the motive of the creation of beings as He hath said,—"[1]Were it not for thee, I would not have created the firmaments,"—and yet be afflicted by such trifling matters. For it is heard how every Prophet and his companions suffered adversities such as indigence, diseases and contempt; how the heads of their followers were sent as presents in the cities; how they were prevented from that whereunto they were commanded, and each of them suffered by the hand of the enemies of religion, to such an extent that the latter inflicted upon them whatever they desired.
It is evident that the changes and alterations effected during every Manifestation are the dark cloud which prevents the eye of the servants' knowledge from knowing that Divine Sun which shines forth from the Day-spring of Deity. When the servants who have continued for years to imitate the religion of their ancestors and who have been brought up in its established ceremonies and customs, suddenly find one who hath been among them, their equal in all the human limitations, abolishing those religious ordinances in which they have been trained for successive centuries and the contradictor and denier of which they consider as infidel, impious and profligate,—such circumstances naturally constitute a veil and cloud for those whose hearts have not tasted the Salsabile of Severance nor drunk from the Kawther of Knowledge. As soon as they hear these things, they
- ↑ Tradition, citing the words of God to Mohammed.
