My hard-working brothers, zealous friends, and means of consolation in these lands of exile known as the world!

These last two or three months I have been very much alone. Sometimes once every two or three weeks I have a guest with me, the rest of the time I am alone. And for nearly three weeks now there has been no one working in the mountains near me; all have dispersed...

One night in these strange mountains, silent and alone amid the mournful sighing of the trees, I saw myself in five exiles of different hues.

The first: due to old age, I was alone and a stranger far from the great majority of my friends, relations, and those close to me; I felt a sad exile at their having left me and departed for the Intermediate Realm [the grave]. Then another sphere of exile was opened within this one: I felt a sad sense of separation and exile at most of the beings to which I was attached, like last spring, having left me and departed. And a further sphere of exile opened up within this, which was that I found myself far from my native land and relations, and was alone. I felt a sense of separation and exile arising from this too. Then through that, the lonesomeness of the night and the mountains made me feel another pitiable exile. And then I saw my spirit in an overwhelming exile, which had been prepared to journey to eternity both from this exile and from the transitory guesthouse of this world. I said to myself suddenly, My God, how can these exiles and layers of darkness be borne? My heart cried out:

"My Lord! I am a stranger, I have no one, I am weak,

I am powerless, I am impotent, I am old;

I am without will; I seek recourse, I seek forgiveness,

I seek help from Your Court, O God!"

Suddenly the light of belief, the effulgence of the Qur'an, and the grace of the Most Merciful came to my aid. They transformed those five dark exiles into five luminous and familiar spheres. My tongue said:

"God is enough for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs" (Qur'an, 3:173).

While my heart recited the verse:

"And if they turn away, say: God is enough for me, there is no god but He; in Him do I place my my trust, for He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne" (Qur'an, 9:129).

Bediuzzaman goes on to quote lines of poetry, and concludes that: "through impotence and reliance on God, and poverty and seeking refuge with Him, the door of light is opened and the layers of darkness dispersed." "What does the one who finds God lose? And what does the one who loses Him find?" [^63]

[^63]:Mektûbat, 22-4 (Eng. tr.: Letters, 42-4).