18 Our call concerneth not this Youth and the loved ones of God, for they are already sore-tried and imprisoned and expect nothing from men such as thee.  Our purpose is that thou mayest lift up thy head from the couch of heedlessness, shake off the slumber of negligence, and cease to oppose unjustly the servants of God.  So long as thy power and ascendancy endure, strive to alleviate the suffering of the oppressed.  Shouldst thou judge with fairness and observe with the eye of discernment the conflicts and pursuits of this transient world, thou wouldst readily acknowledge that they are even as the play which We have described.

19 Hearken unto the words of the one true God and pride thyself not in the things of this world.  What hath become of those like unto thee who falsely claimed lordship on earth, who sought to quench the light of God in His land and to destroy the foundation of His mighty edifice in His cities?  Where are they to be seen now?  Be fair in thy judgement and return unto God, that perchance He might cancel the trespasses of thy vain life.  Alas, We know that thou shalt never attain unto this, for such is thy cruelty that it hath made hell to blaze and the Spirit to lament, and hath caused the pillars of the Throne to shake and the hearts of the faithful to tremble.

20 O peoples of the earth!  Incline your inner ears to the call of this Wronged One and pause to reflect upon the story that We have recounted.  Perchance ye may not be consumed by the fire of self and passion, nor allow the vain and worthless objects of this nether world to withhold you from Him Who is the Eternal Truth.  Glory and abasement, riches and poverty, tranquillity and tribulation, all will pass away, and all the peoples of the earth will erelong be laid to rest in their tombs.  It behoveth therefore every man of insight to fix his gaze upon the goal of eternity, that perchance by the grace of Him Who is the Ancient King he may attain unto the immortal Kingdom and abide beneath the shade of the Tree of His Revelation.

21 Though this world be fraught with deception and deceit, yet it continually warneth all men of their impending extinction.  The death of the father proclaimeth to the son that he, too, shall pass away.  Would that the inhabitants of the world who have amassed riches for themselves and have strayed far from the True One might know who will eventually lay hand on their treasures; but, by the life of Baha, no one knoweth this save God, exalted be His glory.

22 The poet Sana’i, may God’s mercy rest upon him, hath said:  “Take heed, O ye whose unseemly conduct hath darkened your faces!  Take heed, O ye whose beards have been whitened by age!” Alas, most of the people are fast asleep.  They are even as the man who, in his drunkenness, became attracted to a dog, took it in his embrace, and made it his plaything, and who, when the morn of discernment dawned and the light of the sun enveloped the horizon, realized that the object of his affection was but a dog.  Then, filled with shame and remorse, he repaired to his abode.