it hath been said:  “To seek evidence, when the Proof hath been established is but an unseemly act, and to be busied with the pursuit of knowledge when the Object of all learning hath been attained is truly blameworthy.”  Say O people of the earth!  Behold this flamelike Youth that speedeth across the limitless profound of the Spirit, heralding unto you the tidings:  “Lo:  the Lamp of God is shining,” and summoning you to heed His Cause which, though hidden beneath the veils of ancient splendour, shineth in the land of ’Iraq above the day-spring of eternal holiness.

O my friend, were the bird of thy mind to explore the heavens of the Revelation of the Qur’an, were it to contemplate the realm of divine knowledge unfolded therein, thou wouldst assuredly find unnumbered doors of knowledge set open before thee.  Thou wouldst certainly recognize that all these things which have in this day hindered this people from attaining the shores of the ocean of eternal grace, the same things in the Muhammadan Dispensation prevented the people of that age from recognizing that divine Luminary, and from testifying to His truth.  Thou wilt also apprehend the mysteries of “return” and “revelation,” and wilt securely abide within the loftiest chambers of certitude and assurance.

And it came to pass that on a certain day a number of the opponents of that peerless Beauty, those that had strayed far from God’s imperishable Sanctuary, scornfully spoke these words unto Muhammad:  “Verily, God hath entered into a covenant with us that we are not to credit an apostle until he present us a sacrifice which fire out of heaven shall devour."(112) The purport of this verse is that God hath covenanted with them that they should not believe in any messenger unless he work the miracle of Abel and Cain, that is, offer a sacrifice, and the fire from heaven consume it; even as they had heard it recounted in the story of Abel, which story is recorded in the scriptures.  To this, Muhammad, answering, said:  “Already have Apostles before me come to you with sure testimonies, and with that of which ye speak.  Wherefore slew ye them?  Tell me, if ye are men of truth."(113) And now, be fair; How could those people living in the days of Muhammad have existed, thousands of years before, in the age of Adam or other Prophets?  Why should Muhammad, that Essence of truthfulness, have charged the people of His day with the murder of Abel or other Prophets?  Thou hast none other alternative except to regard Muhammad as an impostor or a fool—­which God forbid!—­or to maintain that those people of wickedness were the self-same people who in every age opposed and caviled at the Prophets and Messengers of God, till they finally caused them all to suffer martyrdom.

Ponder this in thine heart, that the sweet gales of divine knowledge, blowing from the meads of mercy, may waft upon thee the fragrance of the Beloved’s utterance, and cause thy soul to attain the Ridvan of understanding.  As the wayward of every age have failed to fathom the deeper import of these weighty and pregnant utterances, and imagined the answer of the Prophets of God to be irrelevant to the questions they asked them, they therefore have attributed ignorance and folly to those Essences of knowledge and understanding.