Our Mashayekh have said that there are four pillars to the religion: Recognition of God including all of His Attributes; Recognition of God’s Prophet and accepting everything he has brought; Recognition of Imams and accepting their virtues; Recognition of the Shiites and befriending the friends and hostility toward the enemies of Mohammad and his Household, Peace be upon them all.

Their choice does not differ from that of others, however. The pillars that they have mentioned actually embrace the five principles because justice is included in the Attributes of God and Resurrection is included in what the Prophet has brought. The issue of ‘friendship’ and ‘hostility’ is also mentioned by some other theologians.

In short if the purpose is believing these issues, then the ‘Five Principles’ and these four embrace the same things. But if the disagreement is over the terminology, there is no mention of specific words in the hadith that anyone who contradicts them has done wrong. On the other hand if by principles it is meant that not believing any of them necessitates going out of Islam, well this includes the secondary principles too. Surely if someone denies the daily prayers, or the Hajj pilgrimage, or the paying of tithe (one fifth in Islam), or commits hostility towards Shiite brethren and befriends their enemies, then he is out of Islam. Anyway, there is no disagreement about the meanings and the issue was raised just for agitation.

[p 8]

Mr. Safari has written: Please describe your views about Iran of today and the world in the twentieth century. This is very important for me.

Each person looks at the world from a different point of view. If you want to look from my view point you must become familiar with my way of thinking. So by way of a short introduction, the way I see it the people who live on this earth have a material body, same as other physical objects. Behind this body I feel there is a spirit, such as that in all vegetation. Now any ‘vegetal’ trait that they have, comes from their ‘vegetal’ spirit.

For example plants take their food from the ground, they process it in their leaves, use some of it and get rid of some by evaporation or other ways. What they keep is sent to branches causing growth that also makes the tree beautiful with foliage and flowers. Some of the food is used to produce flowers containing male and female organs producing pollens causing insemination thus producing fruits and seeds for reproduction. At times they are awake and active and at other times slow or asleep.
Finally when they get old they discharge more than they take in and their body dwindles and dies. I see these activities in humans, like needing food, water, then sending these to their stomach, digesting them, sending the refined juice to the organs to facilitate their livelihood and growth, and reject the leftovers through kidneys, intestines or perspiration. They also make clothes from plants or other materials and adorn themselves. They produce semen from the food they digest. And by men and women getting together children are bred, and little by little they get old and sick and discharge more than they take in, they lose weight and finally they die. When I see all this I say that this is all the actions of their ‘vegetal’ spirit. I see people who spend all their lives doing only these activities resembling trees that are a little more advanced than other trees but you cannot call them anything else other than trees!

Beyond this ‘vegetal’ spirit, I sense another spirit in humans which is similar to that of animals. All the activities that I see from them that are also found in animals arise from this ‘animal’ spirit. For example I notice that animals hear, see, taste, smell, and touch; they turn to whatever agrees with their nature and turn away from anything that is against their nature. They transgress upon other animals, plants, or even minerals. They drink any water or eat any fodder they find, no matter to whom it belongs. The male animal jumps on any female animal it sees or the ferocious ones tear up the weaker and eat them. As long as no obstacle is in their way or stronger animal has not stopped them, they do anything that their ‘heart’ desires. They behave as their nature calls; some are strong and courageous like lions, so they attack; some are weak and timid like a gazelle, so they flee. Some are deceitful like a fox and get what they want by cheating; and some are harmless and stupid like sheep and become prey for others.

So when I see these traits in humans I associate them to their animal spirit. If some spend their whole life doing just these things, in my opinion, they are animals that can speak and are no different from animals except that they are somewhat smarter, and can manipulate and use their wit to satisfy the desires of their animal, vegetal, and mineral spirits. They can fulfil their desires more fully, such as people who have no second thoughts about what they eat or drink, whether it is water or wine, whether it is lamb or pork, whether it is permissible or not, unless it is too tough to chew. No goods are forbidden to them unless they are out of reach or the owner stops them, otherwise there is no inner force to stop them.

They steal other people’s possessions; if they have power they will confiscate it; or try to win it in a wager, if not by cheating. If he sees a woman, he wants to possess her - if possible with her consent and if not by cheating or by force if he can manage it unless he fears someone stronger. There is no inner force to stop him.

