They have alerted us to rely on this rule in their traditions (Hadiths), for they said: "Our speech is like the Quran; in it is the definitive (Muhkam) and in it is the allegorical (Mutashabih), and it explains itself," because here, too, the formulations varied according to the narrators, time, and place.

So I said to my brother Ibrahim: Since the knowledge of Allah through the Image (al-Surah) is the cornerstone upon which the school of Al-Sayyid Abi ‘Abdillah is built, and it is therein that we differ from the collective of others, and from it the innovators and the oath-breakers (al-Nakithun) are confounded, and in it those who strayed did so after having knowledge—therefore, it is fitting if there were gathered for us the "images" of what has been narrated concerning it from al-Husayn ibn Hamdan and his eminent followers. This is so it may be present before us as a protective treasury against what has been birthed from within [the factions], and as intellectual sources upon which we stand firm and between which we compare, until any falsehood or illusion that has reached us through [the path of] our Masters and their elite is exposed. Thus, their word shall shimmer in our intellect and spirit as radiance and a guiding light, and those darknesses shall disperse to vanish like dust in the air.

We had pledged to exert every effort to achieve this, for it is not hidden from any expert the difficulty of accomplishing such a task, and the required sources and references of encyclopedic knowledge.