40 We have forsaken our homes, O Lord, in our eagerness to meet Thee and in our longing to be united with Thee.  We have traversed land and sea to attain the court of Thy presence and to give ear to Thy verses.  When we arrived at the shores of the sea, however, we were held back from Thee, as the ungodly intervened between us and the light of Thy countenance.

41 O Lord!  Dire thirst hath seized us, and with Thee are the soft-flowing waters of eternal life.  Potent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee.  Deny us not the object of our quest.  Write down then for us the recompense decreed for such of Thy servants as enjoy near access to Thee and are wholly devoted to Thy will.  Make us so steadfast in Thy love that naught shall keep us back from Thee or deter us from Thine adoration.  Powerful art Thou to do Thy pleasure.  Thou, verily, art the Almighty, the Most Generous.

LAWH-I-RA’IS

He is in His own Right the Supreme Ruler!

1 The Pen of the Most High proclaimeth:  O thou who hast imagined thyself to be the most exalted of men(72) and who hast regarded as the lowliest of all creatures this divine Youth, through Whom the eyes of the Concourse on high have been illumined and made radiant!  This Youth hath sought nothing from thee or from such as are like unto thee, inasmuch as from time immemorial, whenever the Manifestations of the All-Merciful and the Exponents of His unfading glory have stepped out of the Realm of eternity into this mortal world and revealed themselves to revive the dead, men such as thee have considered these sanctified Souls and Temples of Divine Oneness, upon Whom must needs depend the rehabilitation of the peoples of the earth, to be stirrers of mischief and worthy of blame.  These men, verily, have all returned unto dust.  Thou, too, shalt erelong take abode therein and find thyself in grievous loss.

2 Even if this Lifegiver and World Reformer be in thine estimation guilty of sedition and strife, what crime could have been committed by a group of women, children, and suckling mothers that they should be thus afflicted with the scourge of thine anger and wrath?  No faith or religion hath ever held children responsible.  The Pen of divine Command hath exempted them, yet the fire of thy tyranny and oppression encompasseth all.  If thou bearest allegiance to any faith or religion, then thou shouldst know that, according to all the heavenly Books and all the divinely inspired and weighty Scriptures, children are not to be held accountable.  Aside from this, not even those who disbelieve in God have perpetrated such unseemly acts.  Since from every thing an effect becometh manifest, a fact that none can deny save those who are bereft of reason and understanding, it is certain that the sighs of these children and the cries of these wronged ones will have their due consequence.