John, son of Zacharias, [John the Baptist] said what My
Forerunner [the Báb] hath said: “Saying, repent ye, for the Kingdom of heaven
is at hand. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He [Jesus]
that cometh after Me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.”
Wherefore, hath My Forerunner [the Báb], as a sign of submissiveness and
humility, said: “The whole of the Bayán is only a leaf amongst the leaves of
His Paradise.” And likewise, He saith: “I am the first to adore Him, and pride
Myself on My kinship with Him.” And yet, O men, the people of the Bayán have
acted in such a manner… This Wronged One hath, in the face of all religions,
busied Himself day and night with the things that are conducive unto the
exaltation of the Cause of God, whereas those men have clung unto that which is
the cause of humiliation and injury.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Epistle to the Son of the
Wolf’)