But there are a small number of human beings who have something which is higher than their animal or vegetal spirit, by which they keep these spirits under control. Such a person does not eat forbidden food even when he is hungry and when he has permissible food he eats moderately. He might be poor but does not take the possessions of others. When he sees a woman, although he may have an acute desire, he does not do anything except with his own legal wife. In dealing with those who are weaker than him, he never acts cruelly or seizes their property and always shows great self-control. All these traits point to something in him that is above the animal spirit. This is the ‘rational spirit’ which has sensations and perceptions above animal spirit. It has imagination, thinks, learns, and has understanding.

However, we see two groups among those with a ‘rational spirit’: one which has yielded to its vegetal and animal spirits and uses its rational spirit to strengthen those spirits and their desires. They use their knowledge to gain better food for their vegetal aspect, or providing objects and arms for committing cruel acts and trespasses to strengthen their animal aspect and consequently to be able to commit more cruelty and aggression and exterminate the weak. At times they cheat the young and the gullible and by scientific or economic manoeuvring rob others blind and rule them. If sometimes they control one of their animal traits it is because of another animal trait that they like more. For example they figure that aggression and taking possession of people’s assets may harm their reign so they do not do it in order to solidify their domination. Against their nature, they may even act generously to achieve their main desire which is to rule. Sometimes they waive a small amount to deceive the person and later take a much bigger amount from him. And so on.

But there is another kind of people with rational spirit who do not receive their orders from their vegetal and animal spirits. They receive their orders from an outside source. They use their imagination, knowledge, understanding, and also their animal and vegetal potentials to carry out the orders of that outside source. It does not matter to them if what they do pleases their animal and vegetal spirits. By these outside sources I mean the prophets, and their commands, which forms religion, and the people who carry out their instructions are the faithful believers. I am certain that if you pay attention you will also see the situation in the same way.

Now I must write another introduction for you. What history and the investigations by geologists and archaeologists show us is that at first and for a long while there was only mineral matter on this planet. After many years elementary small plants appeared and gradually they evolved into more developed plants, and for many years there was no living thing on earth except plants. All plants evolved to a more perfect form and then in time degenerated and became extinct. So many plants whose fossils have been found do not exist anymore. There are also some that are found and are flourishing; and there are some that are approaching extinction, such as sycamore trees.

A long time passed until elementary animals such as insects appeared. Eventually more complex animals such as reptiles, birds, and rapacious animals appeared. They have followed the same pattern: evolving to a more perfect form and then declining and finally becoming extinct. This is happening right now as some are evolving and increasing in numbers and some are said to be dwindling in numbers and thus facing extinction such as lions.

And then man appeared on earth. Prehistoric evidence shows that at first they were not smart. Little by little they became smarter. Then primitive crafts were discovered and improved over time. As history shows each generation is smarter and more knowledgeable than the previous. The population is increasing and is still advancing. Compared with the fate of other creatures, man will also reach its pinnacle in numbers and understanding and will eventually die out and become extinct, of course unless God wishes otherwise.

Surprisingly if you look carefully you will see the happenings of the past eons in a short period of time. For example evolution of human perception can be seen in the life span of a child. When it is born its perception is lower than many animals. This corresponds with the primitive men. Then within 30 or 40 years it gets to a point that he learns and understands the most advanced knowledge of modern man and in one year can improve as much as what had been achieved in one of the past centuries. You can see the process of development in the past by watching a man during his lifetime. If you are keen-eyed you can even see the evolution of the world in one man. You see him just as semen when the ‘mineral aspect’ is predominant. Then like a vegetable he draws nutrition from its mother’s blood and by digesting it grows, day by day, until blood and bone appear. After four months, mother's lifeblood will lighten up its unlit and dim delicate soul and his animal aspect awakens.

Then his mineral and animal aspects keep growing until he comes out of his mother’s womb and the first sign of the Rational spirit appears in him. At first consuming the mother’s milk and then later various foods he grows until the age of 25 or 26. His ‘vegetal’ features improve and grow until 40 or 50 when it attains its peak. Then it starts its downfall until it dies. His ‘animal’ element grows alongside his ‘vegetal’ element as ‘fodder’ becomes plentiful and then weakens as the food diminishes. The rational spirit is very weak at the beginning because its food is not like animal food, and it remains weak if that special food is not given to it. This food is spiritual and is the education and coaching that parents and people around offer. And these words are the food for the rational spirit. For example if a child is raised by animals, as has happened, it will not have any spiritual improvement and will become wild like animals. On the other hand if it is raised by a mother and father, their teachings would affect him gradually and it becomes wise and perceptive. The wiser the parents and their friends, the sooner the child will mature and become wise. For example a child who is raised in a large city understands more than a child brought up in villages among simple people. The same difference is with a child brought up in an educated family and one raised by an uneducated family.

