I place my trust in our Lord al-Ḥākim in truth, and in the One who establishes His proof through His Guardian, the Qāʾim over all creation. From the servant known as Bahāʾ al-Dīn, tongue of the believers, support of the Unitarians, the Left Wing, the fourth and lesser subordinate Rank, to all those encompassed by the Call of Truth in the pure and radiant mountain [Jabal al-Summāq] and its neighborhood, especially Antioch, mine of the precious treasure and substance, and those who inhabit al-Jazr, al-Nuqra, Jund Qinnasrīn, ʿAzāz, Aleppo, Bālis, the two Raqqas, the River Khābūr, the Jazīra, Manbij, the River of Walnuts, and the two valleys—including the River of Gold—and everyone far or near before whom this epistle is read.
Peace upon the chosen, the earliest people of tawḥīd, and the Lord's mercy and blessings upon my good and truthful brethren.
Now then: praise, majesty, grandeur, and honor belong to the worshipped Lord, and transcendence and sanctity to the existent God al-Ḥākim, who made the inability of intellects to delimit His unity a proof for those who know, imposed obedience to His Guardian upon the followers of all religions, and established him as Imam of the Call of Disclosure, separating those who responded from those who denied. He extinguishes the flames of the religious laws, overthrows what Hāmān built, and ends the bellowing of the Calf and the arrogant adversary. After exalting the Lord above the Cause of Invention, the Guardian was chosen to lead the spiritual ranks; the higher and lower among them differ in degree and elevation.
After these ranks come the Callers of Majesty, distinct from the callers of the one-eyed Antichrist. They vary in the way they depict the realities and according to their former actions, and share in the purity of their intentions and the teaching of the truths to responding Unitarian men and women. After them come those who preserve and communicate knowledge of the Gathering and Resurrection and recognize the reality of the Night of Decree. Then come the supervisors [nuqabāʾ], guardians of the realities of truth, who avoid falsehood and corruption and recognize the rights of the spiritual ranks of the Call.
After these are the responding Unitarians, to whom the special qualities of mercy have been granted, who drink from the flowing realities of wisdom. Their hearts are humbled at the sight of the rising stars blazing with light, spiritual souls shining in their union with the moons. These souls have been purified through direct contact with the realities across the ages, passed from potentiality into activity at the most noble time, and answered the spiritual ranks in obedience to the exalted Lord when the Disclosure appeared and the shaking calamity came upon apostates.
Come, pure souls, toward the breeze of the flowing springs. Soon the dawn will be announced from the side of al-Muqaṭṭam, the concealed King will appear, and the cry of the Calamity that lowers and raises will sound. The earth will shake with the Antichrist and he and his followers will be driven out. Then people of the realities will prevail through righteous deeds and the ignorant will suffer the results of the evils they acquired.
Brethren, beware of regret when the witnesses rise and the secret deeds of the doubters and the stubborn are exposed. On the day when hidden things are tested and destinies are brought before the Guardian of religion, no foot shall advance except according to what a soul has acquired of good action and knowledge. The peoples will be summoned under their Imams. Beware of drawing near to covenant-breakers and vile pretenders who set themselves up as Pharaohs. The deceivers' mirage has vanished; light illuminates the insight of Unitarians, and proof has been established for everyone who hears and sees.
Awaken, distinguished brethren, and do not rely upon ignorant, brutal men whose dispositions flow toward transient goods. Forbidden—utterly forbidden—is it for anyone marked by the sign of tawḥīd, whose belief has become distinct from those of doubters and deniers, to exploit a brother after acquiring sufficiency himself. Equally forbidden is it for a believing brother, when he knows another's need, to force him to seek assistance elsewhere. This is the rule for noble, pure souls, the generous character appropriate to singular knowers. Whoever lies among the brethren of unity while remaining safe among the apostate opponents has turned away from tawḥīd and the Disclosure and distinguished himself through hypocrisy and broken faith.
