us to follow the Inward law (Al-Shari'a al-Batina), according to His address to His Prophet: {Then We put you on an ordained way (Shari'a) of the matter; so follow it and do not follow the inclinations of those who do not know} (Al-Jathiya: 18).

Al-Sayyid al-Makzun—may God sanctify him—said in his poetry: Were it not for whim, no one would have fallen into the Fire, From the Path, nor from its limit would they have strayed. Nor would one have seen the Truth witnessed and beheld it As knowledge, yet denied it out of injustice and heresy.

His—the Almighty's—intent in His saying: {and do not follow the inclinations of those who do not know} (Al-Jathiya: 18) is the prohibition of following these outward forms (Al-Suwar al-Zahira) which the People of the Outward believe in; for His address—the Almighty—to His Prophet is fitting for us and applies to us.

Among what confirms and establishes the negation of the outward obligations (Al-Fara'id al-Zahira) and the affirmation of their inward [realities] is what was narrated in the book Realities of the Secrets of Religion (Haqa'iq Asrar al-Din), in the chapter on the obligation of dissimulation (Taqiya), the concealment of faith, and the performance of outward deeds, regarding the explicit rejection of the Outward House (Al-Bayt al-Zahir), which is the Almighty informed us therein about the people of Paradise and the Fire, their calling and their dialogues, so that we may know the attainment of the people of Paradise—who are the