callest them all by one name, and dost ascribe to them the same
attributes, thou hast not erred from the truth. Even as He hath revealed:
“No distinction do We make between any of His Messengers.” For they, one
and all, summon the people of the earth to acknowledge the unity of God,
and herald unto them the Kaw_th_ar of an infinite grace and bounty. They
are all invested with the robe of prophethood, and are honored with the
mantle of glory. Thus hath Muḥammad, the Point of the Qur’án, revealed: “I
am all the Prophets.” Likewise, He saith: “I am the first Adam, Noah,
Moses, and Jesus.” Similar statements have been made by Imám ‘Alí. Sayings
such as these, which indicate the essential unity of those Exponents of
Oneness, have also emanated from the Channels of God’s immortal utterance,
and the Treasuries of the gems of Divine knowledge, and have been recorded
in the Scriptures. These Countenances are the recipients of the Divine
Command, and the Day Springs of His Revelation. This Revelation is exalted
above the veils of plurality and the exigencies of number. Thus He saith:
“Our Cause is but One.” Inasmuch as the Cause is one and the same, the
Exponents thereof also must needs be one and the same. Likewise, the Imáms
of the Muḥammadan Faith, those lamps of certitude, have said: “Muḥammad is
our first, Muḥammad is our last, Muḥammad our all.”

It is clear and evident to thee that all the Prophets are the Temples of
the Cause of God, Who have appeared clothed in divers attire. If thou wilt
observe with discriminating eyes, thou wilt behold Them all abiding in the
same tabernacle, soaring in the same heaven, seated upon the same throne,
uttering the same speech, and proclaiming the same Faith. Such is the
unity of those Essences of Being, those Luminaries of infinite and
immeasurable splendor! Wherefore, should one of these Manifestations of
Holiness proclaim saying: “I am the return of all the Prophets,” He,
verily, speaketh the truth. In like manner, in every subsequent
Revelation, the return of the former Revelation is a fact, the truth of