deriding Him. Among you is he who saith: “He drinketh tea!”, while another complaineth: “He partaketh of food!” Yet another doth object to His apparel, though every thread thereof testifieth that there is none other God but Him and that He is the Object of the adoration of all who are nigh unto God. I bear witness that at times the
Ancient Beauty was in want of even a change of garments. Thus testifieth the Tongue of truth and knowledge. Many a night was He unable to provide sustenance for His kindred, yet He concealed His plight to safeguard the honour of God’s mighty and unassailable Cause, and this notwithstanding that all things were created for His sake and that the key to the treasure-houses of earth and heaven is in His grasp.
14Woe betide you for your shamelessness, O
people of the Bayán! God is My witness! I am abashed at your deeds and I disavow you, O assemblage of evil ones! Alas for the sufferings He hath endured at your hands. Alas for what hath befallen Him and doth continue to afflict Him at every moment. O people! Judge with fairness and reflect for but a moment: If ye remain blinded by such veils, then to what end did I reveal Myself and what fruit did My
Revelation bear, O concourse of hypocrites? God hath called Me forth to rend asunder the veils and to purify your hearts in anticipation of this Revelation. Yet ye have committed that which caused My tears and the tears of the holy ones to flow. The faces of the former generations blanch at your doings, for ye are more veiled than they, and more heedless than the followers of the
Torah, the
Evangel, or any other Book.