those Qur’anic remedies. Only, to secure my livelihood I had printed a treatise of mine about the resurrection of the dead before the new script was introduced. And the former governor, who was unfair to me, studied the treatise, but did nothing against it since he could find nothing in it to criticize.
T h i r d M a t t e r : Some of my friends remain apparently aloof from me because ‘the worldly’ consider me with suspicion and in order to appear favourable to ‘the worldly,’ indeed, they criticize me. But the cunning ‘worldly’ attribute their aloofness and avoiding me not to their loyalty to ‘the worldly’ but to a sort of hypocrisy and lack of conscience, and they look on those friends of mine coldly.
So I say this: O my friends of the hereafter! Don’t stand aloof from my being a servant of the Qur’an and run away. Because, God willing, no harm will come to you from me. Suppose some calamity is visited on you or I am oppressed, you cannot be saved by avoiding me. By doing that you will make yourselves more deserving of calamity and a blow. What is there, that you should have these groundless fears?
F o u r t h M a t t e r : I see during this time of my exile that certain boastful people who have fallen into the swamp of politics regard me in a partisan manner, with rivalry, as though I am connected with the worldly currents like they are.
Sirs! I am in the current of belief. Before me is the current of unbelief. I have no connection with other currents. Perhaps some of those who work for a wage see themselves as excused to a degree. But to take up a position opposed to me in rivalry for no wage in the name of patriotism, and harass me, and oppress me, is a truly grievous error. For as was proved above, I have no connection at all with world politics. I have dedicated and vowed all my time and my life to the truths of belief and the Qur’an. Since it is thus, let the one who torments and harasses me in rivalry think that such treatment of his is similar to causing harm to belief in the name of atheism and unbelief.
F i f t h M a t t e r : Since this world is transitory, and since life is short, and since the truly essential duties are many, and since eternal life will be gained here, and since the world is not without an owner, and since this guest-house of the world has a most Wise and