Epistle to the Son of the Wolf

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Ti­tle: Epis­tle to the Son of the Wolf

Au­thor: Bahá'u'lláh

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***START OF THE PROJECT GUTEN­BERG EBOOK EPIS­TLE TO THE SON OF THE WOLF***

Epis­tle to the Son of the Wolf

by Bahá'u'lláh

Edi­tion 1, (June 23, 2005)

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Ba­ha'i Terms of Use Epis­tle to the Son of the Wolf

EPIS­TLE TO THE SON OF THE WOLF

_In the name of God, the One, the In­com­pa­ra­ble, the All-​Pow­er­ful, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise._

Praise be to God, the Eter­nal that per­isheth not, the Ev­er­last­ing that de­clineth not, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing that al­tereth not. He it is Who is tran­scen­dent in His sovereign­ty, Who is man­ifest through His signs, and is hid­den through His mys­ter­ies. He it is at Whose bid­ding the stan­dard of the Most Ex­alt­ed Word hath been lift­ed up in the world of cre­ation, and the ban­ner of “He doeth what­so­ev­er He wil­leth” raised amidst all peo­ples. He it is Who hath re­vealed His Cause for the guid­ance of His crea­tures, and sent down His vers­es to demon­strate His Proof and His Tes­ti­mo­ny, and em­bel­lished the pref­ace of the Book of Man with the or­na­ment of ut­ter­ance through His say­ing: “The God of Mer­cy hath taught the Qur'án, hath cre­at­ed man, and taught him ar­tic­ulate speech.” No God is there but Him, the One, the Peer­less, the Pow­er­ful, the Mighty, the Benef­icent.

The light that is shed from the heav­en of boun­ty, and the bene­dic­tion that shineth from the dawn­ing-​place of the will of God, the Lord of the King­dom of Names, rest up­on Him Who is the Supreme Me­di­ator, the Most Ex­alt­ed Pen, Him Whom God hath made the Dawn­ing-​Place of His most ex­cel­lent names and the Dayspring of His most ex­alt­ed at­tributes. Through Him the light of uni­ty hath shone forth above the hori­zon of the world, and the law of one­ness hath been re­vealed amidst the na­tions, who, with ra­di­ant faces, have turned to­wards the Supreme Hori­zon, and ac­knowl­edged that which the Tongue of Ut­ter­ance hath spo­ken in the king­dom of His knowl­edge: “Earth and heav­en, glo­ry and do­min­ion, are God's, the Om­nipo­tent, the Almighty, the Lord of grace abound­ing!”

Give ear, O dis­tin­guished di­vine, un­to the voice of this Wronged One. He ver­ily, coun­sel­leth thee for the sake of God, and ex­hort­eth thee un­to that which will cause thee to draw nigh un­to Him un­der all con­di­tions. He, in truth, is the All-​Pos­sess­ing, the Ex­alt­ed. Know thou that the ear of man hath been cre­at­ed that it may hear­ken un­to the Di­vine Voice on this Day that hath been men­tioned in all the Books, Scrip­tures, and Tablets. Pu­ri­fy thou, first, thy soul with the wa­ters of re­nun­ci­ation, and adorn thine head with the crown of the fear of God, and thy tem­ple with the or­na­ment of re­liance up­on Him. Arise, then, and, with thy face set to­wards the Most Great House, the Spot round which, as de­creed by the Eter­nal King, all that dwell on earth must cir­cle, re­cite:

"O God, my God, and my De­sire, and my Adored One, and my Mas­ter, and my Main­stay, and my ut­most Hope, and my supreme As­pi­ra­tion! Thou seest me turn­ing to­wards Thee, hold­ing fast un­to the cord of Thy boun­ty, cling­ing to the hem of Thy gen­eros­ity, ac­knowl­edg­ing the sanc­ti­ty of Thy Self and the pu­ri­ty of Thine Essence, and tes­ti­fy­ing to Thy uni­ty and Thy one­ness. I bear wit­ness that Thou art the One, the Sin­gle, the In­com­pa­ra­ble, the Ev­er-​Abid­ing. Thou didst not take un­to Thy­self a part­ner in Thy do­min­ion, nor didst Thou choose a peer for Thy­self up­on earth. All cre­at­ed things have borne wit­ness un­to that which the Tongue of Thy grandeur hath tes­ti­fied ere their cre­ation. Ver­ily Thou art God; there is none oth­er God but Thee! From ev­er­last­ing Thou wast sanc­ti­fied from the men­tion of Thy ser­vants, and ex­alt­ed above the de­scrip­tion of Thy crea­tures. Thou be­hold­est, O Lord, the ig­no­rant seek­ing the ocean of Thy knowl­edge, the sore athirst the liv­ing wa­ters of Thine ut­ter­ance, the abased the taber­na­cle of Thy glo­ry, the poor the trea­sury of Thy rich­es, the sup­pli­ant the dawn­ing-​place of Thy wis­dom, the weak the source of Thy strength, the wretched the heav­en of Thy boun­ty, the dumb the king­dom of Thy men­tion.

