O servant of God! We have noted what thou didst write to
Jinab-i-Ibn-'Abhar, and thy question regarding the verse: 'Whoso layeth
claim to a Revelation direct from God, ere the expiration of a full
thousand years, such a man is assuredly a lying impostor.'
The meaning of this is that any individual who, before the expiry of a
full thousand years--years known and clearly established by common usage
and requiring no interpretation--should lay claim to a Revelation direct
from God, even though he should reveal certain signs, that man is
assuredly false and an impostor.
This is not a reference to the Universal Manifestation, for it is clearly
set forth in the Holy Writings that centuries, nay thousands of years,
must pass on to completion, before a Manifestation like unto this
Manifestation shall appear again.
It is possible, however, that after the completion of a full thousand
years, certain Holy Beings will be empowered to deliver a Revelation:
this, however, will not be through a Universal Manifestation. Wherefore
every day of the cycle of the Blessed Beauty is in reality equal to one
year, and every year of it is equal to a thousand years.
Consider, for example, the sun: its transit from one zodiacal sign to the
next occurreth within a short period of time, yet only after a long period
doth it attain the plenitude of its resplendency, its heat and glory, in
the sign of Leo. It must first complete one full revolution through the
other constellations before it will enter the sign of Leo again, to blaze
out in its full splendour. In its other stations, it revealeth not the
fullness of its heat and light.
The substance is, that prior to the completion of a thousand years, no
individual may presume to breathe a word. All must consider themselves to
be of the order of subjects, submissive and obedient to the commandments
of God and the laws of the House of Justice. Should any deviate by so much
as a needle's point from the decrees of the Universal House of Justice, or
falter in his compliance therewith, then is he of the outcast and
rejected.
As to the cycle of the Blessed Beauty--the times of the Greatest Name--this
is not limited to a thousand or two thousand years....
When it is said that the period of a thousand years beginneth with the
Manifestation of the Blessed Beauty and every day thereof is a thousand
years, the intent is a reference to the cycle of the Blessed Beauty, which
in this context will extend over many ages into the unborn reaches of
time.