stances as thou seest,
how can the Celestial Bird soar into the atmosphere of divine mysteries
when its wings have been battered with the stones of idle fancy and bitter
hatred, and it is cast into a prison built of unyielding stone? By the
righteousness of God! The people have perpetrated a grievous injustice.

As regards thine assertions about the beginning of creation, this is a
matter on which conceptions vary by reason of the divergences in men's
thoughts and opinions. Wert thou to assert that it hath ever existed and
shall continue to exist, it would be true; or wert thou to affirm the same
concept as is mentioned in the sacred Scriptures, no doubt would there be
about it, for it hath been revealed by God, the Lord of the worlds. Indeed
He was a hidden treasure. This is a station that can never be described
nor even alluded to. And in the station of 'I did wish to make Myself
known', God was, and His creation had ever existed beneath His shelter
from the beginning that hath no beginning, apart from its being preceded
by a Firstness which cannot be regarded as firstness and originated by a
Cause inscrutable even unto all men of learning.

That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form
thou seest today. The world of existence came into being through the heat
generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is
its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different. Thus doth
the Great Announcement inform thee about this glorious structure. Such as
communicate the generating influence and such as receive its impact are
indeed created through the irresistible Word of God which is the Cause of
the entire creation, while all else besides His Word are but the creatures
and the effects thereof. Verily thy Lord is the Expounder, the All-Wise.

Know thou, moreover, that the Word of God--exalted be His glory--is higher
and far superior to that which the senses can perceive, for it is
sanctified from any property or substance. It transcendeth the limitations
of known elements and is exalted above all the essential and recognized
substances. It became manifest without any syllable or sound and is none
but the Command of God which pervadeth all created things. It hath never
been withheld from the world of being. It is God's all-pervasive grace,
from which all grace doth emanate. It is an entity far removed above all
that hath been and shall be.

We are loath to enlarge on