"I have a little daughter at home, and she is very sweet and beautiful.
You would never think how like sunshine she is to me in my lonely house, for her mother is gone, and but for her I should be alone, and so she is very near and dear to me.But she is in the land of silence and in the land of night.Nothing can she see, and nothing hear, and never has her voice opened the curtains of the air, for she is blind and dumb and deaf.""Merciful Allah!" cried the Mahdi.
"Ah! is her state so terrible? I thought you would think it so.
Yes, for all she is so beautiful, she is only as a creature of the fields that knows not God.""Allah preserve her!" cried the Mahdi.
"And she is smitten for my sin, for the Lord revealed it to me in the vision, and my soul trembles for her soul.But if God has washed me with water should not she also be clean?""God knows," said the Mahdi."He gives no rewards for repentance.""But listen!" said Israel."In a vision of death her mother saw her, and she was afflicted no more.No, for she could see, and hear, and speak.Man of God, will it come to pass?""God is good," said the Mahdi."He needs that no man should teach Him pity.""But I love her," cried Israel, "and I vowed to her mother to guard her.
She is joy of my joy and life of my life.Without her the morning has no freshness and the night no rest.Surely the Lord sees this, and will have mercy?"The Mahdi held back his tears, and answered, "The Lord sees all.
Go your way in trust.Farewell!"
"Farewell!"