of God. In every instance
they have voiced an utterance that would conform to the requirements of
the occasion, and have ascribed all these declarations to Themselves,
declarations ranging from the realm of Divine Revelation to the realm of
creation, and from the domain of Divinity even unto the domain of earthly
existence. Thus it is that whatsoever be their utterance, whether it
pertain to the realm of Divinity, Lordship, Prophethood, Messengership,
Guardianship, Apostleship, or Servitude, all is true, beyond the shadow of
a doubt. Therefore these sayings which We have quoted in support of Our
argument must be attentively considered, that the divergent utterances of
the Manifestations of the Unseen and Day Springs of Holiness may cease to
agitate the soul and perplex the mind.

XXIII: CONSIDER THE FORMER GENERATIONS. WITNESS...

Consider the former generations. Witness how every time the Day Star of
Divine bounty hath shed the light of His Revelation upon the world, the
people of His Day have arisen against Him, and repudiated His truth. They
who were regarded as the leaders of men have invariably striven to hinder
their followers from turning unto Him Who is the Ocean of God's limitless
bounty.

Behold how the people, as a result of the verdict pronounced by the
divines of His age, have cast Abraham, the Friend of God, into fire; how
Moses, He Who held converse with the Almighty, was denounced as liar and
slanderer. Reflect how Jesus, the Spirit of God, was, notwithstanding His
extreme meekness and perfect tender-heartedness, treated by His enemies.
So fierce was the opposition which He, the Essence of Being and Lord of
the visible and invisible, had to face, that He had nowhere to lay His
head. He wandered continually from place to place, deprived of a permanent
abode. Ponder that which befell Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets, may
the life of all else be a sacrifice unto Him. How severe the afflictions
which the leaders of the Jewish people and of the idol-worshipers caused
to rain upon Him, Who is the sovereign Lord of all, in consequence of His
proclamation of the unity of God and of the truth of His Message! By the
righteousness of My Cause! My Pen groaneth, and all created things weep
with a great weeping, as a result of the woes He suffered at the hands of
them that have broken the Covenant of God, violated His Testament,
rejected His proofs, and disputed His signs. Thus recount We unto thee the