BB00647: Epistle to Muhammad Shah 3

He is the King, the Omnipotent, the All-Compassionate

May the hearts of all who abide within the kingdom of dominion be a ransom for thy heart, O Thou Possessor of sovereign, all-subduing, and gracious power! Praise and thanksgiving, measureless and unbounded, befit the Most Holy Essence, Lord of Lords—He Who hath ever, by the sheer reality of His Being, been sanctified above the attributes of all else besides Himself, and shall forever remain, in the majesty of His Ipseity, uplifted beyond all need. No being hath place within the court of His holiness; He is exalted above the qualities of whatsoever is beneath Him. By the manifestation of His might and His dominion He hath brought the contingent world into being from utter nothingness through His Will; and through its six effulgent emanations He hath so irradiated all atoms that they shine with the light of His invention, yearn to behold the vesture of the beauty of His Countenance, and stand in awe before the justice of His decree. They behold in every thing naught save His revelation—more manifest than all things. Blind the eye that beholdeth Thee not! And Thou hast, from everlasting, kept watch over it. Ruined and lost the servant who hath no share of Thy love!

I seek refuge, O my Lord, with Thy Presence from Thy wrath; unto Thee I flee, hoping for Thy bounty and the breadth of Thy mercy. I supplicate Thee, through Mua¸¥ammad and His kindred, by the majesty of Thy grandeur: look upon me with a near regard, as beseemeth the sovereignty of Thy might. Verily, Thou art the All-Bountiful, the All-Bestowing.

From the hour I departed the precincts of nearness until now—which is the mid-day of the fifteenth of the exalted month of Sha’ban—moment by moment have I watched and waited that the bell of Thy favour might peal forth with the cry, “Glorified be He Who carried (His servant) by night”; that the peacock of the might of Thy Ipseity might call out, “Then drew he nigh and came down”; that the birds of the paradise of Thy Identity might warble, “Till he was at two bows’ length or nearer”; that the cock of the paradise of Thine Essence might cry, “Is man to have whatever he desireth? Nay, unto God belong the next world and this.”

Yet, through the revolutions of the spheres and the decrees attendant upon the mystery of “But for Thee I would not have created the heavens,” on account of changes, the doubts of men, their inverted minds and sinister ascendants—now effaced—there hath ensued a delay in the royal glances, and a cause hath been furnished for solitary confinement upon the Mount of Maku within the broad realm of the kingly dominion. Ah, ah! By Him in Whose hand is my soul! Had I foreknown this station, my soul had not known Thee as it did. I have no doubt that the vastness of Thy bounty is not well-pleased with this: for the son of the Messenger of God—whose knowledge today in Thy dominion none can equal—standeth before Thee in no less abject a posture than the sons of the earthly kings. If but a single noble should come down before Thee, by Thy might, Thou wouldst not decree imprisonment concerning him. But now hath the decree been accomplished as it hath been accomplished. Unto God do I pour out my plaint and my sorrow; upon Him do I rely in my loneliness and exile. Sufficient is He as Protector and Trustee.

This page of my supplication and visitation is penned from the vehemence of my heart’s grief. I beseech that, in view of my poverty and my powerlessness, it may attract Thy gracious regard. Two packets as well—from two siyyids, confessors of the oneness of God—have arrived and were conveyed into thy Presence. Since both are known before Thy court by their own hand, I hope they will dispel the doubts of the contemplative among the people and become the means of nearness. Exalted is God above that which they ascribe unto Him.