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, mak- 

 ing 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 essen- 

 tial 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 re- 

 pose 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 



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