[Baha’u’llah and the New Era by J.E. Esslemont]@TWC D-Link bookBaha’u’llah and the New Era
CHAPTER 2: THE BAB:( 3) THE FORERUNNER
Verily the oppressor hath slain the Beloved of the worlds that he might
thereby quench the Light of God amidst His creatures and withhold mankind
from the Stream of Celestial Life in the days of his Lord, the Gracious,
the Bountiful
2/19
In all parts of the Near and Middle East she has left traces of her former greatness.
Yet, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries she had sunk to a condition of deplorable degradation.
Her ancient glory seemed irretrievably lost.
Her government was corrupt and in desperate financial straits; some of her rulers were feeble, and other monsters of cruelty.
Her priests were bigoted and intolerant, her people ignorant and superstitious.
Most of them belonged to the _Sh_i'ih sect,( 4) of Muhammadans, but there were also considerable numbers of Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians, of diverse and antagonistic sects.
All professed to follow sublime teachers who exhorted them to worship the one God and to live in love and unity, yet they shunned, detested and despised each other, each sect regarding the others as unclean, as dogs or heathens.
Cursing and execration were indulged in to a fearful extent.
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