BB00074: Epistle to Haji Mirza Aqasi 4 (Khutbiy-i-Qahriyyih)

Part 1: “All praise be to God Who, through…”

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

All praise be to God Who, through the overwhelming might of His supreme dominion, hath subdued the essential realities of all created things that have associated partners with Him. All praise be to God Who, through the transcendent greatness of His exalted majesty, hath manifested His grandeur over the essences of all deviating existences. All praise be to God Who, through the compelling force of His almighty power, hath exercised His sovereignty over the inner realities of all remote beings. All praise be to God Who, through the determination of His ordained destiny, hath demonstrated His power over the manifestation of all quiddities.

Glorified and exalted is He! He hath forbidden the recognition of the innermost essence of His divine Countenance to the people of allusions, and hath removed from the nearness of His holy dominion all material entities from among the people of the veils. He hath made the most severe of His fires for the essential realities of the people of proofs to be their heedlessness of the remembrance of His greatness, and His most grievous punishment for the abstract realities of the people of the kingdom to be their turning away from His divine Countenance.

How mighty is His authority over the oppressors of the people of His Cause, who in the realm of the Divine Essence are sanctified from all similitudes and indications! How tremendous are His retributions upon those who have waxed proud against the people of His love, who in the realm of Divine Might are purified from all names and attributes! How glorious are the manifestations of His wrath through His justice against those who are heedless of the rights of the people of His knowledge, who in the realm of the Kingdom are cleansed from all examples and allusions! How sublime is the revelation of His anger through His grace against those who have distanced themselves after knowing the people of His Countenance, who in the realm of earthly dominion are elevated above the limitations of stations and signs!

Glorified and exalted is He! By reason of the loftiness of His wrath and the greatness of His displeasure, He sent forth Muhammad—peace be upon him and his family—from the innermost heart of eternity unto all nations, distinct from any similitude among the children of his kind. He made him the manifestation of His justice and His overwhelming power, then of His grace and His almighty sovereignty. He was content with his wrath in place of His own wrath, and with his anger through His bounty, that through his overwhelming power he might cause those whom he overpowered through his justice to reach the uttermost depths of the fire, and through his compelling might cause those who were patient under him through his grace to attain their ultimate station in the ranks of the iniquitous.

For He is too glorious to be wrathful through His supreme essence, with which nothing can be associated and unto which nothing can ascend. He hath ever been such that nothing comprehendeth Him while He comprehendeth all things, and He is the All-Powerful, the Most Great, the Compelling.

Glorified and exalted is He! After Muhammad—peace be upon him and his family—He revealed Guardians for His grace and Successors for the justice of His Prophet, manifesting thereby the loftiness of His Beloved’s station and the majesty of His Messenger’s self. He made them the manifestations of His justice and His might in wrath, and the wellsprings of His grace and His overwhelming power in displeasure, for He, as He is in Himself, doth not overpower anything through His essence, nor compel anything through His reality, nor show wrath against anything through His self, nor displeasure through His identity. For He is too glorious to be associated with His servants or to be reached by the highest flight of the hearts’ innermost hearts. He is unique in creation, without peer or opposite.

Wherefore hath it been sent down in the Qur’an concerning the Manifestations of His justice and His bounty, for those who heed the Bayan—the decree of the Bayan: “Say: They grieved Us; wherefore We took vengeance upon them.” Thereafter, because of the exaltation of the wrath of the friends of religion and the greatness of the indignation of the pillars of certitude—the Imams who have borne witness to the truth with full knowledge—God created servants for the manifestation of their bounty, bodies for the disclosure of their justice, faces for the loci of their anger, and signs for the sources of their displeasure. He placed all His displeasure in their displeasure, all His wrath in their wrath, all His justice in their judgment, and all His bounty in their deeds. Through them, the fire of hell becomes deserved by those upon whom the word of punishment is due.

I seek refuge in Thee, O my God, from their displeasure—which pointeth to naught but Thy displeasure—and by the displeasure of Thy Prophet and the displeasure of the Prophet’s Trustees—Thy blessings be upon them. And [I seek refuge] then from their wrath, which is an indication of Thy wrath, and the wrath of Thy Prophet, and the wrath of His Trustees—Thy blessings be upon them. In Thee do I seek sanctuary; by their very selves do I supplicate protection from their overpowering might and their majesty. By them do I draw nigh unto Thee and seek their intercession with Thee, in the hope of their pardon and their compassion.

Should any one of them become wrathful, the fires would be kindled in their essence and the reckoning is realized in its reality, and the punishments descend from the heaven of Thy might upon its inhabitants; and the good deeds of those who waxed proud against them would be changed into evil deeds—[descending] from the heaven of Thy all-subduing power upon its people. For the decree of unbelief is verified by their wrath, the decree of idolatry is realized through their displeasure, the decree of denial is made plain by their might, and the decree of rejection is brought forth by their power.

