The Green Announcement — Page 7
The Green Announcement 7 their clear-minded and enlightened companions who saw that the error lay not in the substance of the revelations or visions but only in their interpretation. It is thus obvious that errors of judgement committed by religious scholars and mystics do not diminish their status, and if we add to as All this happened because Mosesas himself had not been given any clear information about the intervening difficulties and the length of their trials, and it was his own inference that the ignoble Pharaoh would soon be defeated through manifest signs. But God, in accor- dance with His eternal practice towards all His Prophets, and in order to try Mosess in the early stages of his mission, and to fill him with the awe of His Istighnā,* kept these intervening difficulties hid- den from him. If all the coming trials and afflictions had been revealed to him beforehand, he would have been reassured and his resolve would have been strengthened. But in that case he would not have been overawed by the ordeals by means of which God had in- tended to raise his and his followers' spiritual status and make them recipients of Divine reward in the hereafter. In the same way, Jesus' disciples had believed that the promises of worldly success and prosperity that the Messiahas had made to them would be fulfilled very easily and in a short time. Some of the glad- tidings the Messiahas gave them even seemed to imply that he would soon establish a great kingdom, and some of his disciples even be- gan collecting weapons in anticipation. The Messiahas also spoke of his second coming in a manner which suggested that the disciples and their contemporaries would still be alive when he returned to the world in glory, and it seems that Jesusas was himself inclined towards this view which he impressed upon his disciples, but, as it turned out, his interpretation was wrong and he had made an error of judgement. Contd. . . * Being Independent and Besought of all. [Publishers]