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And yet it was this same Mirza Muhammad- 'Ali who, regarding himself as the exponent of fidelity, the standard- bearer of the "Unitarians," the "Finger who points to his Master," the champion of the Holy Family, the spokesman of the Aghsan, the upholder of the Holy Writ, had, in the lifetime of Baha'u'llah, so openly and shamelessly advanced in a written statement, signed and sealed by him, the very claim now falsely imputed by him to Abdu'l- Baha, that his Father had, with His own hand, chastised him. He it was who, when sent on a mission to India, had tampered with the text of the holy writings entrusted to his care for publication. He it was who had the impudence and temerity to tell Abdu'l- Baha to His face that just as Umar had succeeded in usurping the successorship of the Prophet Muhammad, he, too, felt himself able to do the same. He it was who, obsessed by the fear that he might not survive Abdu'l- Baha, had, the moment he had been assured by Him that all the honor he coveted would, in the course of time, be his, swiftly rejoined that he had no guarantee that he would outlive Him. He it was who, as testified by Mirza Badi'u'llah in his confession, written and published on the occasion of his repentance and his short- lived reconciliation with Abdu'l- Baha, had, while Baha'u'llah's body was still awaiting interment, carried off, by a ruse, the two satchels containing his Father's most precious documents, entrusted by Him, prior to His ascension, to Abdu'l- Baha. He it was who, by an exceedingly adroit and simple forgery of a word recurring in some of the denunciatory passages addressed by the Supreme Pen to Mirza Yahya, and by other devices such as mutilation and interpolation, had succeeded in making them directly applicable to a Brother Whom he hated with such consuming passion. And lastly, it was this same Mirza Muhammad- 'Ali who, as attested by Abdu'l- Baha in His Will, had, with circumspection and guile, conspired to take His life, an intention indicated by the allusions made in a letter written by Shu'a'u'llah (Son of Mirza Muhammad- 'Ali), the original of which was enclosed in that same Document by Abdu'l- Baha.
(248:1)
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