Through them, O my God, I seek refuge from Thy wrath, and through them I flee from Thine indignation, and through them protection is sought through Thy covenant from Thine overwhelming power, and through them I seek intercession with Thee from Thy dominion. By Thy might and Thy majesty, verily the rejected one is he upon whom their indignation has descended, and the object of wrath is he upon whom their wrath has descended, and the accursed one is he against whom their overwhelming power has judged, and the tormented one is he against whom their dominion has ruled. Glory be to Thee, O my God! Nothing in the heavens or on earth can withstand their justice, for it indicates Thy justice. Therefore, O God, have mercy upon all atoms through Thy grace and Thy bounty. Verily Thou art the Bestower, and verily Thou art, beyond them all, the All-Encompassing, the Almighty, the Severe.

Now then, know, O thou who disbelievest in God and associateth partners with His signs and turneth away from His presence and showeth pride against His gate, that God—exalted be His mention—nothing escapeth His knowledge and nothing is beyond His power. He hath not granted thee respite in thy stations nor has He been heedless of judging thine actions, for only he hastens who fears missing something, but He heareth the sound and perceiveth what is missed and sendeth down death. Therefore witness with certainty, then observe with the eye of certainty, then contemplate with the truth of certainty within thyself, for God—mighty and glorified is He—hath said: “Verily hell encompasseth the unbelievers.”

By Him Who holdeth my soul in His hand, thy heedlessness of My remembrance and thy disobedience to My judgment and thy turning away from My countenance is more severe for thee than the fire of hell; nay, it shall appear to thy soul on the Day of Resurrection. For if thou knew now with the knowledge of certainty, thou wouldst surely see the hell-fire, then thou wouldst surely see it with the eye of certainty. By Him Who is the King of my being, the lands and all who dwell therein have been covered with dust because of thy wrongdoing, and now there is nothing in God’s knowledge except that it turneth away from thee and not from thee.

Therefore gently, gently with thee, O enemy of God and enemy of His friends! If thou knew what thy hands have wrought in My Cause, thou wouldst flee to the peaks of the mountains and sit naked in the ashes and sob because of the decree of existence and swoon before the people of the heart. Know then that what thou hast perpetrated, O manifestation of Satan, is as though thou hadst wronged all existence, both seen and unseen, and slain all who dwell in the kingdom of the All-Loving. For verily the Imam—peace be upon him—hath said:

“Whoso beareth one sin, it is as though he hath borne all sins.”

Alas! Alas! By thy wrongdoing the Paradise and all within it have cried out in anguish, and the earth and all upon it have been struck with terror. The waters have been altered and the winds disturbed, the lands laid waste and the mountains crushed, the leaves turned yellow and the branches withered, and the fruits cut off. Alas! Alas! How shall I recount what thou hast unjustly wrought? The heavens are nigh rent asunder thereby, the earth split open, and the mountains crumble away. Indeed thou hast burned the heart of Muhammad and the family of God in the chambers of good-pleasure, and caused the maidens of Paradise to strike their faces in their garden retreats.

Knowest thou not what thou hast done? Thou hast turned away from the command of thy Lord Who hath manifested thee in the worlds which God created for thee, though thou art but a bonded slave in His dominion. By Him Who, were the veil to be lifted from thine eyes, thou wouldst consent to be cut to pieces with scissors and wander through the world among the deranged, nor would a mustard seed of wrongdoing against Me cross thy mind. Nay, wert thou to possess the East and West of the earth, thou wouldst give it all to gaze but once upon My face, yet it would not be accepted from thee, by virtue of My station which God hath specially conferred upon Me. Didst thou imagine thou couldst take pleasure in this world, seated upon the throne of sovereignty, and show pride toward Me, saying that God had placed authority in thy hands? Nay, by My Lord! Thou sittest but upon the breast of hellfire, finding pleasure only in the fire of remorse, eating naught but the fruits of the tree of reckoning, and drinking naught but scalding water.

So hold! Hold thy hand! Dost thou seize people’s wealth unjustly and spend it as thy heedless soul desires, supposing God will not question thee concerning it? Nay, by My Lord! Verily thou hast an appointment on the Day of Resurrection before God and His Messengers and His angels and all His servants. There shalt thou recognize My station and find the fire of hell within thyself. Even now thou wearest but garments of pitch, enjoying naught but the torment of the sun and moon in their courses.

So hold! Hold thy hand! Dost thou still make claims after this, or art thou content with injustice and hast forgotten justice, after what God—exalted be His remembrance—hath said concerning the wrongdoers:

“Let not those who disbelieve think that Our respite to them is good for themselves: We grant them respite only that they may grow in their iniquity: And theirs is a shameful chastisement.”

