Facsimile · p. 107
This manifest kingdom, just as the Shiites believed they had Imams other than the official Imams from the Umayyads, Abbasids, and others. The Sufis named the heads of this kingdom with special names like Qutb, Ghawth, and Abdal. The Qutb represents the Imam or Caliph, and he is at the head of the spiritual kingdom. Sometimes they call him Qutb, and sometimes they call him Ghawth. If they call him Qutb, it is because he is the center of the spiritual kingdom and at its head. If they call him Ghawth, it is because he is a refuge for the distressed. They knew him to be the object of God's gaze at all times. God gave him the Greatest Talismans from Himself, and he flows through the universe like the spirit flows through the body. In his hand is the Scale of the Greatest Abundance, and he follows His knowledge, and His knowledge follows the Truth. He bestows the spirit of life upon the universe, and his rank is called Qutbiyyah. He is the inner spirit of prophethood, and Qutbiyyah after him is only for his inheritors, and they are not his inheritors by blood, but his inheritors are those who are worthy of this guardianship. He has deputies in the spiritual kingdom called Abdal, and each region has a special Badl who oversees its affairs. Thus, they drew the outlines of this spiritual guardianship and divided its tasks. They said that due to its spirituality, it is infallible, like the infallibility of prophets and Imams. They wandered in this as much as their imagination allowed, devising plans for the manifest world to do what it does and leave what it leaves.