Say: If ye be seekers after this life and the vanities
thereof, ye should have sought them while ye were still enclosed in your
mothers’ wombs, for at that time ye were continually approaching them, could ye
but perceive it. Ye have, on the other hand, ever since ye were born and
attained maturity, been all the while receding from the world and drawing
closer to dust. Why, then, exhibit such greed in amassing the treasures of the
earth, when your days are numbered and your chance is well-nigh lost? Will ye
not, then, O heedless ones, shake off your slumber?
Incline your ears to the counsels which this Servant giveth
you for the sake of God. He, verily,
asketh no recompense from you and is resigned to what God hath ordained for
Him, and is entirely submissive to God’s Will.
- Baha’u’llah (Súriy-i-Mulúk
[Tablet to Kings], ‘Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
