, the Dawning
Point of Revelation (Muhammad), and to the holy line of His descendants,
since, by the widespread rays of His consummate wisdom, His universal
knowledge, those savage denizens of Ya_th_rib (Medina) and Batha (Mecca),
miraculously, and in so brief a time, were drawn out of the depths of
their ignorance, rose up to the pinnacles of learning, and became centers
of arts and sciences and human perfections, and stars of felicity and true
civilization, shining across the horizons of the world.

His Majesty the _Sh_ah has, at the present time, [1875] resolved to bring
about the advancement of the Persian people, their welfare and security
and the prosperity of their country. He has spontaneously extended
assistance to his subjects, displaying energy and fair-mindedness, hoping
that by the light of justice he might make Iran the envy of East and West,
and set that fine fervor which characterized the first great epochs of
Persia to flowing again through the veins of her people. As is clear to
the discerning, the writer has for this reason felt it necessary to put
down, for the sake of God alone and as a tribute to this high endeavor, a
brief statement on certain urgent questions. To demonstrate that His one
purpose is to promote the general welfare, He has withheld His name.(6)
Since He believes that guidance toward righteousness is in itself a
righteous act, He offers these few words of counsel to His country's sons,
words spoken for God's sake alone and in the spirit of a faithful friend.
Our Lord, Who knows all things, bears witness that this Servant seeks
nothing but what is right and good; for He, a wanderer in the desert of
God's love, has come into a realm where the hand of denial or assent, of
praise or blame, can touch Him not. "We nourish your souls for the sake of
God; We seek from you neither recompense nor thanks."(7)

"The hand is veiled, yet the pen writes as bidden;
The horse leaps forward, yet the rider's hidden."

O people of Persia! Look into those blossoming pages that tell of another
day, a time long past. Read them and wonder; see the great sight. Iran in
that day was as the heart of the world; she was the bright torch flaming
in the assemblage of mankind. Her power and glory shone out like the
morning above the world's horizons, and the splendor of her learning cast
its rays over East and West. Word of the widespread empire of those who
wore her crown reached even to the dwellers in the arcti