The Covenant = Al Mitháq:
“O Governor [Valî] of the Age,[139] may Allah’s blessing and peace be upon him” (this phrase seems intended to delude Muhammadans into the belief that the Druses have the same Allah or God, but it has an esoteric sense which will become apparent further on). “I put my confidence into ‘our spiritual head the Lord’ (literally ‘our Maula Al-Hákim’) (here is one of the esoteric formulæ)—‘the One, the Single, the Everlasting (Lord), the (serenely) Distinct from Duality and Number.’ (This is a protest not only against the female form of the Deity, but also against the notion of a distinct good and evil principle, an Ahriman or Ormuz, whilst its Muhammadan form would seem to outsiders to be merely a protest against giving any ‘companion to God.’) The initiator and the to be ‘initiated’ then go on repeating together the following, the former using the 3rd, and the latter the 1st, person. ‘I so and so’ (here comes name of the initiated), ‘son of such a one, confess firmly the confession to which he (or I) respond from his [or my] soul, and bears testimony to it upon his spirit, whilst in a condition of soundness of his spirit and of his body, and with the (acceptance of the passing of the) lawfulness of the order, obeying without reluctance and under no violence: that he verily absolves (himself) from all Religions and Dogmas and Faiths and Convictions, all of them, in the various species of their contradictions, and that he does not acknowledge anything except the obedience to our Maula Al-Hákim, may his mention be glorious! and this obedience it is the worship, and that he will not associate in his worship any (other) that is past or is present, or is to come, and that he has verily entrusted his spirit and his body, and whatever is to him and the whole of what he may possess to our Maula Al-Hákim, and that he is satisfied to fulfil all His orders unto himself and against himself without any contradiction, and not refusing anything and not denying (refusing) anything of His actions, whether this injures him or rejoices him, and that he, should he ever revert (apostatize) from the religion of our Maula Al-Hákim which he has written upon his soul, and to which he has born testimony unto his spirit, that he shall be bereft (free) of the Creator, who is worshipped and deprived of the benefits of all the sanctions (rules, laws), and that he shall be considered as deserving the punishment of God, the High, may His mention be glorious! And that he, if he acknowledges that there is not to him in Heaven and not in the Earth an Imám in existence except our Maula Al-Hákim” (this confession distinguishes the Druses of the Lebanon and the Muláis of the Hindukush from the orthodox Shiahs, who believe in the coming of the ever-present Mahdi, or the twelfth Imám, a view that had been fostered by us in the Sudán to our endless confusion by our inexcusable opposition to the Sultan of Turkey as the Khalifa of the Sunnis), “then will the mention of him (who only believes in Al-Hákim) become glorious, and he will be of the Muwáhidîn (who profess the unity of God), who will (eventually) conquer.” (This appellation is common to the Druses and to the Muláis, but is not admitted as being applicable to them by orthodox Shiahs or Sunnis. In retaliation they call the Sunni a dog, and the Shiah an ass.) “And (the above) has been written[140] in the month so and so of the year (chronology) of the I’d (festival) of our Maula Al-Hákim, whose nation be glorious, whose Empire be strengthened to Him alone.” (The Maulái Chronology is said to begin with the special revelation of the Imám on the 17th Ramadan in the 559th year of the Hejira, at the castle of Alamût.)
The Special Recitation.
The following is repeated by Druses at the conclusion of their prayers: “May God’s blessing be upon him who speaks (confesses) the Lord of goodness and benefits. May God bless the Ruler of the Guidances (Hidāyā); to him be profit and sufficiency. May God’s blessing be on our Lord the Hādi” (the Guide or “Mehdi” means one who is guided aright by God = the coming Messiah of the Shiah world,) “the Imám, the greatest of the perfect light” (this is an allusion to the 7th Imám, Ismail, descendant of the light[141] (Mohammed)), “who is waiting for the refuge (salvation) of all living beings. On Him may be (our) trust, and from him (may be) the peace. May God bless him and them whatever passes of nights and of days and of months and of years, whenever flashes the dawn of morning or night remains in darkness may abundant peace and trust be for ever! O Allah-humma!” (the mystic Muhammadan remnant of Elohim = Lords, Gods) “provide us with Thy contentment” (this is a play of words implying that our best “daily bread” is God’s contentment with us) “and with Their contentment” (this is either a Trinitarian or Polytheistic invocation to “Elohim”) “and with their intercession and with Thy mercy and with their mercy in this world and in the next! O our Maula! and Lord of the Imám” (this is indeed significant as to the pretensions of Al-Hákim to the godhead, or to some dignity very near it).
Now comes an ancient curse with a modern application and an appeal to arms (whispered along the line of assembled Druses):
“Pray for the ornament of sons,
In the East the five[142] residing (compare also the Shiah ‘Panjtan’[143] and the five main Shiah sects)[144]
They say: Father Abraham has appeared,