More grievous became Our plight from day to day, nay, from
hour to hour, until they took Us forth from Our prison and made Us, with
glaring injustice, enter the Most Great Prison. And if anyone ask them: “For
what crime were they imprisoned?”, they would answer and say: “They, verily,
sought to supplant the Faith with a new religion!” If that which is ancient be
what ye prefer, wherefore, then, have ye discarded that which hath been set
down in the Torah and the Evangel? Clear it up, O men! By My life! There is no
place for you to flee to in this day. If this be My crime, then Muhammad, the
Apostle of God, committed it before Me, and before Him He Who was the Spirit of
God, and yet earlier He Who conversed with God. And if My sin be this, that I
have exalted the Word of God and revealed His Cause, then indeed am I the
greatest of sinners! Such a sin I will not barter for the kingdoms of earth and
heaven.
- Baha'u'llah (Tablet to Napoleon III, Suriy-i-Haykal [Tablet of
Temple]; ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
