False claims to religious authority: discernment and humility

And in the days when ye cannot behold the Proof and cannot take from Him directly, ye must act according to what God hath revealed in the Book and turn unto those who know the Book of God and who are sincere in His Faith - not those who say "We are learned," but those who say "We are servants of God who follow what God hath revealed in the Book, and we are assured of His signs."

This blessed word hath shone forth from the dayspring of the heaven of utterance, written to one of the loved ones - exalted be His utterance: "Believe not every speaker, trust not in every newcomer, enter not every house, and hearken not unto every claimant." For it hath been observed and continues to be observed that the liar adorns himself in the garment of truthfulness, and the one who turneth away displayeth himself in the robe of the one who advanceth.

Among other things, a letter arrived from there, with neither seal nor name to identify its author or sender, yet containing certain false and fabricated statements. It is clear that Satan suggested these, and that unknown forger wrote them at his prompting. The writer himself knows this is false, and you know it too, yet you have accepted it as truth and wish through conjecture and fancy to attribute the right of Him Who possesses all rights to another.

The writings of such fraudulent souls serve as their own exposure, and every person of understanding and insight perceives the degrees thereof. And when this detailed account was presented before the Most Holy Court, the Tongue of Grandeur spoke these words: "Souls who have been nourished by the fruits of the Supreme Pen behold themselves free from vain imaginings, confused dreams and fancies, and are so steadfast in the Cause that all the books of the world cannot turn them away from the Ancient Beauty, much less such delirious utterances."

There are some who are observed to be occupied with the mention of God and are speaking and remembering His praise to the utmost possible degree, yet they make that very mention and praise a snare for people. After they have captured the hearts of the weak, they cling to certain divine verses, both Persian and Arabic, that have been sent down from the heaven of God's Will, interpreting these verses according to their own desires and thereby establishing a station for themselves, becoming the cause of people's deviation and discord.

How many are the servants who utter words and claim for themselves that which God hath not permitted them. … Even as ye have heard from most cities the cry of one who hath claimed divine revelation and wrongfully taken people's [wealth].

Today every falsifier layeth claim to truth, and every transgressor adorneth himself with the vesture of piety. World-consuming is the fire of the ignorant one who decketh himself with the ornament of knowledge.

O ye beloved of God! Highway robbers are many and hypocrites are innumerable. The wolves clothe themselves with the shepherd's garment and thieves show themselves in the form of watchmen.

How many a servant, O my God, do we see who claims association with Thee yet speaks that which would rend the veil of Thy glory before Thy creatures, supposing himself to be of those who are righteous in Thy days. Nay, by Thy glory! Rather he hath corrupted Thy Cause and spoken that which hath caused the hearts of the sincere ones among Thy chosen ones and the near ones among Thy loved ones to burn with grief.

Otherwise, in days of glory when the breezes of divine power are passing by, all have claimed and will claim to love the Beauty of the All-Glorious. But that claim depends upon another test, for it is not known whether the cause was outward circumstances or the Divine Spirit itself.

This is the intensity of emphasis and extreme encouragement so that no one would make the excuse that such-and-such an individual is a manifest mirror, or such-and-such a soul is the embodied sign, or such-and-such a being is the personified standard, and since they did not believe, therefore we too are compelled to deny and forced to show pride.

Whoso layeth claim to a Revelation direct from God, ere the expiration of a full thousand years, such a man is assuredly a lying impostor. We pray God that He may graciously assist him to retract and repudiate such claim. Should he repent, God will, no doubt, forgive him. If, however, he persisteth in his error, God will, assuredly, send down one who will deal mercilessly with him. Terrible, indeed, is God in punishing! Whosoever interpreteth this verse otherwise than its obvious meaning is deprived of the Spirit of God and of His mercy which encompasseth all created things.

Even now the Ancient Pen and the Most Great Name declares: if any soul should appear with all the verses before the completion of a full thousand years - each year comprising twelve months according to what was revealed in the Qur'an, or nineteen months according to what was revealed in the Bayan where each month consists of nineteen days - you must never acknowledge him.

As the Pen of the Ancient of Days and the Most Great Name now declares: should anyone appear with all the signs before the completion of a full thousand years - each year comprising twelve months according to what was revealed in the Furqan, and nineteen months according to what was revealed in the Bayan, with each month being nineteen days - you must never believe them.

