who, having amassed the vanities and
ornaments of the earth, have turned away disdainfully from God--these have
lost both this world and the world to come. Ere long, will God, with the
Hand of Power, strip them of their possessions, and divest them of the
robe of His bounty. To this they themselves shall soon witness. Thou, too,
shalt testify.

Say: O people! Let not this life and its deceits deceive you, for the
world and all that is therein is held firmly in the grasp of His Will. He
bestoweth His favor on whom He willeth, and from whom He willeth He taketh
it away. He doth whatsoever He chooseth. Had the world been of any worth
in His sight, He surely would never have allowed His enemies to possess
it, even to the extent of a grain of mustard seed. He hath, however,
caused you to be entangled with its affairs, in return for what your hands
have wrought in His Cause. This, indeed, is a chastisement which ye, of
your own will, have inflicted upon yourselves, could ye but perceive it.
Are ye rejoicing in the things which, according to the estimate of God,
are contemptible and worthless, things wherewith He proveth the hearts of
the doubtful?

CIV: O YE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD! KNOW, VERILY,...

O ye peoples of the world! Know, verily, that an unforeseen calamity is
following you, and that grievous retribution awaiteth you. Think not the
deeds ye have committed have been blotted from My sight. By My beauty! All
your doings hath My Pen graven with open characters upon tablets of
chrysolite.

CV: O KINGS OF THE EARTH! HE WHO IS THE SOVEREIGN...

O kings of the earth! He Who is the sovereign Lord of all is come. The
Kingdom is God's, the omnipotent Protector, the Self-Subsisting. Worship
none but God, and, with radiant hearts, lift up your faces unto your Lord,
the Lord of all names. This is a Revelation to which whatever ye possess
can never be compared, could ye but know it.

We see you rejoicing in that which ye have amassed for others and shutting
out yourselves from the worlds which naught except My guarded Tablet can
reckon. The treasures ye have laid up have drawn you far away from your
ultimate objective. This ill beseemeth you, could ye but understand it.
Wash your hearts from all earthly defilements, and hasten to enter the
Kingdom of your Lord, the Creator of earth and heaven, Who caused the
world to tremble and all its peoples to wail, except them that have
renounced all things and clung t