بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ1

O Bestower of faith, reason, and intellect! We present ourselves before Your Throne full of the highest praise and deepest gratitude. We approach Your presence with glorification, sanctification, and remembrance. We seek Your countenance, as this is our utmost desire. In happiness and in distress, we seek You alone. We hasten towards You with no complaint of fatigue. We believe in You without questioning how and why. We come before You having cut all ties asunder, burdened by sorrow for those who chase after mirages and are unaware of the clear fountain of Truth and the ways of righteousness, and the arrogant ones who treat the truthful as enemies and would rather swallow saliva than partake from the Divine cup. They discard facts for fictions. Their conjectures are akin to a camel they thought was pregnant while she was not, or like a cloud that bears no rain. They do not approach people of knowledge except slothfully, and do not examine the truth but mockingly. Their illusions attack them like a sudden calamity descending in the dark night, so that their minds become like an injured hoof [causing the camel to fall], and they fall upon their faces in humiliation. Their fanaticism led them to denial. Their anger was aroused towards the very people who were their well-wishers, and so they fled like fugitives. They were full of rancour and hatred. They broke the covenant and pact [that they had made with God] and started cursing their well-wishers. They are full of nothing but foolishness and slander. They instigated disorder and enmity, weakening the land with a windstorm of wickedness. They became estranged from the truth and its delights, wandering away from the dwellings of honesty. There have been many evils caused by the duplicity of their nature, and many have been deceived by their treachery. O my Lord! Have mercy on the People of Muhammad. Reform them, cleanse their minds, and remove their troubles. O Allah! Bless and prosper Your beloved Prophet Muhammad, Khatamun-Nabiyyin [the Seal of the Prophets] and Khairul-Mursalin [the Best of Messengers], and bless his good and virtuous progeny, and his Companions who are the pillars of the Ummah and the faith and religion, and all Your righteous servants. Amin.

Furthermore, my wise brother, you must be aware that this an era tormented by afflictions just as a rotting carcass is devoured by maggots; it is a time when passions ignite like dry wood. The storm clouds of the age have amassed and a hurricane now confronts Islam. Times have changed and tribulations have intensified. Liars look upon the truthful with rage—their faces flushed red with anger towards the righteous. Their aggravation spews forth from the enmity they bear towards the truth and the truthful. This is because a truthful person will always expose a perfidious one and safeguard the rest of creation from his evil speech. He will not allow the words and injustice of an unjust one to go unchecked but will refute him immediately. He will challenge all doubtful assertions, exposing every defect in them and revealing the deceit of the fabricator. I rank amongst those whose love of Truth inspires them to challenge the opponents of Truth, and who, by championing Truth, expose those who are ever so keen on excommunicating others when, in fact, they themselves are worthy of excommunication.

The detail of this matter is that Allah has commissioned me and given me the glad tidings that I am the Reformer of this century and the Promised Messiah for this Ummah. When I informed the Muslims about my claim, they reacted with outrage like the ignorant, jumping to conclusions on account of their suspicious nature and declaring me a liar and a fabricator. Whenever I presented the fruits of pious words before them, they rejected them like a man suffering from indigestion rejects food. They hurled filthy words upon me and attacked me with their poisonous fangs. I admonished them and preached the truth to them repeatedly. I counselled them publicly and privately but my advice was treated like clouds that bear no rain. My best admonitions incensed the miscreants even further until they crossed all limits in their cruelty and persecution. Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and so they continued to grow in meanness and malady, stubbornly entrenched within their position. They cursed me, accused me of lying, issued edicts of heresy against me, and slandered me, but Allah did as He had willed and demonstrated that those who rejected me were themselves liars. Every arrogant one rejected me, but the One who cared for me and guided me, guarded me with His protection and care, and raised me under His shelter, and kept me among the safeguarded.

As the arrows of calumny and curses rained down on me from the Sunni sect attempting to cause me injury, I received letters from some of the most respected Shiites and their scholars. They asked me about the issue of Khilafah and the hallmarks of the true Imam. They sought truth and guidance, and some of them even entertained kind thoughts about me, understanding that I was their sincere well-wisher. They spoke about me honestly, without bias and with a pure heart. They wrote letters to me with great longing and eagerness, requesting that I confer upon them a book that would be a means of healing and satisfaction for them and would furnish them with the strongest arguments. Thereafter, they sent me a series of letters in which I saw signs of their hearts’ restlessness, reminding me of my own former condition. I scrupled and hesitated until my Lord, the Self-Sufficient, strengthened me and instilled in my heart what He instilled, and so I rose to defend the truth, fearing none but Allah, the Most High. Indeed, Allah is sufficient for His servants who place their trust in Him.

Know that the Sunnis opposed me after I made my claim and the Shiites treated me as a liar, rejecting the time of my appearance. The former uttered many cruel words against me, and I will probably hear even worse from the latter. I will, however, remain steadfast, God willing, until victory comes to me. My Lord is with me wherever I may be. He sees me and has mercy on me. He is Arhamur-Rahimin [the One who is the most Merciful of all who show mercy]. I have observed that most Shiite groups unashamedly utter calumnies and do not even fear the Arbiter of the Hereafter. They do not try to gather the pearls of truth, nor have they tasted the fruits of the right path. They do not think like the righteous, nor do they favour the paths of guidance. Therefore, I saw it as my obligation to try and help them understand, like an outstanding debt that needs to be paid. Accordingly, I wrote this urgent treatise—whilst praying that Allah may reform their condition and change their plight—to explain to them about those matters wherein they differ, and to inform them about the reality of Khilafah. Though this book of mine is like a son born to an ageing father, I composed it only as kindness towards neglectful men and women. وَ إِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالنّيَّاتِ [And actions are judged by their intentions]. I am certain that this book will guide many who are eager to know the truth. However, the truth is often bitter, therefore, I am sure the Shiite scholars will hurl every kind of abuse at me, just as the Sunnis have done before them. O Lord! There is no one to trust except You. I plead before no one except You. There is no refuge except with You. There is no knowledge except through the verses of Your Quran. If You have sent me to reform Your people, grant me Your support and help me as You have helped the truthful. If You love me and have chosen me, do not humiliate me like the cursed and forsaken ones. If You were to abandon me, who then would be my protector after You? You are the Best of Protectors. Pray, avert misfortune from me, never let my enemies rejoice over me, and help me against the disbelieving people.

As for this book, it consists of a preface and two chapters, which contain guidance for the wise and the righteous. I ask Allah to fill it with blessings, and, out of His mercy, perfume it with the fragrance of potency. We have no knowledge except what He has taught us, and He is the Best of Teachers.