Before the passing of a thousand years, any claim is forbidden, and whosoever maketh such a claim is, in the sight of God, rejected and unacceptable.

Even as in these days an unknown person in one of the cities of God laid claim, and some heedless ones were attracted, until they recognized and returned unto God and were numbered among the penitent. If it were decreed that every day a Manifestation should appear, the Cause of God would never become established.

Whosoever claims this most mighty, most great, and most precious station before the completion of a thousand years hath indeed fabricated a lie against God and is of the mischief-makers, for thereby the Cause of God would be corrupted and His command would not be established among His believing servants."

And think not that Revelation is such that any soul may, whenever it pleaseth, manifest itself in any day or hour. The wondrous Revelation was specifically reserved for the Primal Point, exalted be His grandeur, and "whoso associateth any partner with Him hath verily disbelieved in God and His signs and His Messengers and His chosen ones, and hath been recorded among the idolators in the Tablets by the Pen of Glory."

O Dhabih! The Tongue of Grandeur proclaims: By My Self, the Truth! All Revelations have ended with this Most Great Revelation, and whoever claims after it is indeed a lying impostor. We beseech God to guide him to recant; if he repents, He is verily the Forgiver, and if he persists in what he claims, He will send against him one who will show no mercy.

Know thou moreover that whosoever layeth claim to a Cause, he is a lying impostor. My Most Holy Book, which hath been sent down from My holy Kingdom as a favor unto the righteous, beareth witness unto this.

Should anyone come with all the books in the world and speak other than what God hath willed, he is recorded as one of the people of the fire in God's Book and inscribed by the Most Exalted Pen.

Of knowledge they have neither seen nor heard save a few limited words. They have taken fancy for certainty and the idol for the Eternal.

They who claim knowledge without clear proof from Our presence - these are the companions of hellfire.

Those servants who were heedless and unaware of the origin of the Cause and its foundation are now occupied with leading souls astray. Fie upon them and upon those who follow them without any clear proof or Book!

Say: Believe not every speaker, neither be assured by all that is revealed, nor hearken unto every claimant, nor associate with every heedless doubter.

Whosoever claimeth for himself a station, he is a liar and calumniator in the Book of God, and will continue to be.

Any soul who today maketh a claim or pretendeth to inner knowledge, he is Satan to the true party.

Regarding the matter that a believer might attain a superior understanding of realities and meanings that a learned one cannot bear to hear, and that the most special might have perceptions that the special would deny due to being veiled - such whispers come from those who wish to create a breach in God's religion, using the tradition "If Abu Dharr knew what was in Salman's heart, he would declare Salman an unbeliever" as a means. However, this tradition has a different meaning and has no connection to the fundamental beliefs of God's religion nor relation to God's Law. The reality of God's religion is one reality; at most, the difference lies in brevity and detail, in imitation and investigation.

When the Hour came to pass and the Evidence appeared and the All-Merciful came with clear proof, among the people were those who turned towards Him and those who turned away. He who turned away is verily among the people of the coffin in a hidden tablet.

And among them was he who said "I have a sealed book," and thereby turned away from God, the Almighty, the Mighty, the Beloved.

Say: O friends! Ponder ye: those servants who summon the people to the dawning-place of vain imaginings are, by the life of God, neither aware nor conscious.

Among the people are those who worship their own desires and imagine they worship their Ancient Lord, and among them are those who cling to a name from among the names while turning away from Him Who is named. By My life, they are all in manifest error.

Avoid those who have taken their vain imaginings as lords beside God. They are indeed worshippers of idols, though they perceive it not.

Among them is he who hath laid claim to divine authority of his own accord and hath objected to Him Whom they call upon morning and evening.

Some souls attribute themselves to the Truth while they follow the desires of self and passion. I am quit of them, as every fair-minded and discerning one doth testify.

The corrupted ones are they who have usurped the station of Truth in the name of Truth.

They call upon God with their tongues, yet when He commandeth them with what their souls desire not, they return to their place in the depths of hell. They visit the House yet object to Him Who built it in His Name. Thus do their desires move them.

Despite this, some inexperienced and foolish ones wish through flattery and sweetness of speech to divert souls from the straight path and leave them wandering lost in the desert of vain imaginings.

The firefly hath laid claim to the station of the sun. We testify that it is among the liars.