"I tes­ti­fy, O my God, and my King, that Thou hast cre­at­ed me to re­mem­ber Thee, to glo­ri­fy Thee, and to aid Thy Cause. And yet, I have aid­ed Thine en­emies, who have bro­ken Thy Covenant, who have cast away Thy Book, dis­be­lieved in Thee, and re­pu­di­at­ed Thy signs. Alas, alas, for my way­ward­ness, and my shame, and my sin­ful­ness, and my wrong-​do­ing that have with­held me from the depths of the ocean of Thy uni­ty and from fath­om­ing the sea of Thy mer­cy. Where­fore, alas, alas! and again alas, alas! for my wretched­ness and the grievous­ness of my trans­gres­sions! Thou didst call me in­to be­ing, O my God, to ex­alt Thy Word, and to man­ifest Thy Cause. My heed­less­ness, how­ev­er, hath de­terred me and com­passed me about, in such wise that I have arisen to blot out Thy signs, and to shed the blood of Thy loved ones, and of the dawn­ing-​places of Thy signs, and of the daysprings of Thy rev­ela­tion, and of the repos­ito­ries of Thy mys­ter­ies.

“O Lord, my Lord! and again, O Lord, my Lord! and yet again, O Lord, my Lord! I bear wit­ness that by rea­son of mine in­iq­ui­ty the fruits of the tree of Thy jus­tice have fall­en, and through the fire of my re­bel­lious­ness the hearts of such of Thy crea­tures as en­joy near ac­cess to Thee were con­sumed, and the souls of the sin­cere among Thy ser­vants have melt­ed. O wretched, wretched that I am! O the cru­el­ties, the glar­ing cru­el­ties, I in­flict­ed! Woe is me, woe is me, for my re­mote­ness from Thee, and for my way­ward­ness, and mine ig­no­rance, and my base­ness, and my re­pu­di­ation of Thee, and my protests against Thee! How many the days dur­ing which Thou didst bid Thy ser­vants and Thy loved ones to pro­tect me, whilst I com­mand­ed them to harm Thee and to harm them that Thou didst trust! And how nu­mer­ous the nights dur­ing which Thou didst gra­cious­ly re­mem­ber me, and didst show me Thy path, whilst I turned away from Thee and from Thy signs! By Thy glo­ry! O Thou Who art the Hope of such as have ac­knowl­edged Thy uni­ty, and the De­sire of the hearts of them that are rid of all at­tach­ment to any save Thee! I find no suc­cor­er ex­cept Thee, nor king, nor refuge, nor haven be­sides Thy­self. Alas, alas! My turn­ing away from Thee hath burnt up the veil of mine in­tegri­ty, and my de­nial of Thee hath rent asun­der the cov­er­ing cast over mine hon­or. O would that I were be­neath the depths of the earth, so that my evil deeds would re­main un­known to Thy ser­vants! Thou seest the sin­ner, O my Lord, who hath turned to­wards the dawn­ing-​place of Thy for­give­ness and Thy boun­ty, and the moun­tain of in­iq­ui­ty that hath sought the heav­en of Thy mer­cy and par­don. Alas, alas! My mighty sins have pre­vent­ed me from ap­proach­ing the court of Thy mer­cy, and my mon­strous deeds have caused me to stray far from the sanc­tu­ary of Thy pres­ence. In­deed, I am he that hath failed in du­ty to­wards Thee, and hath bro­ken Thy Covenant and Thy Tes­ta­ment, and com­mit­ted that which hath made the dwellers of the cities of Thy jus­tice, and the dawn­ing-​places of Thy grace in Thy realms, to lament. I tes­ti­fy, O my God, that I have put away Thy com­mand­ments, and clung to the dic­tates of my pas­sions, and have cast away the statutes of Thy Book, and seized the book of mine own de­sire. O mis­ery, mis­ery! As mine in­iq­ui­ties waxed greater and greater, Thy for­bear­ance to­wards me aug­ment­ed, and as the fire of my re­bel­lious­ness grew fiercer, the more did Thy for­give­ness and Thy grace seek to smoth­er up its flame. By the pow­er of Thy might! O Thou Who art the de­sire of the world and the Best-​Beloved of the na­tions! Thy long-​suf­fer­ing hath puffed me up, and Thy pa­tience hath em­bold­ened me. Thou be­hold­est, O my God, the tears that my shame hath caused to flow, and the sighs which my heed­less­ness hath led me to ut­ter. I swear by the great­ness of Thy majesty! I can find for my­self no habi­ta­tion save be­neath the shad­ow of the court of Thy boun­ty, nor any refuge ex­cept un­der the canopy of Thy mer­cy. Thou seest me in the midst of a sea of de­spair and of hope­less­ness, af­ter Thou didst cause me to hear Thy words ”De­spair not." By Thy pow­er! My sore in­jus­tice hath sev­ered the cord of my hope, and my re­bel­lion hath dark­ened my face be­fore the throne of Thy jus­tice. Thou be­hold­est, O my God, him who is as one dead fall­en at the door of Thy fa­vor, ashamed to seek from the hand of Thy lov­ing-​kind­ness the liv­ing wa­ters of Thy par­don. Thou hast giv­en me a tongue where­with to re­mem­ber and praise Thee, and yet it ut­tereth that which hath caused the souls of such of Thy cho­sen ones as are nigh un­to Thee to melt, and the hearts of the sin­cere amongst the dwellers of the habi­ta­tions of ho­li­ness to be con­sumed. Thou hast giv­en me eyes to wit­ness Thy signs, and to be­hold Thy vers­es, and to con­tem­plate the rev­ela­tions of Thine hand­iwork, but I have re­ject­ed Thy will, and have com­mit­ted what hath caused the faith­ful among Thy crea­tures and the de­tached amidst Thy ser­vants to groan. Thou hast giv­en me ears that I may in­cline them un­to Thy praise and Thy cel­ebra­tion, and un­to that which Thou didst send down from the heav­en of Thy boun­ty and the fir­ma­ment of Thy will. And yet, alas, alas, I have for­sak­en Thy Cause, and have com­mand­ed Thy ser­vants to blas­pheme against Thy trust­ed ones and Thy loved ones, and have act­ed, be­fore the throne of Thy jus­tice, in such wise that those that have rec­og­nized Thy uni­ty and are whol­ly de­vot­ed to Thee among the dwellers of Thy realm mourned with a sore lamen­ta­tion. I know not, O my God, which among my evil­do­ings to men­tion be­fore the bil­low­ing ocean of Thy fa­vor, nor which of my tres­pass­es to de­clare when face to face with the splen­dors of the suns of Thy good­ly gifts and boun­ties.

