in his heart a trace of malice towards Me, all his deeds would be
reduced to naught and he would be deprived of the glances of God's favour,
become the object of His wrath and assuredly perish. For God hath ordained
that all the good things which lie in the treasury of His knowledge shall
be attained through obedience unto Me, and every fire recorded in His
Book, through disobedience unto Me. Methinks in this day and from this
station I behold all those who cherish My love and follow My behest
abiding within the mansions of Paradise, and the entire company of Mine
adversaries consigned to the lowest depths of hell-fire.

By My life! But for the obligation to acknowledge the Cause of Him Who is
the Testimony of God ... I would not have announced this unto thee... All
the keys of heaven God hath chosen to place on My right hand, and all the
keys of hell on My left...

I am the Primal Point from which have been generated all created things. I
am the Countenance of God Whose splendour can never be obscured, the Light
of God Whose radiance can never fade. Whoso recognizeth Me, assurance and
all good are in store for him, and whoso faileth to recognize Me, infernal
fire and all evil await him...

I swear by God, the Peerless, the Incomparable, the True One: for no other
reason hath He--the supreme Testimony of God--invested Me with clear signs
and tokens than that all men may be enabled to submit to His Cause.

By the righteousness of Him Who is the Absolute Truth, were the veil to be
lifted, thou wouldst witness on this earthly plane all men sorely
afflicted with the fire of the wrath of God, a fire fiercer and greater
than the fire of hell, with the exception of those who have sought shelter
beneath the shade of the tree of My love. For they in very truth are the
blissful...

God beareth Me witness, I was not a man of learning, for I was trained as
a merchant. In the year sixty(3) God graciously infused my soul with the
conclusive evidences and weighty knowledge which characterize Him Who is
the Testimony of God--may peace be upon Him--until finally in that year I
proclaimed God's hidden Cause and unveiled its well-guarded Pillar, in
such wise that no one could refute it. 'That he who should perish might
perish with a clear proof before him and he who should live might live by
clear proof.'(4)

In that same year [year 60] I despatched a messenger and a book unto thee,
that thou mightest act towards the Cause of Him Who