A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
“LET Me set forth some rational arguments for thee. If …” |
LET Me set forth some rational arguments for thee. If
someone desireth to embrace the Faith of Islám today,
would the testimony of God prove conclusive for him? If
120
thou dost contend that it would not, then how is it that
God will chastise him after death, and that, while he lives,
the verdict of ‘non-believer’ is passed upon him? If thou
affirmest that the testimony is conclusive, how wouldst
thou prove this? If thy assertion is based on hearsay, then
mere words are unacceptable as a binding testimony; but
if thou deemest the Qur’án as the testimony, this would be a
weighty and evident proof.
|
Now consider the Revelation of the Bayán. If the
followers of the Qur’án had applied to themselves proofs
similar to those which they advance for the non-believers
in Islám, not a single soul would have remained deprived of
the Truth, and on the Day of Resurrection everyone would
have attained salvation.
|
Should a Christian contend, ‘How can I deem the Qur’án
a testimony while I am unable to understand it?’ such a
contention would not be acceptable. Likewise the people
of the Qur’án disdainfully observe, ‘We are unable to comprehend
the eloquence of the verses in the Bayán, how can
we regard it as a testimony?’ Whoever uttereth such words,
say unto him, ‘O thou untutored one! By what proof hast
thou embraced the Religion of Islám? Is it the Prophet on
whom thou hast never set eyes? Is it the miracles which
thou hast never witnessed? If thou hast accepted Islám unwittingly,
wherefore hast thou done so? But if thou hast
embraced the Faith by recognizing the Qur’án as the testimony,
because thou hast heard the learned and the faithful
express their powerlessness before it, or if thou hast, upon
hearing the divine verses and by virtue of thy spontaneous
love for the True Word of God, responded in a spirit of
utter humility and lowliness—a spirit which is one of the
mightiest signs of true love and understanding—then such
proofs have been and will ever be regarded as sound.’
|