I place my trust in our Lord, the God al-Ḥākim, exalted above nonexistence, and give thanks to His servant, the Qāʾim of religion and Guide of nations. From the obedient, submissive servant and warner, the possession of the Imam who stands over the peoples through limits and distinctions, and breaks, dissolves, and changes the laws of the Iblīses:
To everyone in Lower and Upper Syria, in Upper Egypt, the Ḥijāz, and the land of Yemen, to the people of selection and fidelity, and in the Jazīra and the two Iraqs, the farther and the nearer; to the chiefs of the Arabs, possessors of ranks, stations, distinction, and lineage, different as their ancestries may be. I mean Ḥassān ibn Mufarrij and his clan; Rumāḥ and Jābir, brothers in tawḥīd and custodians of its trust; Rāfiʿ ibn Abī al-Layl, the accomplished lord whose action accords with his felicity; Jāmiʿ ibn Zāʾida and his family; Daffāʿ ibn Tibhān and his relatives and companions; ʿUmayra ibn Jābir, his family and brothers; Shabīb ibn Waththāb and those of his region; the sons of al-Musayyab, particularly Qirwāsh and his descendants; another Rāfiʿ and his people, consummate in lordship; everyone belonging to Khafāja, in particular the house of Thimāl and their emir, sound in action and purpose; and every other Arab.
Peace upon whoever returns to the truth and its straight road, looks with the eye of reality upon the stations of the patient, truthful, and submissive, and elevates his aims toward the signs by which the people are distinguished and divided. Such a person recognizes the structures of the ages and what takes place in each time by the Creator's command, including the abrogation of religious communities. He recognizes the power of his God and Maker, perceives the intention of his Creator with fairness, submits to His commands and prohibitions, and uses his sound intellect to profit by the time allowed him. He rescues his own soul and family from negligence and forgetfulness; he seeks for his soul honor and sovereignty on Resurrection Day and rejects the teachings of the Iblīses.
Now then: praise belongs to our Lord al-Ḥākim, exalted beyond the nonexistence of conjectures and difficulties, removed from the weakness of originated and created things, alone in His own existence among the divine stations. He establishes His proof over creation and justice among them by the true manifestation of Himself; He defeats the doubt that leads to denial and the abolition of truth and distinguishes the people who believe from the lying party of alteration. All creatures stand equally before the demand to seek the Existent One, but pure souls surpass one another in transcendence and obedience to the One they worship.
Awaken, sleepers! The ages and generations have passed; the trumpet has sounded, graves have been overturned, and what is inside hearts and breasts has been brought forth. Yet you still drown in the darkness of ignorance, rejoicing in what false time has ripened for you and neglecting the terrors of its reversals.
Awake, heedless sleepers! The appointed measure has reached its completion, and your allotted days and times have run out. You have accumulated what your former actions earned and received the consequences of your deeds. The warner has come, the sincere bearer of good news has called aloud, yet you have blinded yourselves to the truth and its proof. Kaʿb and ʿAwf have wandered away from the proper religion and its road. The proof stood against you from what you yourselves knew, but you cast aside the wisdom delivered to you by faithful, virtuous witnesses, who had been tested at the hands of the most depraved and unsuccessful one. His error, unbelief, arrogance, and rebellion were a warning to you. This is an admonition for the heedless, an explanation of the path you were shown, and a rebuke which establishes proof against you all.
You abandoned the road of truth in favor of associationism and obstinacy. Your hearts came to agreement in spite, suspicion, unbelief, and denial. You listened to the doctrines of the vilest nations, who are like cattle and sheep. How could this happen to people proud of their ancestors and of their powers of understanding and discrimination? Your intellects have become subordinate to the vulgar and to coarse, hard-hearted wrongdoers. They belong to a cursed, short-lived city; soon their bodies and necks will be given over to the sword and punishment. In every age they opposed the Imams and rose against the people of truth alongside unjust rulers, rebellious sinners, and the supporters of the Antichrist. They are like the remnants of ʿĀd, Thamūd, the Companions of the Well, and the people of earlier disobedience.