At any rate the child matures and leaves his animal state and his rational spirit becomes strong and gains understanding so that the meanings of words affect him. At first he does not have self confidence and obeys what he is told and has no independence. But as he matures he gains self confidence and decides for himself except that he uses his capability towards gaining his animal desires and frivolities. He even disobeys his parents and believes himself smarter; and may even ridicule them. This state peaks during the age of puberty. Past this stage his understanding increases and realizes that his parents were right and starts yielding and obeying until at forty or fifty when his understanding peaks.

Now if he is the type that is attracted to vegetal and animal elements, his seeing and hearing is through them and he embodies himself in them and obeys them. And as the vegetal and animal elements weaken and deteriorate, he loses his power of understanding and dies as those elements do.

But if he looked to an external source for guidance, then as long as this external guide exists, his understanding is also preserved, because he has freed himself from his vegetal, animal, and mineral aspects, and is connected to a higher source. It is like a glass sitting on a table, if the table breaks the glass will fall and break too. But if the glass is tied to the ceiling with a string, the breaking of the table would not affect it and it will not fall and will not break because it is connected to something higher up.

Much has been said and can be said on this premise. In short I wanted to show you how the life history of ‘MAN KIND’ can be observed in one man’s lifespan and by this knowledge the unknown can be deduced.

Back to the history - we notice that once in a while some persons appeared who considered themselves above others. They claimed that they possessed a spirit superior to that of others; just as animals have a spirit that is not found in plants which allows them to do things that plants cannot, like seeing, hearing, tasting, etc, humans also have a spirit that animals do not, which enables them to do things that animals cannot do such as imagining, thinking, learning, inventing, etc.

Now these persons claimed that they have a superior spirit that is not found in other humans and that they can do things that ordinary humans cannot. As it is mentioned repeatedly in history, they did extraordinary things to prove their superiority such as bringing the dead back to life, divination, ordering plants and animals to do things as told and exercising powers on earth and in the sky to degrees that no other man could do. So people acknowledged them and since we have no reason to deny them, we acknowledge them too; because denial requires good reasons.

