When Abraham was sent forth, however much He expounded the
truth, established the religion of God, disseminated new teachings, and
explained the divine mysteries, the Assyrians and the Chaldeans would say, “This
is but an idle fancy and an empty tale, a mere figment of the imagination. It
will never come to pass.” Even more, they called it sheer ignorance and counted
themselves among the exponents of reason and understanding. But before long it
became clear that what Abraham had proclaimed was indeed the truth, and that it
was their own thoughts that were the idle fancies. For after a short time the
teachings of Abraham were realized in the world: The Holy Land was given to His
descendants; the foundations of the religion of God were established; Isaac and
Jacob came into the world; Joseph became ruler in Egypt; Ishmael was blessed
and illumined Mount Paran; Moses the Interlocutor appeared, beheld in the
desert of Sinai the blazing fire of God in the Burning Bush, rescued the
Israelites from their oppression and captivity at the hands of the Egyptians,
led them to the Holy Land, and, through His teachings and His religion, which
were consonant with the needs of the age, founded a mighty nation.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk, new resources prepared by the Baha’i World Center;
Baha’i Reference Library)
