BB00672: Letter to Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani

In the Name of God, the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner, the All-Subduing, the All-Powerful

Praise be to God, Who hath revealed Himself unto the realm of possibility through the radiance of the lights of His Countenance, which hath dawned from the horizon of His creative Will—that Will which He brought forth for its own sake, by its own Self…

And naught is beheld in any thing save the signs of the effulgences of His Manifestation; indeed, He hath filled the inmost reality of every thing with the vesture of His majesty…

Then came the truth, and the Cause of God was made manifest, and the Day is God’s Day, grievous for the disbelievers. Verily, this is the Hour which hath appeared, and the moon is cleft asunder, and the signs have been sent down; yet the deniers have said: ʿThis is but a persistent sorcery’…

Say: Taste ye the chastisement for your idolatry! This is the Tree of Zaqqum…

We have, indeed, threatened the sinful one with a sore punishment, with scorching blast, and boiling water, and a fire of blazing hell. The threatened doom hath been fulfilled. Taste it, O thou that wast called mighty and noble!…

The word “athim” (“sinful”) hath been repeatedly revealed in the Glorious Qur’an. In the Surih of Baqarah He saith: “And God loveth not every obstinate unbelieving sinner”—that is, God loveth not the wrongdoer who persisteth in unbelief. And in the Surih of Nisa’ He saith: “Verily God loveth not him who is treacherous and sinful”—that is, God loveth not the sinner who is a traitor.

And in the Surih of Shu’ara’ He saith:

“Shall I inform you upon whom the devils descend? They descend upon every lying sinner”

—that is, would ye that I acquaint you upon whom the demons descend? They descend upon those people who are fabricators of lies and steeped in sin.

And in the Surih of Dukhan there have likewise been sent down verses to which reference hath already been made. And in the Surih of Jathiyah He saith:

“Woe betide every lying sinner, who heareth the signs of God recited unto him, yet persisteth in arrogance as though he had not heard them. Announce thou unto him a grievous punishment. And when he learneth aught of Our signs, he maketh a mockery thereof. These are they for whom there is a humiliating chastisement.”