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   The Fourth: This year, the local official applied in my name for me to stay for a few days in the village of Bedre, which is a sort of district of Barla, for a change of air. How can those who reject such an unimportant request be applied to? To apply to them would be a futile, degrading abasement. The Fifth: To claim a right before those who claim a wrong to be right, and to apply to them, is a wrong. It is disrespectful towards right. I do not want to perpetrate such a wrong and show disrespect for right. And that’s that! The Sixth: The distress and difficulty the worldly have caused me has not been due to politics, because they know I do not meddle in politics but flee from them. Rather, knowingly or unknowingly, they torment me on account of aggressive atheism because I adhere to religion. In which case, to apply to them infers regretting religion and flattering the cause of aggressive atheism. Moreover, divine determining, which is just, would punish me through their tyrannical hand if I applied to them and had recourse to them, for they oppress me because I am religious. As for divine determining, from time to time it represses me due to my hypocrisy before the worldly, because I am deficient in religion and in sincerity. Since this is so, for the time being I cannot be saved from this distress. If I apply to the worldly, divine determining would say: “Hypocrite! Pay the penalty for applying!” And if I do not apply, the worldly say: “You don’t recognize us, go on suffering difficulties!” The Seventh Reason: It is well-known that the official’s duty is to allow harmful individuals no opportunity to cause harm and to assist those who are beneficial. Whereas the official who took me into custody approached me, an elderly guest at the door of the grave, when I was expounding a subtle aspect of belief contained in the phrase “There is no god but God,” as though I were perpetrating some misdemeanour, although he had not been to me for a long time previously. He caused the sincere unfortunate who was listening to be deprived of the instruction, and made me angry. But there were other people there, and he gave them no importance. Then when they acted discourteously in a way that would poison the life of the village, he started to be gracious and appreciative towards them. Furthermore, it is well-known that someone in prison who has committed a hundred crimes can meet with the official supervising him whether he be of high rank or low. But during this last year, although two people important in the eyes of the national government who were charged with supervising me have passed by my house several times, they have absolutely neither met with me nor asked after me. At first I supposed that they avoided me out of enmity, then it transpired that it was due to their fearful suspicions; they were fleeing from me as though as I were going to gobble them up. Double click for meaning of the world. | |||
