O Muhammad! The Decree of thy Lord was fulfilled four years
ago; and ever since the inception of the Cause of thy Lord I have warned thee
to fear God and not to be of the ignorant. I dispatched a messenger unto thee
with a truly resplendent Tablet, but the followers of the devil turned him away
disdainfully and interposed themselves between him and thee. They expelled him
from the land whereof thou art the undisputed sovereign. Thus hath the good of
this world and of the next escaped thee, unless thou submit to the commandment
ordained by God and be of them that are rightly guided.
On My return from the sacred House of God [1] I sent thee a
Message similar to, nay even greater than the one I had previously sent unto
thee. Indeed God is the best protector and witness. I dispatched a messenger
unto thee with epistles revealed by Me, that thou mightest obey the command of
God and not be of them that have repudiated the Truth. The oppressor, however,
committed a thing the like of which no one would commit, not even any of the
wicked, nor anyone among the vile wrong-doers.…
- The Báb (From an epistle to
Muhammad Shah; ‘Selections from the Writings of the Báb)
[1] The Ka‘bih in Mecca