for you the signposts of your religion; through him Allah guided both you and us to the path of His Sacred Law, and with this Muhammadan light He exposed to you the errors and deviations of His servants, so that you came to discern the wayward from the upright and the sound from the diseased. I hope that you are the Victorious Group—those whom neither the desertion of those who forsake them nor the opposition of those who resist them can harm—whose place, Allah willing, is in Syria.

Section

Now that you know this, recognize the right of this man who lives among you and acknowledge his true rank. No one appreciates his right and his rank except one who knows the Messenger’s religion ﷺ and knows the Messenger’s own right and rank. Whoever accords the Messenger’s religion the place it deserves in his heart will recognize what this man has undertaken (1) in the midst of Allah’s servants: straightening their crookedness, repairing their corruption, and gathering their scattered parts to the fullest extent of his ability, in this dark age when the religion has veered off course, the Sunnahs have been forgotten, innovations have become familiar, good is considered evil and evil good, and the one who clings to his religion is like someone clutching burning embers. The reward of the one who upholds this (2) light amid such darkness cannot be described, nor can the magnitude of his task be fathomed.

That is if you know him from the aspect of the outward, legal order. There is another group who know him from a different aspect altogether—the inward dimension—by virtue of his penetration (3) into the knowledge of Allah’s Names