In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. The ranks of the Qāʾim of Religion. Praise belongs to God for inspiring us to thank Him for His favors and blessings, the praise of one who recognizes the value of His gifts and their abundant succession. To Him belongs praise without end, constant and enduring. I testify that there is no god but Him, present in every age and lasting through every time, invoked by tongue and speech. Glorified is He: His concealment is not a concealment of nonexistence. Rather, He manifests in a way corresponding to the appearance of His creatures while transcending what their intellects and senses can encompass. He is veiled by the radiance of His light even as He is manifest in existence. His appearance establishes the proof against all humanity, not because He becomes something bounded by reason or enclosed by the senses.
When the forms of indications and signs had been brought to completion, He manifested Himself to human sight as appearances permit; by the light of His own manifestation He remained veiled. His friends, responders, obedient servants, and lovers speak through His Call, summon to what He commanded, spread His virtue and knowledge, announce His return and reward, warn against His chastisement, and declare lawful and unlawful what He instructed them to declare. In their speech they are instruments of His command.
Whoever among them acts against the instruction received, leaves the straight road, and invents a teaching or religious science contrary to what the Imam arranged before his concealment, merely to draw people away from obedience and toward an unauthorized Call, has abandoned the Call of tawḥīd. His promises to his followers are adorned with deception, and his claims of special knowledge are corrupt. He has acted like an apostate who flees from the authority of his Lord.
Such a person must not be accepted as a guide. Those who follow him may find themselves brought with him into punishment for his false teachings. I seek protection for myself and for the faithful brethren from the people of innovation and from those who obstruct the true Call. The account of the Day of Judgment pictures the wrongdoer biting his hands and crying: “Would that I had taken the path with the Messenger! Alas, would that I had not taken such a man as my friend! He led me away from remembrance after it reached me, and Satan has always deserted the human being.”
Now then: claims of religious authority have multiplied in this time, and the path of truth has become obscured for many brethren. Each pretender has laid snares, nets, and devices to catch some of the faithful and turn them aside from religion. Each produces writings or books and promises special knowledge and extraordinary reward to attract followers, who become entangled in his system. Some remain fixed at the station where their leaders placed them, imagining that everything outside what they have learned must be false. Soon they will recognize the consequences of trusting such men and will say: “Our Lord, whoever presented us with this, increase his punishment twofold in the Fire.” May God save the steadfast brethren from such deception.
A messenger from one of these claimants came to me bearing a letter. He repeated several of the claimant's statements and promised that I would be brought near to him, increased in his favor, and strengthened in my present position. His speech was hesitant, self-contradictory, and confused. He recalled a passage from a noble decree written to Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī, formerly a missionary in the jazīra (missionary district) of al-Rayy: “The tongue of truth is clearer and more eloquent, while the tongue of falsehood stammers and falters.” I read the message and, relying on the guidance of our Lord and His Imam, determined to test the soundness of the claimant's teaching by asking questions drawn from authoritative books.
There are ten questions from the Torah, ten from the Gospel, ten from the revealed Book, ten from allegorical interpretation, ten from religious law, ten from the reports of the Messenger, ten from the prohibitions and decrees of our Lord, and one question from reason. The purpose is to learn whether the claimant has genuine knowledge of the meanings he professes to understand, or merely repeats attractive words.
Someone who truly belongs to the way of truth follows and confirms what the earlier possessors of true knowledge established without inventing a contradictory religious system. The present Call of tawḥīd is the last of the calls, its ranks the last of the callers; it abrogates the competing doctrines and false claims that preceded it. Once the true Imam and the manifestation of the Creator have appeared, the next stage is recompense. Happiness belongs to those who are accepted; woe to those whose ignorance leaves them among the rejected.
If this claimant gives clear and sufficient answers to the questions, I shall be the first to seek him out, acknowledge the goodness of his learning, declare my need of his instruction, and publicly recognize his excellence. I have no desire to pretend to know everything: the sea of truth is immense, and perfect knowledge belongs to the complete guiding Imam. Moreover, I affirm that the world is never left without a person of true knowledge, because such a person is the proof against ignorance. As sight depends on visible light, rational perception depends on living people through whom intellectual light is transmitted.
God spoke to Moses and instructed him to tell Aaron that a descendant of the Children of Israel who bears certain bodily defects must not approach the divine offering or sanctuary, lest the holy things be defiled. The ten bodily defects it names are: being one-eyed, being lame, having a flattened nose, a broken hand, a broken foot, missing eyebrows, being cross-eyed, an affliction or opacity in one eye, congenital blindness, and leprosy.
These are ten known defects visible in the body, corresponding to hidden defects in religion. If he intended the outward meaning and forbade those with these visible defects to approach God’s offering because they would defile the sanctuary, then acts of worship and religious obligations have been lifted from them. He would also have been unjust to them in placing them under defects and infirmities, although many human beings are free of them. If these ailments are hidden defects of religion, what is the meaning of the concealed defects mentioned here?
