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Brent
Twelve hundred and seventy years have elapsed since the declaration of
Muhammad, and each year unnumbered people have circumambulated the House
of God [Mecca]. In the concluding year of this period He Who is Himself
the Founder of the House went on pilgrimage. Great God! There was a vast
concourse of pilgrims from every sect. Yet not one recognized Him,
though He recognized every one of them—souls tightly held in the grasp
of His former commandment. The only person who recognized Him and
performed pilgrimage with Him is the one round whom revolve eight
Vahids, [Quddus] in whom God hath gloried before the Concourse on high
by virtue of his absolute detachment and for his being wholly devoted to
the Will of God. This doth not mean that he was made the object of a
special favour, nay, this is a favour which God hath vouchsafed unto all
men, yet they have suffered themselves to be veiled from it. The
Commentary on the Surih of Joseph had, in the first year of this
Revelation, been widely distributed. Nevertheless, when the people
realized that fellow supporters were not forthcoming they hesitated to
accept it; while it never occurred to them that the very Qur'án
whereunto unnumbered souls bear fealty today, was revealed in the
midmost heart of the Arab world, yet to outward seeming for no less than
seven years no one acknowledged its truth except the Commander of the
Faithful [Imam Ali]—may the peace of God rest upon him—who, in response
to the conclusive proofs advanced by God's supreme Testimony, recognized
the Truth and did not fix his eyes on others. Thus on the Day of
Resurrection God will ask everyone of his understanding and not of his
following in the footsteps of others. How often a person, having
inclined his ears to the holy verses, would bow down in humility and
would embrace the Truth, while his leader would not do so. Thus every
individual must bear his own responsibility, rather than someone else
bearing it for him.
The Bab, The Persian Bayán, Selections from the Writings of the Báb, p. 90)
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