(I seek refuge to God from the expelled Shaytan

In the name of God, the most merciful and the most beneficent

Praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and peace be upon Mohammad and his purified family

Our master, Mansoor, says about the) deniers of the unity of truth and its cognition criteria: Unity of the truth and its cognition and the standard required for it, are from essential facts (which means it’s a matter that is essentially obvious and hence, complying with it is necessary and obligatory) in which there is no place for doubt (which means having doubt about it does not have a reasonable basis that can be justified rationally). However, since long time ago (before Islam) until now, there have been some people who had doubts about it and even denied it (the first group of these people that our master, Mansoor named is).

[Sophists]

(He says: ) as an example (that means Sophists here is just an example, he does not mean all the groups, since there might be some other groups who have the same ideology) they have said that (he has interpreted “they have said” because this is a famous subject but it belongs to the era prior to Islam and might not be definitively certain. Anyhow, based on famous quotes) in the ancient Greek, there was a group of people who have not recognized a unit existence for the truth and considered it as a subordinate to human being’s opinion. In the opinion of this group who were referred to as the Sophists (apparently this is a Greek name and the word “sophistry” that means fallacy and deception had been taken from this word. Anyhow unlike this group and their like-minded people who exist today), the truth is something that the human being considers as truth and can prove it even through the power of debate. This means that the truth does not have a fixed existence (meaning unchangeable), independent from the human being, and changes based on human being’s cognition of it. In other words, the human being cognition does not comply with the truth (because there is no truth outside of human mind at all), but it is the truth which complies with human being’s cognition (because it only exists in his mind and is an imaginary thing) and if human being does not recognize any truth, no truth actually exists! (They were the first group of the people who were denying the unity of truth and its cognition criteria. Though, apparently this group only existed in the past and does not exist anymore, but the fact is that it still exists and only its name has changed and that is why our master, Mansoor has named it and introduced it so that the background and history of other so-called new groups with the same concept and theory that exist today would be revealed. The most important of these groups that our master, Mansoor names after the Sophists is)

[Humanists]

(These people that are being called “Humanists”, are in fact, the same Sophists who has worn a new mask and they consider human the axis and the basis of truth; therefore he says: ) This sophistry may be a kind of humanism which is governing the world of atheism (meaning the non-Muslim countries) today (he says “may be” because there may be some differences between them); since today, the world of atheism is affected by the philosophers (meaning the philosophers who were denying the existence of God) like Machiavelli (Died 1527 AD) (who is a very famous philosopher among this group and he believed the aim justifies the means and we can do anything to reach the aim and anything necessary to reach the aim is good even if it is against religion and morality and humanity and harm others. Obviously, presenting these kinds of theories by this group of unbeliever philosophers, has made its impact on the world of atheism, whether in the field of politics or in the field of economics or in the field of culture, though maybe they do not say that and do not declare that they have created this inhuman politics and economics and culture by following Machiavelli and his look-alikes, but their integration and coordination and consultation with them is absolutely clear and visible and does not need to be specified. However, unbeliever governments, knowingly or unknowingly, under the impact of these philosophers) that (in the words of our master, Mansoor) had been the heirs of the Sophists (meaning they have utilized their intellectual heritage) they have made moral values adapted to their desires and presented new definitions of fundamental concepts that are different from their natural and historical definitions (Fundamental concepts means clear and basic propositions and perspectives that are public and are commonly accepted by all the people, like goodness of justice and badness of cruelty. Since these concepts are institutional and firm in people’s nature and instinct, they have some clear and accurate definition that were existed throughout the history and has come from people’s nature, but today’s unbeliever humanists have changed these natural and historical definitions to their own benefit). As an example, justice and freedom has found new meanings in their lexicon that in their world view, are based on the relativism more than anything else ("relativism in their world view" means they do not consider constant and independent meaning for their fundamental concepts and moral values, rather they consider them totally relative and dependent to their own benefits). From their point of view, exactly the same as the Sophists, the truth is a subordinate to their opinion and anything that is compatible to their interest, is good and anything which is not compatible to their interest is bad! (This is the very connection loop that exists between humanists and sophists and is the very similarity between them) This humanism is obviously a movement (meaning it is dynamic and uprising) against theism and those who have founded it, have not believed in God (given that with faith in God, we cannot consider human as axis of the truth and the sum of these two is not possible); since in theistic divine world view, God is the origin (meaning the source) of the truth and human being is dependent to the truth, while in the non-theistic world view, human being is the origin of the truth and God (even if they believe in his existence in appearance, like Jew and Christian humanists) has no role in it. (Therefore, our master, Mansoor says in a very clear and precise expression: ) in other words, believing the unity of the truth, is a monotheistic belief originated from the belief in God’s unity as the origin of the truth (meaning from the belief that the origin of truth, is God who is one and does not have any partner), while the belief of the truth diversity, is a polytheistic belief originated from denying God’s unity and believing in diverse origins for the truth. (This was the second group who were denying the unity of Truth and its cognition criteria. But the third group who, surprisingly, have appeared in the world of Islam and among Muslims were)

