incorruptible, and undeceiving in the face of the currents of misguidance, one who sees your powerful solidarity forms the conviction that there is a truth that may be sacrificed for nothing, that does not bow before the people of misguidance, nor is it defeated; his morale and belief are strengthened, and he is saved from joining the worldly and their vice.

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In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Beware! Do not dispute among yourselves, spying ears will take advantage of it. Right or wrong, those who argue in our situation are wrong. Even if they are right to one degree, by disputing they could cause us untold harm.

I shall repeat a story I once told my irritable brothers in Eskishehir Prison. During the Great War, I was being held as a prisoner together with ninety officers in a long dormitory in northern Russia. Since they had a regard for me far higher than was my due, through my advice to them, I did not allow any noise or trouble. But then, irascibility arising from the constraints and irritations began to give rise to violent rows. I told three or four of them that whenever they heard a noisy dispute, to go and help those in the wrong. They did this, and the damaging rows ceased. They asked me why I had taken such unjust precautions, and I told them:

“A person who is in the right, is fair; he will sacrifice his one ‘dirhem’s’ worth of right for the general peace, which is worth a hundred ‘dirhems.’ Those in the wrong are mostly egotistical; they will sacrifice nothing, so the din increases.”

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