Jesus told his disciples that nothing entering a human being from outside can defile him; rather, what comes out of him defiles him: the evil thoughts that come from the heart, namely fornication, wickedness, murder, theft, desire, deceit, and folly. These seven evils, which come from within and defile a person, are bodily acts visible to the eye; what comes from the heart consists of words spoken by the tongue. What is the meaning of these hidden defects, and who are the people bearing these particular faults? If he forbade only their outward forms, no human being fails to reject them, and there would be no benefit in the Spirit of God forbidding things whose ugliness is known to the learned and ignorant alike. If they have inward realities expressed in these words, people of religion should discuss them. What are they? Give a correct and eloquent answer, useful and welcome to its hearer.
Jesus also warned that whoever causes one of the little ones who believe in him to stumble would be better off with a great millstone hung around his neck and thrown into the sea. “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off: it is better to enter life maimed than to go with two hands into the unquenchable Fire, where the worm does not die.” The same warning concerns a foot: it is better to enter life lame than be cast into the Fire with both feet. And the warning concerns an eye: it is better to enter God's kingdom with one eye than go with two eyes into the Fire, where the worm does not die.
The Book says: “Our Lord, You made us die twice and gave us life twice. We have acknowledged our sins. Is there any path by which we may go out?” What are these two deaths and two lives? What is the “going out” that those who have lived twice desire? Why should they ask for further escape after receiving life a second time?
It says: “It is a tree that emerges from the root of Hell, whose fruit is like the heads of devils.” What is this tree? What is Hell? What are its fruits, and in what sense do they resemble the heads of devils?
The Book says, in the story of Jonah: “The great fish swallowed him while he was blameworthy.” What is this fish that swallowed Jonah? Blessed are those who follow the right teaching rather than inventing a new one.
It says: “As for the unbelievers, their works are like a mirage in a level plain. The thirsty person imagines it is water, but when he reaches it he finds nothing.” What is the mirage, who is the thirsty person, and why does what he considers water fail to quench him? What is meant by an apparent work that disappears when its seeker approaches it?
In one honored gathering it was said: “Knowledge will soon be lifted away, and ignorance will appear.” What kind of knowledge is to be lifted, and what kind of ignorance is to appear? If ignorance becomes manifest in outward words, on what basis will a person who lacked the knowledge needed to understand those words be judged for falling into error? What proof has been established against someone who has never had access to the instruction?
Another gathering says: “One who is subject to a penalty must not administer a penalty, and one who has disobeyed cannot purify another who has disobeyed.” What is this ḥadd that must not administer a penalty, and who is the disobedient person who must not purify another when that person needs purification?
A gathering says that the persons of the Speakers passed away and the persons who sent them appeared, and refers to the Speakers from Adam to Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl. Who are these senders in reality? Do not point to the Worshipped One, exalted above sending messengers. Rather, their senders were manifest and known to people of knowledge. May God condemn the opinion of the deceitful pretenders.
Another gathering commands the believers: “Seek what lies above the spiritual and the bodily; seek the ultimate end of origination.” Who are the spiritual beings? Who are the bodily beings? What is the ultimate limit of divine origination that the believers are commanded to seek?
The gathering also says: “The right and the left are two misleading ways, while the middle is the road to salvation.” What are the right and left in their true inward sense, and which middle way actually leads to deliverance?
The legal saying declares that someone who turns right or left during prayer, or directs his gaze up toward heaven, has broken and spoiled his prayer. The worshipper's eyes must instead remain upon the place of prostration. What is prayer in its reality? What is turning aside? What are right and left, and what is the heaven toward which the worshipper must not turn? Why should looking upward ruin prayer, if those who pray profess that the Lord is exalted? What is the place of prostration to which attention must remain fixed?
Another saying is: “The day of your fast is the day of your sacrifice.” What is fasting and what is sacrifice? Who or what is the “day” of fasting, and who or what is the “day” of sacrifice?
Another saying holds that whoever observes the crescent of Ramaḍān must fast and whoever observes the crescent of Shawwāl must end the fast. What are the crescents of these two months in the inward sense? Why should the one make fasting lawful and breaking the fast forbidden, and the other make breaking the fast lawful and further fasting forbidden?
Why is washing the face commanded before washing the hands when preparing for prayer? The verse reads: “When you stand for prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows.” What is the true washing of the face, and what is the washing of the hands? What impurity is removed, with what water, and by what purification?
The Messenger is quoted as saying: “When innovations appear within my community, the learned person must make his knowledge manifest; if he does not do so, God's curse is upon him.” What are the innovations that appear, and who is the learned person whose knowledge is to become manifest?
Another report says: “Knowledge is lifted from three: from the child until he reaches puberty, from the person deprived of reason until he recovers, and from the sleeper until he awakens.” What is this knowledge? Who is the child, who is the person deprived of reason, and who is the sleeper?
A report states: “The slaughtered animal of a boy is not to be eaten until he reaches puberty.” What is the slaughtered animal, and who is the boy?
Another report speaks of three creatures that may be killed in the sacred precinct: the attacking dog, the snake, and the scorpion. Who is the attacking dog in religious interpretation? Who is the snake and who the scorpion?
