ng shall ye be gathered unto your fathers, and with
them shall ye dwell in hellish fire. An ill abode! the abode of the people
of tyranny."

In yet another passage He saith: "And when he becometh acquainted with any
of Our verses he turneth them to ridicule. There is a shameful punishment
for them!"(158) The people derisively observed saying: "Work thou another
miracle, and give us another sign!" One would say: "Make now a part of the
heaven to fall down upon us";(159) and another: "If this be the very truth
from before Thee, rain down stones upon us from heaven."(160) Even as the
people of Israel, in the time of Moses, bartered away the bread of heaven
for the sordid things of the earth, these people, likewise, sought to
exchange the divinely-revealed verses for their foul, their vile, and idle
desires. In like manner, thou beholdest in this day that although
spiritual sustenance hath descended from the heaven of divine mercy, and
been showered from the clouds of His loving kindness, and although the
seas of life, at the behest of the Lord of all being, are surging within
the Ridvan of the heart, yet these people, ravenous as the dogs, have
gathered around carrion, and contented themselves with the stagnant waters
of a briny lake. Gracious God! how strange the way of this people! They
clamour for guidance, although the standards of Him Who guideth all things
are already hoisted. They cleave to the obscure intricacies of knowledge,
when He, Who is the Object of all knowledge, shineth as the sun. They see
the sun with their own eyes, and yet question that brilliant Orb as to the
proof of its light. They behold the vernal showers descending upon them,
and yet seek an evidence of that bounty. The proof of the sun is the light
thereof, which shineth and envelopeth all things. The evidence of the
shower is the bounty thereof, which reneweth and investeth the world with
the mantle of life. Yea, the blind can perceive naught from the sun except
its heat, and the arid soil hath no share of the showers of mercy. "Marvel
not if in the Qur'an the unbeliever perceiveth naught but the trace of
letters, for in the sun, the blind findeth naught but heat."

In another passage He saith: "And when Our clear verses are recited to
them, their only argument is to say, 'Bring back our fathers, if ye speak
the truth!'"(161) Behold, what foolish evidences they sought from these
Embodiments of an all-encompassing mercy! They scoffed at the verse