“I be­seech Thee, this very mo­ment, by the mys­ter­ies of Thy Book, and by the things hid in Thy knowl­edge, and by the pearls that lie con­cealed with­in the shells of the ocean of Thy mer­cy, to reck­on me among such as Thou didst men­tion in Thy Book and de­scribe in Thy Tablets. Hast Thou de­creed for me, O my God, any joy af­ter this tribu­la­tion, or any re­lief to suc­ceed this af­flic­tion, or any ease to fol­low this trou­ble? Alas, alas! Thou hast or­dained that ev­ery pul­pit be set apart for Thy men­tion, and for the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of Thy Word, and the rev­ela­tion of Thy Cause, but I have as­cend­ed it to pro­claim the vi­ola­tion of Thy Covenant, and have spo­ken un­to Thy ser­vants such words as have caused the dwellers of the Taber­na­cles of Thy majesty and the denizens of the Cities of Thy wis­dom to lament. How of­ten hast Thou sent down the food of Thine ut­ter­ance out of the heav­en of Thy boun­ty, and I de­nied it; and how nu­mer­ous the oc­ca­sions on which Thou hast sum­moned me to the soft flow­ing wa­ters of Thy mer­cy, and I have cho­sen to turn away there­from, by rea­son of my hav­ing fol­lowed my own wish and de­sire! By Thy glo­ry! I know not for which sin to beg Thy for­give­ness and im­plore Thy par­don, nor from which of mine in­iq­ui­ties to turn aside un­to the Court of Thy boun­teous­ness and the Sanc­tu­ary of Thy fa­vor. Such are my sins and tres­pass­es that no man can num­ber them, nor pen de­scribe them. I im­plore Thee, O Thou that turnest dark­ness in­to light, and re­vealest Thy mys­ter­ies on the Sinai of Thy Rev­ela­tion, to aid me, at all times, to put my trust in Thee, and to com­mit mine af­fairs un­to Thy care. Make me, then, O my God, con­tent with that which the fin­ger of Thy de­cree hath traced, and the pen of Thy or­di­nance hath writ­ten. Po­tent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee, and in Thy grasp are the reins of all that are in heav­en and on earth. No God is there but Thee, the All-​know­ing, the All-​Wise.”

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Know thou that nei­ther the calum­nies which men may ut­ter, nor their de­nials, nor any cav­ils they may raise, can harm him that hath clung to the cord of the grace, and seized the hem of the mer­cy, of the Lord of cre­ation. By God! He, the Glo­ry of God (Bahá), hath spo­ken not from mere im­pulse. He that hath giv­en Him a voice is He that hath giv­en a voice un­to all things, that they may praise and glo­ri­fy Him. There is none oth­er God but Him, the One, the In­com­pa­ra­ble, the Lord of strength, the Un­con­di­tioned.

They whose sight is keen, whose ears are re­ten­tive, whose hearts are en­light­ened, and whose breasts are di­lat­ed, rec­og­nize both truth and false­hood, and dis­tin­guish the one from the oth­er. Re­cite thou this prayer that hath flowed from the tongue of this Wronged One, and pon­der there­on with a heart rid of all at­tach­ment, and with ears that are pure and sanc­ti­fied, be at­ten­tive to its mean­ing, that hap­ly thou mayest in­hale the breath of de­tach­ment and have pity up­on thy­self and up­on oth­ers:

