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The completion of this victory—and the blessing it brings—depends on the sultan’s issuing of royal decrees (1) to sever the roots of the evildoers and to establish the Divine Law throughout the land. These people have shaykhs and comrades in many villages whom they follow and who champion them (2); in their hearts they harbor deep rancor and covert, intense hostility. One can never feel secure against what they might attempt, even clandestine collusion with the enemy. But once their leaders who misguide them—such as the clan of Banu al-ʿUd—are apprehended, a measure of evil known only to Allah will be removed.

Orders should likewise reach their villages—scattered through the districts of Damascus, Safad, Tripoli, Hama, Homs (3), and Aleppo—that the rites of Islam be upheld there: the Friday prayer, the five daily congregational prayers, and the recitation of the Qur’an. They must have preachers and callers to prayer like every other Muslim village; prophetic hadiths are to be read among them, the landmarks of Islam publicized, and anyone found guilty of innovation (4) or hypocrisy punished as the Sacred Law demands.

Indeed, these combatants (5) and their likes have said, “We are an ignorant people. Those men used to teach us and tell us, ‘If you fight these people you will be mujahidin, and whoever among you is killed will be a martyr.’”