Paragraph 234

And likewise, He saith: “As for those who believe not in the verses of God, or that they shall ever meet Him, these of My mercy shall despair, and these doth a grievous chastisement await.” Also, “And they say, ‘Shall we then abandon our gods for a crazed poet?’” The implication of this verse is manifest. Behold what they observed after the verses were revealed. They called Him a poet, scoffed at the verses of God, and exclaimed saying: “These words of his are but tales of the Ancients!” By this they meant that those words which were spoken by the peoples of old Muḥammad hath compiled and called them the Word of God.

Baha'u'llah now returns to the quotes from the Qur'an which He is using to encourage the uncle to look at the Writings of the Bab to verify His Cause.

He started by reminding the uncle that the Qur'an is the proof offered by Muhammad, and that there is nothing else like the Word of God. He then showed him what the response has often been to the Revelations. Now He is pointing out that the prophecies about the Return are real, and that he should not doubt it.

Now, in this paragraph there are technically two quotes. "As for those who believe not in the verses of God, or that they shall ever meet Him, these of My mercy shall despair, and these doth a grievous chastisement await.” As well as, “And they say, ‘Shall we then abandon our gods for a crazed poet?’”

The question is how do these two relate?

We're not really sure, but it seems that they are unable to imagine that they are actually meeting a Manifestation, and so they default to the idea that He must be crazy, instead.

But these quotes are not coming out the blue. They are part of His overall defense of the Cause of the Bab. The people of the past claimed that all Muhammad was doing was restating things that had been said previously. And while that is partly true, for all Revelations remind people of the truths of old, He also offered a lot more. The uncle, as a Muslim, would be fully aware of this.

However, this contention, that of only restating what had already been revealed before, was also hurled at the Bab. The only way to counter this argument is to actually read the Writings of the Bab for yourself and see how much more He revealed.

But there's another point that we found interesting. The quotes come from the Surah entitled The Spider, and they are found in the story of Lot.

Now, the people who are making these accusations of Muhammad taking stories from the past, and not looking at what He has revealed that is new, is also similar to Lot's story. Why was his wife turned to a pillar of salt? Because she was looking back. That's why she became bitter, which is the metaphor of salt.

Perhaps Baha'u'llah is alluding to the dangers of looking backwards. Way back in paragraph 3 He told us to "Consider the past", but has also given us stern warnings about the dangers of it. Remember, in paragraph 68 He warned, "this servant regardeth the consideration of such records a grave mistake and a grievous transgression". He doesn't want us to dwell on the past. As He so famously said, "Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in..."

In addition to all this, the last sentence stands out for us. The people claimed that Muhammad took some old verses and "called them the Word of God". Going back to the second quote that Baha'u'llah gave us in this section of the Iqan, "then produce a Surah like it...", He did. Muahammad wrote Surah's that are incomparable. And we should see if the Bab is doing the same.