“My God, the Ob­ject of my ado­ra­tion, the Goal of my de­sire, the All-​Boun­ti­ful, the Most Com­pas­sion­ate! All life is of Thee, and all pow­er li­eth with­in the grasp of Thine om­nipo­tence. Whoso­ev­er Thou ex­al­test is raised above the an­gels, and at­taineth the sta­tion: 'Ver­ily, We up­lift­ed him to a place on high!'; and whoso­ev­er Thou dost abase is made low­er than dust, nay, less than noth­ing. O Di­vine Prov­idence! Though wicked, sin­ful, and in­tem­per­ate, we still seek from Thee a 'seat of truth,' and long to be­hold the coun­te­nance of the Om­nipo­tent King. It is Thine to com­mand, and all sovereign­ty be­longeth to Thee, and the realm of might boweth be­fore Thy be­hest. Ev­ery­thing Thou doest is pure jus­tice, nay, the very essence of grace. One gleam from the splen­dors of Thy Name, the All-​Mer­ci­ful, suf­ficeth to ban­ish and blot out ev­ery trace of sin­ful­ness from the world, and a sin­gle breath from the breezes of the Day of Thy Rev­ela­tion is enough to adorn all mankind with a fresh at­tire. Vouch­safe Thy strength, O Almighty One, un­to Thy weak crea­tures, and quick­en them who are as dead, that hap­ly they may find Thee, and may be led un­to the ocean of Thy guid­ance, and may re­main stead­fast in Thy Cause. Should the fra­grance of Thy praise be shed abroad by any of the divers tongues of the world, out of the East or out of the West, it would, ver­ily, be prized and great­ly cher­ished. If such tongues, how­ev­er, be de­prived of that fra­grance, they as­sured­ly would be un­wor­thy of any men­tion, in word or yet in thought. We beg of Thee, O Prov­idence, to show Thy way un­to all men, and to guide them aright. Thou art, ver­ily, the Almighty, the Most Pow­er­ful, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​See­ing.”

We be­seech God to aid thee to be just and fair-​mind­ed, and to ac­quaint thee with the things that were hid­den from the eyes of men. He, in truth, is the Mighty, the Un­con­strained. We ask thee to re­flect up­on that which hath been re­vealed, and to be fair and just in thy speech, that per­chance the splen­dors of the daystar of truth­ful­ness and sin­cer­ity may shine forth, and may de­liv­er thee from the dark­ness of ig­no­rance, and il­lu­mine the world with the light of knowl­edge. This Wronged One hath fre­quent­ed no school, nei­ther hath He at­tend­ed the con­tro­ver­sies of the learned. By My life! Not of Mine own vo­li­tion have I re­vealed My­self, but God, of His own choos­ing, hath man­ifest­ed Me. In the Tablet, ad­dressed to His Majesty the _Sh_áh--may God, blessed and glo­ri­fied be He, as­sist him--these words have streamed from the tongue of this Wronged One:

“O King! I was but a man like oth­ers, asleep up­on My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-​Glo­ri­ous were waft­ed over Me, and taught Me the knowl­edge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-​Know­ing. And He bade Me lift up My voice be­tween earth and heav­en, and for this there be­fell Me what hath caused the tears of ev­ery man of un­der­stand­ing to flow. The learn­ing cur­rent amongst men I stud­ied not; their schools I en­tered not. Ask of the city where­in I dwelt, that thou mayest be well as­sured that I am not of them who speak false­ly. This is but a leaf which the winds of the will of thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-​Praised, have stirred. Can it be still when the tem­pes­tu­ous winds are blow­ing? Nay, by Him Who is the Lord of all Names and At­tributes! They move it as they list. The evanes­cent is as noth­ing be­fore Him Who is the Ev­er-​Abid­ing. His all-​com­pelling sum­mons hath reached Me, and caused Me to speak His praise amidst all peo­ple. I was in­deed as one dead when His be­hest was ut­tered. The hand of the will of thy Lord, the Com­pas­sion­ate, the Mer­ci­ful, trans­formed Me.”

Now is the mo­ment in which to cleanse thy­self with the wa­ters of de­tach­ment that have flowed out from the Supreme Pen, and to pon­der, whol­ly for the sake of God, those things which, time and again, have been sent down or man­ifest­ed, and then to strive, as much as li­eth in thee, to quench, through the pow­er of wis­dom and the force of thy ut­ter­ance, the fire of en­mi­ty and ha­tred which smoul­dereth in the hearts of the peo­ples of the world. The Di­vine Mes­sen­gers have been sent down, and their Books were re­vealed, for the pur­pose of pro­mot­ing the knowl­edge of God, and of fur­ther­ing uni­ty and fel­low­ship amongst men. But now be­hold, how they have made the Law of God a cause and pre­text for per­ver­si­ty and ha­tred. How piti­ful, how re­gret­table, that most men are cleav­ing fast to, and have bus­ied them­selves with, the things they pos­sess, and are un­aware of, and shut out as by a veil from, the things God pos­ses­seth!

Say: “O God, my God! At­tire mine head with the crown of jus­tice, and my tem­ple with the or­na­ment of eq­ui­ty. Thou, ver­ily, art the Pos­ses­sor of all gifts and boun­ties.”

Jus­tice and eq­ui­ty are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are re­vealed such blessed and per­spic­uous words as are the cause of the well-​be­ing of the world and the pro­tec­tion of the na­tions.

These words have streamed from the pen of this Wronged One in one of His Tablets: “The pur­pose of the one true God, ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry, hath been to bring forth the Mys­tic Gems out of the mine of man--they Who are the Dawn­ing-​Places of His Cause and the Repos­ito­ries of the pearls of His knowl­edge; for, God Him­self, glo­ri­fied be He, is the Un­seen, the One con­cealed and hid­den from the eyes of men. Con­sid­er what the Mer­ci­ful hath re­vealed in the Qur'án: No vi­sion taketh in Him, but He taketh in all vi­sion, and He is the Sub­tile, the All-​In­formed!”

