One of his disciples, one day, questioned Shaykh Ahmad
concerning the Word which the promised One is expected to utter in the fulness
of time, a Word so appallingly tremendous that the three hundred and thirteen
chiefs and nobles of the earth would each and all flee in consternation as if
overwhelmed by its stupendous weight. To him Shaykh Ahmad replied: “How can you
presume to sustain the weight of the Word which the chieftains of the earth are
incapable of bearing? Seek not to gratify an impossible desire. Cease asking me
this question, and beseech forgiveness from God.” That presumptuous questioner
again pressed him to disclose the nature of that Word. At last Shaykh Ahmad
replied: “Were you to attain that Day, were you to be told to repudiate the
guardianship of ‘Alí and to denounce its validity, what would you say?” “God
forbid!” he exclaimed. “Such things can never be. That such words should
proceed out of the mouth of the promised One is to me inconceivable.” How
grievous the mistake he made, and how pitiful his plight! His faith was weighed
in the balance, and was found wanting, inasmuch as he failed to recognise that
He who must needs be made manifest is endowed with that sovereign power which
no man dare question. His is the right “to command whatsoever He willeth, and
to decree that which He pleaseth.” Whoever hesitates, whoever, though it be for
the twinkling of an eye or less, questions His authority, is deprived of His
grace and is accounted of the fallen. And yet few, if any, among those who
listened to Shaykh Ahmad in that city, and heard him unfold the mysteries of
the allusions in the sacred Scriptures, were able to appreciate the
significance of his utterances or to apprehend their purpose. Siyyid Kázim, his
able and distinguished lieutenant, alone, could claim to have understood his
meaning.
(Chapter 1, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)
