d, are growing nobler and more glorious every day,
the deeper the dismay which ravageth their souls. In these days, praise be
to God, the power of His Word hath obtained such ascendancy over men, that
they dare breathe no word. Were they to encounter one of the companions of
God who, if he could, would, freely and joyously, offer up ten thousand
lives as a sacrifice for his Beloved, so great would be their fear, that
they forthwith would profess their faith in Him, whilst privily they would
vilify and execrate His name! Even as He hath revealed: "And when they
meet you, they say, 'We believe'; but when they are apart, they bite their
fingers' ends at you, out of wrath. Say: 'Die in your wrath!' God truly
knoweth the very recesses of your breasts."(61)

Ere long, thine eyes will behold the standards of divine power unfurled
throughout all regions, and the signs of His triumphant might and
sovereignty manifest in every land. As most of the divines have failed to
apprehend the meaning of these verses, and have not grasped the
significance of the Day of Resurrection, they therefore have foolishly
interpreted these verses according to their idle and faulty conception.
The one true God is My witness! Little perception is required to enable
them to gather from the symbolic language of these two verses all that We
have purposed to propound, and thus to attain, through the grace of the
All-Merciful, the resplendent morn of certitude. Such are the strains of
celestial melody which the immortal Bird of Heaven, warbling upon the
Sadrih of Baha, poureth out upon thee, that, by the permission of God,
thou mayest tread the path of divine knowledge and wisdom.

And now, concerning His words: "And He shall send His angels...." By
"angels" is meant those who, reinforced by the power of the spirit, have
consumed, with the fire of the love of God, all human traits and
limitations, and have clothed themselves with the attributes of the most
exalted Beings and of the Cherubim. That holy man, Sadiq,(62) in his
eulogy of the Cherubim, saith: "There stand a company of our
fellow-_Sh_i'ihs behind the Throne." Divers and manifold are the
interpretations of the words "behind the Throne." In one sense, they
indicate that no true _Sh_i'ihs exist. Even as he hath said in another
passage: "A true believer is likened unto the philosopher's stone."
Addressing subsequently his listener, he saith: "Hast thou ever seen the
philosopher's stone?" Reflect, ho