interpreted the Word of God, and the sayings and traditions of the Letters of Unity, and expounded them according to their own deficient understanding, they have therefore deprived themselves and all their people of the bountiful showers of the grace and mercies of God.  And yet they bear witness to this well-known tradition:  “Verily Our Word is abstruse, bewilderingly abstruse.”  In another instance, it is said:  “Our Cause is sorely trying, highly perplexing; none can bear it except a favorite of heaven, or an inspired Prophet, or he whose faith God hath tested.”  These leaders of religion admit that none of these three specified conditions is applicable to them.  The first two conditions are manifestly beyond their reach; as to the third, it is evident that at no time have they been proof against those tests that have been sent by God, and that when the divine Touchstone appeared, they have shown themselves to be naught but dross.

Great God!  Notwithstanding their acceptance of the truth of this tradition, these divines who are still doubtful of, and dispute about, the theological obscurities of their faith, yet claim to be the exponents of the subtleties of the law of God, and the expounders of the essential mysteries of His holy Word.  They confidently assert that such traditions as indicate the advent of the expected Qa’im have not yet been fulfilled, whilst they themselves have failed to inhale the fragrance of the meaning of these traditions, and are still oblivious of the fact that all the signs foretold have come to pass, that the way of God’s holy Cause hath been revealed, and the concourse of the faithful, swift as lightning, are, even now, passing upon that way, whilst these foolish divines wait expecting to witness the signs foretold.  Say, O ye foolish ones!  Wait ye even as those before you are waiting!

Were they to be questioned concerning those signs that must needs herald the revelation and rise of the sun of the Muhammadan Dispensation, to which We have already referred, none of which have been literally fulfilled, and were it to be said to them:  “Wherefore have ye rejected the claims advanced by Christians and the peoples of other faiths and regard them as infidels,” knowing not what answer to give, they will reply:  “These Books have been corrupted and are not, and never have been, of God.”  Reflect:  the words of the verses themselves eloquently testify to the truth that they are of God.  A similar verse hath been also revealed in the Qur’an, were ye of them that comprehend.  Verily I say, throughout all this period they have utterly failed to comprehend what is meant by corrupting the text.