desires shall prevent them from attaining that Day
whereon the mountains shall be reduced to dust. Though they now rejoice in
the adversity that hath befallen Us, soon shall come a day whereon they
shall lament and weep. By My Lord! Were I given the choice between, on the
one hand, the wealth and opulence, the ease and comfort, the honour and
glory which they enjoy, and, on the other, the adversities and trials
which are Mine, I would unhesitatingly choose My present condition and
would refuse to barter a single atom of these hardships for all that hath
been created in the world of being.

273 But for the tribulations that have touched Me in the path of God, life
would have held no sweetness for Me, and Mine existence would have
profited Me nothing. For them who are endued with discernment, and whose
eyes are fixed upon the Sublime Vision, it is no secret that I have been,
most of the days of My life, even as a slave, sitting under a sword
hanging on a thread, knowing not whether it would fall soon or late upon
him. And yet, notwithstanding all this We render thanks unto God, the Lord
of the worlds, and yield Him praise at all times and under all conditions.
He, verily, standeth witness over all things.

274 We beseech God to extend wide His shadow, that the true believers may
hasten thereunto and that His sincere lovers may seek shelter therein. May
He bestow upon men blossoms from the bowers of His grace and stars from
the horizon of His providence. We pray God, moreover, to graciously aid
the King to do His will and pleasure, and to confirm him in that which
shall draw him nigh unto the Dayspring of God's most excellent names, so
that he may not give countenance to the injustice he witnesseth, may look
upon his subjects with the eye of loving-kindness, and shield them from
oppression. We further beseech God, exalted be He, to gather all mankind
around the Gulf of the Most Great Ocean, an ocean every drop of which
proclaimeth that He is the Harbinger of joy unto the world and the
Quickener of all its peoples. Praise be to God, the Lord of the Day of
Reckoning!

275 And finally We beseech God, exalted be His glory, to enable thee to
aid His Faith and turn towards His justice, that thou mayest judge between
the people even as thou wouldst judge between thine own kindred, and
mayest choose for them that which thou choosest for thine own self. He,
verily, is the All-Powerful, the Most Exalted, the Help in Peril, the
Sel