As we have powers of perception and execution superior to that of animals, there may also be persons who have perceptive powers superior to that of ours. There is no reason why they should not exist but there is good reason why they should exist and such phenomena are mentioned in reports and recorded in history and there are analogies to the truth in their statement. Anyway all those people, living at different times in history have all said the same thing:
“O, human beings, you are heedless of your surroundings. The world is not limited to what you see around you; there are other worlds beyond this physical three-dimensional world, the time and space which you sense. You cannot see them, just as plants cannot see the things around them and are not aware of what you can see.
Similarly we have senses which you do not have. We have a spirit which you do not have, by which we can perceive the invisible worlds. We can do a lot of things that you cannot do. Many things are visible to us but are concealed to you.
Now this great world that you can see and those concealed worlds that we can see, have a God who is Grand and that has created everything - including us, you and all the worlds from nonexistence. Realizing Him in His Essence is impossible for you and us. Except that since we were bestowed with knowledge and an unblemished heart, through revelation God has told us that there is no God except Him and that He is the unquestioned ruler of all worlds. He has also told us and ordered us to inform you that there is no God except him, and that he set up this huge factory to produce intelligent creatures to realize his Majesty and Might, to recognize his Attributes and to serve him.
This is the reason behind creation of the world. But of course, in the process, second rate products also appeared and because of their deficiencies they could not attain their optimum condition. They are actually factory rejects; each of which has stopped at a certain level and all of whom will be finally discarded. All the mineral, vegetal and animal kingdoms at various levels of ability are also ‘partly made’ and have not gone higher than certain degrees – all will be terminated, discarded and returned to earth by God.
And you, the human beings, are at a higher level than these three groups and you do have the aptitude to improve and not to get stuck half way. You can get close to being a perfect human, of which we are perfect examples. The reason for your failure is that you have enslaved yourselves to your mineral, vegetal and animal elements to the point that you are mistaking your humanity for those three and act like them. You are like a rider who has mistaken himself for his mount. When the horse is hungry you think that you are hungry or when the horse is drawn to a mare you think that you have feelings for the mare. Such a rider is unaware of his independence from the horse and that he is not related to the horse. He is negligent of the fact that his food is another kind of food and that his affections lie somewhere else - consequently he has neglected himself and has only been taking care of the horse. It will not be long before he dies of starvation!
Now you have such a problem and the Kind God has sent us to teach and remind you that you are not the horse and that you are supposed to be humans and try to strengthen that dimension of your being and help it to become everlasting. The horse will perish sooner or later. If you want to remain and enjoy the eternal bounties then obey us and follow our instructions, manner and behaviour. As the material substance making up your body is not balanced, we will tell you how to clean and to keep it clean and balanced and to avoid those things which are detrimental to it and contaminations that would throw it out of keel.
And as your material substance becomes more pure and balanced, it will cause your vegetal spirit to become balanced. We will tell you which good drinks and foods to consume to achieve a stable state. And to avoid certain things that cause imbalance. When your vegetal spirit stabilizes then your animal spirit stabilizes and so your rational spirit which rides your animal spirit will become submissive and its insubordinations will end and it will go where you want it to go and not where it desires.
To strengthen your rational spirit you must always pay attention to us and model your intrinsic ethics after ours and comply with our attributes. The sign of your success is that you will love and befriend us. That is because endearment and friendship appears between two beings that are of the same kind or possess the same characteristics. As long as your attention is with the animal spirit you will show animal characteristics and your goals and desires would be animal-like and will not resemble us and so you will not cherish us.
But if you adorn yourselves with our attributes you will become like us and the affection for us will settle in your heart and you will always be heedful of us. We resemble a lamp. The Light of God has appeared in our heart and it is radiating from our existence. When you pay all your attention to us all the time, then the Light of God will enter your heart and lighten it up and you will be adorned with qualities like ours, which are approved by God. If you continue, the Light of God will blend with you so that you will radiate it too.
That Light is the same human spirit that we discussed. The rational spirit that you have is like a lifeless body. It is like fuel which is not alight. If you turn to us the fire that is within us will warm up the fuel of your rational spirit, vaporizes it to a point where you light up spontaneously. Then you will realize that you are born into a new life and that you have senses and feelings above what you have now - You do not have to study blindly like before. You have a vision that lets you see without any teaching. Like a blind person who would study the science of colours for years and in the end would not understand the meaning of colours but would use terminology whose meaning he does not know, but now that your eyes are open you can see and differentiate them all at once. All this is because of that spirit which is the manifestation of the Light of God and all the power is from Him. You then have that power. Whatever you order, will happen. You do not need those old instruments and means. Therefore if you obey us you will become such a perfect being, independent of the animal or vegetal support. By the power of God, if they die you will remain. You will enjoy numerous bounties which you cannot even imagine now. By the power of God you will have everything and you will be able to do anything.”

Instructions of the prophets are their religions. Different parts of religion improve the mineral, the vegetal, the animal and finally the rational spirit. Among these instructions we find remedies for social problems. Looking throughout history shows that each prophet who has come and brought a religion has had some followers. Following their instructions has brought progress and improvement. Some even caused a jump in the intelligence of the people to achieve higher standards of civilization.

For example the Israelites who were destitute and with low degree of perception transcended to high positions under the tutoring of prophet Moses (A.S.), where they even formed great kingdoms. Even those who were not evidently Jewish excelled in thinking and wisdom just by socializing with Jews. And many took to what prophets had brought and accepted them even without understanding their meaning or origin.

Now if you consider Jewish annals unreliable, here is the history of Islam. You see how some people who were uncivilized nomads, who ate lizards and buried their new-born baby girls alive because of total ignorance, and who knew nothing but killing and plundering, or horses and swords, got to a point through the Prophet’s teaching that they managed to defeat big and strong empires such as Iran and Rome.

They also progressed in various fields of science. Europeans who came in contact with them during the crusades learned those sciences, which helped them achieve outstanding progress. It can be said that where they are now is on the basis of those basic sciences that they had acquired from Muslims.

What I am trying to conclude is that it has been the prophets who have caused development and progress of thinking amongst human beings; and their teaching has provided food for their rational soul and strengthened it until people reached where they are now.

It is the same as bringing up a child where the father knows what to teach him at each age. For example during childhood more stress is put on cleanliness, the art of eating, the guidelines of sleeping and getting up and so on and so forth. When the child grows up step by step and his mind develops, he is persuaded to read and write; but he is not forced to understand everything that he is taught.

