Reflect, how the people have rejected the Beauty of God, and
have clung unto their covetous desires. Notwithstanding all these consummate
verses, these unmistakable allusions, which have been revealed in the “Most
weighty Revelation,” the Trust of God amongst men, and despite these evident
traditions, each more manifest than the most explicit utterance, the people
have ignored and repudiated their truth, and have held fast to the letter of
certain traditions which, according to their understanding, they have found
inconsistent with their expectations, and the meaning of which they have failed
to grasp. They have thus shattered every hope, and deprived themselves of the
pure wine of the All-Glorious, and the clear and incorruptible waters of the
immortal Beauty.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Kitab-i-Iqan’)
