or, Haji Nasir, who, unquestionably, was a brilliant light that
shone forth above the horizon of resignation. After he had suffered
martyrdom, they plucked out his eyes and cut off his nose, and inflicted
on him such indignities that strangers wept and lamented, and secretly
raised funds to support his wife and children.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! My Pen is abashed to recount what actually took place. In
the land of Sad (Isfahan) the fire of tyranny burned with such a hot flame
that every fair-minded person groaned aloud. By thy life! The cities of
knowledge and of understanding wept with such a weeping that the souls of
the pious and of the God-fearing were melted. The twin shining lights,
Hasan and Husayn (The King of Martyrs and the Beloved of Martyrs) offered
up spontaneously their lives in that city. Neither fortune, nor wealth,
nor glory, could deter them! God knoweth the things which befell them and
yet the people are, for the most part, unaware!

Before them one named Kazim and they who were with him, and after them,
his honor A_sh_raf, all quaffed the draught of martyrdom with the utmost
fervor and longing, and hastened unto the Supreme Companion. In like
manner, at the time of Sardar Aziz _Kh_an, that godly man, Mirza Mustafa,
and his fellow martyrs, were arrested, and despatched unto the Supreme
Friend in the All-Glorious Horizon. Briefly, in every city the evidences
of a tyranny, beyond like or equal, were unmistakably clear and manifest,
and yet none arose in self-defence! Call thou to mind his honor Badi, who
was the bearer of the Tablet to His Majesty the _Sh_ah, and reflect how he
laid down his life. That knight, who spurred on his charger in the arena
of renunciation, threw down the precious crown of life for the sake of Him
Who is the Incomparable Friend.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! If things such as these are to be denied, what shall, then,
be deemed worthy of credence? Set forth the truth, for the sake of God,
and be not of them that hold their peace. They arrested his honor
Najaf-'Ali, who hastened, with rapture and great longing, unto the field
of martyrdom, uttering these words: "We have kept both Baha and the
_kh_un-baha (bloodmoney)!" With these words he yielded up his spirit.
Meditate on the splendor and glory which the light of renunciation,
shining from the upper chamber of the heart of Mulla 'Ali-Jan, hath shed.
He was so carried away by the breezes of the Most Sublime Word and by the
power of the Pen of Glory that