense physical forms from the subtle meanings of souls and making the beliefs of wicked, pretending spirits visible. Thus recompense and punishment will become manifest to bodily eyes through justice, and the peoples will be confronted with intellectual knowledge of their own souls. Genealogical links and fabricated ties will be severed, and the inventors' ranks will fall on account of their fabrications about the higher spiritual orders.
Learn from these clear proofs. Hear the cry of truth which discloses the reality of religion. Now is the time for the wanderer to look behind him and the ignorant to abandon stubbornness before the blazing heat and the great thunderbolt overwhelm them.
When the flags of the fortunate, victorious King come from the distant pass and his judgment falls upon the composite world through alteration of forms and destruction, the mill of death will grind in the lands of the opponents. The Caller will proclaim the breaking of the fast to humankind, the bonds of the devils will be broken, and the season of affliction will give way to a festival for the people of truth. The scattered followers will gather for the sacrificial feast. The flood of Resurrection will pour forth with blood, striking the house of the wicked. Its lightning and rain will bring forth the fruit of recompense. Its light will unite with its origin and eclipse the Antichrist's false suns. The fires of the resurrection will flare across the regions; the hearts of doubters, associators, apostates, and hypocrites will burn. The mixed elements will be returned to their proper origins, what is pure separated from what is turbid, and the peoples of high and low brought to their appointed ends.
Awaken, deniers, and understand if you are capable of understanding truth. The noble messengers have delivered what was entrusted to them of tawḥīd and explanation. The Guardian's proof has been established against all denominations through true demonstration. The cycle of concealment has ended and the reign of tyrannical usurpers has run out. The gates of repentance are closed to those who have persisted in apostasy and have laid bare the wickedness concealed in their hearts.
O Lord, You know that I have delivered to the nations, insofar as I have power, the advice of tawḥīd. I acknowledge myself as Your Guardian's owned servant, the least of servants, and confess weakness and inadequacy before the grace through which You strengthen and assist. O Lord, bear witness against those who lied about the Qāʾim of the religion, rose against his pure ranks, and turned back in apostasy. Curse those who fought truth and sought to extinguish its light. Remove Your protection from those who disputed with Your Guardian through harming his followers, invented accusations against the people of truth, and made their passions their gods.
O Lord, fulfill Your promise to Your Guardian and his followers and spiritual ranks. Reveal the end of those who joined Iblīs and his soldiers in rebellion. Grant us the honor of beholding Your Guardian's chosen friends, the treasuries of Your favors. Make us acknowledge our inability to repay their rights and grant us recompense through their goodness on the day of resurrection and judgment.
You are exalted beyond the words and expressions of tongues, sanctified beyond what imaginations imagine and what minds conceive; the source of true divinity is beyond the powers by which the world assigns names and attributes. Exalted is He who makes pure intellects incapable and makes them instruments and indications of His creation. Praise belongs to Him for making known the party of truth and for the respite extending to the final limits of the peoples; thanks to His Qāʾim Guardian for establishing proof in this age as he established it in ages past.
Written on the tenth day of Dhū al-Qaʿda, in the fifteenth year of the Qāʾim of the Age.
Completed. Praise belongs to our Lord alone, and thanks to His Guardian, His servant.