Shall a man’s wealth endure forever, or protect him from the
One Who shall, erelong, seize him by his forelock? Gazing upon those who sleep beneath the
gravestones, embosomed in the dust, could one ever distinguish the sovereign’s
crumbling skull from the subject’s mouldering bones? Nay, by Him Who is the King of kings! Could one discern the lord from the vassal,
or those that enjoyed wealth and riches from those who possessed neither shoes
nor mat? By God! Every distinction hath been erased, save only
for those who upheld the right and who ruled with justice.
- Baha'u'llah (Tablet
to Nasiri’d-Din Shah, Suriy-i-Haykal [Tablet of Temple]; ‘The Summons of the
Lord of Hosts’)
