And now, one of the greatest and most fundamental principles
of the Cause of God is to shun and avoid entirely the Covenant-breakers, for
they will utterly destroy the Cause of God, exterminate His Law and render of
no account all efforts exerted in the past. O friends! It behooveth you to call
to mind with tenderness the trials of His Holiness, the Exalted One, and show
your fidelity to the Ever-Blest Beauty. The utmost endeavor must be exerted
lest all these woes, trials and afflictions, all this pure and sacred blood
that hath been shed so profusely in the Path of God, may prove to be in vain.
Ye know well what the hands of the Center of Sedition, Mírzá Muhammad ‘Alí, and
his associates have wrought. Among his doings, one of them is the corruption of
the Sacred Text whereof ye are all aware, the Lord be praised, and know that it
is evident, proven and confirmed by the testimony of his brother, Mírzá
Badí’u’lláh, whose confession is written in his own handwriting, beareth his
seal, is printed and spread abroad. This is but one of his misdeeds. Can a
transgression be imagined more glaring than this, the interpolation of the Holy
Text? Nay, by the righteousness of the Lord! His transgressions are writ and
recorded in a leaflet by itself. Please God, ye will peruse it.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha,
‘The Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’)