Another says that three things interrupt or invalidate prayer: a woman, a dog, and a donkey. What is prayer, and what do these three figures designate in its inward interpretation? Why should their passage nullify it?
If the Creator knows what is concealed in every breast and understands the hidden thoughts of all souls, why is it necessary to send intermediaries carrying pacts and covenants? What purpose can a covenant fulfill for One who already knows each person's inward intention?
If this world is the dwelling of worship, why do those who disbelieve enjoy some of its best provisions while believers are denied them? The believer needs these provisions to sustain the body through which religious work and learning are accomplished. If an opponent answers that material blessings come from the heavenly spheres, we must ask whether those spheres know what they are doing. If they act without knowledge, how do their motions distribute help and deprivation justly? If they have a conscious Governor who orders every movement, let the claimant explain the principle of equity by which that Governor distinguishes the recipient of benefit from the one deprived.
What makes messengers differ in their teachings if the One who sends them is one?
What causes differences of intellect and understanding among human beings? If these differences arise from an exclusive gift unrelated to effort in learning and action, why should anyone strive for knowledge? What becomes of hope, merit, and deserved recompense?
Does the Creator need His creatures' worship, or is He wholly independent of it? If He needs nothing, why did He manifest among human beings and become an object of recognition under forms accessible to sight? What purpose does such a manifestation serve?
Does Iblīs persist in the very form in which he misled Adam, or does he appear today in another form?
When souls move among bodies, does their transfer happen simultaneously or successively through the passage of time? How can a particular migrating soul be distinguished among the changes of persons and ages?
Does the rational soul inhabit the body? If it inhabits the whole, does a soul diminish whenever a limb is lost? If it resides only in a particular bodily member, which member is it, and how does it govern the others? If someone instead says that the soul does not inhabit the body as an ordinary property inheres in a substance but illuminates and encompasses it like the sunlight that lights a room, how then are the particular obedient and disobedient souls distinguished for reward and punishment? The claimant must explain not only an analogy of illumination but the specific identity and recompense of each soul.
Among the recorded decrees is the command that no one should walk behind the Lord in a procession or in any other setting. What is the proof or inward meaning of that command? Give an intelligible, open answer, one from which the listener may benefit.
Another decree forbade people to open, after passing through, a particular doorway or passage which had been closed. What is the door, why is it closed, and why may it not be reopened? What is the inward command indicated by this outward act? Give a decisive argument against those who have appeared after the Imam's concealment and opened what he commanded to be closed, thereby claiming an authority he did not bestow.
Another decree forbade the opening of windows or apertures in walls in Egypt, and commanded that the streets be swept of refuse and dirt. What are the apertures to be shut, what are the streets to be cleaned, and what kind of impurity is meant? Explain the signs rather than merely repeating the municipal regulations.
Another written decree commanded the emancipation of all the mamluks and enslaved persons, declaring their unrestricted freedom. It forbade anyone to bring them back under bondage or claim ownership of them, and declared anyone who violated the decree unjust and accursed. Who are the freed servants in the deeper sense? What does their liberation mean? What is the “face of God” for whose sake their freedom was proclaimed? These provisions invalidate the claims of pretenders who would again make those servants the property of another owner, since the decree places them beyond the ownership of anyone other than the Lord.
Another proclamation publicly forbade intoxicating wine in every land. It prohibited its manufacture, consumption, transportation, and trade and pronounced a curse upon those engaged in the prohibited acts. What is the true intoxicant of this drink? How does it cloud the intellect and lead the drinker away from truth and judgment? Who manufactures this intoxicant, and who consumes it? Explain what it signifies in religion, not merely what it does to the body.
If this claimant to knowledge can answer the questions with useful, true, and convincing explanations, showing that he possesses the knowledge he claims, then he should be sought out and listened to. Every rational person benefits by asking a genuinely learned teacher and does not despise the acquisition of knowledge. If the claimant answers in accordance with truth, no one should refuse a correct teaching because of personal pride or rivalry. The questioner himself will acknowledge him and seek benefit from him.
But if he offers decorated phrases, reversed meanings, and false interpretations that impress only the inexperienced, then he is not guiding anyone toward the Creator. Such men pretend to strengthen religious conviction while distancing their adherents from truth. They are among those who will lament: “Our Lord, we obeyed our masters and our great ones, and they led us astray.” Their alleged works and their proud learning are like the mirage that a thirsty person imagines to be water, until he comes to it and finds nothing. Their teaching is corrupt; the one who spreads it is rejected and kept far away.
If the claimant cannot provide an answer or show a genuine proof, let him seek a poor servant who acknowledges his own need and the excellence of his Lord, and has drawn from the immense seas of the Guardian's knowledge. That servant will answer according to what he has learned and preserved from his Master. Where he has no knowledge, he will ask the Master in humility and seek an answer through His generosity. The Creator's wisdom has no knowable limit and the benefits of His teaching cannot be exhausted; He bestows them upon His friends and withholds them from His enemies.
Praise belongs to God for His blessings and gifts, and thanks to Him for His successive favors.
Completed, through the praise and favor of our Lord.