established, which was
the foundation of the Law of God, and destroyed the virtues of the world
of humanity, which are the divine gifts and the spirit of this religion,
to such a degree that truthfulness, justice, love, union, purity,
sanctity, detachment and all the divine qualities departed from among
them. In the religion only prayers and fasting persisted; this condition
lasted for twelve hundred and sixty years, which is the duration of the
cycle of the Furqan.(50) It was as if these two persons were dead, and
their bodies were remaining without spirit.

"And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make
merry, and shall send gifts to one another, because these two prophets
tormented them that dwelt on the earth."(51) "Those who dwelt upon the
earth" means the other nations and races, such as the peoples of Europe
and distant Asia, who, when they saw that the character of Islam was
entirely changed, the Law of God forsaken--that virtues, zeal and honor had
departed from among them, and that their qualities were changed--became
happy, and rejoiced that corruption of morals had infected the people of
Islam, and that they would in consequence be overcome by other nations. So
this thing has come to pass. Witness this people which had attained the
summit of power, how degraded and downtrodden it is now.

The other nations "shall send gifts to one another," meaning that they
should help each other, for "these two prophets tormented them that dwelt
upon the earth"--that is, they overcame the other nations and peoples of
the world and conquered them.

"And after three days and a half the spirit of life from God entered into
them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that
saw them."(52) Three days and a half, as we before explained, is twelve
hundred and sixty years. Those two persons whose bodies were lying
spiritless are the teachings and the law that Muhammad established and
'Ali promoted, from which, however, the reality had departed and only the
form remained. The spirit came again into them means that those
foundations and teachings were again established. In other words, the
spirituality of the Religion of God had been changed into materiality, and
virtues into vices; the love of God had been changed into hatred,
enlightenment into darkness, divine qualities into satanic ones, justice
into tyranny, mercy into enmity, sincerity into hypocrisy, guidance into
error, and pur