to peruse the Scriptures of both the former and latter generations. This
is the Utterance of the All-Merciful, would that ye had ears to hear! Say:
This is the essence of knowledge, did ye but understand.

139 And now consider what hath been revealed in yet another passage, that
perchance ye may forsake your own concepts and set your faces towards God,
the Lord of being. He(4) hath said: "It is unlawful to enter into marriage
save with a believer in the Bayán. Should only one party to a marriage
embrace this Cause, his or her possessions will become unlawful to the
other, until such time as the latter hath converted. This law, however,
will only take effect after the exaltation of the Cause of Him Whom We
shall manifest in truth, or of that which hath already been made manifest
in justice. Ere this, ye are at liberty to enter into wedlock as ye wish,
that haply by this means ye may exalt the Cause of God." Thus hath the
Nightingale sung with sweet melody upon the celestial bough, in praise of
its Lord, the All-Merciful. Well is it with them that hearken.

140 O people of the Bayán, I adjure you by your Lord, the God of mercy, to
look with the eye of fairness upon this utterance which hath been sent
down through the power of truth, and not to be of those who see the
testimony of God yet reject and deny it. They, in truth, are of those who
will assuredly perish. The Point of the Bayán hath explicitly made mention
in this verse of the exaltation of My Cause before His own Cause; unto
this will testify every just and understanding mind. As ye can readily
witness in this day, its exaltation is such as none can deny save those
whose eyes are drunken in this mortal life and whom a humiliating
chastisement awaiteth in the life to come.

141 Say: By the righteousness of God! I, verily, am His(5) Best-Beloved;
and at this moment He listeneth to these verses descending from the Heaven