been commissioned to unravel the mysteries of a
mighty Tablet. The measure of the Revelation with which every one of them
hath been identified had been definitely fore-ordained. This, verily, is a
token of Our favor unto them, if ye be of those that comprehend this
truth.... And when this process of progressive Revelation culminated in
the stage at which His peerless, His most sacred, and exalted Countenance
was to be unveiled to men's eyes, He chose to hide His own Self behind a
thousand veils, lest profane and mortal eyes discover His glory. This He
did at a time when the signs and tokens of a divinely-appointed Revelation
were being showered upon Him--signs and tokens which none can reckon except
the Lord, your God, the Lord of all worlds. And when the set time of
concealment was fulfilled, We sent forth, whilst still wrapt within a
myriad veils, an infinitesimal glimmer of the effulgent Glory enveloping
the Face of the Youth, and lo, the entire company of the dwellers of the
Realms above were seized with violent commotion and the favored of God
fell down in adoration before Him. He hath, verily, manifested a glory
such as none in the whole creation hath witnessed, inasmuch as He hath
arisen to proclaim in person His Cause unto all who are in the heavens and
all who are on the earth.

XXXII: THAT WHICH THOU HAST HEARD CONCERNING...

That which thou hast heard concerning Abraham, the Friend of the
All-Merciful, is the truth, and no doubt is there about it. The Voice of
God commanded Him to offer up Ishmael as a sacrifice, so that His
steadfastness in the Faith of God and His detachment from all else but Him
may be demonstrated unto men. The purpose of God, moreover, was to
sacrifice him as a ransom for the sins and iniquities of all the peoples
of the earth. This same honor, Jesus, the Son of Mary, besought the one
true God, exalted be His name and glory, to confer upon Him. For the same
reason was Husayn offered up as a sacrifice by Muhammad, the Apostle of
God.

No man can ever claim to have comprehended the nature of the hidden and
manifold grace of God; none can fathom His all-embracing mercy. Such hath
been the perversity of men and their transgressions, so grievous have been
the trials that have afflicted the Prophets of God and their chosen ones,
that all mankind deserveth to be tormented and to perish. God's hidden and
most loving providence, however, hath, through both visible and invisible
agenc