110 Methinks ye have clung to outward things, and forgotten the inner
things, and say that which ye do not. Ye are lovers of names, and appear
to have given yourselves up to them. For this reason make ye mention of
the names of your leaders. And should anyone like them, or superior unto
them, come unto you, ye would flee him. Through their names ye have
exalted yourselves, and have secured your positions, and live and prosper.
And were your leaders to reappear, ye would not renounce your leadership,
nor would ye turn in their direction, nor set your faces towards them.
111 We found you, as We found most men, worshipping names which they
mention during the days of their life, and with which they occupy
themselves. No sooner do the Bearers of these names appear, however, than
they repudiate them, and turn upon their heels. Thus have We found you,
and thus have We reckoned up your actions and borne witness to all your
doings in this day. Know ye that God will not, in this day, accept your
thoughts, nor your remembrance of Him, nor your turning towards Him, nor
your devotions, nor your vigilance, unless ye be made new in the
estimation of this Servant, could ye but perceive it.
112 By God! The Tree of vicegerency hath been planted, the Point of
knowledge hath been made plain, and the sovereignty of God, the Help in
Peril, the Self-Subsisting, hath been established. Fear ye the Lord.
Follow not the promptings of your evil desires, but keep the law of God
all your days. Renew the rules of the ways ye follow, that ye may be led
by the light of guidance and may hasten in the path of the True One.
113 O ye wise men of the City and philosophers of the world! Beware lest
human learning and wisdom cause you to wax proud before God, the Help in
Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Know ye that true wisdom is to fear God, to
know Him, and to recognize His Manifestations. This wisdom, however, can
be attained only by those who detach themselves from the world, and who
walk in the ways of the good pleasure of their Lord. Are ye possessed of
greater wisdom than the one who contrived a moon which would rise from one
well and set in another, and whose light was visible at a distance of
three leagues?(109) God, verily, blotted out every trace of his works and
returned him unto dust, as ye have already heard or are now informed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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