O brother, we should open our eyes, meditate upon His Word, and seek the sheltering shadow of the Manifestations of God, that perchance we may be warned by the unmistakable counsels of the Book, and give heed to the admonitions recorded in the holy Tablets; that we may not cavil at the Revealer of the verses, that we may resign ourselves wholly to His Cause, and embrace wholeheartedly His law, that haply we may enter the court of His mercy, and dwell upon the shore of His grace.  He, verily, is merciful, and forgiving towards His servants.

And likewise, He saith:  “Say, O people of the Book! do ye not disavow us only because we believe in God and in what He hath sent down to us, and in what He hath sent down aforetime, and because most of you are doers of ill?"(169) How explicitly doth this verse reveal Our purpose, and how clearly doth it demonstrate the truth of the testimony of the verses of God!  This verse was revealed at a time when Islam was assailed by the infidels, and its followers were accused of misbelief, when the Companions of Muhammad were denounced as repudiators of God and as followers of a lying sorcerer.  In its early days, when Islam was still to outward seeming devoid of authority and power, the friends of the Prophet, who had turned their face toward God, wherever they went, were harassed, persecuted, stoned and vilified.  At such a time this blessed verse was sent down from the heaven of divine Revelation.  It revealed an irrefutable evidence, and brought the light of an unfailing guidance.  It instructed the companions of Muhammad to declare the following unto the infidels and idolators:  “Ye oppress and persecute us, and yet, what else have we done except that we have believed in God and in the verses sent down unto us through the tongue of Muhammad, and in those which descended upon the Prophets of old?” By this is meant that their only guilt was to have recognized that the new and wondrous verses of God, which had descended upon Muhammad, as well as those which had been revealed unto the Prophets of old, were all of God, and to have acknowledged and embraced their truth.  This is the testimony which the divine King hath taught His servants.

In view of this, is it fair for this people to repudiate these newly-revealed verses which have encompassed both the East and the West, and to regard themselves as the upholders of true belief?  Should they not rather believe in Him Who hath revealed these verses?  Considering the testimony which He Himself hath established, how could He fail to account as true believers them that have testified to its truth?  Far be it from Him that He should turn away from the gates of His mercy them that have turned unto and embraced the truth of the divine verses, or that He should threaten those that have clung to His sure testimony!  He verily establisheth the truth through His verses, and confirmeth His Revelation by His words.  He verily is the Powerful, the Help in peril, the Almighty.