Some Answered Questions
On The Influence Of The Prophets In The Evolution Of Humanity
“And when they shall have finished their testimony”1 means when they should have performed that which they are commanded, and should have delivered the divine message, promoting the Law of God and propagating the heavenly teachings, to the intent that the signs of spiritual life might be manifest in souls, and the light of the virtues of the world of humanity might shine forth, until complete development should be brought about among the nomad tribes.
“The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them”:
2 this beast means the
Umayyads who attacked them from the pit of error, and who rose against the religion of
Muḥammad and against the reality of
‘Alí—in other words, the love of God.
It is said, “The beast made war against these two witnesses”2—that is to say, a spiritual war, meaning that the beast would act in entire opposition to the teachings, customs and institutions of these two witnesses, to such an extent that the virtues and perfections which were diffused by the power of those two witnesses among the peoples and tribes would be entirely dispelled, and the animal nature and carnal desires would conquer. Therefore, this beast making war against them would gain the victory—meaning that the darkness of error coming from this beast was to have ascendency over the horizons of the world, and kill those two witnesses—in other words, that it would destroy the spiritual life which they spread abroad in the midst of the nation, and entirely remove the divine laws and teachings, treading under foot the Religion of God. Nothing would thereafter remain but a lifeless body without spirit.
“And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where
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