43 Beware that ye swell not with pride before God, and disdainfully reject His loved ones.  Defer ye humbly to the faithful, they that have believed in God and in His signs, whose hearts witness to His unity, whose tongues proclaim His oneness, and who speak not except by His leave.  Thus do We exhort you with justice, and warn you with truth, that perchance ye may be awakened.

44 Lay not on any soul a load which ye would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things ye would not desire for yourselves.  This is My best counsel unto you, did ye but observe it.

45 Respect ye the divines and learned amongst you, they whose conduct accords with their professions, who transgress not the bounds which God hath fixed, whose judgements are in conformity with His behests as revealed in His Book.  Know ye that they are the lamps of guidance unto them that are in the heavens and on the earth.  They who disregard and neglect the divines and learned that live amongst them—­these have truly changed the favour with which God hath favoured them.

46 Say:  Wait ye till God will have changed His favour unto you.  Nothing whatsoever escapeth Him.  He knoweth the secrets both of the heavens and of the earth.  His knowledge embraceth all things.  Rejoice not in what ye have done, or will do in the future, nor delight in the tribulation with which ye have afflicted Us, for ye are unable by such means as these to exalt your stations, were ye to examine your works with acute discernment.  Neither will ye be capable of detracting from the loftiness of Our state.  Nay, God will add unto the recompense with which He shall reward Us, for having sustained with persevering patience the tribulations We have suffered.  He, verily, shall increase the reward of them that endure with patience.

47 Know ye that trials and tribulations have, from time immemorial, been the lot of the chosen Ones of God and His beloved, and such of His servants as are detached from all else but Him, they whom neither merchandise nor traffic beguile from the remembrance of the Almighty, they that speak not till He hath spoken, and act according to His commandment.  Such is God’s method carried into effect of old, and such will it remain in the future.  Blessed are the steadfastly enduring, they that are patient under ills and hardships, who lament not over anything that befalleth them, and who tread the path of resignation.

48 That which hath befallen Us hath been witnessed before.  Ours is not the first goblet dashed to the ground in the lands of Islam, nor is this the first time that such schemers have intrigued against the beloved of the Lord.  The tribulations We have sustained are like unto the trials endured aforetime by Imam Husayn.  For he was approached by messengers from malicious and evil-hearted plotters, inviting him to come forth from the city; yet when he came unto them, accompanied by his kindred, they rose up against him with all their might, until at last they slew him, slaughtered his sons and his brothers, and took captive the remainder of his family.  So did it come to pass in an earlier age, and God, verily, is a witness unto My words.  Of his lineage there survived none, whether young or old, save his son ’Ali al-Awsat, known as Zaynu’l-’Abidin.