[Al-Musawiba[1]]

(meaning the people who were tending to approve different and opposite ideas and considering them as truth and, unknowingly, have followed the way of unbeliever humanists. He says about them: ) As described above, there is no wonder about existence of this stream (meaning the stream of denying the truth) among the unbelievers (because it became clear that this stream is an atheistic and infidel stream and accordingly, its existence among unbelievers is natural); Existence of this stream among Muslims is a wonder (because existence of a polytheistic stream among the believers to monotheism is strange); since during the 2nd and 3rd century AH (meaning from almost half the Ommayads era until a part of the Abbasids era), a group of Muslims were affected by some political factors at the time of Omayyad’s ruling (which were continued in the era of Abbasids and some of these factors will be pointed later.) and with the motivation of approving (meaning justifying) disagreements of the Prophet’s companions, inherited this atheistic belief and believed that the truth, is dependent upon the Mujtahid[2] and is diversified by plurality of his opinion! (meaning these people, with regards to strong disagreements between Prophet’s companions after death of his excellency and with regards to their optimism and great devotion to these companions, started to approve them to make it seem like all the companions were right on all their opinions and actions. And since they knew the companions as Mujtahids and were justifying their disagreements for this reason, they expanded this belief to other Mujtahids too and said opinions and actions of all the Mujtahids are right; because they all have their own reasons and their opinions and actions are right from their own perspective) In the opinion of this group called “Musawiba”, anything which is considered as the truth by Mujtahid, is the truth in God’s view, and anything which Mujtahid considers as not being the truth, is not the truth in God’s view! Therefore the Mujtahid is not the follower of God’s view, rather God is a subordinate to his view and creates the truth as per his opinion! It is probably thought that this was a rare and obsolete view (meaning non-sense and unpopular) stated by a small group of the ignorant Muslims (meaning illiterate and not from the educated class), but the fact is that most of the Ash’arites (meaning followers of Abu al Hassan al Ash’ari who make the majority of Muslims) and many of the Mu’tazila (which was a verbal sect with more rational tendency) have had the same opinion and some individuals like Abu Hanifa (Died 150 AH), Malik (Died 179 AH), Shafi’i (Died 204AH), Ibn Hanbal (Died 241 AH) have also been mentioned in the above-said group (meaning some people, have considered the leaders of the four sects to be from al-Musawiba group whereas our master, Mansoor doubts this and says: ) whereas it is definitely not certain and is subject to disagreement. (Honestly it is hard to accept this allocation especially with regards to Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Shafi’i; because some words have been quoted from them, that shows they did not believe in Taswib[3], even when it comes to the companions and they believed some of the companions were wrong; although, like many, they preferred to stay silent about the mistakes made by companions and sometimes this silence has caused these allocations and has made this so-called misunderstanding. However, on the other hand, they have been allocated to believe in the justice of all the companions which can mean Taswib; because it cannot be justified unless based on Taswib. Apparently that is why our master, Mansoor leaves this matter doubtful; although this can be because he, generally, does not grant any credit for these types of allocations and believes most of them are conjectural and worthless. However, this was the third group of deniers of the unity of the truth. But the fourth group is: )

[Pluralists]

