In the name of the God of Truth and His servant, the guiding Imam, who is the cause of creation.
It has reached me, righteous, believing and chaste daughters—may the Creator establish you in obedience to His Guardian and preserve for you the approved safety of religion—that you have listened to the words of a presumptuous, heretical apostate woman; your hearts became occupied with the lies of an impudent, sinful woman. Before this woman of misconduct you were unable to answer, and you were silenced when it came to explaining the truth. The reason was the weakness of your insight and your lack of attention, and your preoccupation with recreation and delight instead of preserving the teachings of the master Imam.
Because you possessed so little knowledge, doubt concerning religion entered your minds. Truth became obscure to you because you had neglected the purpose of the Unitarians: to preserve knowledge of the spiritual ranks, to know with certainty the witness and the witnessed, and to be mindful of the promised great day. Such people devote themselves to preserving the sciences of the realities, and by means of truth they refute the assertions of falsehood.
You, by contrast, have rejoiced heedlessly in passing pleasure and vanishing delights. You have gone on associating with people of opposition and division. Your conduct has turned toward joking, theft, and acts of opposition. I forbade you to associate with this woman of misconduct and with another condemned unbelieving woman. Yet you have not restrained yourselves; rather, you have increased your attachment to the renegades and disregarded the admonition. After repentance the Creator forgives your community and pardons you. He is generous in bestowing grace upon those who abandon their mistakes and negligence.
How long will you remain in heedlessness and idleness? How long will you imitate the people of foolishness and idle imagination? Do you not feel ashamed at the thought of standing on the Day of Reckoning and Presentation, and of what you truly owe your Lord? People who preserved knowledge were able to reply; you and those like you were confounded and could say nothing. The degrees of those who preserve knowledge rise, while the degrees of those who neglect the preservation of wisdom sink to the lowest limits.
Years and ages of the interval have already passed, and only days and months remain. Will you not awaken, believing women, and preserve that which will bring you deliverance on the day of suffering, after the duties you have neglected? You will feel remorse at a time when remorse can do you no good when those who preserved knowledge and learned have attained the highest stations.
Has the argument not already been established against you by the Epistle of Excuse and Warning; by the Explanation of the Ranks, concerning the beginning of creation and intended for people of reason and insight; by Sanctification, the Remedy for Sickness and Confusion; by The Answered Supplication for the Manifest Knowers; and by The Intimate Prayer that Unbinds Falsehood, which unveils the inward secrets of those who persist in deception and denial? Other firm epistles on preserving wisdom have likewise reached you. The proofs and signs have reached you, yet you have cast this wisdom behind your backs. It will testify against you when you appear, revealing your negligence.
You are satisfied merely to say, "We are believers," without understanding that reward and good recompense depend upon preserving divine sciences and realities. Awake, you whose judgment has been scattered! Understand that the religious obligations laid upon bodily members are removed only when a believer does his duty by preserving the divine sciences and realities that lead to tawḥīd: the knowledge of the Imam. Through preserving such knowledge, pure souls are distinguished from the souls of the careless, coarse and ignorant.
You are shackled in the net of Iblīs, obedient to his orders, attentive to his ornaments, yet distant from truth and hostile to its people. Through your devotion to animal appetites and your nature's attachment to ease, you have failed to preserve the divine sciences and realities and have followed the cursed and false renegade pretender, full of suspicion.
Glory be to God! Awake from this negligence in which you have placed yourselves. Shake off your slumber, recover from forgetfulness, and consider what the Epistle of Excuse and Warning required of you. It said: "Turn toward the callers of the Merciful and gather the fruits of wisdom and demonstration, that you may attain triumph and forgiveness." It also said: "Hold fast to the ranks; strive in their service with every effort; beware of opposing them; maintain sincere counsel and agreement with them; bind yourselves to them firmly; and rejoice in the knowledge they impart to you."
What labor have you endured for religion? When were you commanded to do something and obeyed without resistance? When did you bind yourselves to the teachers with firm attachment, and when did you rejoice in the knowledge they presented? By God, you are on the straight path, but neglecting the preservation of wisdom is a tremendous sin.
Through preserving wisdom and knowledge the degrees of truthful people ascend. By neglecting them, liars are distinguished from the truthful. Understand this epistle, daughters, and make it an imam for your minds. Strive to preserve wisdom, for abandoning it brings punishment and regret. Keep its words in your hearts and follow them closely.
This epistle is an argument against everyone among the inhabitants of the Two Palaces who hears it, and a proclamation to men and women throughout the Two Cities. Whoever neglects to preserve what has been entrusted to him, throws away what was granted to him as a favor, occupies himself with fleeting pleasure, and takes obligatory obedience lightly, has stepped outside acceptance of truth and obedience to the Imam's commands. Such a person will have no argument against the callers of truth on the Day of Questioning and Dispute.
It is through the preservation of wisdom and knowledge that the good are distinguished from the wicked, and the deceivers who occupy themselves with pleasures from the pure and God-fearing. After this admonition none of you can say that she was not warned or reminded, or that she was not commanded to preserve what she was obliged to preserve and to guard herself against neglect.
The one who warns has discharged his responsibility, and the one who makes knowledge clear has offered sincere counsel. The Messenger's duty is only to deliver the message plainly. Praise belongs to the Guardian of Religion, whose obedience leads to obedience to the God of the worlds. May the Creator's curse fall upon anyone who reads this before a doubter, a person who opposes it, or someone not entitled to receive it. If you knew the true condition of this time, you would refrain from food, drink and sleep.
The epistle is completed, with praise to our Lord, glorified is He, and thanks to His Guardian, the guiding Imam.