“‘O pretender to My friendship! In the morning the breeze of My grace passed by thee, and found thee sleeping on the bed of heedlessness, and wept over thy condition, and turned back.’ Finis.
“In the presence of the King’s justice, therefore, the statement of an adversary ought not to be accepted as sufficient. And in the Furqán, which distinguisheth between truth and falsehood, He says, ‘O ye who believe, if there come unto you a sinner with a message, then discriminate, lest you fall upon a people in ignorance and on the morrow repent of what ye have done.’[31] And it hath come down in holy tradition, ‘Credit not the calumniator.’ The matter hath been misapprehended by certain doctors, neither have they seen this Servant. But those persons who have met [Him] testify that this Servant hath not spoken contrary to that which God hath ordained in the Book, and recite this blessed verse: He saith (exalted is He) ‘Do ye disavow Us for aught save that We believe in God, and what hath been sent down unto Us, and what was sent down before?’[32]
“O King of the age! The eyes of these wanderers turn and gaze in the direction of the mercy of the Merciful One, and assuredly to these afflictions shall the greatest mercy succeed, and after these most grievous hardships shall follow great ease. But [Our] hope is this, that His Majesty the King will himself turn his attention to [these] matters, which thing will be the cause of hope in [Our] hearts. And this is unmixed good which hath been submitted, and God sufficeth for a witness.
“Glory be to Thee, O God! O God, I bear witness that the heart of the King is between the fingers of Thy power: if Thou pleasest, turn it, O God, in the direction of mercy and kindliness: verily Thou art the Exalted, the Potent, the Beneficent: there is no God but Thee, the Mighty from whom help is sought.
“Concerning the qualifications of the doctors, He saith: ‘But amongst the lawyers he who guardeth himself, observeth his religion, opposeth his lust, and obeyeth the command of his Lord--it is incumbent on the people to follow him...’ unto the end. And if the King of the age will regard this utterance, which proceeded from the tongue of the recipient of divine inspiration, he will observe that those characterized by the qualities transmitted in the aforementioned tradition are rarer than the philosopher’s stone. Therefore the claim of every person pretending to science neither hath been nor is heard.
“So likewise in describing the lawyers of the latter time He says: ‘The lawyers of that time are the most evil of lawyers under the shadow of heaven: from them cometh forth mischief, and unto them it returneth.’
“And if any person deny these traditions, the establishing thereof is [incumbent] on this Servant; but since [Our] object is brevity therefore the detail of the authorities hath not been submitted.
“Those doctors who have indeed drunk of the cup of renunciation never interfered with this Servant, even as the late Shaykh Murtadá (may God exalt his station and cause him to dwell under the shadow of the domes of His grace) used to show [Us] affection during the days of [Our] sojourn in ‘Iráq, and used not to speak concerning this matter otherwise than God hath permitted. We ask God to help all [men] unto that which He loveth and approveth.
“Now all people have shut their eyes to all [these] matters, and are bent on the persecution of this sect; so that should it be demanded of certain persons, who (after God’s grace) rest in the shadow of the King’s clemency and enjoy unbounded blessings, ‘In return for the King’s favor what service have ye wrought? Have ye by wise policy added any country to [his] countries? Or have ye applied yourselves to aught which would cause the comfort of the people, the prosperity of the kingdom, and the continuance of fair fame for the state?’, they have no reply save this, that, falsely or truly, they designate a number of persons in the presence of the King by the name of Bábís, and forthwith engage in slaughter and plunder; even as in Tabríz and elsewhere they sold certain ones, and received much wealth; and this was never represented before the presence of the King. All these things have occurred because of this, that they have found these poor people without a helper. They have foregone matters of moment, and have fallen upon these poor unfortunates.
“Many sects and diverse tribes rest tranquil in the shadow of the King, and of these sects one is this people. Were it not best that the lofty endeavor and magnanimity of those who surround the King should be so witnessed: that they should be scheming for all factions to come under the King’s shadow, and that they should govern amidst all with justice? To put in force the ordinances of God is unmixed justice, and with this all are satisfied; nay, the ordinances of God [ever] have been and will be the instrument and means for the protection of [His] creatures, as He saith (exalted is He) ‘And in retaliation ye have life, O people of understanding.’[33] [But] it is far from the justice of His Majesty the King that, for the fault of one person, a number of persons should become the objects of the scourges of wrath. God (glorious is His mention) saith: ‘None shall bear the burden of another.’[34] And this is sufficiently evident, that in every community there have been and will be learned and ignorant, wise and foolish, sinful and pious. And to commit abominable actions is far from the wise man. For the wise man either seeketh the world or abandoneth it. If he abandoneth it, assuredly he will not regard aught save God, and, apart from this, the fear of God will withhold him from committing forbidden and culpable actions. And if he seeketh the world, he will assuredly not commit deeds which will cause and induce the aversion of [God’s] servants and produce horror in those who are in all lands; but rather will he practice such deeds as will cause the adhesion of mankind. So it hath been demonstrated that detestable actions have been and will be [wrought only] by ignorant persons. We ask God to keep His servants from regarding aught but Him, and to bring them near to Him: verily He is potent over all things.