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To the most noble, most safeguarded—our Master, the well-tried and steadfast—may he kindly peruse:

O our most honored Master! Thy Book hath descended—aforetime and hereafter. Say, O My beloved, My well-beloved!—from Thy tongue, at the presence of Thy Lord. Therefore, be not grieved, O my Master, for thy station is bounteous, thy rank from of old; and thy Lord is compassionate, all-merciful.

I ask naught, O my Goal, save that God cause me to be numbered with those whom He hath chosen from among His servants and exalted unto His own presence—those who stand beside pits hewn in the two earths, heralds of glad-tidings, for whom in the realm of possibility there hath been no peer—neither aforetime nor hereafter. May God’s blessings be upon them; again, God’s blessings be upon them! Sufficient for them is that God hath borne witness unto them, and that what God sent down upon them beareth witness still—and it descendeth at every time, before time, and after time.

Whoso ascendeth not in the path of God shall surely die, nor shall there be for him any returning. God hath ordained neither diversion in the abode of annihilation nor limit among the people of origination. As for me, O my Master, I commit my soul unto the precedence of His knowledge regarding the outcome of my affair and whatsoever God hath decreed for me—for God doeth what He willeth and ordaineth what He desireth. None hath encompassed their reality, nor can the joy of all existence, measured by ninety-nine parts of a mustard seed, equal a portion of their joy. Entreat God on our behalf, that He decree for us what He decreeth for His chosen ones, for He is, in truth, the All-Bountiful, the Most Generous.

A note: a letter of mine—“Before God”—reached my uncle at this place; what was to be sent thereafter hath now, by the generosity of Hajji al-Wali, arrived: forty-two sections, with an exalted and lofty rescript from the Presence of the Clement. He was charged to remain in that very land and to deliver fair copies, in naskh script, of “In the Name of …,” “From …,” and others. One of the proof-prayers was commanded to be sent, addressed to the noble Hajji Mulla Muhammad-ʿAli, the learned of the land—this in a naskh hand: “This is a bounty from the Lord unto his presence.” And one “prayer of negation” for the Presence of “Twenty-Eight of the Exalted.” As for myself, I remained at the foundations and journeyed nowhere; I was occupied with making fair copies until whatsoever command should issue thereafter. All that had been sent aforetime and thereafter hath, entirely, arrived.

Day and night there hath been remembrance, coupled with trial. A prayer, for the Day of the Feast, was included among the parts that were sent—therein is a mighty reward and a bountiful recompense. Lo, I have written what I have written in proportion to the constraint; magnify, then, over all of them—male and female alike. I have no leisure to name each one in detail as “the One, the Self-Sufficient,” and “God”; yet I have made mention of them before their Lord, and I remember them at every time. Naught that He doeth do I omit—for it is the Well-Beloved.

God hath made thee a watcher and a keeper over goodly fruits; how, then, should the matter be concerning those who seek refuge in their shade? Magnify over those whom God hath pastured and then chosen; then over those for whom He openeth the doors of good; then over the Name of God, the Most Pure; and over all the people of joy.

As for what al-Murtada desired: God hath already sent down, in the verses, the letters of negation even before his question; and God hath sent down the answer. I have dispatched it with the honored ones; and unto “the Thousand” I have entrusted him with what God sent down upon him—and I shall send down upon him thereafter. Say to him: “Fear not, for thou….”