At times, they even accuse this servant of claiming Divinity and assert this allegation to be the basis of their hostility, whereas 'Abdu'l-Baha would never barter servitude at the Sacred Threshold for the sovereignty of both worlds; indeed, the dust of that Sacred Threshold is his refulgent diadem. But the Slanderer, in a document that is still extant, written in his own hand and bearing his own seal, hath proclaimed himself to be the Sun of Truth and laid claim to a revelation greater than that of the Blessed Beauty.

For many have made claims of divinity and lordship - His Holiness Quddus, may my spirit be sacrificed for him, revealed a book on the interpretation of Samad where from beginning to end it is "I am God", and the honorable Tahirih raised "I am God" to the highest heavens in Badasht, and likewise some loved ones in Badasht, and the Blessed Beauty in the Qasidiy-i-Varqa'iyyih states: "All divinities became divine from a sprinkling of my command, and all lords became lordly from an overflow of my wisdom."

Some have said that He hath claimed divinity. Say: I lament at this, for He Who came with the truth hath informed creation that everything proclaimeth, "There is none other God but Me, the Forgiving, the Generous."

Certain prayers and words that have flowed from my tongue do not indicate any Cause, and whoever claims specific deputyship of the Proof of God, peace be upon Him, is a false pretender. This servant hath made no such claim, nor any other claim.

Haji Mohammed Karaim Khan was a man of great influence in Persia and denied the Bab and Baha'u'llah and worked against them, writing many books, attempting at refutation and leaving no means of hate and animosity unused. His son also wrote treatises contradicting and denying the appearance of the Bab and the validity of the Manifestation.

The Theosophists are educating a boy in the schools of Europe and say that he will become the promised one of all nations. How ignorant this is! God must select the Promised One, not men.

Rather, they expect that a young Indian [Krishnamurti], who at present is being groomed in Europe, will be the source of such a prodigious cause.

If Kheiruillah claims that one of the communes is written by him, do not be astonished at this. For there is an ignorant uneducated man in the United States, nay in Chicago itself who has written a pamphlet and after printing it he is circulating it abroad.

Consider carefully how during the Islamic Dispensation many vainglorious men appeared who claimed the station of Divinity! What did they gain? There was a man by the name of Bayazeed who said:- 'There is no God, beside, therefore, worship me.' Again he said: 'Under my garment there is naught else save God.' Mansour Hallaj appeared and cried out:- 'I am the True One.' Every one of these leading Sufis claimed the station of Divinity, either in private or in public.

Those persons who say in the days of concealment and interval that God is manifest in human form and that 'He always shows Himself in different forms like an artful beloved' are the sources of difference in the Cause and create discord among the people. All these evasive statements of theirs are mere pretensions. Their only object is to get themselves known as persons in whom divine signs are centered.

Beyond this, they even display miraculous powers, saying that soon such and such will happen. It is like someone placing gunpowder under a house and saying "Observe that soon this building will be blown away, and I am giving news of the unseen" - and then setting it on fire.

God is witness and beareth testimony that My brother was powerless to comprehend that which was sent down from God, how much less, then, that such exalted words as these should proceed from him. Thus hath the Tongue of Grandeur spoken while walking within the palace which God hath made the seat of His mighty Throne and His exalted Seat.

In all ages there have been such false souls, as attested by the Books of God from before and after.

In any case, in these days His good-pleasure is beloved, and all are captive in the grip of power. There is no escape for anyone. Do not regard the Cause of God as something trivial wherein anyone might express their fancy. Now several persons from various quarters have made this same claim. Soon you shall witness that the Tree of Independence shall endure forever through its own glorious and beauteous Sovereign, while all these others shall perish and vanish, nay rather, become as nothing remembered, as scattered dust.

As soon as a measure of security was established in the land, certain ignorant ones in every city laid claim to divinity. Thus from the year of the rising of the Most Great Light from the horizon of Iraq until now, numerous souls have abandoned piety and raised the standards of wickedness and rebellion, and these souls have caused upheaval and revolution in the lands. Soon you will witness that again from every land a calf will raise its call.

Nevertheless, certain souls speak vain words which are but the dregs of the worthless utterances of the dervishes of old, and they glory therein. I swear by the Sun of the horizon of divine unity that such souls have never understood unity, nor have they inhaled the fragrance of the utterance of the All-Merciful.