(Which means the people who frankly believe in plurality and multiplicity of the truth) Anyway, this false approach (which means believing in multiplicity of the truth which its falsehood was cleared earlier), such as many other false approaches that were common among the ancestors (which he will point to some of them later), have been transferred to later (meaning next) generations and today, is also seen among a number of Muslims (apparently the intended purpose is tendency to Taswib that a number of Muslims still have that tendency especially to the companions). In addition, another group has appeared nowadays which is referred to as “the pluralists” (obviously, our master, Mansoor, does not use the actual foreign word "pluralist" in his Farsi book deliberately that unbelievers have made for themselves and it’s not clear what these names mean and what is their intention from making these names; because, generally, he shows reluctance to emulate from unbelievers both in action and in speech and this is something obvious for us who have companionship with him. However, this group is called Pluralists) who openly believe in plurality of the truth and its cognition and consider the numerous interpretations of a unit text, as correct (meaning they believe that a text and writing, can have many different meanings, as many as the number of people who read it). There is no doubt that this stream is not an Islamic one and it is created under influence of the atheist (meaning denial of God’s existence) streams; since at the time when the Islamic world mixed (meaning conglomerated and integrated) with the atheism world and they chose interaction (meaning trading and exchanging) with it, rather than confrontation (meaning antagonism and conflict) with it (given that in the beginning, Muslims were considering unbelievers as their enemies and were not thinking about anything but fighting against them and it was the reason that there was no opportunity for penetration of the unbelievers thoughts into Muslims, whereas since two, three centuries ago until now, the type of relationship between Muslims and unbelievers has changed and friendship with unbelievers were started, of course, one-sided friendship; because unbelievers never made friends with Muslims and they do not do so now and they will not do so in the future either and they have been thinking about exploitation and plundering of resources of Muslims all this time. Anyway, when this optimism and friendship with unbelievers were started, in the words of our master, Mansoor) when some people from among Muslims who have had less cognition of Islam and less commitment to it (meaning they were weaker scientifically and practically, even though some of them had gone abroad and were considering themselves so scholarly, whereas they had not even realized their ancestral religion correctly. Anyway, these people) got a passive position, consciously or unconsciously and were astonished (meaning were influenced) by the earthly deceptive adornments of the atheism world (due to the industrial revolution in Europe which by the way was thievery and was stolen from the world of Islam), and they have taken the color and aura and taste of unbelievers (meaning they took the thinking, language and behavior of unbelievers). However, we may not consider this approach completely as a gift (meaning souvenirs and Imports) of the atheism world; since its roots is traceable from among Muslims during the first centuries of Islam (just like the group of Al-Musawiba who were founded in the second and third century; meaning some tendencies similar to these wrong intellectual tendencies in the past, have existed among the Muslims. Here, our master, Mansoor, with a deep and fair attitude wants to say that it is possible that this plurality, has been originated from wrong tendencies of Muslims in past centuries as much as it has been originated from intellectual penetration of unbelievers into the world of Islam. Therefore, he says: ) and the similarity between them does not necessarily mean their relationship with each other (because it is possible that sometimes, some similarities can be found between different people who do not have any special relation together or do not even know each other; given that, anyway, they are similar in the principle of humanity and have the same instincts and nature and if these same instincts and nature do not get controlled and guided by an extrinsic factor like religion, would need similar approaches between human. This is a delicate point that our master, Mansoor, pays attention to, with his special justice and fairness that can be seen in every part of this book, unlike others positioning that whatever problem they see among Muslims, they accuse unbelievers for it without thinking, and they speak as if Muslims are angels and they had no role in creating their problems. Anyway, he, unlike these narrow-minded and naive people, does not consider Muslims' role less than unbelievers role and considers pluralism a common tendency between Muslims and unbelievers and to confirm this issue, he brings some verses from Quran as witness as usual and says: ) as God has said: «يُضَاهِئُونَ قَوْلَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ قَبْلُ»[4]; “Their words are similar to those who have previously become infidel” and has said: « كَذَلِكَ قَالَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ مِثْلَ قَوْلِهِمْ ۘ تَشَابَهَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ ۗ»[5]; “The people that were living before them said so, their hearts are alike, just the same as their words”!

(Eventually, our master, Mansoor, concludes his discussion about this matter again and says as conclusion: ) however, what is certain is that the truth, is a unit and distinct existence and is not capable of diversity and plurality and therefore, requires a unit cognition and demands a unit standard. (First, this discussion was about this subject that cognition criteria is necessary to recognize anything including Islam, second, cognition criteria has unity and uniqueness and cannot be multiple by any means

wa salamualaikum wa rahmatullah)