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The guiding motive.. must be pure love, without hope of reward or fear of punishment. Thus He says in the Bayan:-- (21:2) "So worship God that if the recompense of thy worship of Him were to be the Fire, no alteration in thy worship of Him would be produced. If you worship from fear, that is unworthy of the threshold of the holiness of God... So also, if your gaze is on Paradise, and if you worship in hope of that.. then you have made God's creation a Partner with Him." (E.G. Browne-Babis of Persia, Ii) (21:3) ..how can spiritual Power and Dominion be proved except by the ability to dispense with all earthly assistance, and to triumph over all earthly opposition.. How can Divine Love be demonstrated to an unbelieving world save by its capacity to endure to the uttermost the blows of calamity and the darts of affliction.
(22:2)
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