A Traveler's Narrative
page 66
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they lay claim. Hath it [ever] been beheld that a reasonable
man renounced his life without proof or evidence [of the truth
of that for which he died]? And if it be said, `This people are
mad,' this [too] is very improbable, for it is not [a thing]
confined to one or two persons, but rather have a great multitude
of every class, inebriated with the Kawthar of divine
wisdom, hastened with heart and soul to the place of martyrdom
in the way of the Friend. If these persons, who for God
have foregone all save Him, and who have poured forth life
and wealth in His way, can be belied, then by what proof and
evidence shall the truth of that which others assert concerning
that wherein they are be established in the presence of the
King?
"The late Hájí Siyyid Muhammad (may God exalt his
station and overwhelm him in the depth of the ocean of His
mercy and forgiveness), although he was of the most learned of
the doctors of the age and the most pious and austere of his
contemporaries, and although the splendor of his worth was of
such a degree that the tongues of all creatures spoke in praise
and eulogy of him and confidently asserted his asceticism and
godliness, did nevertheless in the war against the Russians
forego much good and turn back after a little contest, although
he himself had decreed a holy war, and had set out from his
native country with conspicuous ensign in support of the
Faith. O would that the covering might be withdrawn, and
that what is hidden from [men's] eyes might appear!
"But as to this sect, it is twenty years and more that they
have been tormented by day and by night with the fierceness
of the Royal anger, and that they have been cast each one into
a [different] land by the blasts of the tempests of the King's
wrath. How many children have been left fatherless! How
many fathers have become childless! How many mothers have
not dared, through fear and dread, to mourn over their slaughtered
children! Many [were] the servants [of God] who at eve
were in the utmost wealth and opulence, and at dawn were
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