th the shadow. God (glorious is His mention)
hath called Himself the Lord of the worlds for that He hath nurtured and
doth nurture all; exalted is His favor which hath preceded contingent
beings and His mercy which hath preceded the worlds.

"This is sufficiently clear, that, [whether] right or wrong according to
the imagination of the people, this community have accepted as true and
adopted the religion for which they are notorious, and that on this
account they have foregone what they had, seeking after what is with God.
And this same renunciation of life in the way of love for the Merciful
[God] is a faithful witness and an eloquent attest unto that whereunto
they lay claim. Hath it [ever] been beheld that a reasonable man renounced
his life without proof or evidence [of the truth of that for which he
died]? And if it be said, 'This people are mad,' this [too] is very
improbable, for it is not [a thing] confined to one or two persons, but
rather have a great multitude of every class, inebriated with the
Kaw_th_ar of divine wisdom, hastened with heart and soul to the place of
martyrdom in the way of the Friend. If these persons, who for God have
foregone all save Him, and who have poured forth life and wealth in His
way, can be belied, then by what proof and evidence shall the truth of
that which others assert concerning that wherein they are be established
in the presence of the King?

"The late Haji Siyyid Muhammad (may God exalt his station and overwhelm
him in the depth of the ocean of His mercy and forgiveness), although he
was of the most learned of the doctors of the age and the most pious and
austere of his contemporaries, and although the splendor of his worth was
of such a degree that the tongues of all creatures spoke in praise and
eulogy of him and confidently asserted his asceticism and godliness, did
nevertheless in the war against the Russians forego much good and turn
back after a little contest, although he himself had decreed a holy war,
and had set out from his native country with conspicuous ensign in support
of the Faith. O would that the covering might be withdrawn, and that what
is hidden from [men's] eyes might appear!

"But as to this sect, it is twenty years and more that they have been
tormented by day and by night with the fierceness of the Royal anger, and
that they have been cast each one into a [different] land by the blasts of
the tempests of the King's wrath. How many children have be