from thy pen in the love of God, and found charming
meanings from the contents (of thy letter). I hope, through the gift of
the glorious Lord, that thou wilt be always refreshed and revived by the
fragrances of the Merciful.

As to what thou hast written concerning "Reincarnation": Believing in
reincarnation is one of the old tenets held by most nations and creeds, as
well as by the Greek and Roman philosophers and wise men, the old
Egyptians and the chief Assyrians. But all these sayings and superstitions
are vanity in the sight of God.

The greatest [argument] produced by those who held to reincarnation has
been this: "That it is necessary to the justice of God to give every one
his due. Now everybody who is afflicted by any calamity is said to have
sinned; but when a little child, which is still in the womb of its mother
and hath just been formed, is found to be blind, deaf or imperfect, how
could it have committed any sin that we might say this imperfection is
given to it as a punishment therefore--so, though such a child hath not
done outwardly any sin in the womb of its mother, ye [they say] it must
have sinned when it was in its former body, which hath caused it to suffer
this punishment."

Indeed, these people have been negligent of the fact that had the creation
been carried out in a uniform fashion, how could the statement be true,
that "God doeth whatever He wisheth and God doeth whatever He
desireth!"(290)

Though the fact of "Return" is mentioned in the Divine Books, by this is
intended the return of the qualities, characters, perfections, truths and
lights (of the past age), which re-appear in every age, and not (the
return) of certain persons and souls. For example: If we say this lamp is
the return of that of last night, or that the last year's flower hath
returned in the garden (this year), in this sense the return of the
individual, or identity, or personality is not meant; nay, rather, it is
intended that the same qualities and states existing in that lamp or
flower, which are now seen in this lamp or flower, have returned. That is,
the same perfections and virtues and properties which existed in the past
springtime have returned during this present springtime. For instance:
When one says, these fruits are the same as those of last year; in this
sense, he hath reference to the freshness and delicacy of the fruit, which
hath returned, although there is no doubt that the identical fruit of last
year