Now this pretender to the office of Mahdi is causing schism in the congregation and has broken the staff (unity) of Islam, and has ruined the abodes of the Moslems, plundered their property, dishonoured their women, and made some tyrannize over others, as is in accordance with their apostacy, because they have made lawful the killing of the faithful, the dishonour of their women, and the plunder of their property, and calling them Kafirs (infidels) without cause, though these are observing (or defending) the laws of religion, and walking in the firm road (way of truth); moreover, the majority of his followers are sorely troubled by what they have seen of slaughter, infamy, pillage, and taking of captives, nor are they with him body and soul (heartily), the proof of which is that only a few days passed before some of them came to seek assistance from the Government against oppression, famine, and nakedness.
A number of letters have come, some of them from you, in which are a number of erroneous statements, wherein the Sheikh el Akbar says that the Most High God has appointed for the Mahdi a divine host of Ministers (Vizirs), whom God has reserved for him in the depths of His secret councils; He has revealed them declaring and witnessing about the Creation, and that which God has commanded for His servants; also that the Mahdi does nothing except by their counsel; and that they are Persians (foreigners), not one of them is an Arab, yet they speak nothing but Arabic; that they have a chief, Hafiz, who is not of their race, who has never at all rebelled against God; he is the chief of the Vizirs. Their number does not exceed nine, nor is it less than five. To every six there is a Vizir, who has special knowledge and functions. Here ends the quotation.[264]
But where are these foreign Vizirs, and that one among them who professes that he is an Arab? and what about their excess above that number?
And with all this you accuse us Ulema of error from the way of truth, and say that you know what others do not know; whereas, between you and him that has even the very least knowledge, there is a very wide gulf.
And in those letters you address His Excellency the Governor-General (Gordon) as Sáadat,[265] and yet they contain accusations of his being a Kāfir (infidel). Is not this to use terms which contradict each other?
In them you also say that the certain proof as to this being indeed the Mahdi, the Expected One, on whom be peace, was accepted by you at the very beginning of his manifestation, and forbids you to receive letters or to reply to them.
Also in some of your letters you say that you have been among the number of his Vizirs for the last thirty years. How is this after what you wrote lately under your seal to your Sheikh el Abeed, that whoever believes that this Mahomed Achmet is the Mahdi must needs be a Kāfir (infidel), because there has not come any Hadith, or revelation, or Athar, but shows to all the world the true nature of this man; therefore to believe in him would involve giving the lie to him, on whom be blessing and peace, who is, above all, worthy to be believed?
Here is contradiction? Since your love of the world has actually perverted you even into saying of him, “Peace be on him.”[266] (‘Alaihy es salaam.)