Translation of the letter:
They do not pluck a leaf from the tree of religion but uproot it! They remove a husk from people’s eyes and leave a pine tree in their own eyes! They shoo flies away from people’s backs and carry camels on their own backs! They beautify their outward appearance and defile their inner characters! They are sweeter than honey in people’s eyes and more bitter than colocynth behind the walls! They like the truth but not as much as power and like knowledge but not as much as fame! They want the Hereafter for others and the world for themselves! They think of themselves as greater than what they are and consider others lesser than what they are! They want God for themselves and do not want themselves for God! Wisdom is like ignorance to them, and light is like darkness to them! The flattery of the ignorant has deceived them, and charming titles have astonished them! They put expediency before Sharia and prefer benefits to the truth! They do not think the truth is in what they deny, nor do they see anything beyond what they have communicated to others! I swear to God, they have followed in the footsteps of the past nations’ scholars, except that those would distort the words of Sharia and these distort its meanings! So Beware of them so that they do not mislead you as the scholars of the past nations misled them!
Explanation of the letter:
It is clear that His Honor’s intended meaning of those scholars is the traitors who wear the clothes of scholars and bear their titles but oppose his invitation toward the pure religion and stop people from accepting it, or they ignore it and remain silent about it to conceal the truth, and his intended meaning is not the righteous scholars who accept his invitation without arrogance or fanaticism and then support it with their tongues and hands; because they are the truthful servants of God and His friends for whom there shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.