Reflect upon those deceitful, treacherous souls who appeared among the people in the name of truthfulness, trustworthiness, detachment and piety, that ye may be preserved from the terror of this Most Great Day. One made mention of Jabulqa, another pointed to Jabulsa, and yet another devised an imaginary form and established for it a seat upon the throne of idle fancies.

We said: "Dost thou deny him who assigned a station to the Qa'im and called it the Holy Precinct, and issued proclamations in His name therefrom and spread them throughout the land?"

The cause and reason for this most great injustice was that certain lying souls united with that rejected sect and, through a hundred thousand tricks and deceits, brought forth mention of the Holy Land and of Jabulqa and Jabulsa and the like.

One made mention of Jabulqa, another alluded to Jabulsa, yet another false one devised an imaginary form and established for it a station upon the throne of vain imaginings. One unjust one made mention of the Holy Land, and another attributed words unto Him falsely. These repugnant and false matters became the cause and reason for the martyrdom of the King of the City of Oneness with utmost tyranny.

Consider the saved sect, namely the Shi'ih, who counted themselves the best of all the world's peoples. They afflicted a few helpless souls with such vain imaginings that finally they martyred the Lord of the world with hands of hatred. Now souls who have no knowledge whatsoever of the essence of this Cause have arisen with the same vain imaginings. Their purpose is to establish a region like before, and designate an illusory Jabulqa and an unknown Jabulsa.

Nevertheless, they cling to a name, of whose reality none had any knowledge, while turning away from Him Who brought it into being.

They that have turned away from it, clinging to idle fancies and vain imaginings, are indeed among the lost. Say: The veils of idle fancy have been rent asunder by the finger of God, the Lord of all mankind.

They have raised the idols of their desires and set aside their Lord. Verily they are in grievous loss.

Verily, while thou art in thy home He remembereth thee in the Most Great Prison. Be thou thankful unto God for this manifest favor. Doth it beseem anyone to deny this certainty and turn unto every doubting impostor?

There have been and will be many godless souls - take refuge in God from the evil of such souls. Whosoever makes a claim to any cause is accounted as a liar and calumniator before the Divine Throne.

Soon you shall hear the call from those who desire to lead the servants astray. Beware lest you follow every remote calf. Soon shall you see one who claims for himself a cause - verily he is of the liars.

They shall regard as false and worthless those who lay claim to the Cause thereafter. In the Bayan it is stated that false claimants shall appear in every land.

God willing, you will remain steadfast, for false claimants have appeared and will appear in most lands. This is what the Supreme Pen foretold aforetime.

God willing, may you attain to the lofty station of steadfastness, for false claimants have appeared and will appear in certain lands.

I counsel all servants and handmaidens to guard themselves against false pretenders, for We have previously announced that the cawing of the crows shall be raised.

Those who claim to attract through any name other than this Name are belied by all atoms.

… Leave those who claim of their own desires that which God hath not permitted them, then preserve souls from these ones.

Say: O people! Hearken unto that which the Spirit casteth upon you, and follow not those unto whom God hath given no authority and who are recorded in the Mother Book as among the heedless. Follow ye the path of God, unto Whom belongeth the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and follow not every foolish madman.

Enable them, moreover, O my Lord, to cleave so tenaciously to Thy Cause that they may remain unmoved by the perplexing suggestions of them who, prompted by their desires, utter what hath been forbidden unto them in Thy Tablets and Thy Scriptures.

Cause me, O my God, to be so steadfast in Thy love that were all who are on earth to claim the stations of Thy Cause and the conditions of Thy Manifestation, I would not turn toward them, for I bear witness that the seal of the Manifestation of God is set in this Most Great Revelation, and whosoever layeth claim to a Revelation speaketh through the promptings of self and passion.

That sign is evident and manifest like the sun - whosoever finds their way to it attains to the recognition of the Sun of Truth. It is the lamp that is continually replenished from the oil of knowledge, for were this replenishment to cease, that light would be extinguished. Blessed are they who have not veiled it through the veils of self and desire, and who have not prevented its light.

Do not oppose the Qadiyanis. Deal with them kindly. If you can, teach that Qadiyani person with perfect love and kindness and help him understand that these efforts of yours are useless and will yield no result.

They who have laid claim to knowledge have lost, except they repent and return unto the Forgiving, the Generous.