لئلا تطول الأبواب و يكثر حجم الكتاب فيعسر تحصيله على الطلاب و في بالي إن أمهلني الأجل و ساعدني فضله عز و جل أن أكتب عليه شرحا كاملا يحتوي على كثير من المقاصد التي لم توجد في مصنفات الأصحاب و أشبع فيها الكلام لأولي الألباب.

…so that the chapters should not grow long and the bulk of the book increase, making it hard for students to obtain. And I have it in mind, if my term is extended and His grace, mighty and exalted, assists me, to write upon it a complete commentary containing many of the aims not to be found in the writings of our companions, and to treat the matter there at length for those possessed of understanding.

و من الفوائد الطريفة لكتابنا اشتماله على كتب و أبواب كثيرة الفوائد جمة العوائد أهملها مؤلفو أصحابنا رضوان اللّٰه عليهم فلم يفردوا لها كتابا و لا بابا ككتاب العدل و المعاد و ضبط تواريخ الأنبياء و الأئمة عليهم السلام و كتاب السماء و العالم المشتمل على أحوال العناصر و المواليد و غيرها مما لا يخفى على الناظر فيه.

Among the notable benefits of our book is that it takes in books and chapters of abundant benefit and ample return which the authors among our companions, God's good pleasure be upon them, had passed over, setting aside for them neither a book nor a chapter — such as the Book of Divine Justice and the Return, the setting down of the histories of the prophets and the Imams, peace be upon them, and the Book of the Heavens and the World, which takes in the states of the elements and of what is generated from them, and other matters not hidden from one who looks into it.

فيا معشر إخوان الدين المدعين لولاء أئمة المؤمنين أقبلوا نحو مأدبتي ١هذه مسرعين و خذوها بأيدي الإذعان و اليقين فتمسكوا بها واثقين إن كنتم فيما تدعون صادقين و لا تكونوا من الذين يَقُولُونَ بِأَفْواهِهِمْ ما لَيْسَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ و يترشح من فحاوي كلامهم مطاوي جنوبهم و لا من الذين أشربوا في قلوبهم حب البدع و الأهواء بجهلهم و ضلالهم و زيفوا ٢ما روجته الملل الحقة بما زخرفته منكرو الشرائع بمموهات ٣أقوالهم.

So, O company of brethren in religion who lay claim to loyalty to the Imams of the believers: come to this banquet of mine (1) in haste, and take it with the hands of acceptance and certainty, and cling to it in confidence, if you are truthful in what you claim. Do not be among those who "say with their mouths what is not in their hearts", whose inward folds seep through the drift of their speech; nor among those into whose hearts the love of innovations and caprices has been made to sink through their ignorance and their misguidance, and who have counted as false coin (2) what the true communities had put into currency, on the strength of what the deniers of the revealed laws had gilded with the specious varnish (3) of their words.

فيا بشرى لكم ثم بشرى لكم إخواني بكتاب جامعة المقاصد طريفة الفرائد لم تأت الدهور بمثله حسنا و بهاء و أنجم طالع من أفق الغيوب لم ير الناظرون ما يدانيه نورا و ضياء و صديق شفيق لم يعهد في الأزمان السالفة شبهه صدقا و وفاء كفاك عماك يا منكر علو أفنانه ٤و سمو أغصانه حسدا و عنادا و عمها ٥و حسبك ريبك يا من لم يعترف برفعة شأنه و حلاوة بيانه جهلا و ضلالا و بلها و لاشتماله على أنواع العلوم و الحكم و الأسرار و إغنائه عن جميع كتب الأخبار سميته بكتاب

So good tidings to you, and again good tidings to you, my brethren, of a book that gathers the purposes and holds rare and precious things, whose like the ages have not brought forth in beauty and splendour; of a star risen upon the horizon of the unseen, whose equal in light and radiance beholders have not seen; and of a sincere friend whose like in truthfulness and fidelity was not known in ages past. Your blindness is enough for you, O you who deny the loftiness of its boughs (4) and the height of its branches out of envy, obstinacy and bewilderment (5); and your doubt is enough for you, O you who do not acknowledge the elevation of its standing and the sweetness of its exposition, out of ignorance, misguidance and folly. And because it takes in the kinds of the sciences, the maxims and the secrets, and dispenses with all the books of reports, I have named it the Book of