That the divers com­mu­nions of the earth, and the man­ifold sys­tems of re­li­gious be­lief, should nev­er be al­lowed to fos­ter the feel­ings of an­imos­ity among men, is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God and His Re­li­gion. These prin­ci­ples and laws, these firm­ly-​es­tab­lished and mighty sys­tems, have pro­ceed­ed from one Source, and are rays of one Light. That they dif­fer one from an­oth­er is to be at­tribut­ed to the vary­ing re­quire­ments of the ages in which they were pro­mul­gat­ed.

Gird up the loins of your en­deav­or, O peo­ple of Bahá, that hap­ly the tu­mult of re­li­gious dis­sen­sion and strife that ag­itateth the peo­ples of the earth may be stilled, that ev­ery trace of it may be com­plete­ly oblit­er­at­ed. For the love of God, and them that serve Him, arise to aid this sub­lime and mo­men­tous Rev­ela­tion. Re­li­gious fa­nati­cism and ha­tred are a world-​de­vour­ing fire, whose vi­olence none can quench. The Hand of Di­vine pow­er can, alone, de­liv­er mankind from this des­olat­ing af­flic­tion. Con­sid­er the war that hath in­volved the two Na­tions, how both sides have re­nounced their pos­ses­sions and their lives. How many the vil­lages that were com­plete­ly wiped out!

The ut­ter­ance of God is a lamp, whose light is these words: Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with an­oth­er with the ut­most love and har­mo­ny, with friend­li­ness and fel­low­ship. He Who is the Daystar of Truth beareth Me wit­ness! So pow­er­ful is the light of uni­ty that it can il­lu­mi­nate the whole earth. The One true God, He Who knoweth all things, Him­self tes­ti­fi­eth to the truth of these words.

Ex­ert your­selves that ye may at­tain this tran­scen­dent and most sub­lime sta­tion, the sta­tion that can in­sure the pro­tec­tion and se­cu­ri­ty of all mankind. This goal ex­cel­leth ev­ery oth­er goal, and this as­pi­ra­tion is the monarch of all as­pi­ra­tions. So long, how­ev­er, as the thick clouds of op­pres­sion, which ob­scure the daystar of jus­tice, re­main undis­pelled, it would be dif­fi­cult for the glo­ry of this sta­tion to be un­veiled to men's eyes. These thick clouds are the ex­po­nents of idle fan­cies and vain imag­in­ings, who are none oth­er but the di­vines of Per­sia. At one time We spoke in the lan­guage of the law­giv­er; at an­oth­er in that of the truth-​seek­er and the mys­tic, and yet Our supreme pur­pose and high­est wish hath al­ways been to dis­close the glo­ry and sub­lim­ity of this sta­tion. God, ver­ily, is a suf­fi­cient wit­ness!

Con­sort with all men, O peo­ple of Bahá, in a spir­it of friend­li­ness and fel­low­ship. If ye be aware of a cer­tain truth, if ye pos­sess a jew­el, of which oth­ers are de­prived, share it with them in a lan­guage of ut­most kind­li­ness and good­will. If it be ac­cept­ed, if it ful­fill its pur­pose, your ob­ject is at­tained. If any­one should refuse it, leave him un­to him­self, and be­seech God to guide him. Be­ware lest ye deal un­kind­ly with him. A kind­ly tongue is the lode­stone of the hearts of men. It is the bread of the spir­it, it clo­theth the words with mean­ing, it is the foun­tain of the light of wis­dom and un­der­stand­ing.

By “di­vines” in the pas­sage cit­ed above is meant those men who out­ward­ly at­tire them­selves with the rai­ment of knowl­edge, but who in­ward­ly are de­prived there­from. In this con­nec­tion, We quote from the Tablet ad­dressed to His Majesty the _Sh_áh, cer­tain pas­sages from the “Hid­den Words” which were re­vealed by the Ab­há Pen un­der the name of the “Book of Fá­tim­ih,” the bless­ings of God be up­on her!

“O ye that are fool­ish, yet have a name to be wise! Where­fore do ye wear the guise of the shep­herd, when in­ward­ly ye have be­come wolves, in­tent up­on My flock? Ye are even as the star, which riseth ere the dawn, and which, though it seem ra­di­ant and lu­mi­nous, lead­eth the way­far­ers of My city astray in­to the paths of perdi­tion.”

And like­wise He saith: “O ye seem­ing fair yet in­ward­ly foul! Ye are like clear but bit­ter wa­ter, which to out­ward seem­ing is crys­tal pure but of which, when test­ed by the Di­vine As­say­er, not a drop is ac­cept­ed. Yea, the sun­beam falls alike up­on the dust and the mir­ror, yet dif­fer they in re­flec­tion even as doth the star from the earth: nay, im­mea­sur­able is the dif­fer­ence!”

And al­so He saith: “O essence of de­sire! At many a dawn have I turned from the realms of the Place­less un­to thine abode, and found thee on the bed of ease bus­ied with oth­ers than My­self. There­upon, even as the flash of the spir­it, I re­turned to the realms of ce­lest and breathed it not in My re­treats above un­to the hosts of ho­li­ness.”

And again He saith: “O bond slave of the world! Many a dawn hath the breeze of My lov­ing-​kind­ness waft­ed over thee and found thee up­on the bed of heed­less­ness fast asleep. Be­wail­ing then thy plight it re­turned whence it came.”

