Ms KH21, pp. 30-31
Copied in Samvat 1880/1823 CE by Saju Pajuani in Surat, Gujarat.
This text is entitled “Kalama: Hajarate: Shaha: Mowla: Muretaja: Aliajo:”. Kalam-i Mawla is a collection of Hindi verses drawn from the sayings of the first Imam ‘Ali. These Hindi Kalam teachings, exhorting believers to observe virtues such as brotherhood, honesty and generosity, appear in the IIS collection in several manuscript versions, the earliest dated 1801 CE.
Versions are arranged differently; for example, this 1823 CE manuscript version has no chapters. While the later 1905 CE printed Devraj edition begins with verse 2, this 1823 CE version begins with verse 1. Translation of this first verse is as follows:
Listen, o brother believers, to the account of the teaching of Mawla (‘Ali), who has said that you should recognise a man’s faith by his word, for he who is truthful in word has a true faith. One’s word is the token of the truth of one’s faith.
In very clear handwriting, the text begins with a symbol, followed by Allah Tohar: ‘May Allah help you’. The end of the first verse is marked with a symbol (right) in a special style of the copyist. Generally, each word is copied separately, indicated by two dots: ‘ : ’.