The Green Announcement — Page 21
21 bothered whether people are with me or against me, whether they accept my claim or reject it, whether they like me or hate me. Disregarding everyone, and consider- ing everything, except God, to be as good as dead, I carry on with my mission. There are some from among our own people and belonging to our own religion who look dis- dainfully at what I am doing, but I make allowances for them knowing that what has been revealed to me has not been revealed to them, and the thirst that I feel has not been felt by them. 10 At this juncture, I would also like to mention that I have learned through some articles written by certain scholars that they do not approve of my revealing to other people the spiritual blessings and heavenly signs which I experi- ence and which find their culmination in the acceptance of prayer and in Divine revelations and visions. They argue that all this is based on guesswork and surmise, and proves to be more harmful than beneficial. They also say that these phenomena are more or less common to all hu- man beings, some even going so far as to suggest that they are experienced by all people in equal measure. They tend to think that religion and piety and establishing a re- lationship with God have nothing to do with such experiences, and that these are natural abilities common to 10 Everyone acts according to his own way. —Ban i Isr a’i l, 17:85 [Publishers]