And likewise, He saith: “Say, O people of the Book! do ye not disavow us only because we believe in God and in what He hath sent down to us, and in what He hath sent down aforetime, and because most of you are doers of ill?” How explicitly doth this verse reveal Our purpose, and how clearly doth it demonstrate the truth of the testimony of the verses of God! This verse was revealed at a time when Islám was assailed by the infidels, and its followers were accused of misbelief, when the Companions of Muḥammad were denounced as repudiators of God and as followers of a lying sorcerer. In its early days, when Islám was still to outward seeming devoid of authority and power, the friends of the Prophet, who had turned their face toward God, wherever they went, were harassed, persecuted, stoned and vilified. At such a time this blessed verse was sent down from the heaven of divine Revelation. It revealed an irrefutable evidence, and brought the light of an unfailing guidance. It instructed the companions of Muḥammad to declare the following unto the infidels and idolaters: “Ye oppress and persecute us, and yet, what else have we done except that we have believed in God and in the verses sent down unto us through the tongue of Muḥammad, and in those which descended upon the Prophets of old?” By this is meant that their only guilt was to have recognized that the new and wondrous verses of God, which had descended upon Muḥammad, as well as those which had been revealed unto the Prophets of old, were all of God, and to have acknowledged and embraced their truth. This is the testimony which the divine King hath taught His servants.
Continuing with the quotes that Baha'u'llah uses in His defense of the Cause of the Bab, we now come to the final two.
He began this section of proofs by reminding us that the Word of God is unique, and that if we want to verify that a Manifestation is true, then we just need to look at their Writings. To discount them with trivial arguments is not worthy of them, nor us.
On the surface, this quote is an explanation of what the early Muslims were able to say to counter arguments against them. It shows that all they needed to do was point out that they were being persecuted merely for believing. From here, after He finishes His demonstration from the verses of the Qur'an to prove the Cause of the Bab, He will then turn His direction to the followers. So, in a sense, this quote alludes to what He will use as His second argument.
But what else is in here?
One question we have is what does He mean by "Our purpose"
If we read the word "Our" as singularly referring to Baha'u'llah here, then it becomes a question of what is Baha'u'llah's purpose? And how could this verse possibly "explicitly" reveal it?
If we focus on the concept of unity, then perhaps it becomes a little bit clearer.
So much of this book is about helping the uncle recognize the oneness of all religions, and the absolute unity of the Manifestations. Here, this quote says so plainly that all the Manifestations were of God. Perhaps more importantly He points out that these divine verses were "sent down to us" and "sent down aforetime". He is showing how Muhammad already pointed toward this unity. Those verses that were sent down to the Manifestations in the past were the same type of verses that were sent down to Muhammad.
The accusation of disbelief cannot be a valid accusation, for to say that these people don't believe in God is to say that you do not believe in the God of your own book. The "crime" they are being accused of is believing too much, believing not only in the Manifestations of the past, but also in the continuity of Revelation. This seems to be the "crime" the Babis are also being accused of.
These people, the early Muslims, were just being obedient to what Baha'u'llah advised us in paragraph 2. "They should put their trust in God, and, holding fast unto Him, follow in His way."One last point we want to make here is that the verses don't always line up with what we find on-line. Here it is cited as 5:62, but from what we found, it is 5:59. And we could write an entire essay on how significant this verse is in the context of Surah 5 to the point Baha'u'llah is making here, but we will refrain. As with all of the quotes we've looked at, He is not merely quoting a verse, but really citing a context. So here, rather than try to summarize it, we would encourage you to go back and read the Qur'an, especially Surah Al-Ma'idah. You will see the context in which this verse occurs, and that just makes this entire passage even more fascinating.
