BB00471: Letter to Mulla Javad and his associates

In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate, and in Him do we seek help

Praise be to God, Lord of all the worlds, and may God’s blessings be upon Muhammad and his pure family.

To continue: Thus speaks the least of God’s creation, Ali ibn Muhammad, son of the late Muhammad Rida, may his soil be sweet, that certain people have attributed to this weak servant the station of being the Gate (Bab) of the Imam, peace be upon him, whereas I have never claimed nor do I claim such a thing.

It is incumbent upon one who claims such a momentous matter that he be characterized by all perfect attributes, both theoretical and practical, and that he lack not any branch of knowledge or custom, and that he have complete and detailed mastery over all outward and inward sciences, and that there be no matter of divine grace or supernatural occurrence that is praiseworthy in God’s sight except that he possess it definitively, not merely potentially—like the potential that God has placed in all things, whether essentially or accidentally. And if he lacks any single matter or branch of knowledge, there is no doubt that he is not the bearer of this mighty station. God Almighty and His holy ones bear witness that I am neither learned in, nor capable of, a single branch of the customary sciences, nor the source of any supernatural occurrences.

And if any words have flowed from my pen, they have been purely instinctual and entirely contrary to the rules of the people, and they do not constitute proof of anything. And whoever believes concerning this humble one that I hold the station of being the Gate of the Imam, peace be upon him, God is my witness that such a person is in error and will be in the fire in the hereafter.

In this document there is no dissimulation or concealment, rather my outer and inner being testify to what I have written, and God suffices as a witness to what I say.

Copy of the letter of Mirza Muhammad Ibrahim Shirazi revealed in the port of Bushehr