Know that anyone who pledged his allegiance to the soldiers of rebellion, or took from responding believers the covenant of the Call of tawḥīd to the Lord al-Ḥākim and then renounced the pledge and returned to falsehood, accepted the covenant of Iblīs instead. His assemblies bear witness to his punishment, despite the fact that he was neither forced nor threatened by sword or fire. He has revealed himself as one of Iblīs's party in the earlier ages, returning to the corrupt element among his fellows. Whoever commends his speech after that apostasy or praises his conduct has separated himself from the Call of tawḥīd and entered into the same condemnation.
Know that night has departed and the morning is shining. Hold fast to what you have received from the concealed knowledge of unity and wisdom. Continue, with firm certainty, to knock at the gate of mercy, so that the knowing Creator, Originator of the worlds and Lord of humanity, may become manifest to your understanding. He prevails in absence and manifestation and rules the ages. Through His guiding servant, who rises with truth and the divine power, He recompenses souls on the Day of Judgment and Resurrection. The spiritual form anticipated by every prophet and herald will then appear, showing all humanity that their Creator truly manifests Himself at the end of the ages, despite the denial of unbelievers.
The followers of the four religious laws—the Brahmans who follow Abraham, the Jews who claim Moses, the Christians who follow Jesus, and the adherents of Muḥammad son of Abū Kabsha —all profess belief that the Creator will become manifest on the Day of Resurrection, judge humanity, tear apart the heavens, and replace the earth. Yet they do not understand the reality of the saying. At the manifestation of the divine command and will, the religious laws of their predecessors will be torn apart: those laws are the 'heavens' of the peoples. The changing of the earth signifies the dissolution of their doctrines. The 'white earth' mentioned in the expectation is the Imam of Truth, the created Intellect, the awaited Imam who unveils the covenant on the day of disclosure. This is the day on which the hidden lights become manifest and all creation is brought before the One, the Overpowering. The deceivers will be broken and doubting apostates regret their choices, while those who believed and submitted will prevail.
Listen, brethren, to the Caller of Truth. Answer the example of the patient and truthful. Help one another in righteousness and reverence; do not cooperate in wrongdoing or aggression. Await the appearance of the Great Sign. Do not isolate yourselves from truth or join another people. Time has passed, and the appointed reckoning approaches. Preserve obedience to your Guardian, maintain the conditions of tawḥīd, guard what has been entrusted to you, and remember your religion.
Doubt and associationism have entered people's hearts as rot spreads through a tree's roots. A destructive wind has swept through their religion, not their hair. Wickedness and breach of covenant have become their nature; they have turned apostasy from a possibility into action and rushed forward in groups. They compete in slander and ignorance and help one another to defame people of religion and virtue. The interval of trial has robbed them of understanding and revealed the rancor hidden within their hearts. They forgot their pledged portion of truthful speech, submitted to the Antichrist, and let deception lead them into the dwelling of defilement and error. The stain has covered their minds, and their appointed end and misery draw near. Whoever denies his Imam and Lord and makes desire his god after professing faith has lost both this world and the next through falsehood spoken against the pure chosen people.
The curse of the knowing Creator falls upon whoever transgresses his proper rank, competes falsely with the righteous spiritual ranks, or claims distinction for himself without appointment by the Guardian of Truth. No honor or degree exists in this Call except what the Guardian confers by his authorization and favor. The curse also falls upon those who invent lies about the Guardian's ranks, falsely accuse them, twist their words, raise parties in opposition, and claim the stations of the higher ranks for themselves. Through such rebellion they and their followers sink into error.
O Lord, fulfill Your promise to Your oppressed followers and cause the consequences of wrongdoing to turn upon apostates who attack those appointed by the Guardian to teach the religion. Satan made their deeds seem good to them and turned them from the right path after they had been guided.
Know, community of true Unitarians, that those who rebel against the Guardian's friends at this time are the same hypocritical deniers who, in previous cycles, recognized the Imam of the Age and then disowned him. Do not listen to them in uncertainty after knowledge, or accept the devils' dubious arguments after a covenant firmly established. Do not rely on false resemblances or their deeds: they are the deceivers, and through their speech they deny the Guardian of Truth.
