Also in the Hadith (it is found) that they (? he) will follow the steps of the prophet, blessing and peace on him; he will be infallible, and he will not decree as to what is lawful or unlawful excepting as he, on whom be blessing and peace, would have decreed if he had been alive. He will not surpass any of their Imams in knowledge and thought in the least. This is what ought to be acted upon, and this as regards him who has attained such a degree of profound knowledge (of religion) that he has arrived at differing (ventures to differ), though the Imams are against him.
But your Imam has not attained this degree of profound knowledge, for he knows nothing of the six sciences on perfection, on which this profound knowledge depends. Besides which, he has forsaken the axioms which are among the essentials of religion.
But the Sha’arāni himself, from whose book you quote as guide, has said in his book El Yawakeet w’el Jowahir (‘Rubies and Jewels’) that the Mahdi is to be son of Hassan el Askari, and his birth will be in the night of the middle of Sha’abān, two hundred, fifty and five, and he remaineth until he meets Jesus the Son of Mary. (Sha’arāni) said, “Thus was I informed by Sheikh Hassan el Ar’āki when he met with me, and my lord Ali el Khowas confirmed the same.”
End of the quotation.
Now if his birth was in the year two hundred, fifty and five, and he is to be appointed Mahdi as a youth, as is found in the Hadiths, and (seeing that) from since then that one thousand and forty-six years have passed, while the age of your Imam does not amount to the tenth part of those years, how can you quote the evidence of Sha’arāni on your side and convict us of error by him, while he is quite clear in (saying) that which contradicts this pretension? Whereas if he (the Mahdi) had laid claim to sovereignty, that would have been more agreeable to his (Sha’arāni’s) saying:—He has made his claim because the people followed him. For the Governor-General here does not prevent any one from going to him or to any one else, but the roads are open to all who please; notwithstanding which the people do not cease to come in crowds and crowds, desiring the protection of his government; and he protects them, and is beneficent to them, and provides for them; whereas it is just the opposite with those who go to you, even the envoys. And if you doubt this, stop the seizing of booty and the killing of deserters, and pillage after fighting, and see after that who will follow you? For without doubt there are those who do so under compulsion, and are distressed thereat, and wrongly imagine that this is from the Turkish Government. But now we and you are here in the Soudan, and there is not one here of the Turkish Government. If you were to come to Kartoum you would not find a Turk. Why, then, is this war? Is it for the ruin of religion, the slaughter of Moslems, for the overthrow of houses and mosques, for the burning of the books of the religion of Islam and the killing of the Ulema, or to close the way against the pilgrimage of the Hajj (to Mecca)? And this is (your) Mahdi’s work!
Now, because it has been declared in the Sabbeehh that religion is sincerity to God and His prophet, and His Imāms the Moslems and their people, we have written this unto you, in the hope that you will understand it and will act accordingly before you are hemmed in by the evil of your deeds. And as to this business, since its close and end are close at hand, we remind you thereof, and if that which we have enlarged upon is not sufficient for you, then let your Ulema and your notables come to examine the matter in a place where both parties will feel secure. For there is the Book and the Soonna, and let them bring about union between us, and God will guide whom He will and cause to err whom He will. But if this does not commend itself to you—although it is enjoined in the saying of the Most High,—If you should differ in anything submit it to God and His prophet, if ye be believers in God and in the last Day;—(then) attend to our proposal and come; let us call our sons and your sons, and our wives and your wives, and ourselves and yourselves, and consult, and lay the curse of God upon the liars.
And be not misled by that which you have mentioned about the slaughter of Moslems in Kordofan and in the engagement with your Sheikh el Abeed, for this is nothing in comparison with what happened to the Moslems in the raid of Tithār and the slaughter of Nebuchadnezzar in the Holy House,[269] and the destruction thereof, and the war of Tamerlane, and others beside, which are written in the books, as will be understood on referring to them; also in the last war, in which were martyred, by the Beni el Asfar,[270] a number of Moslems past counting. And after the great wars and destruction of countries the Moslems have not seen any result injurious to the faith. Was not the Caaba overthrown by the engines of war? Were not the Imām Hussein and his family slain at Kerbela? Now, if all this proves that he who conquers has right on his side, why, then, did you not follow the conquering government which subjugated the Moslem countries?
Moreover, as to the two engagements you have mentioned, and those who were killed in them, some of them were killed by thirst and some by treachery. And it is well known that war resembles the buckets (on a wheel like see-saw; one up, the other down).
We are ashamed to reply to the foolish comparison you draw about the raid of Badr and that of Ohod, as we are also ashamed to reply to your Imam, who places on a level with the righteous Khalifs those weak (miserables), poor in faith, who are like brute beasts and even more ignorant. Were we to answer that, it would take too long, wherefore we lay hold of the reins of our pen and stop it from running in that Maidān (race-course).