153 All feasts have attained their consummation in the two Most Great Festivals, and in two other Festivals that fall on the twin days—­the first of the Most Great Festivals being those days whereon God shed the effulgent glory of His most excellent Names upon all who are in heaven and on earth, and the second being that day on which We raised up the One Who announced unto the people the glad tidings of this Great Announcement.(19) Thus hath it been set down in the Book by Him Who is the Mighty, the Powerful.  On other than these four consummate days, engage ye in your daily occupations, and withhold yourselves not from the pursuit of your trades and crafts.  Thus hath the command been issued and the law gone forth from Him Who is your Lord, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

154 Say:  O concourse of priests and monks!  Eat ye of that which God hath made lawful unto you and do not shun meat.  God hath, as a token of His grace, granted you leave to partake thereof save during a brief period.  He, verily, is the Mighty, the Beneficent.  Forsake all that ye possess and hold fast unto that which God hath purposed.  This is that which profiteth you, if ye be of them that comprehend.  We have ordained a fast of nineteen days in the most temperate of the seasons, and have in this resplendent and luminous Dispensation relieved you from more than this.  Thus have We set forth and made clear unto you that which ye are bidden to observe, that ye may follow the commandments of God and be united in that which the Almighty, the All-Wise, hath appointed unto you.  He Who is your Lord, the All-Merciful, cherisheth in His heart the desire of beholding the entire human race as one soul and one body.  Haste ye to win your share of God’s good grace and mercy in this Day that eclipseth all other created Days.  How great the felicity that awaiteth the man that forsaketh all he hath in a desire to obtain the things of God!  Such a man, We testify, is among God’s blessed ones.

155 O King!  Bear thou witness unto that which God hath Himself and for Himself borne witness ere the creation of earth and heaven, that there is none other God but Me, the One, the Single, the Most Exalted, the Incomparable, the Inaccessible.  Arise with the utmost steadfastness in the Cause of thy Lord, the All-Glorious.  Thus hast thou been instructed in this wondrous Tablet.  We, verily, have desired naught for thee save that which is better for thee than all that is on earth.  Unto this testify all created things and beyond them this perspicuous Book.

156 Meditate on the world and the state of its people.  He, for Whose sake the world was called into being, hath been imprisoned in the most desolate of cities,(20) by reason of that which the hands of the wayward have wrought.  From the horizon of His prison-city He summoneth mankind unto the Dayspring of God, the Exalted, the Great.  Exultest thou over the treasures thou dost possess, knowing they shall perish?  Rejoicest