great and lofty is His station!  His rank excelleth that of all the Prophets, and His Revelation transcendeth the comprehension and understanding of all their chosen ones.  A Revelation, of which the Prophets of God, His saints and chosen ones, have either not been informed, or which, in pursuance of God’s inscrutable Decree, they have not disclosed,—­such a Revelation these mean and depraved people have sought to measure with their own deficient minds, their own deficient learning and understanding.  Should it fail to conform to their standards, they straightway reject it.  “Thinkest thou that the greater part of them hear or understand?  They are even like unto the brutes! yea, they stray even further from the path!"(182)

How, We wonder, do they explain the aforementioned tradition, a tradition which, in unmistakable terms, foreshadoweth the revelation of things inscrutable, and the occurrence of new and wondrous events in His day?  Such marvellous happenings kindle so great a strife amongst the people, that all the divines and doctors sentence Him and His companions to death, and all the peoples of the earth arise to oppose Him.  Even as it hath been recorded in the “Kafi,” in the tradition of Jabir, in the “Tablet of Fatimih,” concerning the character of the Qa’im:  “He shall manifest the perfection of Moses, the splendour of Jesus, and the patience of Job.  His chosen ones shall be abased in His day.  Their heads shall be offered as presents even as the heads of the Turks and the Daylamites.  They shall be slain and burnt.  Fear shall seize them; dismay and alarm shall strike terror into their hearts.  The earth shall be dyed with their blood.  Their womenfolk shall bewail and lament.  These indeed are my friends!” Consider, not a single letter of this tradition hath remained unfulfilled.  In most of the places their blessed blood hath been shed; in every city they have been made captives, have been paraded throughout the provinces, and some have been burnt with fire.  And yet no one hath paused to reflect that if the promised Qa’im should reveal the law and ordinances of a former Dispensation, why then should such traditions have been recorded, and why should there arise such a degree of strife and conflict that the people should regard the slaying of these companions as an obligation imposed upon them, and deem the persecution of these holy souls as a means of attaining unto the highest favour?

Moreover, observe how these things that have come to pass, and the acts which have been perpetrated, have all been mentioned in former traditions.  Even as it hath been recorded in the “Rawdiy-i-Kafi,” concerning “Zawra.”  In the “Rawdiy-i-Kafi” it is related of Mu’aviyih, son of Vahhab, that Abu-’Abdi’llah hath spoken:  “Knowest thou Zawra?” I said:  “May my life be a sacrifice unto thee!  They say it is Baghdad.”  “Nay,” he answered.  And then added:  “Hast thou entered the city of Rayy?",(183) to which I made reply:  “Yea, I have entered