The Kitáb-i-Íqán : The Book of Certitude
Part One
wisheth, let him turn away. God, verily, is independent of him and of that which he may see and witness.
24These are the melodies, sung by Jesus, Son of Mary, in accents of majestic power in the Riḍván of the Gospel, revealing those signs that must needs herald the advent of the Manifestation after Him. In the first Gospel according to Matthew it is recorded: And when they asked Jesus concerning the signs of His coming, He said unto them: “Immediately after the oppression19 of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the earth shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet.”.20 Rendered into the Persian tongue,21 the purport of these words is as follows: When the oppression and afflictions
19 The Greek word used (Thlipsis) has two meanings: pressure and oppression.
20 Matthew 24:29–31.
21 The passage is quoted by Bahá’u’lláh in Arabic and interpreted in Persian.
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