Know also that the written declaration or undertaking which the servant of religion directed to be made among the children and brethren, freeing them from the perplexity of doubters and tyrants, was drawn up with knowledge of his present and future circumstances. He knew of the approaching interval of absence and trial. He did not neglect the covenant of the Proof of the Guardian of the Age. He wrote the undertaking partly to conceal the covenant while adversaries were ascendant, for he was among those traveling and had no stable abode of migration. Had he openly distributed the full covenant to all the Responders as he delivered the undertaking, the Callers would have become indistinguishable from the pretenders, and opponents would have used it against them. Thus he acted in accordance with a matter known to those among you who understood it. The Guardian knows better what you hold within yourselves.
Beware of censuring what has been explained in this written document or accepting excuses and doubts that lead to further confusion. Truth deserves to be followed, and suspicion deserves to be cast aside.
As for Ḥumayd, ʿAskar, Ghannām, and those resembling them—treacherous, rebellious men—the period of trial has united them in error and betrayal. The guiding Call has severed their claim to spiritual kinship. Though their bodies and intellectual dispositions differ, they have joined in innovation, opposition, and slander, inheriting blindness and deafness through their actions. Iblīs has played with their minds and led them into grievous delusion through their breaking of the covenant of the Call.
If they repent of the unbelief and error they have committed, abandon what they were forbidden, leave the road of rebellion, cast off pride and tyranny, and ask the Guardian of religion to pardon their fault, they can return to the ranks of the peaceful Unitarians. They will possess the same standing as the virtuous and pure, and we shall intercede with the Guardian of Truth for their earlier offenses. Our prayers for them and for all Unitarians continue by night and day.
If, however, they persist in denial and hypocrisy, exhibit rebellion and flight, refuse the command given by the lowly servant and Left Wing, and turn away from its permitted, clear water, then they will encounter the closed watch-post and the blazing fire. Whoever follows them in apostasy shares their condition; the appointed place of decision and judgment is where we shall meet them.
Know that the waves of doubt and associationism have risen in the seas of corrupt souls, stirring up their impurities. Yet the winds of true life come from the noble right side of the Mount, and divine lights are rising while the ill-omened one-eyed star falls. The hour approaches for separating the ignorant from those possessing knowledge. When the lights flower on the Mountain of Light and the fire of truth spreads to the horizons, the wandering star of the realities will shine. Where then can the apostates flee from the Guardian of Truth? When the Caller summons from the mountain and the world glows at the appearance of the guiding Qāʾim, the near angels will bear witness, the apostates will be recompensed, the faithful will prevail, and the doubters and hypocrites will lose.
Do not be like people who received divine favor and then denied its blessings, forgetting what had been entrusted to them. The person who forgets the Guardian of Truth loses the truth itself and testifies against himself by his deeds. He imagines that his devil guides him, while the devil in fact deceives and destroys him.
Brethren, hold fast to the luminous examples and beware of turning back. Use this period of respite well and draw near to your Guardian through righteous actions, before the records are folded, the pens dry, the doors of mercy close, speech is cut off, and the gates of wrath open against those who insisted upon rebellion. These are the first signs of the rising of the witnesses and the clearest indications that the great guiding announcement approaches.
Brethren, I have fulfilled the duty of admonition and advice, made the matter plain, and directed you with convincing arguments. The messenger's obligation is only to communicate openly; I put my trust in the Guardian of Truth and seek help from him.
O Lord, the horn of Satan has risen: humble him. The ranks of apostates and covenant-breakers have grown: reduce them. They have revealed the malice once hidden in their hearts and publicly declared opposition and stubbornness. They have fought us with weapons from a direction in which we thought ourselves secure, and returned to the worship of the Calf and the Buffalo. O Lord, to You alone is our appeal and our complaint. Life and death belong to You, and through Your Guardian we plead and hope. Show us the truth of Your promise through the uprooting of the tree of opposition. Bless Your pure followers who bear witness and grant peace upon them.
The composition of this epistle was completed in Jumādā al-Ākhira, the seventeenth year of the Qāʾim of the Age, who takes vengeance upon associationists and tyrants.
Completed. Praise belongs to our Lord al-Ḥākim alone, and thanks to His servant, the guiding Imam.