thine heart, thou wouldst
realize that His handiwork knoweth neither beginning nor end. The domain
of His decree is too vast for the tongue of mortals to describe, or for
the bird of the human mind to traverse; and the dispensations of His
providence are too mysterious for the mind of man to comprehend. His
creation no end hath overtaken, and it hath ever existed from the
"Beginning that hath no beginning"; and the Manifestations of His Beauty
no beginning hath beheld, and they will continue to the "End that knoweth
no end." Ponder this utterance in thine heart, and reflect how it is
applicable unto all these holy Souls.

Likewise, strive thou to comprehend the meaning of the melody of that
eternal beauty, Husayn, son of 'Ali, who, addressing Salman, spoke words
such as these: "I was with a thousand Adams, the interval between each and
the next Adam was fifty thousand years, and to each one of these I
declared the Successorship conferred upon my father." He then recounteth
certain details, until he saith: "I have fought one thousand battles in
the path of God, the least and most insignificant of which was like the
battle of _Kh_aybar, in which battle my father fought and contended
against the infidels." Endeavour now to apprehend from these two
traditions the mysteries of "end," "return," and "creation without
beginning or end."

O my beloved! Immeasurably exalted is the celestial Melody above the
strivings of human ear to hear or mind to grasp its mystery! How can the
helpless ant step into the court of the All-Glorious? And yet, feeble
souls, through lack of understanding, reject these abstruse utterances,
and question the truth of such traditions. Nay, none can comprehend them
save those that are possessed of an understanding heart. Say, He is that
End for Whom no end in all the universe can be imagined, and for Whom no
beginning in the world of creation can be conceived. Behold, O concourse
of the earth, the splendours of the End, revealed in the Manifestations of
the Beginning!

How strange! These people with one hand cling to those verses of the
Qur'an and those traditions of the people of certitude which they have
found to accord with their inclinations and interests, and with the other
reject those which are contrary to their selfish desires. "Believe ye then
part of the Book, and deny part?"(122) How could ye judge that which ye
understand not? Even as the Lord of being hath in His unerring Book, after
speak