the correctness of what I speak about in this treatise by the detailed evidences through which alone the proof is established according to the saying of the people of The Exoteric (Al-Zahir) as well—and they are the Book, the Sunnah, and the intellect—and I have divided it into chapters that the reader will see in their places.

And with respect to my embracing of this principle and my taking up of this method, the method of saying and believing in the manifestation of the Divinity in a visible form, and that the Commander of the Faithful, Ali bin Abi Talib, is Allah in His very essence, and my taking up of this method, the method of saying and believing in the manifestation of the Divinity in a visible form, and that the Commander of the Faithful, Ali bin Abi Talib, is Allah in His very essence, I did not commit myself to it by virtue of imitation and followership, in the sense that I grew up upon what I saw my fathers and grandfathers upon, not at all but I took up this principle by virtue of evidence and proof, by way of The Exoteric (Al-Zahir) intellect and The Esoteric (Al-Batin) intellect together, and in addition to that, the correctness of this belief was established to me by way of the truthful vision,