The epistle entitled ‘The Crushing Letter against the Impure Transgressor, Exposing the Followers of Apostasy and Deceit.’
In the name of the true God, Lord of creation. Peace upon the community of truthful brethren, people of insight and certainty, who hold fast to the ranks of the Guardian of Religion and inhabit the secure sanctuary.
From the weak servant, who is owned and bound to the obedience of the standing Imam who exalts the religion of truth, who makes clear the disclosure of tawḥīd by command of our Lord, the divine al-Ḥākim, transcendent above the descriptions and limitations that the adversaries invent; to the true Unitarians who preserved religion, repudiated apostasy, and escaped the snares of devilish pretenders.
I have received your writing concerning the ignorant, irrational claimants who remain like the last remnant of a dark night. I have been obliged to live away from the pure presence after migration, heading toward lands I dislike for the sedition and controversies contained in them. I ask our Lord to help the oppressed servant against those who harm him and to enable my return toward the blessed sanctuary of Cairo. I ask His pardon for the shortcomings of this imposed separation.
Your letter reached me and I understood what has afflicted the pure brethren. I considered your complaint concerning the deranged deceiver, his claim to the rank of the standing Imam, and the response of those ignorant villagers. They turned aside from the truth despite knowing it, and hurried back toward the practices they had once rejected. Their hearts were hardened over a long interval. Let them pursue their amusement until the promised day meets them.
As the Hour approaches, the parties of falsehood and rebellion are separated from the people of truth. The wind of delusion has blown through them; they cling to the worship of the calf and to stubbornness. Through the favor of the guiding Qāʾim I shall set out an answer to the lies of this deceiver and the defection of his followers that you have reported. I shall make the matter clear for the people of religion. Look carefully at it and understand.
By the grace of the holy Lord and His Guardian, I shall expose the shameful reversal of these people, the deformity of their conduct and the corruption of their souls. Their inward eyes were blinded by denial of the enduring imamate. They turned again to the first age of ignorance, listened to the babble of Ibn al-Barbarīyya, and returned to worship of the calf. He stole the seal of Solomon in public, altered what he stole through deceit, and imitated the work of Pharaoh and Hāmān. He is among the last of the 'Pharaohs' of concealment and among the first to claim the standing Guardian's rank in the age of disclosure.
Those charged with calling people toward guidance, who affirm the imamate of the Qāʾim and repudiate the people of arrogant refusal, must forbid such excesses. They must state the accuser's case openly, identify those whose doctrines have become more objectionable than the Jews and Magians, and record the false promises attributed to this man's followers. Their accounts have circulated through witnesses among the Unitarians, including what is reported from their own leader, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Bayyāsh. A transmitted teaching warns that whoever possesses knowledge but leaves heresy unexposed when it appears betrays his duty. Another saying is attributed to the Guardian's Proof: whoever conceals a heresiarch's heresy betrays the standing Guardian's Call.
It is therefore right to reveal these lies so that a discerning Unitarian can reject them and a doubtful follower recognize their nature. I shall record the promises the pretender made and their failure. The standing Imam had already warned the world of such deceptions before his concealment, and the instruction reached the elect so that those who returned to truth could be distinguished from those who continued in rebellion.
In the Epistle of Excuse and Warning, the just Imam had said, 'Beware lest lying tongues seduce you and the failed nation snatch you away.' What tongue could be more deceitful than that of this man who claims to be the expected Messiah? What nation more unfortunate than one that trades the sound religion for falsehood? The Qāʾim warned of what would happen to people who broke their covenant and abandoned his guidance.
The warning continued: 'My absence from you is an absence of examination and trial for you and for all the religions. Whoever fulfills what he has pledged and does not turn back on his heels shall receive a great reward and a generous recompense.' It also forewarned that the apostate party would relapse into hypocrisy, turn toward the deceiver's ornamented words, and accept inventions in place of the covenant. 'Do not incline toward what the devil has embellished; do not desire falsehood and lies.' Such a warning indicates that a person claiming extraordinary authority would indeed appear and seek followers.
You who are deaf to the counsellor's truthful word and blind to the straight road, who exchange religion for contemptible pleasures and forbidden acts, are you going to call the Creator unjust? Or is He the just judge? If He were unjust, you could say He concealed the standing Imam from the nations and let your one village alone receive his appearance. But the Creator is just. The Call of disclosure, the argument of the Qāʾim, has reached peoples and lands everywhere; the summons went beyond Sind to Hindustan. It was not a private revelation given exclusively to a little community whose claimant demands their allegiance.
