The Kitáb-i-Aqdas
Him victorious. These, truly, are of those who are steadfast.
165O concourse of divines! When My verses were sent down, and My clear tokens were revealed, We found you behind the veils. This, verily, is a strange thing. Ye glory in My Name, yet ye recognized Me not at the time your Lord, the All-Merciful, appeared amongst you with proof and testimony. We have rent the veils asunder. Beware lest ye shut out the people by yet another veil. Pluck asunder the chains of vain imaginings, in the name of the Lord of all men, and be not of the deceitful. Should ye turn unto God and embrace His Cause, spread not disorder within it, and measure not the Book of God with your selfish desires. This, verily, is the counsel of God aforetime and hereafter, and to this God’s witnesses and chosen ones, yea, each and every one of Us, do solemnly attest.
166Call ye to mind the Shaykh whose name was Muḥammad-Ḥasan, who ranked among the most learned divines of his day. When the True One was made manifest, this Shaykh, along with others of his calling, rejected Him, while a sifter of wheat and barley accepted Him and turned unto the Lord. Though he was occupied both night and day in setting down what he conceived to be the laws and ordinances of God, yet when He Who is the Unconstrained appeared, not one letter thereof availed him, or he would not have turned away from a Countenance that hath illumined the faces of the well-favoured of the Lord. Had ye believed in God when He revealed Himself, the people would not have turned aside from
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¶165 ¶166
Internal Related Cross-References
Paragraph 165.
Paragraph 166.
Study Guide
Paragraph 165.
How were the divines found?
Should the divines embrace the Cause what are they advised not to do?
Paragraph 166.
What would have happened if Shaykh Muḥammad-Ḥasan had believed in God when He revealed Himself?
(See Note 178)
Who was Shaykh Muhhammad-Ḥasan?
(See Note 179)
Who was the sifter of wheat and barley?