ne witness in Our first
epistle. Indeed, He Who hath revealed verses unto Muhammad, the Apostle of
God, hath likewise revealed verses unto 'Ali-Muhammad. For who else but
God can reveal to a man such clear and manifest verses as overpower all
the learned? Since thou hast acknowledged the revelation of Muhammad, the
Apostle of God, then there is no other way open before thee but to testify
that whatever is revealed by the Primal Point hath also proceeded from
God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Is it not true that the
Qur'an hath been sent down from God and that all men are powerless before
its revelation? Likewise these words have also been revealed by God, if
thou dost but perceive. What is there in the Bayan which keepeth thee back
from recognizing these verses as being sent forth by God, the
Inaccessible, the Most Exalted, the All-Glorious?

The essence of these words is this: Were We to bring thee to a reckoning,
thou wouldst prove thyself empty-handed; We in truth know all things.
Hadst thou uttered 'yea' on hearing the Words of God, thou wouldst have
been seen to have been worshipping God from the beginning that hath no
beginning until the present day, never to have disobeyed Him, not even for
the twinkling of an eye. Yet, neither the upright deeds thou hast wrought
during all thy life, nor the exertions thou didst make to banish every
thought from thy heart save that of the good-pleasure of God, none of
these did in truth profit thee, not even to the extent of a grain of
mustard seed, inasmuch as thou didst veil thyself from God and tarried
behind at the time of His manifestation.

Verily all the divines in the land of Kaf [Kufih] shall, even as thyself,
be asked by God: 'Is it not strange that a Messenger should have come to
you with a Book, and ye, while confessing your powerlessness, refused to
follow the Faith of God which He had brought, and ye persisted in your
disbelief?' Therefore unto thee shall be assigned the fire which was meant
for those who turned away from God in that land, inasmuch as thou art
their leader; would that thou might be of them who heed.

Hadst thou faithfully obeyed the Decree of God, all the inhabitants of thy
land would have followed thee, and would have themselves entered into the
celestial Paradise, content with the good-pleasure of God for evermore.
However, on that day thou shalt wish that God had not created thee.

Thou hast set thyself up as one of the learned in th