his sole ambition is naught but seeking offices and leadership (al-ri'asah) without proper governance (siyasah).

[33]Our master al-Sadiq, His glory is magnificent, had already said: "O Mufaddal, beware of those who exploit [religion] for livelihood and those who seek leadership within these doctrines. Indeed, the Jews, the Christians, and the Magians are in a better state than these exploiters and leadership-seekers. O Mufaddal, maintain good governance over your own self and drop leadership from it, for no servant has ever recognized God with true gnosis except that he was saved from that."

As for my statement: "I am disassociated from a physical form whose burial was undertaken by the Adversary," [this is] because the physical form that remained discarded before the hands of Qabil, may God curse him, was neither the Meaning, His glory is magnificent, nor was it the true form of Habil—given that no illusory likeness (shabahan) was established for the Seven. Yet when Rabiah argued: "I establish that the form was indeed the form of Habil, His glory is magnificent," incapacity overtook him, and he argued: