Were We to bring thee to a reckoning, thou wouldst prove
thyself empty-handed; We in truth know all things. Hadst thou uttered “yea” on
hearing the Words of God, thou wouldst have been seen to have been worshipping
God from the beginning that hath no beginning until the present day, never to
have disobeyed Him, not even for the twinkling of an eye. Yet, neither the
upright deeds thou hast wrought during all thy life, nor the exertions thou
didst make to banish every thought from thy heart save that of the good-pleasure
of God, none of these did in truth profit thee, not even to the extent of a
grain of mustard seed, inasmuch as thou didst veil thyself from God and tarried
behind at the time of His manifestation.
- The Báb (From a Tablet to a Muslim
cleric; ‘Selections from the Writings of the Báb)
