, remaining firm in the
Religion of God. Then observe that which occurred after the storm and what
appeared subsequent to that severity, whereby the members trembled.

God changed the sorrow to joy, the destructive darkness of calamity into
the shining light from the Supreme Concourse. The people at the beginning
persecuted and reviled the believers in God and said of them: "These are
the people of aberration." Then, when their light appeared, their stars
shone and their lamps illuminated, the people returned into love and
affinity; they prayed to them, offered words of glory night and day and
remembered them in eulogy, reverence, honor and majesty.

Therefore, O ye beloved of God, be not grieved when people stand against
you, persecute you, afflict and trouble you and say all manner of evil
against you. The darkness will pass away and the light of the manifest
signs will appear, the veil will be withdrawn and the Light of Reality
will shine forth from the unseen Kingdom of El-Abha. This we inform you
before it occurs, so that when the hosts of people arise against you for
my love, be not disturbed or troubled; nay, rather, be firm as a mountain,
for this persecution and reviling of the people upon you is a pre-ordained
matter. Blessed is the soul who is firm in the path!

THE CENTER

The light hath a center and if one desire to seek it otherwise but from
the center, he can never attain to it. In this solar system the source of
light is the sun and every light is acquired from it; even the lamps of
the night are ignited through the sun, for if there were no sun the trees
would not grow nor the mines develop, so that the oil be extracted from
those trees and mines, and the lamps of the night be lit by it. Is it
possible that one attain to the light in this globular sphere without the
mediation of the sun? No, by the life of God! To suppose it, is pure
imagination. But the truth is this: The main source of the lights is the
sun and the rays are shed from it upon all the regions.

MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL EDUCATION

The republic of wise men believes that the difference in minds and
opinions is due to the difference of education and the acquisition of
ethics. That is, that minds are equal in origin, but education and the
acquisition of ethics cause minds to differ and comprehensions to be at
variance; that this difference is not in entity but in education and
teaching; that there is no individual distinctio