Then as he gradually grows he is taught social behaviour and good manners and balanced temperament. The more his intelligence grows, the more he is taught higher and higher subjects and topics. Now human beings, at different periods in history, resemble different stages of a child’s life. Their understanding and intelligence grew just like a child’s. So the prophets at each time would speak at a level that people could understand. As people progressed then God would send a prophet to bring a higher level of the religion to preach to them. But people who followed them did not all quite understand what they were being preached.

They were mostly weak and were not really committed - like a six or seven year-old child who listens and obeys his father out of weakness of the soul and mind and not with the strength of commitment. He is shaped the way it is modelled and stays the way it is formed, like bee wax that keeps its form. But if the child is taken to a ‘warm’ environment it will gradually become soft and pliable till it loses its shape. When it becomes warmer still, it melts down and all those shapes that he was made into will disappear and will then acquire the shape of the container it is in, it will take the shape of a cube if in a cubical container and round if in a spherical container exactly like the child who believed his father and his mind took the shape of his father’s mind.

But as its intellect develops it tosses away all those forms and forgets all those instructions but since the ‘wax’ of his rational spirit is placed in his mineral, vegetal, and animal containers, and when his sense of understanding that he had acquired from his father is not rigid anymore and is flowing, it takes the form of the animal and vegetal containers. Then his desires will take the shape of his animal and vegetal desires. And this is the situation of a child close to puberty when it loses all its previous achievements and forms and switches to animal and vegetal desires. It exhibits insolence and does not listen to elders and does not pay heed to its parents and considers itself smarter than them. Now the parents are not happy with this situation, in fact they are very unhappy, but are hopeful that the young person will eventually become wise and put aside the current repulsive behaviour. In fact this behaviour is promising to the parents because this shows the awakening of the intelligence, where the previous obedience was due to lack of understanding and weakness of the spirit.

They are hopeful that soon the rational spirit would become inflamed by the heat of wisdom and this wisdom would dominate its mind and eventually he would put aside all those reprehensible behaviour and become a wise person. Remember the example of the bee’s wax; since our aim was for it to catch fire we would not mind losing all the forms we had given it when it was cold and pliable. We do not feel sorry when it starts to melt and run down into the corners and crevices of the shapeless container since we know that at the end as the temperature goes up, it vaporizes and suddenly ignites and the concealed fire within will appear and become the dominant force. Then this ‘fire’ will be the ruler and by its order all the wax starts vaporizing and going up to a higher status rather than lower.

Now, similarly, people obeyed the prophets in the past because they were in their rigid state and in whatever shape they were placed, they remained the same, and they got used to whatever habit they had acquired. But little by little as the wax of their mind starts warming, softening, and melting and those old shapes and old habits disappear. Because of the natural gravity, their understanding descends and fills their animal and vegetal containers and takes the shape of these containers which are animal and vegetal desires and strengthens them by full force.

But the wise remain hopeful because it will not take long before the understanding loses its rigidity and melts down and soon vaporizes and is ready to be ignited by the fire of wisdom. And as soon as the fire of wisdom appears, this vapour ignites and then wisdom rules. By wisdom’s order they leave the vegetal and animal containers and ascend towards the heavens of wisdom. That is when injustice subsides, darkness disappears, and the world will brighten up. Then the era of the animal rule ends and wisdom starts to reign. That is when animalism will stay at its stations, and needs no orders not to violate each other or act cruelly, when wolf and lamb will live side by side.

Now that you have read this introduction and become familiar with our way of thinking I will answer your question about my opinion of the twentieth century. I consider the world at twentieth century as a child that is approaching the age of puberty. His understanding is increasing and the wax of his understanding is melting. He has had some habits called religion or habits that had reached him indirectly and he has called them other names such as humanity, honour, altruism, and so on – but gradually he will lose all these. His shapeless senses are now more directed towards vegetal and animal natures, taking their shape and also strengthening them. For proof of this you may refer to the statistics of crimes and see that murder, crime and sexual offence are increasing steadily. On the other hand compassion, kindness, friendliness, gratefulness, and other virtues are diminishing steadily. Instead animal nature is getting stronger day by day. Science and intelligence are at the service of these new rulers – the animal traits.

Men are so infatuated with women and desire them that they try to look like them. They lengthen their hair, use make up and wear the same colour and types of clothes. By the same token women try to look and dress like men. They send the adolescents to classes that teach them sexual facts. Among those who are more perverted you find men who choose men as their spouse and similarly women with women. Their statesmen pass special laws for these people. Boys and girls are allowed to mingle, producing countless illegitimate children. Then they try to cure the bad with even worse and legalize abortion. Some others go further and try to look and live like animals and become hippies; letting their hair grow dirty and unkempt, abandoning all human traits and they use alcoholic drinks and narcotics to get rid of the least amount of residual intelligence.

