Prayer is an enjoiner (āmira) and a prohibitor (nāhiya), and that the one who remembers his Lord is a pray-er. Now, these are the movements of the limbs—how can that be [an enjoiner or prohibitor], when He said it is an enjoiner and a prohibitor? If someone says: "Why then did he [the Prophet] perform it and urge [others] toward it?"

The Answer: We have informed you that He established an Exoteric form which He made a proof of the Esoteric. If He had not done this, no one would have known either the Exoteric or the Esoteric.

Among what clarifies the insufficiency (fasād) of the Exoteric [as a standalone end] is that it would have been necessary in the path of justice that when Allah sent Muhammad with this Law (Shar‘), He should have sent [a messenger] to the furthest lands of China a messenger commanding them with exactly what Muhammad commanded us, in terms of the obligations of fasting, prayer, pilgrimage, and jihad, without changing any of it for them, since they were a creation like us. Why then did He favor us with the Messenger and neglect those people, when it has reached us that in China there are people who have not heard the mention of Muhammad, nor has any messenger come to them in this regard?

Rather, the Creator (al-Bāri)—Exalted is He—manifests in every genus as them (kahū) to indicate His existence; there is no denial in the variation of legislations (sharā’i‘) and manifestations (zuhūrāt). Do you not see that He appeared to the Persians as them, and permitted for