The following story in the life of Mirza Abu'l-Fadl, the
outstanding scholar of the Cause and its famous apologist, is one which
demonstrates that reading the Word of God with the eye of intellect can lead a
man astray.
Mirza Abu’l-Fadl, himself, has recounted the story that soon
after he came in contact with the believers, they gave him the Kitáb-i-Íqán to
read. He read it with an air of intellectual superiority and was not impressed
by it. He even commented that if the Kitáb-i-Íqán was a proof of Bahá'u'lláh's
claims, he himself could certainly write a better book.
At that time he was the head of a theological college in
Tihran. The following day a prominent woman arrived at the college and
approached some students asking them to write an important letter for her. In
those days people who were not educated often paid a small sum of money to a
learned man to write letters for them. The essential requirements for writing
good letters were good composition and fine penmanship.
The students referred her to Mirza Abu'l-Fadl saying that he
was an outstanding writer, a master of eloquence and a man unsurpassed in the
art of composition. Mirza Abu'l-Fadl took up his pen to write, but found
himself unable to compose the first sentence. He tried very hard but was
unsuccessful. For several minutes he scribbled in the corner of the page and
even drew lines on his own fingernail, until the woman realized that the
learned scribe was unable to write. Losing her patience she arose to go and
mockingly said to Mirza Abu'l-Fadl, 'If you have forgotten how to write a
simple letter why don't you say so instead of keeping me here while you
scrawl?'
