Say: O ye manifestations
of My Names! Should ye offer up all that ye possess, nay your very lives, in
the path of God, and invoke Him to the number of the grains of sand, the drops
of rain, and the waves of the sea, and yet oppose the Manifestation of His
Cause at the time of His appearance, your works shall in no wise be mentioned
before God. Should ye, however, neglect all righteous works and yet choose to
believe in Him in these days, God perchance will put away your sins. He, verily, is the All-Glorious, the Most
Bountiful. Thus doth the Lord inform you of His purpose, that haply ye may not
wax proud before the One through Whom whatsoever hath been revealed from all
eternity hath been confirmed. Happy is
he who approacheth this Most Sublime Vision, and woe to them that turn aside!
(Baha'u'llah, ‘Suriy-i-Haykal, ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