Those di­vines, how­ev­er, who are tru­ly adorned with the or­na­ment of knowl­edge and of a good­ly char­ac­ter are, ver­ily, as a head to the body of the world, and as eyes to the na­tions. The guid­ance of men hath, at all times, been, and is, de­pen­dent up­on such blessed souls. We be­seech God to gra­cious­ly aid them to do His will and plea­sure. He, in truth, is the Lord of all men, the Lord of this world and of the next.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! We have learned that thou hast turned away from Us, and protest­ed against Us, in such wise that thou hast bid­den the peo­ple to curse Me, and de­creed that the blood of the ser­vants of God be shed. God re­quite him who said: “Will­ing­ly will I obey the judge who hath so strange­ly de­creed that my blood be spilt at Hill and at Haram!” Ver­ily I say: What­ev­er be­fal­leth in the path of God is the beloved of the soul and the de­sire of the heart. Dead­ly poi­son in His path is pure hon­ey, and ev­ery tribu­la­tion a draught of crys­tal wa­ter. In the Tablet to His Majesty the _Sh_áh it is writ­ten: “By Him Who is the Truth! I fear no tribu­la­tion in His path, nor any af­flic­tion in My love for Him. Ver­ily God hath made ad­ver­si­ty as a morn­ing dew up­on His green pas­ture, and a wick for His lamp which lighteth earth and heav­en.”

Set thine heart to­wards Him Who is the Kaa­ba of God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing, and raise thou thine hands with such firm con­vic­tion as shall cause the hands of all cre­at­ed things to be lift­ed up to­wards the heav­en of the grace of God, the Lord of all worlds. Turn, then, thy face to­wards Him in such wise that the faces of all be­ings will turn in the di­rec­tion of His shin­ing and lu­mi­nous Hori­zon, and say: “Thou seest me, O my Lord, with my face turned to­wards the heav­en of Thy boun­ty and the ocean of Thy fa­vor, with­drawn from all else be­side Thee. I ask of Thee, by the splen­dors of the Sun of Thy rev­ela­tion on Sinai, and the ef­ful­gences of the Orb of Thy grace which shineth from the hori­zon of Thy Name, the Ev­er-​For­giv­ing, to grant me Thy par­don and to have mer­cy up­on me. Write down, then, for me with Thy pen of glo­ry that which will ex­alt me through Thy Name in the world of cre­ation. Aid me, O my Lord, to set my­self to­wards Thee, and to hear­ken un­to the voice of Thy loved ones, whom the pow­ers of the earth have failed to weak­en, and the do­min­ion of the na­tions has been pow­er­less to with­hold from Thee, and who, ad­vanc­ing to­wards Thee, have said: 'God is our Lord, the Lord of all who are in heav­en and all who are on earth!'”

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Ver­ily I say, the seal of the Choice Wine hath, in the name of Him Who is the Self-​Sub­sist­ing, been bro­ken; with­hold not thy­self there­from. This Wronged One speaketh whol­ly for the sake of God; thou too shouldst, like­wise, for the sake of God, med­itate up­on those things that have been sent down and man­ifest­ed, that hap­ly thou mayest, on this blessed Day, take thy por­tion of the lib­er­al ef­fu­sions of Him Who is tru­ly the All-​Boun­ti­ful, and mayest not re­main de­prived there­of. This in­deed would not be hard for God. Dust-​made Adam was raised up, through the Word of God, to the heav­en­ly throne, and a mere fish­er­man was made the repos­ito­ry of Di­vine wis­dom, and Abú-_Dh_ar, the shep­herd, be­came a prince of the na­tions!

This Day, O _Sh_ay_kh_, hath nev­er been, nor is it now, the Day where­on man-​made arts and sci­ences can be re­gard­ed as a true stan­dard for men, since it hath been rec­og­nized that He Who was whol­ly un­versed in any of them hath as­cend­ed the throne of purest gold, and oc­cu­pied the seat of hon­or in the coun­cil of knowl­edge, whilst the ac­knowl­edged ex­po­nent and repos­ito­ry of these arts and sci­ences re­mained ut­ter­ly de­prived. By “arts and sci­ences” is meant those which be­gin with words and end with words. Such arts and sci­ences, how­ev­er, as are pro­duc­tive of good re­sults, and bring forth their fruit, and are con­ducive to the well-​be­ing and tran­quil­ity of men have been, and will re­main, ac­cept­able be­fore God. Wert thou to give ear to My voice, thou wouldst cast away all thy pos­ses­sions, and wouldst set thy face to­wards the Spot where­in the ocean of wis­dom and of ut­ter­ance hath surged, and the sweet sa­vors of the lov­ing-​kind­ness of thy Lord, the Com­pas­sion­ate, have waft­ed.

