Late Aga Sayyid Abdullah Baladi, a resident of Bushahar said:

Once an elder from the scholars of Isfahan set out with a caravan from Isfahan to visit Mecca and perform the Hajj of the Holy House and arrived in Bushahar to take the sea route, but upon his arrival was stopped by the British consulate and not granted visa. I and some other people tried our best in this regard, but to no avail.

The gentleman from Isfahan and his companions were much harassed. They said: We undertook so many hardships since a long time and procured means of travel to Mecca. We bore difficulties of journey for around a month (because in those times caravans took seventy days to travel from Isfahan to Shiraz and ten days from Shiraz to Bushahar). So we cannot go back now.

Late Aga Baladi said: I was very much affected seeing the extreme anxiety of the Shaykh. So in order to divert his attention I handed over my post in the Masjid to him and asked him to lead congregational prayers and afterwards take to the pulpit and speak on ethical issues. He accepted this request.

Thus, in the evenings after prayers and speech, in those gatherings he and his companions called the Almighty Allah with a heart full of helplessness and anger. They recited the verse of “Amman yujibu al-mudhtarra idha da‘ahu wa yakshifu us-su’u” (27:62) and sought the mediation of the chief of martyrs, Imam Husayn ('a) and wailed in such a way that everyone who heard was disconcerted. They prayed: O Allah, it is not possible for us to go back. Please convey us to our destination.

One day some people arrived from the British consulate and told them to collect their visas. Thus, all the people of the caravan went there happily and after taking visas set out from there.

After some days, I was passing by the sea shore when I saw a worried and anxious man, who looked familiar. I asked him if he was not that same man from Isfahan who had come some days ago with so and so and gone to Holy Mecca?

He replied: Yes. When I asked him about the Shaykh and his companions, he began to cry bitterly. He said: First we were attacked by robbers, who plundered all our goods. After that we fell ill and all the people of the caravan died. I am the only survivor as you can see. I have returned in this condition.

Aga Baladi said: ·Now I understood what the problem in fulfillment of their wishes was. But when they emphasized on it, in spite of the fact that there was harm in it for them, their supplication was accepted.

The Almighty Allah has said:

وَعَسَىٰ أَنْ تَكْرَهُوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ وَعَسَىٰ أَنْ تُحِبُّوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ شَرٌّ لَكُمْ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ

"...and it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it may be that you love a thing while it is evil for you, and Allah knows, while you do not know." (Surah al-Baqara 2:216).

He also says:

وَلَوْ يُعَجِّلُ اللَّهُ لِلنَّاسِ الشَّرَّ اسْتِعْجَالَهُمْ بِالْخَيْرِ لَقُضِيَ إِلَيْهِمْ أَجَلُهُمْ

"And if Allah should hasten the evil to men as they desire the hastening on of good, their doom should certainly have been decreed for them..." (Surah Yunus 10:11).

It implies that some people seek destruction and ruin and imagine that they have sought wellbeing and goodness; and since there in so divine exigency in it, the Almighty Allah does not accept it. (Like those who in the condition of anger pray for the death of themselves, their child or relatives; but most of them are later regretful of that and thank the Almighty that their supplication was not accepted.).

There are so many matters, regarding which a person is greedy and imagines that his wellbeing and happiness lies in that only and also tries for success in them, but when he succeeds, he regrets it and wishes that this aim of his had not been fulfilled.

On the basis of this, one should, at the time of supplication, leave it to divine will, whether to fulfill it or not. He should say: I don't have any need of the world and the hereafter, except for Your pleasure. And there is no wellbeing for me, except that You decree it for me, O Lord of the worlds.

If one does not say it verbally, he should at least have this intention. Or if his need is against him and he wants it to be fulfilled in any case, even though the Almighty Allah knows that there is no good in it for him, it is not supplication; it is ordering the Almighty!

In any case, it is the duty of the supplicant to confess to his helplessness, ignorance and weakness; and to consider the Almighty Allah to be all powerful and all knowing. If his wish is not fulfilled, he should not think ill of God. He should not accuse Him of going against His promise; on the contrary he should understand that there was no divine exigency in it, or its time has not come. Or his supplication was lacking necessary conditions for fulfillment.1

• 1. Translator's note: Another justification is also there for the above incident: It seems that the people of the caravan had only prayed for visa. Along with it they did not pray for safety from the perils of the way, for it is possible that when one supplication was accepted, the other might also have been accepted.

  Secondly, it is possible that the robbery of their goods was to test their patience and thankfulness and the journey of Hajj might have been made a way for them to achieve the status of martyrdom.