| Kitáb-i-Íqán | 168 |
the Successorship conferred upon my father." He
then recounteth certain details, until he saith: "I
have fought one thousand battles in the path of
God, the least and most insignificant of which was
like the battle of Khaybar, in which battle my
father fought and contended against the infidels."
Endeavour now to apprehend from these two traditions
the mysteries of "end," "return," and "creation
without beginning or end."
O my beloved! Immeasurably exalted is the celestial Melody above the strivings of human ear to hear or mind to grasp its mystery! How can the helpless ant step into the court of the All-Glorious? And yet, feeble souls, through lack of understanding, reject these abstruse utterances, and question the truth of such traditions. Nay, none can comprehend them save those that are possessed of an understanding heart. Say, He is that End for Whom no end in all the universe can be imagined, and for Whom no beginning in the world of creation can be conceived. Behold, O concourse of the earth, the splendours of the End, revealed in the Manifestations of the Beginning!
How strange! These people with one hand cling
to those verses of the Qur'án and those traditions
