Forbidden to you is carrion: these are the exceptions from among the kinds of lawful enjoyments and they are carrion, that is, extinguished desire which is the vice of excess that is incompatible with contentment, such as effeminacy or the inability to pursue the [minimal] necessary of enjoyments or to partake of enjoyment with a loss of moderation in the appetitive faculty as is the case with effeminates and certain flirts, as well as those ascetics and renouncers in character, who fall short of [the requirements of] wayfaring by their lack of preparedness; and blood, that is, enjoying the caprices of the soul in deeds, for the admixing of caprice and its tarnishing effect spoils all deeds; and the flesh of swine, and all aspects of enjoyment that are actualised through covetousness and avarice, for the faculty of covetousness is the vilest of faculties and the most obstructive of the paths to perfection and salvation; and what has been hallowed to other than God, that is acts of spiritual discpline and deeds performed for show and all that is done for other than God, as the breaking of the soul, curbing it and opposing it does not count as a beautiful and meritorious act and an aid to wayfaring unless it is [done] for the sake of God. If it is done for other than God, it is an act of [idolatrous] association and association is the greatest of grave sins; and the beast strangled, that is, restricting the soul from vices and preventing it from despicable acts by the actualisation of forms of virtues and the issuing forth of good acts in forms [contaminated] with caprice, for acts of the soul are virtuous when it is curbed and vanquished for the sake of God, and when [its] caprice, its source of vigour and life, leaves it so that it subsists by the will of the heart, similar to when blood, which is the life force of an animal, is let out upon its being slaughtered for the sake of God; and the beast beaten down, that is, when qualities of excellence issue forth outwardly from the soul while it is averse to that and must be coerced to it; and the beast fallen, those [enjoyments] which are connected to excess, diminution and inclination to the lower aspect and the soul's lapsing from [its] sublime aspirations and the powerful degree; and the beast gored, that which issues forth out of fear and of being compelled out of the like, such as the probity that comes about by means of the reprimands of the market inspector and out of the fear of being disgraced; and what beasts of prey have devoured, such as the virtues of probity that come about as a result of the intensity of the irascible faculty in the way of pride and passion and the mastery of wrath. For when wrath becomes master it prevents the intensity from working, or [that come about] as a result of a repression of a repressor such as a king or a commander - except for what you have sacrificed duly, except what has become conjoined to you and a habit for you and is obedient to you after being repressed by another such that virtues issue from it by the will of the heart without any admixture of caprice; and what has been sacrificed in [the name of] idols, what is done on the basis of habits which must be eliminated, unless it relates to a rational or law-fulfilling purpose; and that you apportion through the divining of arrows, and that you seek felicities and perfections by means of descriptions and risings relying on what God has decreed and determined, neglecting conscious effort and industry in the pursuit [of these]; and you make that an excuse for falling short [of the required] by saying, 'there is no share in it for us, for had there been a share for us [therein] it would have materialised'. Perhaps this was simply an excuse while according to the [divine] decree his perfection has been made contingent on his conscious effort, but he has failed to discover that; that is wickedness, a violation of religion, that which is the path of truth. Today, that is, at the moment of the actualisation of perfection resulting from the training of the soul with qualities of excellence and its firm adherence to resolutions, the disbelievers have despaired, that is, the veiled faculties of your souls, or your offspring and your ilk from among the natural philosophers and the belief-feigning atheists, of your religion, that is [they have despaired] from barring you from the path of truth; therefore do not fear them, for then they will overcome you, but fear Me, by not stopping at the self-disclosure of any one of My attributes and being in awe of the tremendousness of My Essence until you have arrived at the station of annihilation. Today I have perfected your religion for you, by explaining the sacraments and the method of wayfaring, and I have completed My favour upon you, by guiding [you] to Me, and I have approved for you, submission and obedience through effacement upon the self-disclosure of [My] acts and attributes, or [I have approved for you] the surrender of [your] faces for annihilation upon the self-disclosure of the Essence, as religion. But whoever is constrained, to [engage in] one of the forbidden things which we have enumerated, by emptiness, by a severe agitation of the soul or an overwhelming as a result of the manifestation of one its attributes, not inclining purposely to sin, not deviating from religion and the orientation [of the wayfaring] toward a preventive vice deliberately and resolutely, then God is Forgiving, covering that up for him by the light of one of His attributes that counters it, Merciful, with the reinforcement of divine assistance in order to manifest perfection and remove the barriers to it.