The Twenty-Second Letter

In His Name!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.(17:44)

[This  letter  consists  of  two  topics;  the  first  summons  believers  to brotherhood and love.]

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Verily the believers are brethren; so reconcile then your brothers.(49:10) * Repel  evil  with  what  is better  than  it;  then  the one between  whom  and yourself enmity prevails will become like your friend and intimate.(41:34) * Those who suppress their anger and forgive people – verily God loves those who do good.(3:134)

Dispute and discord among the believers, and partisanship, obstinacy and envy, leading to rancour and enmity among them, are repugnant and vile, are harmful and sinful, by the combined testimony of wisdom and the supreme humanity that is Islam, for personal, social, and spiritual life. They are in short, poison for the life of man. We will set forth six of the extremely numerous aspects of this truth.

First Aspect

They are sinful in the view of truth.

O   unjust   man   nurturing   rancour   and   enmity   against   a  believer!   Let   us suppose that you were on a ship, or in a house, with nine innocent people and one criminal.

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NOTE: The present translation of the Twenty-Second Letter was carried out by Hamid Algar, Prof. of Near Eastern Studies in Univ. of California, Berkeley, U.S.A., and first published in 1976. It has been slightly amended to fit the present work.