Kitáb-i-Íqán | 132 |
This poverty and these riches, this abasement and glory, this dominion, power, and the like, upon which the eyes and hearts of these vain and foolish souls are set,--all these things fade into utter nothingness in that Court! Even as He hath said: "O men! Ye are but paupers in need of God; but God is the Rich, the Self-Sufficing." (1) By `riches' therefore is meant independence of all else but God, and by `poverty' the lack of things that are of God.
Similarly, call thou to mind the day when the
Jews, who had surrounded Jesus, Son of Mary,
were pressing Him to confess His claim of being
the Messiah and Prophet of God, so that they
might declare Him an infidel and sentence Him to
death. Then, they led Him away, He Who was
the Day-star of the heaven of divine Revelation,
unto Pilate and Caiaphas, who was the leading
divine of that age. The chief priests were all assembled
in the palace, also a multitude of people
who had gathered to witness His sufferings, to deride
and injure Him. Though they repeatedly questioned