total assurance regarding you, that I would find all that is necessary for this—present, manifest, and broadcast—through your enlightened thought and discerning vision.

Though all this has passed, O my brother, and you have left me alone, I shall rise to [this task] in fulfillment of what we pledged to one another, and in performance of my duty. May your spirit aid me if I lack your physical presence, and may Allah grant me an extension of my term, and provide me with health and the capacity for it.

No one knows as I do how difficult and incomplete this work will be without you.

And if Allah does not honor us—so that we do not share this honor with any other than Him—and it is completed, then I say: If Allah does not ordain the completion of what was intended and what is necessary, then I believe that in this collection there is a blueprint of steps that would be well to follow. We ask Allah to ordain for it one who is broader in gnosis (‘Irfan) and clearer in exposition. And if not: then its placement as signs, symbols, or one of the facets of interpretation is sufficient for the mind to shift from one approach to another, so that it finds itself on the main path (al-Jadda) after nearly being lost in the divergent side-paths (Bunayyat al-Tariq).

To clarify this, I refer you to the method followed by al-Sayyid Abu ‘Abdillah al-Husayn ibn Hamdan in his treatment of the inquiry into "Vision" (al-Ru’yah). For he [refuted] his opponents using their own