This practice is
prohibited by God, the Lord of glory and command. To none is it permitted
to seek absolution from another soul; let repentance be between yourselves
and God. He, verily, is the Pardoner, the Bounteous, the Gracious, the One
Who absolveth the repentant.

35 O ye servants of the Merciful One! Arise to serve the Cause of God, in
such wise that the cares and sorrows caused by them that have disbelieved
in the Dayspring of the Signs of God may not afflict you. At the time when
the Promise was fulfilled and the Promised One made manifest, differences
have appeared amongst the kindreds of the earth and each people hath
followed its own fancy and idle imaginings.

36 Amongst the people is he who seateth himself amid the sandals by the
door whilst coveting in his heart the seat of honour. Say: What manner of
man art thou, O vain and heedless one, who wouldst appear as other than
thou art? And among the people is he who layeth claim to inner knowledge,
and still deeper knowledge concealed within this knowledge. Say: Thou
speakest false! By God! What thou dost possess is naught but husks which
We have left to thee as bones are left to dogs. By the righteousness of
the one true God! Were anyone to wash the feet of all mankind, and were he
to worship God in the forests, valleys, and mountains, upon high hills and
lofty peaks, to leave no rock or tree, no clod of earth, but was a witness
to his worship--yet, should the fragrance of My good pleasure not be
inhaled from him, his works would never be acceptable unto God. Thus hath
it been decreed by Him Who is the Lord of all. How many a man hath
secluded himself in the climes of India, denied himself the things that
God hath decreed as lawful, imposed upon himself austerities and
mortifications, and hath not been remembered by God, the Revealer of
Verses. Make not your deeds as snares wherewith to entrap the object of
your aspiration, and deprive not yourselves of this Ultimate Objective for
which have ever yearned all such as have drawn nigh unto God. Say: The
very life of all deeds is My good pleasure, and all things depend upon
Mine acceptance. Read ye the Tablets that ye may know what hath been
purposed in the Books of God, the All-Glorious, the Ever-Bounteous. He who
attaineth to My love hath title to a throne of gold, to sit thereon in
honour over all the world; he who is deprived thereof, though he sit upon
the dust, that dust would seek refuge with God, the Lo