ly, as a head to the body of
the world, and as eyes to the nations. The guidance of men hath, at all
times, been, and is, dependent upon such blessed souls. We beseech God to
graciously aid them to do His will and pleasure. He, in truth, is the Lord
of all men, the Lord of this world and of the next.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! We have learned that thou hast turned away from Us, and
protested against Us, in such wise that thou hast bidden the people to
curse Me, and decreed that the blood of the servants of God be shed. God
requite him who said: "Willingly will I obey the judge who hath so
strangely decreed that my blood be spilt at Hill and at Haram!" Verily I
say: Whatever befalleth in the path of God is the beloved of the soul and
the desire of the heart. Deadly poison in His path is pure honey, and
every tribulation a draught of crystal water. In the Tablet to His Majesty
the _Sh_ah it is written: "By Him Who is the Truth! I fear no tribulation
in His path, nor any affliction in My love for Him. Verily God hath made
adversity as a morning dew upon His green pasture, and a wick for His lamp
which lighteth earth and heaven."

Set thine heart towards Him Who is the Kaaba of God, the Help in Peril,
the Self-Subsisting, and raise thou thine hands with such firm conviction
as shall cause the hands of all created things to be lifted up towards the
heaven of the grace of God, the Lord of all worlds. Turn, then, thy face
towards Him in such wise that the faces of all beings will turn in the
direction of His shining and luminous Horizon, and say: "Thou seest me, O
my Lord, with my face turned towards the heaven of Thy bounty and the
ocean of Thy favor, withdrawn from all else beside Thee. I ask of Thee, by
the splendors of the Sun of Thy revelation on Sinai, and the effulgences
of the Orb of Thy grace which shineth from the horizon of Thy Name, the
Ever-Forgiving, to grant me Thy pardon and to have mercy upon me. Write
down, then, for me with Thy pen of glory that which will exalt me through
Thy Name in the world of creation. Aid me, O my Lord, to set myself
towards Thee, and to hearken unto the voice of Thy loved ones, whom the
powers of the earth have failed to weaken, and the dominion of the nations
has been powerless to withhold from Thee, and who, advancing towards Thee,
have said: 'God is our Lord, the Lord of all who are in heaven and all who
are on earth!'"

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Verily I say, the seal of the Choice Wine hath, in the nam