Sets forth that God has not created mankind in vain, but that they should worship and serve Him, and reap the recompense of their actions in the next world. He has sent, to make known to them His Will and Law, numerous prophets, of whom Muḥammad is the last and greatest. He left behind him the Scripture (the Qur'án) and his holy descendants and representatives for the continued guidance of mankind. In these days of the Greater Occultation (Ghaybat-i-Kubrá) * wherein we live, the true faith is deduced from the Qur'án and the sayings and traditions of the Holy Imáms. According to these, three things are required of us: (1) heartfelt belief; (2) oral confession; (3) certain pre­scribed acts. These are ascertained either by personal investigation and “endeavour” (ijtihád), or by adopting the opinions of such investigator (mujtahid) by conformity to his authority (taqlíd). The author concludes by enume- Various heresies denounced. rating a number of heresies to be avoided, such as Pantheism (waḥdatu'l-wujúd); Apotheosis and Incarnation (ittiḥad wa ḥulúl); Determinism or Fatalism (jabr); Antinomianism (suqúṭ-i-'ibádát) consequent on self-mortification and discipline (riyáḍát); Communism (ibáḥat); * Deification and adoration of the Imáms; denial of the Resurrection of the body, or of any future life; sanction of the use of musical instruments, and of narcotic or intoxicating substances; Metempsychosis (tanásukh); An­thropomorphism (tashbíh), and the like.

Belief in the Unity of God (tawḥíd) is fourfold, namely:

Section i. Unity of the Divine Essence (Tawḥíd-i-Dhátí). God is One, without partner, peer or equal; Holy; Perfect;

The Divine Essence and Attributes. Free from defect; not composite, or capable of being so conceived, imagined, or apprehended; neither Body, nor Light, nor Substance, nor Accident; not located, nor born, nor producing offspring; Invisible both in this world and the next, * even to the Prophets, Imáms and Saints, but known to us only by His acts and the signs of His Power; neither eating, nor drinking, nor clothing Himself; exempt from anger, vexa­tion, pain, joy, height, depth, change, progression, or retro­gression; Eternal and absolutely independent of all else. His Attributes are identical with His Essence, not added to or superimposed on His Essence. These Attributes are for the most part negative, and are called Ṣifát-i-Salbiyya or “Privative Attributes.”

Here again the author digresses to denounce various heresies of the Ṣúfís, especially the idea that beautiful Ṣúfís de­nounced. persons are especially the Mirrors or Tabernacles of God, and the doctrine of Pantheism (Waḥda-tu'l-Wujúd ), according to which the relation of Phenomena to Absolute Being is similar to that between the Waves and the Sea, or to sunlight passing through windows of variously coloured glass.

Section ii. Unity of the Divine Attributes (Tawḥíd-i-Ṣifátí) . These Attributes are of several kinds, namely Tawḥíd-i­Ṣifátí. (1) “Essential Attributes” (Ṣifát-i-Dhátí), * to wit, Life, Power, with its derivative Speech, and Knowledge, with its derivatives Will and Com­prehension. To these six some theologians add Eternity and Truth, but these, like Speech, Will and Comprehension, are Secondary Attributes, while Life, Power and Know­ledge are primary. (2) The “Privative” or “Negative Attributes” (Ṣifát-i-Salbiyya), also called the “Attributes of Glory” (Jalál) as opposed to “Perfection” (Kamál) and “Beauty” (Jamál), are seven qualities from which God is exempt, namely, Compositeness, Corporeality, Visibility, Locality, Association or Partnership, Unreality, and Need. (3) “Effective Attributes” (Ṣifát-i-Fi'lí), or “Attributes of Beauty” (Ṣifát-i-Jamál), are acts which may be ascribed or not ascribed to God at different times and in different circumstances, like “the Provider” (Ráziq), “the Creator” (Kháliq), “the Merciful, the Compassionate” (Raḥmán, Raḥím), “the Bounteous” (Jawád), and so forth. In this section reference is made to other views entertained by the Ash'arís, the Mu'tazila, the Kirámís, al-Balkhí, an-Najjár, Ḥasan of Baṣra, etc.