The goal of their scientific endeavours is the desires of animal and vegetal spirits. They study ‘economics’ to obtain more money and more food and also how to loot and empty the pockets of the less intelligent. Industry is directed toward manufacturing more devastating arms and ammunitions in order that some kill others or to scare them and exploit them and take everything they have. They start conflicts between governments so that these governments would have to buy arms to strengthen themselves and consequently parting with their hard earned money and then start killing each other while devastating their joy of life; rendering them needy and destitute so that they can be taken into slavery. If they give gratuitous aids to poorer nations it is effectively to fatten the lamb for the slaughter, because if a nation is extremely poor it has nothing for them to pillage.

They appear to give aid in the name of humanity, but they get it back in multiples through buying the recipients’ raw materials at low prices. But never think that the weak are any better than the strong. They are also slaves of their animal nature and they would do exactly the same if they could. The lion tears up the fox and the fox chokes the chickens. They are all under the rule of their dominant animal nature and all the science and knowledge is at its service.

Conditions in Iran today are the same. Everybody is trying to catch up with the 20th century Western civilization. They mention God and His Prophet but it is only talk and no action. They are galloping to catch up with the ‘civilized’ ones, but by the time they have progressed a mile, those people have moved 100 miles ahead and so will always stay ahead of these and keep them like infatuated slaves.

Being much weaker, these people realize that they cannot catch up with the West’s power and science so they try to make their appearance like theirs. There is not a single obscene act on the other side of the world which does not become fashionable here. If a silly woman wears a certain dress there, here all the respectable women wear it. Any nonsense that is said there is treated like gospel here.

The only wisdom is Western wisdom and similarly civility is Western civility to a point that they do not observe any of their own traditions and national culture. The highest honour for a person is to dress like them and speak without an accent so that he can pass for an American or European. In a country populated by Muslims they buy the most expensive imported alcoholic beverages and pork at prices much higher than beef or lamb and feed them to their guests at extravagant parties.

They try to teach English to their children even before they have learnt their mother tongue. They pay very high fees to enlist their children in schools where only English is spoken - and probably before they finish high school they have not been taken to a mosque or a religious gathering to hear the word of God. Such parents are ready to sell everything they own to send their children to Europe or America for them to become exactly like the Europeans or Americans. This child, if he is smart, will stay there and go into their service, forget his parents, his people, and his country. He will eventually get married there and coveting material wealth will abandon his beliefs, his religion, his nationality and his ethnicity. In short this person who was raised and fed with our bread and water and educated at our people’s expense is given to them on a platter. If on the other hand he was not smart, then he would come back and bring despicable characteristics and customs as gifts. Perhaps just a few of them return while still maintaining their religion and beliefs, also bringing the knowledge they have acquired. They may have the intention of serving their brethren and also the love of the motherland and to start working in this country.

But it is bewildering to see this common weakness of spirit reigning over our new generation which has rendered them worshippers of foreigners and their customs, culture and ethics. They have sacrificed their religion but also their nationality and ethnicity for them. Just as the faithful try to follow religious rules meticulously even if they are alone at home, those people mimic the foreigners meticulously.

More surprising are those who consider themselves religious spokesmen but follow the foreigners’ style of interpretation and recommend their style and action as a pattern for their followers to copy. Science is considered their science and logic is their logic. They believe that Islamic rules are limited to those needed to correct the mineral, the vegetal, and the animal traits in us to produce an orderly society which in reality are all prerequisites of acquiring humanity and consequently miss this main purpose. Moreover they claim that ‘the door to the knowledge’ of religious rulings is closed regarding these issues. They have then allowed themselves to become partners of God and the Prophet by putting their own interpretations and suppositions at the same level as God’s instructions, and order people to act according to these suppositions which is a slanderous act against Islam. They claim that Islam as a religion is alive so for new situations new rulings must be devised by the clergy, whose conjecture is the rule of God and people must follow it.

If you think and open up this statement it means that God has not sent rules for modern situations or if he has then the Prophet has failed to deliver and so the clergy have to correct this fault with their imperfect intelligence. The Prophet himself was not permitted to make any ruling on his own without revelation from God and now a clergy’s faulty conjecture without any revelation from God or received knowledge from the holy Prophet is the religious ruling for today’s situation and it is considered the rule of God and so the flaw in religion has been rectified and Islam has so become fresh and alive! I seek refuge from the wrath of God.

