97 Pause for but a little while and reflect, O Minister, and be fair in thy judgement.  What is it that We have committed that could justify thee in having slandered Us unto the King’s Ministers, in following thy desires, in perverting the truth, and in uttering thy calumnies against Us?  We have never met each other except when We met thee in thy father’s house, in the days when the martyrdom of Imam Husayn was being commemorated.  On those occasions no one could have had the chance of making known to others his views and beliefs in conversation or in discourse.  Thou wilt bear witness to the truth of My words, if thou be of the truthful.  I have frequented no other gatherings in which thou couldst have learned My mind or in which any other could have done so.  How, then, didst thou pronounce thy verdict against Me, when thou hadst not heard My testimony from Mine own lips?  Hast thou not heard what God, exalted be His glory, hath said:  “Say not to everyone who meeteth you with a greeting, ’Thou art not a believer’."(102) “Thrust not away those who cry to their Lord at morn and even, craving to behold His face."(103) Thou hast indeed forsaken what the Book of God hath prescribed, and yet thou deemest thyself to be a believer!

98 Despite what thou hast done I entertain—­and to this God is My witness—­no ill will against thee, nor against anyone, though from thee and others We receive such hurt as no believer in the unity of God can sustain.  My cause is in the hand of none except God, and My trust is in no one else but Him.  Erelong shall your days pass away, as shall pass away the days of those who now, with flagrant pride, vaunt themselves over their neighbour.  Soon shall ye be gathered together in the presence of God, and shall be asked of your doings, and shall be repaid for what your hands have wrought, and wretched is the abode of the wicked doers!

99 By God!  Wert thou to realize what thou hast done, thou wouldst surely weep sore over thyself, and wouldst flee for refuge to God, and wouldst pine away and mourn all the days of thy life, till God will have forgiven thee, for He, verily, is the Most Generous, the All-Bountiful.  Thou wilt, however, persist, till the hour of thy death, in thy heedlessness, inasmuch as thou hast, with all thine heart, thy soul and inmost being, busied thyself with the vanities of the world.  Thou shalt, after thy departure, discover what We have revealed unto thee, and shalt find all thy doings recorded in the Book wherein the works of all them that dwell on earth, be they greater or less than the weight of an atom, are noted down.  Heed, therefore, My counsel, and hearken thou, with the hearing of thine heart, unto My speech, and be not careless of My words, nor be of them that reject My truth.  Glory not in the things that have been given thee.  Set before thine eyes what hath been revealed in the Book of God, the Help in Peril, the All-Glorious:  “And when they had forgotten their warnings, We set open to them the gates of all things,” even as We did set open to thee and to thy like the gates of this earth and the ornaments thereof.  Wait thou, therefore, for what hath been promised in the latter part of this holy verse,(104) for this is a promise from Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Wise—­a promise that will not prove untrue.