A Gift for Baghdad — Page 21
Reply to the Announcement & Letter 21 reward you with the best of rewards! May He be beneficent to you, for He is the Best Benefactor. I have observed that you are a righteous-natured person, because you have not concealed that which is troubling your mind. Neither have you refrained from offering your advice, nor have you offered false praise. This is the manner of the righteous. Nevertheless—O affectionate friend and dear beloved—may Allah pardon you—you have been hasty in considering your brother, who is a believer in Allah, His Messenger, and His Book, as an apostate and one of the disbelievers. You have accused me and fired a volley of arrows in my direction, prior to investigating the truth of my claim and understanding the reality of my dis- course, or prior to seeking an explanation from me, as one would expect a true scholar to undertake. It is astonishing that someone like you—who is righteous, God-fearing, pure, forbearing, and noble—should write in your announcement that the reward for this ‘apostate’ is that he should be killed with a sharp sword and hurled into the fire, for this is the recompense of the apostates. O righteous brother! May Allah gladden you, take care of you, protect you, and support you. May He also open your eyes and guide you. Do not attempt to frighten me with a sharp sword, spear, or fire; for, I have already been killed by a sword of which you have no knowledge, long before you had even drawn your sword. And I have tasted a fire with which you are unacquainted. Verily, after this, God willing, I became amongst those who are especially blessed by God. O dear one! Verily, those whose hearts are sincere in their obe- dience to Allah, who submit themselves completely to Allah, and drink from the chalice of the love of Allah, their Lord does not