Pause for but a little while and reflect, O Minister, [1]
and be fair in thy judgment. What is it that We have committed that could
justify thee in having slandered Us unto the King’s Ministers, in following thy
desires, in perverting the truth, and in uttering thy calumnies against Us? We
have never met each other except when We met thee in thy father’s house, in the
days when the martyrdom of Imám Ḥusayn was being commemorated. On those
occasions no one could have the chance of making known to others his views and
beliefs in conversation or in discourse. Thou wilt bear witness to the truth of
My words, if thou be of the truthful. I have frequented no other gatherings in
which thou couldst have learned My mind or in which any other could have done
so. How, then, didst thou pronounce thy verdict against Me, when thou hadst not
heard My testimony from Mine own lips? Hast thou not heard what God, exalted be
His glory, hath said: “Say not to every one who meeteth you with a greeting,
‘Thou art not a believer’.” “Thrust not away those who cry to their Lord at
morn and even, craving to behold His face.” Thou hast indeed forsaken what the
Book of God hath prescribed, and yet thou deemest thyself to be a believer!
- Baha’u’llah (From a Tablet to a Minister of the Shah; ‘Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
[1] a Minister of the Shah
