the King's justice, therefore, the statement of an
adversary ought not to be accepted as sufficient. And in the Furqan, which
distinguisheth between truth and falsehood, He says, 'O ye who believe, if
there come unto you a sinner with a message, then discriminate, lest you
fall upon a people in ignorance and on the morrow repent of what ye have
done.'(31) And it hath come down in holy tradition, 'Credit not the
calumniator.' The matter hath been misapprehended by certain doctors,
neither have they seen this Servant. But those persons who have met [Him]
testify that this Servant hath not spoken contrary to that which God hath
ordained in the Book, and recite this blessed verse: He saith (exalted is
He) 'Do ye disavow Us for aught save that We believe in God, and what hath
been sent down unto Us, and what was sent down before?'(32)

"O King of the age! The eyes of these wanderers turn and gaze in the
direction of the mercy of the Merciful One, and assuredly to these
afflictions shall the greatest mercy succeed, and after these most
grievous hardships shall follow great ease. But [Our] hope is this, that
His Majesty the King will himself turn his attention to [these] matters,
which thing will be the cause of hope in [Our] hearts. And this is unmixed
good which hath been submitted, and God sufficeth for a witness.

"Glory be to Thee, O God! O God, I bear witness that the heart of the King
is between the fingers of Thy power: if Thou pleasest, turn it, O God, in
the direction of mercy and kindliness: verily Thou art the Exalted, the
Potent, the Beneficent: there is no God but Thee, the Mighty from whom
help is sought.

"Concerning the qualifications of the doctors, He saith: 'But amongst the
lawyers he who guardeth himself, observeth his religion, opposeth his
lust, and obeyeth the command of his Lord--it is incumbent on the people
to follow him...' unto the end. And if the King of the age will regard
this utterance, which proceeded from the tongue of the recipient of divine
inspiration, he will observe that those characterized by the qualities
transmitted in the aforementioned tradition are rarer than the
philosopher's stone. Therefore the claim of every person pretending to
science neither hath been nor is heard.

"So likewise in describing the lawyers of the latter time He says: 'The
lawyers of that time are the most evil of lawyers under the shadow of
heaven: from them cometh forth mischief, and unto them it returneth.