O Shay_kh_!  This people have passed beyond the narrow straits of names, and pitched their tents upon the shores of the sea of renunciation.  They would willingly lay down a myriad lives, rather than breathe the word desired by their enemies.  They have clung to that which pleaseth God, and are wholly detached and freed from the things which pertain unto men.  They have preferred to have their heads cut off rather than utter one unseemly word.  Ponder this in thine heart.  Methinks they have quaffed their fill of the ocean of renunciation.  The life of the present world hath failed to withhold them from suffering martyrdom in the path of God.

In Mazindaran a vast number of the servants of God were exterminated.  The Governor, under the influence of calumniators, robbed a great many of all that they possessed.  Among the charges he laid against them was that they had been laying up arms, whereas upon investigation it was found out that they had nothing but an unloaded rifle!  Gracious God!  This people need no weapons of destruction, inasmuch as they have girded themselves to reconstruct the world.  Their hosts are the hosts of goodly deeds, and their arms the arms of upright conduct, and their commander the fear of God.  Blessed that one that judgeth with fairness.  By the righteousness of God!  Such hath been the patience, the calm, the resignation and contentment of this people that they have become the exponents of justice, and so great hath been their forbearance, that they have suffered themselves to be killed rather than kill, and this notwithstanding that these whom the world hath wronged have endured tribulations the like of which the history of the world hath never recorded, nor the eyes of any nation witnessed.  What is it that could have induced them to reconcile themselves to these grievous trials, and to refuse to put forth a hand to repel them?  What could have caused such resignation and serenity?  The true cause is to be found in the ban which the Pen of Glory hath, day and night, chosen to impose, and in Our assumption of the reins of authority, through the power and might of Him Who is the Lord of all mankind.

Remember the father of Badi.  They arrested that wronged one, and ordered him to curse and revile his Faith.  He, however, through the grace of God and the mercy of his Lord, chose martyrdom, and attained thereunto.  If ye would reckon up the martyrs in the path of God, ye could not count them.  Consider his honor Siyyid Isma’il—­upon him be the peace of God, and His loving-kindness—­how, before daybreak he was wont to dust, with his own turban, the doorstep of My house, and in the end, whilst standing on the banks of the river, with his eyes fixed on that same house, offered up, by his own hand, his life.

Do thou ponder on the penetrative influence of the Word of God.  Every single one of these souls was first ordered to blaspheme and curse his faith, yet none was found to prefer his own will to the Will of God.