“Ye perform your works for God from the beginning of ...”

Ye perform your works for God from the beginning of your lives till the end thereof, yet not a single act is for the sake of Him Who is the Manifestation of God, to Whom every good deed reverteth. Had ye acted in such manner, ye would not have suffered so grievously on the Day of Resurrection.

Behold how great is the Cause, and yet how the people are wrapt in veils. I swear by the sanctified Essence of God that every true praise and deed offered unto God is naught but praise and deed offered unto Him Whom God shall make manifest.

Deceive not your own selves that you are being virtuous for the sake of God when you are not. For should ye truly do your works for God, ye would be performing them for Him Whom God shall make manifest and would be magnifying His Name. The dwellers of this mountain who are bereft of true understanding unceasingly utter the words, ‘No God is there but God’; but what benefit doth it yield them? Ponder awhile that ye may not be shut out as by a veil from Him Who is the Dayspring of Revelation. VIII, 19.

Source: the Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Báb (1976). Public domain text from Project Gutenberg eBook #18828.

the Báb. (1976). *Selections from the Writings of the Báb*. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18828/pg18828-images.html