O thou who art consumed by the fire of Hell and its stones! Reflect for a moment on Solomon’s son and Alexander, then their dominion in God’s good-pleasure—exalted be His remembrance. Then consider the son of Shaddad and Nimrod, and their dominion in God’s wrath—exalted be His remembrance. Did they not both die and become as though they had never been? And they have no escape forever. If glory lies in worldly dominion and the extent of its lands and wealth, then verily those who are kings of the earth possess more dominion than thee and more wealth than thee. And if glory lies in God’s good-pleasure and knowledge of Him, then why dost thou burn thyself with thine own hands and remain heedless of the Day that shall come upon thee? Hath not God said concerning those who built up this world:

“How many were the gardens and springs they left behind, and corn-fields and noble buildings, and wealth wherein they had taken such delight! Thus was their end, and We made other people inherit them. Neither did the heavens and earth weep for them, nor were they granted respite. Hath not God said that the abode of the Hereafter shall be for those who seek neither self-exaltation nor corruption in the earth, and the end is for the God-fearing?”

Part 2: “Consider for a moment—if thou canst…”

Consider for a moment—if thou canst not endure in this world, how canst thou be content with thy glory in a life that is as naught compared to the life of the Hereafter? For therein thou shalt live as God willeth and desireth, and death shall never overtake thee. By Him Who hath chosen me for His love, I desire naught for thee save the mercy of God, that thou mayest be delivered from that which hath made thee heedless and have mercy upon thyself for having forgotten His wisdom.

How can I recount thy grievous transgressions and thy grave misdeeds? Consider from the first day when We wrote concerning thee “Fear God, thy Lord” until now—forty months have passed. If thou hadst shown true love and had truly feared God, by Him Who holdeth my soul in His hand, not even a mustard seed’s weight would have been diminished from thy glory. Nor did I covet thy dominion even to the extent of a mustard seed, for all of this world and the next compared with recognition of Him is as a handful of ashes. Indeed, he who knoweth his Lord seeketh naught besides God and seeth no glory save in His good-pleasure, no abasement save in His displeasure. And verily the station whereby thou hast shown pride before God and against me—none who hath known my true station would incline unto it. Nay, even the lowliest among the knowing poor hath spurned thy station. Yet thou, despite thy claim to fear God, hast seized it with thy own hands as though God had created it for none but thee.

Consider for a moment what he whom thou didst make governor of Fars hath wrought against me and my followers—God’s curse be upon him, for never would even an infidel approve such treatment of another infidel. And thou hadst power to remove him, yet wrote not a single word to him, lest thou shouldst put an end to his tyrannous and hostile actions, until he did what he did, thereby bringing shame upon thyself and gathering the fuel of hell for thy provision. Had thou written but a line to him, he would never have approached me. And thou knowest well his lineage, which is the most despicable of lineages, and his standing, which is the lowest among his people who are sinners, and his neglect of prayer, his wine-drinking, his self-slaughter, and his abundant tyranny.

I think not that he hath left any major or minor sin uncommitted. By Him Who holdeth my soul in His hand, were all the misdeeds committed during thy reign to be borne by thee, they would not harm thee to the extent of an atom compared to his tyranny against me. Fie upon him! May the curse of God and His wrath be upon him as long as the heavens and earth endure. God shall soon take vengeance upon him through His justice. He, verily, is the All-Powerful, the Strong.

By My life! I was compelled in a land in my homeland to such a degree that I departed in fear and trepidation, until I was received by one born among Christians who honored me, exalted me, and established me in a station than which none greater could be found within his power in the religion of God, until he passed away. I beseech God to grant him, as recompense for his kindness, the best of all the hereafter, and there is no doubt that God does not fail in His promise. After that, I became aware of my position, of which no one had knowledge nor any way to reach, and I was content with what was done by one who had no station except that of cattle.

I ask God to rend him utterly asunder as recompense for his lies and transgression, for He is the Mighty, the Compelling, the Severe. Then I came unto you, and you showed no shame before God, nor before my grandfather the Messenger of God, nor before any of my forebears the Imams, and feared only that a morsel of your bread might be cut off, and commanded what you commanded. By Him Who holds my soul in His hand, had I come unto the house of the most base of men, he would have been ashamed of such conduct and would not have turned me from his door, as has been heard of the conduct of one born in unbelief, while you were born in Islam. Even though I had written to you in a gracious manner befitting your station about which you boasted, saying that such behavior was not worthy of your station.

Judge fairly by God: if the son of the Russian Emperor had come to you, would you have ordered his imprisonment? Is the son of God’s Messenger more lowly in your sight than him, even while you turn in your nights and days under the rule of one of his party in your near vicinity, yet show no mercy to the descendants of Muhammad, peace be upon him and his family, despite their manifest weakness and helplessness? Then you expressed your sorrow at having ordered my removal by land routes while you reclined upon the throne of sovereignty in your might. Yes, indeed that is true, and failed has he who bears injustice.

