I only said to them, and I only commanded them that which You have charged me with saying and which you have obliged me to [say]: “Worship God, my Lord and your Lord”. In other words, I only called them to the union in the form of differentiation, the relationship of whose lordliness to all is equal. But they fell into error and saw that [lordliness] in only some of the differentiations because of the narrowness of their [spiritual] receptacles. And I was a witness over them, a watcher, present, looking after them and teaching them, whilst I was amongst them, that is, while there remained in me the existence of some remnant, but when You took me [to You], [but when] You annihilated me totally in You, You were Yourself the Watcher over them, given my having been annihilated in You, and You Yourself are Witness over all things, [You are] present; through You a thing comes into existence, for otherwise that thing would not be.
