"Pause for but a little while and reflect, O Minister, and be fair in thy judgment."

 

© 2022 Chuck Egerton

"Pause for but a little while and reflect, O Minister, and be fair in thy judgment. What is it that We have committed that could justify thee in having slandered Us unto the King’s Ministers, in following thy desires, in perverting the truth, and in uttering thy calumnies against Us? We have never met each other except when We met thee in thy father’s house, in the days when the martyrdom of Imám Ḥusayn was being commemorated. On those occasions no one could have the chance of making known to others his views and beliefs in conversation or in discourse. Thou wilt bear witness to the truth of My words, if thou be of the truthful. I have frequented no other gatherings in which thou couldst have learned My mind or in which any other could have done so. How, then, didst thou pronounce thy verdict against Me, when thou hadst not heard My testimony from Mine own lips? Hast thou not heard what God, exalted be His glory, hath said: “Say not to every one who meeteth you with a greeting, ‘Thou art not a believer’.” “Thrust not away those who cry to their Lord at morn and even, craving to behold His face.” Thou hast indeed forsaken what the Book of God hath prescribed, and yet thou deemest thyself to be a believer!"

(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXIII, 12)
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