Hadst thou observed the contents of the Epistle We sent unto
thee, it would have been far more profitable to thee than worshipping thy Lord
from the beginning that hath no beginning until this day, and indeed more
meritorious than proving thyself wholly devoted in thine acts of worship. And
hadst thou attained the presence of thy Lord in this land, and been of them
that truly believe that the Face of God is beheld in the person of the Primal
Point, it would have been far more advantageous than prostrating thyself in
adoration from the beginning that hath no beginning until the present time.... (The
Báb, from a Tablet addressed to Sulayman, one of the Muslim divines in the land
of Masqat, ‘Selections from the Writings of the Báb')
