“O King! The lamps of justice are extinguished, and the fire of persecution is kindled on all sides, until that they have made My people captives. This is not the first honor which hath been violated in the way of God. It behooveth everyone to regard and recall what befell the kindred of the Prophet until that the people made them captives and brought them in unto Damascus the spacious; and amongst them was the Prince of Worshipers, the Stay of the elect, the Sanctuary of the eager (the soul of all beside him be his sacrifice). It was said unto them, ‘Are ye seceders?’ He said, ‘No, by God, we are servants who have believed in God and in His signs, and through us the teeth of faith are disclosed in a smile, and the sign of the Merciful One shineth forth; through our mention spreadeth Al-Bathá,(43) and the darkness which intervened between earth and heaven is dispelled.’ It was said, ‘Have ye forbidden what God hath sanctioned, or sanctioned what God hath forbidden?’ He said, ‘We were the first who followed the commandments of God: we are the source of command and its origin, and the firstfruits of all good and its consummation: we are the sign of the Eternal, and His commemoration amongst the nations.’ It was said, ‘Have ye abandoned the Qur’án?’ He said, ‘Through us did the Merciful One reveal it; and we are gales of the All-Glorious amidst [His] creatures; we are streams which have arisen from the most mighty Ocean whereby God revived the earth after its death; from us His signs are diffused, His evidences are manifested, and His tokens appear; and with us are His mysteries and His secrets.’ It was said, ‘For what fault [then] were ye afflicted?’ He said, ‘For the love of God and our severance from all beside Him.’ “Verily We have not repeated his expressions (upon him be peace), but rather We have made manifest a spray from the Ocean of Life which was deposited in his words, that by it those who advance may live and be aware of what hath befallen the trusted ones of God on the part of an evil and most reprobate people. And today We see the people censuring those who acted unjustly of yore, while they oppress more vehemently than those oppressed, and know it not. By God, I do not desire sedition, but the purification of [God’s] servants from all that withholdeth them from approach to God, the King of the Day of Invocation. “I was asleep on My couch: the breaths of My Lord the Merciful passed over Me and awakened Me from sleep: to this bear witness the denizens [of the realms] of His Power and His Kingdom, and the dwellers in the cities of His Glory, and Himself, the True. I am not impatient of calamities in His way, nor of afflictions for His love and at His good pleasure. God hath made affliction as a morning shower to this green pasture, and as a match for His lamp whereby earth and heaven are illumined.