We deem it ad­vis­able, in this con­nec­tion, to re­count briefly some past events, that per­chance they may be the means of vin­di­cat­ing the cause of eq­ui­ty and jus­tice. At the time when His Majesty the _Sh_áh, may God, his Lord, the Most Mer­ci­ful, aid him through His strength­en­ing grace, was plan­ning a jour­ney to Is­fáhán, this Wronged One, hav­ing ob­tained his per­mis­sion, vis­it­ed the holy and lu­mi­nous rest­ing-​places of the Imáms, may the bless­ings of God be up­on them! Up­on Our re­turn, We pro­ceed­ed to Lavásán on ac­count of the ex­ces­sive heat pre­vail­ing in the cap­ital. Fol­low­ing Our de­par­ture, there oc­curred the at­tempt up­on the life of His Majesty, may God, ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied be He, as­sist him. Those days were trou­blous days, and the fires of ha­tred burned high. Many were ar­rest­ed, among them this Wronged One. By the righ­teous­ness of God! We were in no wise con­nect­ed with that evil deed, and Our in­no­cence was in­dis­putably es­tab­lished by the tri­bunals. Nev­er­the­less, they ap­pre­hend­ed Us, and from Níyá­varán, which was then the res­idence of His Majesty, con­duct­ed Us, on foot and in chains, with bared head and bare feet, to the dun­geon of Tihrán. A bru­tal man, ac­com­pa­ny­ing Us on horse­back, snatched off Our hat, whilst We were be­ing hur­ried along by a troop of ex­ecu­tion­ers and of­fi­cials. We were con­signed for four months to a place foul be­yond com­par­ison. As to the dun­geon in which this Wronged One and oth­ers sim­ilar­ly wronged were con­fined, a dark and nar­row pit were prefer­able. Up­on Our ar­rival We were first con­duct­ed along a pitch-​black cor­ri­dor, from whence We de­scend­ed three steep flights of stairs to the place of con­fine­ment as­signed to Us. The dun­geon was wrapped in thick dark­ness, and Our fel­low pris­on­ers num­bered near­ly a hun­dred and fifty souls: thieves, as­sas­sins and high­way­men. Though crowd­ed, it had no oth­er out­let than the pas­sage by which We en­tered. No pen can de­pict that place, nor any tongue de­scribe its loath­some smell. Most of these men had nei­ther clothes nor bed­ding to lie on. God alone knoweth what be­fell Us in that most foul-​smelling and gloomy place!

Day and night, while con­fined in that dun­geon, We med­itat­ed up­on the deeds, the con­di­tion, and the con­duct of the Bábís, won­der­ing what could have led a peo­ple so high-​mind­ed, so no­ble, and of such in­tel­li­gence, to per­pe­trate such an au­da­cious and out­ra­geous act against the per­son of His Majesty. This Wronged One, there­upon, de­cid­ed to arise, af­ter His re­lease from prison, and un­der­take, with the ut­most vig­or, the task of re­gen­er­at­ing this peo­ple.

One night, in a dream, these ex­alt­ed words were heard on ev­ery side: “Ver­ily, We shall ren­der Thee vic­to­ri­ous by Thy­self and by Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath be­fall­en Thee, nei­ther be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safe­ty. Ere­long will God raise up the trea­sures of the earth--men who will aid Thee through Thy­self and through Thy Name, where­with God hath re­vived the hearts of such as have rec­og­nized Him.”

And when this Wronged One went forth out of His prison, We jour­neyed, in pur­suance of the or­der of His Majesty the _Sh_áh--may God, ex­alt­ed be He, pro­tect him--to 'Iráq, es­cort­ed by of­fi­cers in the ser­vice of the es­teemed and hon­ored gov­ern­ments of Per­sia and Rus­sia. Af­ter Our ar­rival, We re­vealed, as a co­pi­ous rain, by the aid of God and His Di­vine Grace and mer­cy, Our vers­es, and sent them to var­ious parts of the world. We ex­hort­ed all men, and par­tic­ular­ly this peo­ple, through Our wise coun­sels and lov­ing ad­mo­ni­tions, and for­bade them to en­gage in sedi­tion, quar­rels, dis­putes and con­flict. As a re­sult of this, and by the grace of God, way­ward­ness and fol­ly were changed in­to piety and un­der­stand­ing, and weapons con­vert­ed in­to in­stru­ments of peace.

Dur­ing the days I lay in the prison of Tihrán, though the galling weight of the chains and the stench-​filled air al­lowed Me but lit­tle sleep, still in those in­fre­quent mo­ments of slum­ber I felt as if some­thing flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty tor­rent that pre­cip­itateth it­self up­on the earth from the sum­mit of a lofty moun­tain. Ev­ery limb of My body would, as a re­sult, be set afire. At such mo­ments My tongue re­cit­ed what no man could bear to hear.

We shall here­with cite a few pas­sages from Tablets specif­ical­ly re­vealed to this peo­ple, so that ev­ery one may know of a cer­tain­ty that this Wronged One hath act­ed in a man­ner which hath been pleas­ing and ac­cept­able un­to men en­dued with in­sight, and un­to such as are the ex­po­nents of jus­tice and eq­ui­ty:

“O ye friends of God in His cities and His loved ones in His lands! This Wronged One en­joineth on you hon­esty and piety. Blessed the city that shineth by their light. Through them man is ex­alt­ed, and the door of se­cu­ri­ty is un­locked be­fore the face of all cre­ation. Hap­py the man that cleaveth fast un­to them, and rec­og­nizeth their virtue, and woe be­tide him that de­ni­eth their sta­tion.”

