Kitáb-i-Íqán | 29 |
As to the words--"Immediately after the oppression
of those days"--they refer to the time when
men shall become oppressed and afflicted, the time
when the lingering traces of the Sun of Truth and
the fruit of the Tree of knowledge and wisdom
will have vanished from the midst of men, when
the reins of mankind will have fallen into the grasp
of the foolish and ignorant, when the portals of
divine unity and understanding--the essential and
highest purpose in creation--will have been closed,
when certain knowledge will have given way to
idle fancy, and corruption will have usurped the
station of righteousness. Such a condition as this
is witnessed in this day when the reins of every
community have fallen into the grasp of foolish
leaders, who lead after their own whims and desire.
On their tongue the mention of God hath become
an empty name; in their midst His holy
Word a dead letter. Such is the sway of their desires,
that the lamp of conscience and reason hath
been quenched in their hearts, and this although the
fingers of divine power have unlocked the portals
of the knowledge of God, and the light of divine
knowledge and heavenly grace hath illumined and
inspired the essence of all created things, in such
wise that in each and every thing a door of knowledge