traversed the heavens of exposition and utterance.  Then the eternal Light of God shed its radiance, flared up in the midmost heart of the firmament of testimony and produced two Luminaries.  Glorified be the Merciful One, unto Whom no allusion can be made, Whom no expression can define, nor any assertion reveal, nor any evidence describe.  He is in truth the Ordainer, the All-Bountiful, both in the beginning and in the end.  And He provided for them protectors and defenders from among the hosts of power and might.  Verily, He is the Help in Peril, the Mighty, the Unconstrained.

The preamble of this Epistle is being revealed twice, even as was the Mathani(27)

Praise be unto God Who hath manifested the Point, hath unfolded therefrom the knowledge of all things, whether of the past or of the future—­a Point He hath chosen to be the Herald of His Name and the Harbinger of His Great Revelation which hath caused the limbs of all mankind to quake and the splendour of His light to shine forth above the horizon of the world.  Verily, this is the Point which God hath ordained to be an ocean of light for the sincere among His servants and a flame of fire to the froward amidst His creatures and the impious among His people—­they who bartered away the gift of God for unbelief, and the celestial food for hypocrisy, and led their associates to a wretched abode.  These are the people who have manifested sedition throughout the world and have violated His Covenant on the Day when the immortal Being mounted His throne and the Crier raised His Voice from the haven of security and peace in the holy Vale.

O followers of the Bayan!  Fear ye the All-Merciful.  This is the One Who hath been glorified by Muhammad, the Apostle of God, and before Him by the Spirit(28) and yet before Him by the One Who discoursed with God.(29) This is the Point of the Bayan calling aloud before the Throne, saying:  ’By the righteousness of God, ye have been created to glorify this Most Great Announcement, this Perfect Way which lay hid within the souls of the Prophets, which was treasured in the hearts of the chosen ones of God and was written down by the glorious Pen of your Lord, the Possessor of Names.’

Say:  Die in your wrath, O malicious ones!  Verily He Whose knowledge nothing escapeth hath appeared.  He Who hath caused the countenance of divine knowledge to be wreathed in smiles is come.  Through Him the kingdom of utterance is embellished, every receptive soul hath set his face towards the Lord of Revelations, everyone resting on his knees hath stood up, and every indolent one hath rushed forth to attain the Sinai of assurance.  This is the Day that God hath ordained to be a blessing unto the righteous, a retribution for the wicked, a bounty for the faithful and a fury of His wrath for the faithless and the froward.  Verily He hath been made manifest, invested by God with invincible sovereignty.  He hath revealed that wherewith naught on the earth or in the heavens can compare.