from the judges and the source of the judges is the appointment of the imam. if the imamate is invalidated the appointment is invalidated and the authority of the judges is dissolved and they are joined to the individuals of creation and the dealings with souls bloods private parts and money are forbidden and the carpet of the law is completely folded in these great tasks. so revealing the corruption of every school of thought that leads to these great tasks is one of the tasks of the religion and its obligations except that establishing that is difficult and arranging it while taking precautions against targeting problems and objections is difficult and we with the help of god will reveal it. the cover is removed from him so we say we claim that the imam almustazhir biallah may allah protect his days is the true imam whose obedience is obligatory. if we take a long time in establishing the proof for him we will gradually investigate it and be gentle in explaining it to him until the one who doubts him acknowledges the truth and the face of correctness and honesty becomes clear to him. we say that there must be an imam in every era and there is no candidate for the imamate other than him so he is the true imam. so this is a result that we built on two premises one of them is our saying that there must be an imam and the other is our saying that there is no candidate for the imamate other than him. so in which of them is the dispute? if it is said how do you deny the one who does not accept that there must be an imam but rather he tells us that he is rich in it. we said this is a question that we the batiniyya and all other groups of muslims have agreed upon as false. they have agreed and agreed that there must be an imam. their dispute is only about the appointment not the principle. no one has gone so far as to say that the imam must not be appointed and that he can be dispensed with except a man known as abd alrahman ibn kaysan. there is no doubt in the invalidity of his school of thought and the corruption of his belief. it is as if we are alerting the seeker of guidance to the first poor person which is that ibn kaysan is being led in what he claims by the consensus of the entire nation. he has attacked with what he has fabricated from the school of thought. on breach of consensus
من القضاة ومصدر القضاة تولية الإمام فإن بطلت الإمامة بطلت التولية وانحلت ولاية القضاة والتحقوا بآحاد الخلق وامتنعت التصرفات في النفوس والدماء والفروج والأموال وانطوى بساط الشرع بالكلية في هذه المهمات العظيمة فالكشف عن فساد كل مذهب يتداعى إلى هذه العظائم من مهمات الدين وفرائضه الا أن تقرير ذلك متوعر وترتيبه مع الاحتراز عن التهدف للاشكالات والاعتراضات متعسر ونحن بتوفيق الله نكشف الغطاء عنه فنقول ندعى أن الإمام المستظهر بالله حرس الله ايامه هو الإمام الحق الواجب الطاعة فإن طولنا باقامة البرهان عليه تدرجنا في تحقيقه وتلطفنا في تفهيمه إلى أن يعترف المستريب فيه بالحق ويلوح له وجه الصواب والصدق ونقول لابد من امام في كل عصر ولا مترشح للامامة سواه فهو الإمام الحق إذا فهذه نتيجة بنيناها على مقدمتين احداهما قولنا لا بد من الإمام والاخرى قولنا لا يترشح للامامة سواه ففي ايهما النزاع فإن قيل بم تنكرون على من لا يسلم انه لا بد من امام بل يقول لنا غنية عنه قلنا هذا سؤال اتفقنا نحن والباطنية وسائر اصناف المسلمين على بطلانه فإنهم أجمعوا وتطابقوا على أنه لا بد من إمام وإنما نزاعهم في التعيين لا في الأصل ولم يذهب أحد إلى أن الأمام لا يجب نصبه وأنه يستغنى عنه إلا رجل يعرف بعبد الرحمن بن كيسان ولا يستريب محصل في بطلان مذهبه وفساد معتقده وكأننا ننبه المسترشد بمسكين الاول هو ان ابن كيسان مسوق فيما يدعيه باجماع الامة قاطبة ولقد هجم بما انتحل من المذهب على خرق الاجماع