Chapter XXXI: Appendix: I

THE GRAND MUFTI OF EGYPT TO COUNT LEO TOLSTOI

AIN SHEMS, NEAR CAIRO, _April 8th_, 1904.

TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS LEO TOLSTOY,

Although I have not the pleasure of being personally acquainted with you, I am not without knowledge of your spirit; the light of your thoughts has shone upon us, and in our skies the suns of your ideas have risen, making a bond of friendship between the minds of the intelligent here and your mind.

God has guided you to the knowledge of the mystery of that inborn essential nature according to which He formed men, and He has shown you the end towards which He has directed the human race. And you have grasped this, that man has been planted in this present existence that he may be watered by knowledge and that he may bear fruit by labour, which may be a weariness of body bringing repose to his mind, and a lasting effort through which his race may be elevated.

You have perceived the misery which has befallen men when they have turned away from the law of their nature and have employed those powers given to them to obtain happiness in a way which has disturbed their repose and has destroyed their peace.

You have cast a glance on religion which has dispelled the illusions of distorted traditions, and by this glance you have arrived at the fundamental truth of Divine Unity.

You have raised your voice calling men to that whereto God has guided you, and have gone before them in practice. And as by your words you have guided their intellects, so by your deeds you have stirred up in them firm resolves and great aims. As your ideas were a light to bring back those who had gone astray, so was your example in action a model to be imitated by searchers for truth.

And as your existence has been a reprimand from God to the rich, so has it been a succour held out by Him to the poor.

Verily the highest glory you have reached, the most sublime reward you have received for your labours in advice and teaching is what they have called excommunication and interdict. It was nothing—what you incurred from the heads of religion—nothing but a confession declaring to the world that you were not among those men who had gone astray.

Give praise to God that they have cut themselves off from you as you also had abandoned them in their creeds and in their deeds.

This, and verily our hearts are in expectant desire of what shall come anew from your pen in the future days of your life—may God prolong its extent and preserve your strength and may He open the doors of men’s hearts to understand what you say, and may He urge men’s souls to imitate you in what you do. And salutations.

MOHAMMED ABDU.