All of this drives sound minds toward the Firm Resolve (al-‘azīma) to seek the secrets of God the Exalted in what He has obligated upon His servants. For God—Mighty and Majestic—is too Generous to enslave His servants with matters whose structures are not balanced or with paths whose meanings cannot be intellectualized, while having linked reward to their performance and punishment to their abandonment.

I have only provided this dictum to clarify the Inner Reality (al-Bāṭin) in this epistle, and the necessity for every seeker of eternity to know what it contains of the Persons of the Luminous World (ashkhāṣ al- ‘ālam al-nūrānī).

For there is no way to ascend toward it [Eternity] without knowing the inner realities of the aforementioned acts of worship. And God is the Patron of success, by His grace.

THE FIRST CHAPTER

On Knowing the Categories of Worship and Their Inner Reality

Know, O righteous and merciful brother, that the term "Worship" (al- ‘ibāda) denotes two meanings.