And thereafter, despite the vastness of your realm and the abundance of your wealth, you permitted my imprisonment in a place where there was no human being and beyond which there was no more distant land, and arranged my lodging with one whose station you know. By my life, were he to come to the door of My house that I might appoint him a mere groom to My donkey, I would not choose him—by reason of the feebleness of his judgment and the lowness of his station. What made Me laugh at his deed is this: time and again he went out to strike the shaykh with a broom—held in the hands of the common folk and with grasses in the hands of the boys.

Such is the measure of his ignorance with thee. And yet thou writest to him—may My soul be thy ransom! Nay, it behoveth one such as thee rather to make thy soul his ransom! Thou takest the king’s monies and bestowest them upon a people more astray than cattle, that they may spend them on aught save the love of God, drink wine, and curse thee in secret. This is your portion in this worldly life, while you do not spend for the progeny of God’s Messenger, peace be upon him and his family, even the worth of an animal in the course of his imprisonment, and you are content with less than what Harun did with Musa ibn Ja’far, peace be upon them, for he at least gave orders regarding the path.

You have been heedless of this and do not feel, despite your advanced age which approaches ninety years, any fear of one who is twenty-eight years old, and you order his banishment to a foreign land, after knowing his lineage from God’s Messenger and his nobility which none in Persia can match, and sufficient is it for my pride that the most distinguished of non-Arabs are those in the Persian realm, concerning whom He—peace be upon Him—said regarding those therein: “If knowledge were in the Pleiades, men of Persia would attain it.” And sufficient for your station is what hath been revealed, and may my spirit and all in the kingdoms of command and creation be sacrificed for Him: “Abandon the Turks, even if one be thy father. If they love thee, they will devour thee, and if they hate thee, they will slay thee.”

I know well that thou dost not care about thy condition, for one who cares not for indecency even in the presence of people—which is a sign of the impurity of seed according to the explicit text of the Imam, peace be upon him—would not care about such things. Yet I write this due to God’s intense wrath towards thee, and so thou mayest know that every sin occurring in the realm of the king lies upon thee. Nay, on the Day of Resurrection, the father of evil will say: “I wrought it in thee.” The king hath perished by what thou didst unto him through forms of trinity and quaternity, by what those around thee from among thy trusted partisans told thee, and he followed thee, yet thou hadst no mercy upon him and wert content with his destruction. God preserve thy soul, for thou hast wronged none but thyself and gathered the fire only for thine own self.

Though I be in prison, I am as though in Paradise near my Lord, for I see no pleasure save in nearness to Him, no joy save in His good-pleasure, no rest save in intimacy with His presence, and I see all else as before its existence—as nothing. Sufficient is He as Guardian and sufficient is He as Helper. He hath said—and His word is truth—“Nothing shall befall us save what God hath decreed. He is our Master, and in God let the trusting put their trust.”

I have completed the favor unto thee through what hath flowed from My pen in this hour by God’s leave—exalted be His mention. If thou knewest the reality, thou wouldst see fear for thyself more intense than the fire of hell. I have informed thee of some of what thou hast earned, that thou mightest return. If thou returnest, there shall be no return in thy judgment. None can inform thee like One Who is aware.

Consider—thou wert but a drop of water which emerged from two stations; soon shalt thou return beneath the earth and say: “Would that I were dust!” Thou shalt have no loving friend to deliver thee, no companion to benefit thee, no child to seek God’s forgiveness for thee—only those who curse thee and ask God to reduce thy punishment. Lo! That indeed is a great wrong. Thou hast populated the acceptance of the dead and revived the souls of the disobedient, and grieved those who are the loci of divine outpouring and inspiration, concerning whom God—exalted be His mention—hath indicated: “Neither My earth nor My heaven can contain Me, but the heart of My believing servant containeth Me.” And thou hast annihilated contented and well-pleasing souls.

His word—exalted be His mention—declareth: “Whoso killeth a believer, it is as though he hath killed all mankind.” And the Messenger of God—peace be upon Him and His family—hath said: “Whoso harmeth a believer hath harmed Me, and whoso harmeth Me hath harmed God.” And the word of one of His Messenger’s successors regarding the hostile one, when asked about him, peace be upon him, stated: “The hostile one is he who showeth enmity to our followers.”

Watch thyself and await thy Lord’s command, for God’s term shall come to pass, and He lieth in wait. Think not that God is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. Those who have done wrong shall soon know what fate shall befall them. Glorified be thy Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe. And peace be upon the Messengers, and praise be to God, the Lord of all worlds.