ir
womenfolk shall bewail and lament. These indeed are my friends!" Consider,
not a single letter of this tradition hath remained unfulfilled. In most
of the places their blessed blood hath been shed; in every city they have
been made captives, have been paraded throughout the provinces, and some
have been burnt with fire. And yet no one hath paused to reflect that if
the promised Qa'im should reveal the law and ordinances of a former
Dispensation, why then should such traditions have been recorded, and why
should there arise such a degree of strife and conflict that the people
should regard the slaying of these companions as an obligation imposed
upon them, and deem the persecution of these holy souls as a means of
attaining unto the highest favour?

Moreover, observe how these things that have come to pass, and the acts
which have been perpetrated, have all been mentioned in former traditions.
Even as it hath been recorded in the "Rawdiy-i-Kafi," concerning "Zawra."
In the "Rawdiy-i-Kafi" it is related of Mu'aviyih, son of Vahhab, that
Abu-'Abdi'llah hath spoken: "Knowest thou Zawra?" I said: "May my life be
a sacrifice unto thee! They say it is Baghdad." "Nay," he answered. And
then added: "Hast thou entered the city of Rayy?",(183) to which I made
reply: "Yea, I have entered it." Whereupon, He enquired: "Didst thou visit
the cattle-market?" "Yea," I answered. He said: "Hast thou seen the black
mountain on the right hand side of the road? The same is Zawra. There
shall eighty men, of the children of certain ones, be slain, all of whom
are worthy to be called caliphs." "Who will slay them?" I asked. He made
reply: "The children of Persia!"

Such is the condition and fate of His companions which in former days hath
been foretold. And now observe how, according to this tradition, Zawra is
no other but the land of Rayy. In that place His companions have been with
great suffering put to death, and all these holy beings have suffered
martyrdom at the hand of the Persians, as recorded in the tradition. This
thou hast heard, and unto it all testify. Wherefore, then, do not these
grovelling, worm-like men pause to meditate upon these traditions, all of
which are manifest as the sun in its noon-tide glory? For what reason do
they refuse to embrace the Truth, and allow certain traditions, the
significance of which they have failed to grasp, to withhold them from the
recognition of the Revelation of God and His Beauty, and to ca