A Gift for An-Nadwah — Page 17
17 account of his lie. But if he is truthful, some among you will be the victims of his prophecies and will pass from this temporary existence before his eyes. ' Why not test me and investigate my claim by the criterion found in the Book of God? Is it not true that the maulaw i s left no stone unturned in their attempts to have me de- stroyed? They have worn themselves out in preparing a verdict of apostasy against me and have used so many invectives against me in their announcements that the profanity of their language has surpassed even that of the Shiites. Not only did they bring me before the courts time and time again, I was even [falsely] accused of murder. Those who were drawn towards me were subjected to such persecution that apart from the in- stances of torture endured by the companions of the Holy Prophet sa , there is no other example of the abuse and cruelty they have had to suffer. Some of my follow- ers who belonged to foreign lands were martyred in their native countries. Who can deny that vigorous ef- forts have been made to crush me and prevent people from coming to me? Many of these very maulaw i s have been guilty of any number of shameful acts. They pro- vided false information about me to the government in order to incite it against me. But what was the result of all this? Only my continued success. When my opponents rose to denounce me as a liar and an infidel and prophesied that