Verily, if I want to interpret that sura as a cup of the water of the leaf of China which we gave you on that night, then I will have followed the methods of truth and interpreted the reality of the matter. However, today I have not explained the reality of that exegesis out of fear of Pharaoh and his concourse and in order to protect the apostles of the people of `Ali and his Shia.
The Bab, Tafsir surat al-kawthar (Commentary on the Sura of Kawthar), written in 1845-6 for Vahid, who came to investigate the Bab’s claims on behalf of the Shah. Kawthar, mentioned in the Qur’an (108:1), is said to be a river in Paradise. Chinese tea, in the Bab’s parlance, is white tea.
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