And likewise, He saith: “Say, O people of the Book! do ye
not disavow us only because we believe in God and in what He hath sent down to
us, and in what He hath sent down aforetime, and because most of you are doers
of ill?” [Qur’án 5:62] How explicitly doth this verse reveal Our purpose, and
how clearly doth it demonstrate the truth of the testimony of the verses of
God! This verse was revealed at a time when Islám was assailed by the infidels,
and its followers were accused of misbelief, when the Companions of Muhammad
were denounced as repudiators of God and as followers of a lying sorcerer. In
its early days, when Islám was still to outward seeming devoid of authority and
power, the friends of the Prophet, who had turned their face toward God,
wherever they went, were harassed, persecuted, stoned and vilified. At such a
time this blessed verse was sent down from the heaven of divine Revelation.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Kitab-i-Iqan’)
