This letter was written to Mirzâ Shamsuddîn. It answers his letter and explains the states of savants of zâhîr, of men of tasawwuf, and of those distinguished savants who have reached perfection in knowledge and who are the inheritors of prophets:
Hamd be to Allâhu ta’âlâ and blessings and salâm be upon His prophets! I send my salâm to you and to those who are on the right way. My dear brother Shaikh Muhammad Tâhir has delivered the valuable letter you sent so kindly. We have been pleased to read it. You say that you have been and will be reading my letters of advice in Maktûbât until we see each other. My Dear Sir! Giving advice is our primary duty in the dîn and is to adapt ourselves to the highest of Prophets ‘’alaihimu-s-salawâtu wa-t-taslîmât’. What the savants obtain of the dîn and their following Rasûlullah is first their correcting their belief. Next comes their learning the teachings of the Sharî’at and practising what they have learned. And what the men of tasawwuf obtain is hâls, wajds, pieces of the knowledge of tasawwuf and ma’rifats, together with those that are attained by the savants. And as for what the ’Ulamâ-i râsikhîn obtain of the dîn who have been blessed with the glad tidings that they are prophets’ inheritors, along with the fact that they have been blessed with the lot of obtaining all of what the savants of the dîn and the men of tasawwuf have obtained, they have been blessed with many a piece of secret and subtle knowledge. These pieces of secret and subtle knowledge are indicated by the concealed and covered âyats in the Qur’ân, which are called mutashâbihât. They have been explained by means of ta’wîl. It is these superiors with râsikh (perfect) knowledge who adapt themselves to Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ fully. These only are the inheritors of Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’. Since they adapt themselves to Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ precisely, and being prophets’ inheritors, they get a share from the blessings bestowed upon prophets. They, too, are made to hear secret knowledge peculiar to those great people. They, therefore, have been honoured with the glad tidings:
“The savants of my Ummat are like the
Prophets of the sons of Isrâil.” [Imâm-i Yâfi’î, in his book named Nashr-ul-mahâsin, reports that this hadîth sherîf is sahîh. In many books, for example, in the letters number 268 and 294 of Maktûbât, and in the letter number 121 in the third volume by Imâm-i Rabbânî, and also at the beginning of the book Letâif-ul-minen, this fact is written clearly.
It is written in the book Al-hâmilu fil-fulk, too.] Then, you, too, should hold fast to the way of the highest of prophets, of the beloved one of the Creator of all classes of beings! And you should struggle to attain the grade of being an inheritor, which is the uppermost of the grades of happiness!