q, when Baghdad
served as the Seat of the Throne of thy Lord, the Exalted, the Mighty.

I bear witness that thou hast hearkened unto the melody of God and His
sweet accents, inclined thine ear to the cooing of the Dove of divine
Revelation and hast heard the Nightingale of fidelity pouring forth its
notes upon the Branch of Glory: Verily there is none other God but Me, the
Incomparable, the All-Informed.

O thou who bearest My Name! The glances of the loving-kindness of God have
been and continue to be directed towards thee. While in His presence, thou
hast heard the Voice of the One true God--exalted be His glory--and hast
beheld the unveiled splendour of the Light of divine knowledge. Ponder a
while! How sublime is the Utterance of Him Who is the Sovereign Truth and
how abject are the idle contentions of the people! The accumulations of
vain fancy have obstructed men's ears and stopped them from hearing the
Voice of God, and the veils of human learning and false imaginings have
prevented their eyes from beholding the splendour of the light of His
countenance. With the arm of might and power We have rescued a number of
souls from the slough of impending extinction and enabled them to attain
the Dayspring of glory. Moreover We have laid bare the divine mysteries
and in most explicit language foretold future events, that neither the
doubts of the faithless, nor the denials of the froward, nor the
whisperings of the heedless may keep back the seekers of truth from the
Source of the light of the One true God. Nevertheless some people seem to
have been seized with epilepsy, others are torn up even as hollow
tree-stumps. They abandon God, the Most Exalted--He before Whose revelation
of a single verse, all the Scriptures of the past and of more recent times
pale into lowliness and insignificance--and set their hearts on lying tales
and follow empty words.

Thou hast surely quaffed from the ocean of Mine utterance and hast
witnessed the effulgent splendour of the orb of My wisdom. Thou hast also
heard the sayings of the infidels who neither are acquainted with the
fundamentals of the Faith, nor have tasted this choice Wine whose seal
hath been broken through the power of My Name, the Help in Peril, the
Self-Subsisting. Beseech thou God that the believers who are endued with
true understanding may be graciously enabled to do that which is pleasing
unto Him.

How strange that despite this ringing Call, despite the appearance