en left
fatherless! How many fathers have become childless! How many mothers have
not dared, through fear and dread, to mourn over their slaughtered
children! Many [were] the servants [of God] who at eve were in the utmost
wealth and opulence, and at dawn were beheld in the extreme of poverty and
abasement! There is no land but hath been dyed with their blood and no air
whereunto their groanings have not arisen. And during these few years the
arrows of affliction have rained down without intermission from the clouds
of fate. Yet, notwithstanding all these visitations and afflictions, the
fire of divine love is in such fashion kindled in their hearts that, were
they all to be hewn in pieces, they would not forswear the love of the
Beloved of all the dwellers upon earth; nay rather with their whole souls
do they yearn and hope for what may befall [them] in the way of God.

"O King! The gales of the mercy of the Merciful One have converted these
servants and drawn them to the region of the [Divine] Unity--'The witness
of the faithful lover is in his sleeve'--but some of the doctors of Persia
have troubled the most luminous heart of the King of the Age with regard
to those who are admitted into the Sanctuary of the Merciful One and those
who make for the Kaaba of Wisdom. O would that the world-ordering judgment
of the King might decide that this Servant should meet those doctors, and,
in the presence of His Majesty the King, adduce arguments and proofs! This
Servant is ready, and hopeth of God that such a conference may be brought
about, so that the truth of the matter may become evident and apparent
before His Majesty the King. And afterwards the decision is in thy hand,
and I am ready to confront the throne of thy sovereignty; then give
judgment for Me or against Me. The Merciful Lord saith in the Furqan,
which is the enduring proof amidst the host of existences, 'Desire death,
then, if ye be sincere.'(30) He hath declared the desiring of death to be
the proof of sincerity; and it will be apparent in the mirror of the
[King's] luminous mind which party it is that hath this day foregone life
in the way of Him [Who is] adored by the dwellers upon earth. Had the
doctrinal books of this people, [composed] in proof of that wherein they
are, been written with the blood which has been shed in His way (exalted
is He), books innumerable would assuredly have been apparent and visible
amongst mankind.

"How, then, can one repudiate