منشور الشرط والبط
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, through the ranks of the Qāʾim of the Religion.
Pure shaykhs! The warner of the hereafter has discharged his duty of warning. He has brought to the communities miraculous wisdom and brilliant proofs, and the people of truth, those endowed with discerning souls and tranquil, purified intellects, have submitted themselves to their meanings. Whoever finds doubt in himself, or sees a fault in his own actions, must acknowledge what he has done and what he has witnessed. Whoever possesses a soul free from doubt has no cause to take upon himself a reproach directed toward someone else, or to suppose that words intended for another are directed against the honor he enjoys.
As for what the shaykhs have written about their hearts being occupied by promises and threats, and their anxiety at exhortation, prohibition and warning: by God, what they have written has pained me, and the picture they have formed has saddened me. Have they forgotten that the wisdom of the Qāʾim—peace upon his remembrance—which proceeds upon the tongue of his Proof and servant, gives to each rank the portion proper to it, and brings each recipient through its true meanings toward his Lord and his intended end? How can the Guardian who gives pure and sincere counsel be wronged merely by a rebuke? How can a man distinguished by his worth be counted as a traitor? Who in this world can set himself above command and prohibition, admonition and correction?
Whoever accepts truth and submits to the Guardian of the Command does so in both prosperity and adversity. By God, those who do this in this region are few in number and cut off from their old bases of support.
The shaykhs also complained of harshness and of comparisons with people who have no firm standing or foundation in the truth. Far be such conduct from us! Harshness means putting truth in the wrong place, removing it from its proper context, or hurling false charges at someone who does not deserve them. Praise be to God, we are innocent of such behavior; we attach ourselves instead to those in whom truth is rooted and firmly established.
What right remains to someone who lies about the people of truth? What sound statement can be made by someone who advances falsehood against the people of sincerity? The shaykhs' own letter reached me declaring their innocence of what Ibn Abī Ḥaṣiyya and Ghannām spread about them. Yet they have recorded in writing the difference between their account and the accusations, specifying the person who redirected or corrupted the report. Such falsehood is among the greatest forms of defilement and wrongdoing.
If the shaykhs mean that we wronged them personally, and believe that these words were aimed at them, they have conceived of our intentions in a manner unlike that of the people of truth. They built their judgment in this letter on something other than guidance and truthfulness. This is what the people of religion ought to fear if they have gone astray and their responses have come to resemble the crudeness of al-Kurdī.
If, however, their distress concerns the reproach directed toward someone guilty of lying, and if their hearts are troubled by warning, correction and discipline applied to the person whose conduct deserves them, I am not their reckoner. The time has grown too short for this kind of argument to be repeated. I hope this was simply a slip of the pen, an error by the letter-writer, or an unintended utterance rather than a settled belief. God does not lay upon them the burden of an error, nor does that error confer upon them rank or remembrance among the people of truth.
I have read in one of the decrees of the Pure Presence, addressed to certain Callers in the regions, that the weakest remedies are the most delicate and least beneficial; the real benefit is found in scarification, lancing, cutting, and cauterizing (sharṭ, baṭṭ, qaṭʿ, kayy).
I previously established, in two letters sent with Saʿd al-Ḥalabī and Shaykh Abū al-Shibl, that the shaykhs of each community must accept the request for pardon of someone who seeks pardon after a lapse. The same applies to someone who comes into their presence after an error committed against companions, brethren or family. Whoever returns after repentance and a petition for forgiveness to despicable or shameful actions, however, and violates the bond of faith, is to be separated from the community when he is shown to be a faithless covenant-breaker and tyrant. I reaffirm that judgment in the present circumstances.
We have now reached a time in which the wisdom of the Guardian has reached this world by the hand of His servant in a measure greater than they deserve. No one has any remaining argument against God and His Guardian, or any right to demand one.
Let the shaykhs reconsider the wondrous teachings that have reached them. Let them understand the proofs and signs addressed to them, and not behave like those apostates who stand apart in doubt and division. Let them be certain of the day of recompense, and receive the advice of someone who asks no payment for it and places upon them no sin or burden merely by crying out against wrong and denying it.
As for the section mentioning the arrivals from the lands of the north, news has reached us of some of the shameful things they have done, their false statements about God and His Guardian morning and evening, and their departure from truth and uprightness. We wrote to you about them as we did, and commanded you to disavow anyone who finds the indecent practices of such people acceptable in religion. We have assigned to them the indignation and displeasure they have brought upon themselves.
As for Abū Sulaymān Dāwūd, we have known nothing but good of him. By God, I owe him services and obligations few others among those we have seen have performed. I hold him in the fullest honor and esteem, and count him among the best and most excellent. I thank the community for its gratitude and praise toward him, and pray that God will grant them success in obeying His Guardian and His friends. Ḥasan, Abū Sulaymān’s brother, came to us, and the community witnessed how deeply his yearning and longing moved him; their own hearts grieved at his anguish.
Muḥammad has now gone toward him, so that he may rise up with him. We shall rejoice at his coming, that he may cool the heat of his brother's heart and satisfy a little of his longing.
Praise belongs to God, exalted in might and greatness, who does not withdraw His favor so long as those who receive it submit to the Guardian of His truth and to His friends; and who does not cut off the hope of anyone who seeks refuge with Him and dissociates himself from their enemies and His. May His blessings rest upon the just and awaited Imam, who through his ranks establishes the proof over the worlds, and may His greetings be upon him. He suffices His weak servant al-Muqtanā on the day when the wrongdoers and doubters shall repent of having despaired of his return, his meeting, and his rising with the sword of truth. He will rise with the sword of truth and justice against those who turned away from the Guardian of Truth and his signs.
Completed with praise to the Guardian of Grace.