Expect, miserable assembly, the ruin of dwellings and, after a little while, the destruction of households and erasure of their traces. The moment approaches for the Qāʾim to manifest himself and exalt religion, and for the nations of associationists and deniers to perish. When the one-eyed Antichrist of Resurrection opens his mouth and stirs up his followers, he and his party will perish along with the offspring of al-Qabbās, through their failure to understand the decisive passages of the Gospel and their obedience to the accursed one-eyed deceiver.
When the foundations of Fusṭāṭ shake toward collapse, a false claimant will appear there—a frenzied, infatuated man who falsely claims descent from Kutāma and lays claim to the rank of Imamate. He will be called the Unique One, the Messiah, the son of the perfect and advising Lord, and the true eternal hypostasis. He will persist in hypocrisy, deception, deviation, and corruption, and retreat under the weight of what he has committed. His appearance will fulfill the signs of the false Messiah and the impostor, as foretold in the wisdom of men of understanding. He will be the last of the Pharaohs of the period of interruption and one of the first clear portents for certain believers.
Good news to those who possess patience and truth! The scandal of creation has been exposed, falsehood separated from truth, and the deception of the wicked made visible. That impostor and his party have left the company of the pure and descended into pride and condemnation. He and those who follow him have become enemies of truth and fled from service to it. A foolish imitator has become devilish under the whisperings that afflict him, as did his deranged brother. Then those who belong to the precinct of truth shall await the signs of the noble possessors of the Heights. The letter nūn will curve and its stroke join the kāf. Those in the heavens and earth shall be struck with terror; nursing women will forget their infants, and the roof erected by the Iblīses will be broken at the arrival of the appointed Day.
Where can the opposing Arab Pharaohs find refuge from the calamity that burdens them? Their deeds will bring them to burning fire. Their ranks will be scattered; they will turn and flee. They will be like an evil tree torn from the surface of the earth, with no abiding root. Time has allowed them to flower and blossom only as a temporary trial, because of their ingratitude toward the Imam, their associationism, and the violation of religion's sanctity. They dared to liken creatures to the Creator, imitated the presumptions of earlier nations, and claimed the power of thunder, pelting, stoning, and earthquakes that belongs to Him alone. They intruded upon matters concealed from them and rushed to claim knowledge they did not have; the prophets and truthful witnesses denounced their wrongdoing.
But, by God, the auspicious signs of success have flowered through the noble deeds of the great lord Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Rāfiʿ ibn Abī al-Layl. He has stood to spare the blood of the Unitarians, defending the weakened company with his wealth and person. By God, in his elevation he has risen to the very heights of the heavens, and his station has joined those of the angels brought near. He will gather the fruit of his striving in the presence of the Lord of Truth, and his happiness will be completed in this world and the next. The time has ripened for the separation of what is false and its removal, and the sign of truth is becoming visible as its curtain is lifted.
Where now can the Pharaohs go? No! There is no refuge. Night has retreated and departed, and the pure morning has appeared with clear light. What calamity will strike humankind when the sword is drawn and the religions are brought to account, when the people of sincerity, truthfulness, and certainty prevail and the Creator's command makes purity visible, free of disobedience!
Take heed, Arabs, from the decisive signs, and answer the Caller of Truth before the Day of Appointment. Answer before the mouths and hearts are sealed and the connections of the lying bearers of sins are broken. When the sun of realities rises from the course of the spheres, earth and the tightly woven heavens are folded, the Qāʾim of Truth emerges from the veils, and those sought from among all creation are exposed. The signs shine forth, the stars depart from their familiar courses, circles and triangles interlace, and sparks fly out to change times and seasons. Their former effects are undone at the rise of the light of truth, whose rays burn the Antichrists of ages and the Iblīses of intervals.
The warner has discharged his responsibility, the careful bearer of good tidings has advised the nations, and the messenger's obligation is nothing beyond clear communication. Praise belongs to God, Lord of the worlds; prayers upon the just Imam, the Qāʾim of religion, and peace upon his exalted ranks. He is sufficient for us and the best Helper and Protector.
This epistle was completed through the favor of our Lord alone, on Tuesday, the tenth of Rajab, in the year four hundred and twenty-two (422 AH). Our Lord suffices us and is the best Helper and Protector.