Section iii. Creative Unity of God (Tawḥíd-i-Khalqí). God alone can create, and it is heresy to believe with the Tawḥíd-i­Khalqí. Zoroastrians that God creates only what is good, and the Devil what is evil. But God can and does use means to this end, and can delegate His creative powers to Angels or other agents. “The good or evil manifested through God's plenipotentiary servants * is not God's act but their act, wherefore they are the re­cipients of reward or punishment, by reason of the option which they enjoy, so that they themselves, by their own volition, do those things which God hath commanded or forbidden. For although they act by virtue of a power and strength which they do not in themselves possess, but which God hath conferred upon them, yet, since He hath given them this option, He hath also assigned to them rewards and punishments. Yet God is the Creator of Good and Evil, while His servant is but the agent and doer thereof. Since, however, this treatise is designed for the common people, it would be out of place for us to discuss this matter [more fully] here.”

The author next proceeds to refute certain opinions entertained by the extreme Shí'a (Ghulát), such as that 'Alí

Refutation of the Ghulát. can create, with or without God's permission; or that he is the “Assigner of Daily Bread” (Qásimu'l-Arzáq); or that God obtained his per­mission to create the universe; or that he put his hand under his prayer-mat and brought forth in it the heavens and the earth. It may, however, be believed, as is implied in sundry traditions, that on the Day of Judgement God will leave “the Reckoning” with 'Alí or other of the Imáms, and will accept their intercession, and the like. Hence 'Alí is entitled “the Face of God” (Wajhu'lláh), “the Hand of God” (Yadu'lláh), “the Gate of God” (Bábu'lláh), and the like.

It is also necessary to believe in al-Bidá, or God's sovereign Will, that He does what He pleases; and that He can create what He pleases “without material or period” (bilá mádda wa mudda), that is, from nothing in the twinkling of an eye.

Section iv. Unity of Worship (Tawḥíd-i-'Ibádatí). Wor­ship is the exclusive prerogative of God, and of the Divine Tawḥíd-i­'Ibádatí. Essence, not of the Attributes. To worship an Attribute or Name (such as “the Word of God”) apart from the Essence is unbelief, while to worship an Attribute in conjunction with the Essence is polytheism. This is of two sorts, patent and latent. The former includes the external worship of idols, trees, stars, the sun and moon, fire and human beings; or of symbols, such as crucifixes or pictures of holy persons; the latter includes excessive devotion to wife or child, or worldly wealth, or ambition, or hypocritical ostentation of piety. The visitation of the Ka'ba at Mecca and the Tombs of the Holy Imáms is, however, permitted; as also bowing down before kings or holy and learned men, provided there be not actual prostration (sujúd), and that no worship be intended.

“It is necessary to believe that God is just, not a tyrant, and that at no time hath He acted, or doth He or will He Free Will and Predestination. act, unjustly towards any one. This is a funda­mental article of our Faith, and whosoever holds the contrary is eternally damned.” Thus begins this section, of which the most interesting portion again deals with the question of Free Will and Predestination. “It is also necessary to believe that God neither compels His creatures to act in a given way (jabr, ‘compulsion’), nor allows them unrestricted choice (tafwíḍ), but pursues a course intermediate between these two: that is to say that He has created them equally capable of both good and evil, so that they neither act under such compulsion that their deeds are in reality God's deeds, nor can they do what they do by their own strength and power without God's assistance. The former belief is Determinism or Fatalism (jabr) and the latter Free Will (tafwíḍ). The correct view is that, whatever they do, they do voluntarily, not by compulsion and constraint, although God furnishes them with the power, means, and instruments, and has indicated to them the paths of good and evil, so that whoever elects to do good becomes deserving of reward, while he who elects to do evil becomes deserving of punishment.”

The author illustrates this by the example of a carpenter's apprentice, who, having been taught his craft and furnished with the necessary tools, is bidden by his master to make a window of a certain size and description. If instead of this he makes a door, he cannot excuse himself by pleading that his master taught him the craft and gave him the tools which enabled him to make the door. Such is the case of man if he misuses the powers and limbs which God hath given him. Here follows the well-known story * of the sceptic whose three questions were answered by a darwísh who struck him on the head with a clod, but here Abú Ḥanífa and Buhlúl (the “wise fool”) take the parts of the sceptic and the darwísh respectively.

The author's theory that God created the hearts of believers, unbelievers, and waverers each from a different clay, “Knowing before He created them that the believer by reason of his belief would be good, and the unbeliever by reason of his unbelief bad, and so creating each of the appropriate substance, so that there might be no question of compulsion” (jabr), is not very convincing.