Now although there are some seventy Ayahs/verses in the Holy Quraan, citing that acting according to conjecture is blasphemous. Look what these people who have turned to their animal spirit and have turned their back to God and abandoned religion are doing.

Anyhow this is a view of the vanguards of the twentieth century and the developed nations who are the leaders of the developing nations. And this is the state of the people of our country who comply with them and hope to catch up with them.

As I mentioned in the preliminaries, none of these is unexpected but they are the requisites of the natural course of the world. All of these have been mentioned in the Hadith by Prophet and his Household, and these have been described and predicted by them. We are observing a great deal of what they have predicted. They have also mentioned that all of the blessings belong to this era.

This is because the level of people’s intelligence has risen, their level of understanding has increased, and people have gained aptitudes that they did not have before. It would not be long before they will realize that this behaviour would not result in anything other than corruption. They will see its harms clearly. Life will become so unbearable that they will despise what they are doing. They will start looking for a Saviour - someone to save them from this morass. That is when wax of their intelligence will start melting and rise in vapour and become ready to be ignited by the fire of Wisdom. That is when our Saviour, May God Speed, will step out of concealment and introduce and declare himself. Just as if you light a match in a large space which is saturated with gasoline vapour - all of it ignites at once, his appearance will cause the flame of Wisdom, which he represents, to ignite all those spirits which are ready, to become wise and everyone becomes ‘human’ after having been in an animal state.

It is a great change in a plant if an animal spirit occupies it. Now if the spirit of humanity fills the rational spirit, a much greater revolution takes place. For example, seeing and hearing are possible for animals but not for plants, in the same way when people acquire the spirit of humanity they will be able to feel and understand a lot more than they do now. Then they will have obligations appropriate to their human spirit, which they do not have now. At that time the Imam will tell them of their responsibilities. This is what is meant by ‘new order and new book’ mentioned in the hadith which is even difficult for the Arabs to accept.

However, the present religion which was delivered and declared - and all that could be heard and understood by the ears of the rational spirit has been heard – and will remain so and this part will remain unchanged. The ‘new order’ is that part which could not be heard by the ears of this speaking ‘animal’. It must be heard by ‘human’ ears. So as soon as the ‘human’ spirit appears it will hear that voice; the same way that plants cannot see the sun’s light that fills the whole world, the way that animals do - But when the animal spirit appears it can see the light with its animal eyes.

Now the Imam, may God speed his advent, exists and emits God’s Light to people’s hearts but we are blind and our ‘human’ eyes have not yet opened to it. In order to get to that stage we must cleanse our spirit and refine our capabilities to make possible the appearance of that spirit. He has advised people in his letter saying: “Your actions are not concealed from us, so support us through morality, perseverance, piety, and endeavour.” This directive is for purifying and stabilizing the spirit to prepare it for the emergence of human spirit and opening of the ‘truth-seeing’ eye, and the sense of perceiving Him.

If people are the same as they were in the past and have only a superficial recognition of him, like knowing his name and ancestry, his demeanour, bravery, generosity, humbleness, compassion, and other apparent greatnesses, then there would have been no need for such a long concealment. Because God and the Imam who gains his power from God did not have to wait for the proper circumstances to develop so that Imam could appear and exterminate the heathens. This was possible on the first day but he wants humanity to emerge and his mission is to develop and be the mentor of humanity and this is only possible by instructing and coaching - not by force of arms.

You may certainly make an animal refrain from an unacceptable act by threatening it but that does not make it a human. The concealment of Imam should continue until this spirit is developed and appears. The Imam, although concealed from us, is carrying out his responsibility as is evident from his letter where it says:
“We will not leave you to yourselves and will be minding you.”

But this takes time - like training a child to become a worthy engineer. This cannot be done overnight. A tutor must be engaged to teach reading and writing in the first year. Then he must go to higher classes and have higher teachers so that after 12 years he becomes prepared to study engineering under a master. While the student is going through the preparatory years, there is no need for the master engineer to be personally teaching him – other ‘primary and secondary’ teachers would suffice adequately. Of course the master engineer prepares the schedule of lessons and oversees the process being handled by worthy and suitable teachers.

