Tadhkirah — Page 24
24 About 1874 In a dream, I was shown a long ditch running for miles, on the edge of which thousands of sheep were laid out with their heads hanging over the edge of the ditch, so that when they were slaughtered their blood would flow into the ditch. The rest of their bodies were outside the ditch. The ditch ran east to west and the sheep had been laid on the edge of the ditch from the south. Each sheep was attended by a butcher and every butcher had a knife in his hand, which was placed at the neck of the sheep. The butchers were looking towards the sky as if awaiting the divine command. I found myself walking in the plain to the north and felt that the butchers were angels who were ready to slaughter the sheep as soon as they received the command from above. I approached them and recited the following verse of the Holy Qur’an: That is [Arabic] Say to them: What would my Lord care for you, were you not to worship Him and were you not to abide by His commandments. The moment I said this, the angels understood that they had been granted permission, as if the words of my mouth were a divine command 29. Thereupon the angels ran their knives through the necks of the sheep and the sheep began to flutter in a painful manner. The angels severed all the 29 The Promised Messiah as says: It seems that since a vicegerent of God is appointed from heaven, my reciting of the verse was understood by the angels as a divine command, that is to say, the command that they were waiting for was uttered through my mouth. [al-Badr, vol. 1, no. 12, January 16, 1903 p. 90]