the Imams--may the peace of God be upon them--have
arisen from their sepulchres. This verily is the truth, and no doubt is
there about it. We beseech God to bestow upon the superstitious a portion
of the living waters of certitude which are streaming from the wellspring
of the Most Sublime Pen, that all may attain unto that which becometh
these days.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! While hemmed in by tribulations this Wronged One is occupied
in setting down these words. On every side the flame of oppression and
tyranny can be discerned. On the one hand, tidings have reached Us that
Our loved ones have been arrested in the land of Ta (Tihran) and this
notwithstanding that the sun, and the moon, and the land, and the sea all
testify that this people are adorned with the adornment of fidelity, and
have clung and will cling to naught except that which can ensure the
exaltation of the government, and the maintenance of order within the
nation, and the tranquillity of the people.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! We have time and again stated that for a number of years We
have extended Our aid unto His Majesty the _Sh_ah. For years no untoward
incident hath occurred in Persia. The reins of the stirrers of sedition
among various sects were held firmly in the grasp of power. None hath
transgressed his limits. By God! This people have never been, nor are they
now, inclined to mischief. Their hearts are illumined with the light of
the fear of God, and adorned with the adornment of His love. Their concern
hath ever been and now is for the betterment of the world. Their purpose
is to obliterate differences, and quench the flame of hatred and enmity,
so that the whole earth may come to be viewed as one country.

On the other hand, the officials of the Persian Embassy in the Great City
(Constantinople) are energetically and assiduously seeking to exterminate
these wronged ones. They desire one thing, and God desireth another.
Consider now what hath befallen the trusted ones of God in every land. At
one time they have been accused of theft and larceny; at another they have
been calumniated in a manner without parallel in this world. Answer thou
fairly. What could be the results and consequences, in foreign countries,
of the accusation of theft brought by the Persian Embassy against its own
subjects? If this Wronged One was ashamed, it was not because of the
humiliation it brought this servant, but rather because of the shame of
its becoming known to the Ambassadors of