If this deluded man were the Imam whose return you expect, then his very claim would belie the established doctrine. The Qāʾim, after his absence of trial, cannot appear before the completed appointed number and the public fulfillment of the signs. When he appears he does not hide, but stands with his sword unsheathed against all the deniers in every land. Where are your claimant's miracles? Where are his proofs and signs, standards and armies? Where are the indications of the universal standing he claims? You have offered nothing but a few local adherents and contradictory words.
Consider the predictions attributed to him. In the twentieth year the claimant—or a subordinate who spoke for him—promised his followers that land taxes would be abolished. Instead, the reports say, the community endured disturbance and humiliation. At the beginning of the two Jumādā months he foretold that wheat would become so costly that it would be unobtainable, and famine so severe that no person could hope for relief. He then announced that the Resurrection would occur during the second half of Jumādā al-Ākhira. Neither announcement came to pass.
When the predicted event failed, he changed the date. He promised the Resurrection four months later, at the beginning of winter. Again the time passed. Next he announced that the Resurrection would occur five days into Shawwāl; that failed too. During Rajab he described a mysterious meeting of 'the bride with the bride' and called people to hear his embellished discourse. He foretold three dreadful battles in Rajab and a wind that would prevent travel by land and sea, causing death. The month passed and no such events occurred.
In another proclamation he said that all young people of twelve years of age would die in Shaʿbān, together with the other children of a stated age. Later he said that in Ramaḍān all the sons of Ḥām would die, by which he meant the Black people and servants of African origin. These monstrous announcements also proved false. His partisans, rather than measuring his words by their outcome, remained willing to believe each replacement prediction.
He also promised the Resurrection in winter, his own joyful appearance and the fulfillment of the signs. He described a strange movement of the sea: it would become full and complete at a given festival, then diminish at night, recede and nearly vanish. He made these announcements in verse and swore that they proceeded from the Lord's command. Yet the great events he foretold were not manifested; his followers received suffering and privation instead. Two trustworthy shaykhs are invoked as witnesses to the account transmitted by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Bayyāsh.
I do not deny the true Qāʾim's appearance after his allotted absence. I reject only the lies of this deceiver who claims knowledge of hidden matters and beguiles people through predictions. He has also written a covenant of his own for those who have followed him, calling himself the one who transcends likeness and description, claiming that all affairs return to the Imam—meaning himself—and adopting exalted titles belonging only to the rightful authority. He makes himself a 'god of promises', last of the world's false claimants and first of the 'Pharaohs' to be destroyed at the Resurrection.
The truth is that the divine Lord is above this man and his claims, above all names, attributes and boundaries, above time and fixed duration, and above the human conditions of concealment and reappearance. The absence is instead the Imam's absence, by which the world is tested. The guiding Imam's authority was supported by clear designation, universal preaching, truthfulness and the actions by which he manifested his doctrine. When the Qāʾim truly returns, he cannot be hidden from creation or confined to one little band. On the Day of Resurrection no rival claimant will have a refuge.
If this pretender says that he is awaiting the Lord's appearance, he has imposed the spatial and temporal conditions of bodies on the transcendent Creator. If he is awaiting some other person, that person must be the expected Imam; thus the pretender's own expectation contradicts his claim that he himself is already the one awaited. Even his chosen followers cannot consistently maintain both assertions. His promises and their postponements therefore expose the lack of any genuine authority.
There is also his disreputable conduct, including sexual misconduct involving several named persons, witnessed by people who knew his actions before the schism. The claimant and his followers fall below the ethical obligations they themselves previously acknowledged. They had known, he says, that authority in the Call cannot be granted merely by the assertion of someone who violates its teaching.
I say all this not to relish obscene language but to expose the source of the pretension and the reversal of those who have willingly followed it. The people of truth must remain separate from these apostates, who heard the authentic Call and then put it behind their backs. They heard the calf's bellow and began to worship it in place of the teaching they knew. The Lord's justice has brought the rival claims into the open; the blind man's assertion to divinity and the pretender's assertion to imamate are now exposed side by side.
The truthful believers and the ignorant deniers have been distinguished. The warnings were delivered and counsel was given. Whoever warns has discharged his obligation. What remains with the messenger is communication of the message, and with the listener the responsibility to understand and accept. Praise belongs to the One whom thought, expression and hearing cannot confine. Thanks belong to the guiding Qāʾim, the Imam who is obeyed.