from his Imamate, either in religion or in worldly affairs. Rather, they say that they possess knowledge transmitted from someone other than him.

If the Imamate is the most important question in religion, yet they have gained no benefit from its intended purpose, then they have missed the most important and noblest part of religion. In that case, whatever divine oneness and justice they have attained will be of no benefit to them, since it is deficient in relation to the intended purpose of the Imamate, and they therefore deserve punishment. Yet how could this be, when they concede that the purpose of the Imamate pertains only (1) to the subsidiary rulings of the Sacred Law, whereas no Imam is needed for the rational fundamentals, which are more important and nobler?

After all this, your doctrine concerning the Imamate is among the positions furthest removed from what is right. If its only flaw were that you deem the Imamate obligatory because of the benefit it brings people in their religion and worldly affairs, while your Imam, the Master of the Age, has brought you no benefit in either religion or worldly affairs, that alone would suffice. What effort, then, could be more misguided than that of one who endures prolonged toil, engages in endless talk, separates himself from the Muslim community, curses the early Muslims and those who followed them, assists the unbelievers and hypocrites, devises every kind of stratagem, pursues every avenue open to him, seeks support from false witnesses, lowers his followers on the rope of delusion, and does things too numerous to describe—all merely so that he may have an Imam to direct him regarding Allah’s commands and prohibitions and acquaint him with what draws him nearer to Allah [Most High] (2)?

Then, once he has learned the name and lineage of that Imam, he attains none of what he sought. Nor does [anything] (3) of the Imam’s teaching or guidance, his commands or prohibitions, reach him, nor does he obtain