Similarly, the concealment of Imam does not mean that he does not oversee or take care of the realm of Islam, or that he has taken refuge in some place out of fear of the enemy. No, he is diligently doing his duty in instructing and guiding the nation of Islam. The primary teachings are the responsibility of the religion's erudite. As the intelligence and understanding of people increases, higher teachers will take over the task of instructing them.

If we look through the books written by Shiite erudite we will see how year after year and century after century the content of their teachings has risen to higher standards. As I mentioned before, the prophets’ advice is to correct the basics - starting with the mineral spirit then to amend the vegetal spirit, then the animal, the rational spirit, the saintly spirit, and finally to whatever they see fit. All these have been mentioned in their discussions and hadith.

Then at each period the erudite have explained as much as was appropriate to the nation’s state of mind and capabilities. At lower levels they have usually dealt with rules of what is visible or rules for amending the mineral, the vegetal and the animal in us. Now if you look in the religious jurists’ books you can see the purpose of each ruling. For example rules for cleanliness, or uncleanliness, ablution, clothes and dwellings and so on are for amending the visible mineral part. Rules for eating and drinking, halaal and haraam foods (religiously clean and unclean) and so on are to amend the ‘vegetable’ body. Rules for judgment, testifying, various punishments are to harness the animal spirit.

And also the rules for paying alms, religious levy (1/5 of income, comparable to tithe) and those concerning money and property are to maintain a social balance and provide for all social classes. The rules for marriage, divorce, social behaviour and so on are to ease the burdens of survival and socializing and so on. Rules of worshipping and prayers recommended for amending the spirit are only mentioned in the simplest form which the novice can understand; such as how to pronounce different letters in prayers, to narrate loudly or quietly, how to stand, how to bow, how to prostrate in submission, and so on but there is not a word in these books about the inner meanings of the daily prayer - only the apparent manners of prayer are discussed.

But as people’s understanding improved, books started discussing worship for the spirit, ethical behaviour, and the journey toward God. And so a higher level of erudite was commissioned for this, among whom our Shaykhi erudite are counted. They started their teachings 160 years ago and not only have they expounded on the religious rules but also the more advanced rules and procedures for amending the spirit which are all adopted from the God’s Book, the precedents set be the Prophet, and the hadith handed down from the members of the Prophet’s Household (Imams) where they have mentioned and expounded on them in their books, sermons, and classes.

They have written about 950 books of which about eight hundred exist; many of which have been printed and the rest are in the process. There are over 2000 sermons and thousands of class lectures at hand that have been written during the classes or the sermons and we have started printing them.

All these are teachings for the next step in pursuit of the religion: meaning journey toward God and gaining insight into the reality of things, gaining a better perception of God and His attributes, gaining a better perception of the Prophet and the Imams - their virtues and high positions - May God’s blessing be upon him and his Household.

They mostly contain the procedures to prepare and amend the rational spirit to accept the human spirit and also the true perception of the Imams. The presence of the Mashayekh and their teachings is itself a sign of proximity of the advent of the 12th Imam, May God speed. It is like the break of dawn which is a vanguard of the sunrise.

But some narrow-minded clergy who were teaching primary classes, fearing the closure of their classes, denied altogether that there is a higher class. They think that Islam’s teachings, the appointment and sending of the prophets and holy books, and the creation of heaven and earth was all for the sake of teaching a few rules and regulations about women’s monthly habits, or men’s ablutions, or rules concerning trade, and so on!

They think as if one would graduate just by knowing these or that they are the only teachers that there are. They are oblivious to the fact that creation of this fantastic world was not just for these puny goals. The Creator of this world has had a much greater intention and has made and will make the necessary preparations for it. So protesting and denying or excommunicating is of no use except to cause their own loss of respect, as it has happened. This procedure will continue and there is no chance of it reversing. God leads the people to their predestined objective. “God takes the ship where He wants it even if the captain rips his shirt apart!”

We thank God for showing us the right path through the guidance of the erudite: our Mashayekh, and for setting us straight as to where he wants us to go. We will tell the Word of God as much as possible which is a practical prayer for the advent of the concealed Imam. We do not stop at recited prayers only.

I better cut short. I hope that you have understood our way of thinking from what I have written so far. I am sending you a few books to help you perceive our Mashayekh’s words in detail which of course are all taken from the words of Prophet Mohammad and his Household, may God bless them.

God’s praise be on Prophet Mohammad, his Household, and his advocates.

Finished by my hand: AbdulReza son of AbolGhasem, son of ZeinolAbedin, on the morning of Seventh of Rajab, the lunar year 1391 - Saturday 28 August 1971.