There are many other things like these examples and numerous sorts of divine blessings. The people of this village know most of them. But do not suppose I am mentioning them out of pride, I have been forced to, rather. And do not think they were due to my goodness. These instances of plenty were either bestowal to the sincere friends who have visited me, or a bestowal on account of service of the Qur’an, or an abundance and benefit resulting from frugality, or they have been sustenance for the four cats I have which recite the divine names “O Most Compassionate One! O Most Compassionate One!”, which comes in the form of plenty and from which I benefit too.
Yes, if you listen carefully to their mournful miaowings, you will understand that they are saying, “O Most Compassionate One! O Most Compassionate One!” We have arrived at the subject of cats and it has recalled the hen. I have a hen. This winter every day almost without exception she brought me an egg from the treasury of mercy. Then one day she brought me two eggs and I was astonished. I asked my friends “How can this be?” They replied: “Perhaps it is a divine gift.” The hen also has a young chick she hatched in the summer. It started to lay at the beginning of Ramadan and continued for forty days. Neither I nor those who assist me have any doubt that, both its being a pullet, and the season being winter, and Ramadan, this blessed situation was a divine gift and bestowal. And whenever the mother stopped laying, it immediately started, never leaving me without eggs.
S e c o n d S u s p i c i o u s Q u e s t i o n : The worldly ask: How can we be sure you won’t meddle in our world? If we set you free, you may interfere in it. Also, how do we know that you aren’t being cunning? How do we know that it isn’t a stratagem, pretending to have abandoned the world and taking things from the people not openly, but secretly?
T h e A n s w e r : My attitude in the Court Martial and in the period before the proclamation of the Constitution, which are known by many, and my defence in the Court Martial at that time called The Testimony of Two Schools of Misfortune, show decisively that the life I lived was such that I would not resort to the tiniest wiles, let alone cunning and subterfuge. If I had resorted to trickery this last five years, I would have made application to you in sycophantic manner. A wily man tries to ingratiate himself. He does not hold back; he always tries to deceive and hoodwink. Whereas I have not condescended to respond to the severest attacks and criticisms levelled at me. Saying, “I place my trust in God,” I turned my back on the worldly. Moreover, if he is sensible, a person who discovers the reality of this world and knows the hereafter, is not sorry; he does not turn back to