BB00336: Letter to Mulla Husayn V (from Shiraz)

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

God bears witness in this Book concerning His servant that he has believed in God and His verses, and was upon a manifest straight path. And verily this Book is a remembrance from the remnant of God for whosoever desires to believe in the verses of his Lord and follow His command, and was among those who prostrate. And We know that Your proof is conclusive for all who are in the heavens and earth, and We are indeed witnesses. The servant of God has conveyed what was revealed to his heart, and God is the All-Knowing Witness.

The example of those who read the verses of thy Lord and then turn away from His wisdom is like one who witnessed all the verses of God and then turned away from the decree of his Lord. Say: These are they who are recorded as polytheists in the Book of God. Would they equate the verses of the Bayan with the decree of a single verse We have sent down to thee? Nay, by thy Lord! Most people do not understand, nor do they believe, nor do they perceive. God slay them! They are more astray than donkeys, for a donkey perceives how to eat barley, while they neither perceive nor are guided. What ails you that you openly deny the verses of God and do not perceive? Is not God sufficient for your souls on the Day of Reckoning? Wait then, for We too are waiting by God’s leave.

And verily God sent down at that time concerning the known forces a verse from thy Lord, and God is the All-Knowing, the All-Informed. And when Pharaoh desired to deny his Lord, he manifested a work of Satan, while you, without any basis whatsoever, deny due to the inclination of your souls and do not perceive. Follow the decree of thy Lord, O My servant, and be patient. Trust in God and turn away from them, then leave them in their vain discourse until they come to the Day when all shall be gathered unto God.

And at the close of that day We forbade you, by God’s leave, Our verses until five years of God’s days had passed, as recompense for your denial. And We wrong none of you by so much as a mustard seed, and God knows Our decree while you perceive not the verses of God even a little. Be patient, O My servant, and answer none of them.

Say: Die in your wrath and enter the fire of your polytheism, then become stones of baked clay heaped up. Say: Were all on earth to flee, after that decree you would never hear a verse, for God will not accept from any of you. And the withholding of a single letter of Our verses from you is greater in God’s Book for your souls than the fire of Hell, if you but understood God’s decree. Evil is what your hands have earned in Our days, and evil is what you decree.

Say: O people of the earth! Fear God and seek forgiveness from your Lord and return to God’s decree. Then recite Our verses if you have known God’s Command, that you may attain certitude, then convey it, then flee. By God Who created you and made me a proof unto you, a single one of Our verses establishes God’s decree for all who are on earth together, if you would but recite the Book of God before Him and judge with justice, that you might be guided by God’s verses. We have indeed sent down the decree of all things in the Book aforetime—ask those who believed before all people in their Lord’s verses of God’s decree, if you know not how to judge for yourselves today concerning verses like these.

And concerning what was revealed in the prayer according to that Command, it stands as witness. Say: I have made myself at this time until the day God permits me the first believer in this self of mine, as witness and helper over you. Say: Woe upon you! You have turned away from Our decree and thereby God has forbidden you the verses of the Tree of Sinai.

To God do I complain of my grief, O my God! Take vengeance upon them, for Thou art the best of judges in decree, and Thou art the Mighty, the Strong. And this is the reward for what God has sent down to thee—be patient in My Cause and say: All praise belongs to God, the Lord of the worlds.