And in an­oth­er con­nec­tion these words were re­vealed: “We en­join the ser­vants of God and His hand­maid­ens to be pure and to fear God, that they may shake off the slum­ber of their cor­rupt de­sires, and turn to­ward God, the Mak­er of the heav­ens and of the earth. Thus have We com­mand­ed the faith­ful when the Daystar of the world shone forth from the hori­zon of 'Iráq. My im­pris­on­ment doeth Me no harm, nei­ther the tribu­la­tions I suf­fer, nor the things that have be­fall­en Me at the hands of My op­pres­sors. That which harmeth Me is the con­duct of those who, though they bear My name, yet com­mit that which maketh My heart and My pen to lament. They that spread dis­or­der in the land, and lay hands on the prop­er­ty of oth­ers, and en­ter a house with­out leave of its own­er, We, ver­ily, are clear of them, un­less they re­pent and re­turn un­to God, the Ev­er-​For­giv­ing, the Most Mer­ci­ful.”

And in an­oth­er con­nec­tion: “O peo­ples of the earth! Haste ye to do the plea­sure of God, and war ye valiant­ly, as it be­hooveth you to war, for the sake of pro­claim­ing His re­sist­less and im­mov­able Cause. We have de­creed that war shall be waged in the path of God with the armies of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance, and of a good­ly char­ac­ter and praise­wor­thy deeds. Thus hath it been de­cid­ed by Him Who is the All-​Pow­er­ful, the Almighty. There is no glo­ry for him that com­mit­teth dis­or­der on the earth af­ter it hath been made so good. Fear God, O peo­ple, and be not of them that act un­just­ly.”

And again in an­oth­er con­nec­tion: “Re­vile ye not one an­oth­er. We, ver­ily, have come to unite and weld to­geth­er all that dwell on earth. Un­to this beareth wit­ness what the ocean of Mine ut­ter­ance hath re­vealed amongst men, and yet most of the peo­ple have gone astray. If any­one re­vile you, or trou­ble touch you, in the path of God, be pa­tient, and put your trust in Him Who heareth, Who seeth. He, in truth, wit­nes­seth, and per­ceiveth, and doeth what He pleaseth, through the pow­er of His sovereign­ty. He, ver­ily, is the Lord of strength, and of might. In the Book of God, the Mighty, the Great, ye have been for­bid­den to en­gage in con­tention and con­flict. Lay fast hold on what­ev­er will prof­it you, and prof­it the peo­ples of the world. Thus com­man­deth you the King of Eter­ni­ty, Who is man­ifest in His Most Great Name. He, ver­ily, is the Or­dain­er, the All-​Wise.”

And yet again in an­oth­er con­nec­tion: “Be­ware lest ye shed the blood of any one. Un­sheathe the sword of your tongue from the scab­bard of ut­ter­ance, for there­with ye can con­quer the citadels of men's hearts. We have abol­ished the law to wage holy war against each oth­er. God's mer­cy hath, ver­ily, en­com­passed all cre­at­ed things, if ye do but un­der­stand.”

And yet again in an­oth­er con­nec­tion: “O peo­ple! Spread not dis­or­der in the land, and shed not the blood of any one, and con­sume not the sub­stance of oth­ers wrong­ful­ly, nei­ther fol­low ev­ery ac­cursed prat­tler.”

And still again in an­oth­er con­nec­tion: “The Sun of Di­vine Ut­ter­ance can nev­er set, nei­ther can its ra­di­ance be ex­tin­guished. These sub­lime words have, in this day, been heard from the Lote-​Tree be­yond which there is no pass­ing: 'I be­long to him that loveth Me, that hold­eth fast My com­mand­ments, and casteth away the things for­bid­den him in My Book.'”

And still again in an­oth­er con­nec­tion: “This is the day to make men­tion of God, to cel­ebrate His praise, and to serve Him; de­prive not your­selves there­of. Ye are the let­ters of the words, and the words of the Book. Ye are the saplings which the hand of Lov­ing-​kind­ness hath plant­ed in the soil of mer­cy, and which the show­ers of boun­ty have made to flour­ish. He hath pro­tect­ed you from the mighty winds of mis­be­lief, and the tem­pes­tu­ous gales of impi­ety, and nur­tured you with the hands of His lov­ing prov­idence. Now is the time for you to put forth your leaves, and yield your fruit. The fruits of the tree of man have ev­er been and are good­ly deeds and a praise­wor­thy char­ac­ter. With­hold not these fruits from the heed­less. If they be ac­cept­ed, your end is at­tained, and the pur­pose of life achieved. If not, leave them in their pas­time of vain dis­putes. Strive, O peo­ple of God, that hap­ly the hearts of the divers kin­dreds of the earth may, through the wa­ters of your for­bear­ance and lov­ing-​kind­ness, be cleansed and sanc­ti­fied from an­imos­ity and ha­tred, and be made wor­thy and be­fit­ting re­cip­ients of the splen­dors of the Sun of Truth.”

In the fourth I_sh_ráq (splen­dor) of the I_sh_ráqát (Tablet of Splen­dors) We have men­tioned: “Ev­ery cause needeth a helper. In this Rev­ela­tion the hosts which can ren­der it vic­to­ri­ous are the hosts of praise­wor­thy deeds and up­right char­ac­ter. The lead­er and com­man­der of these hosts hath ev­er been the fear of God, a fear that en­com­pas­seth all things, and reigneth over all things.”

In the third Ta­jal­lí (ef­ful­gence) of the Book of Ta­jal­líyát (Book of Ef­ful­gences) We have men­tioned: “Arts, crafts and sci­ences up­lift the world of be­ing, and are con­ducive to its ex­al­ta­tion. Knowl­edge is as wings to man's life, and a lad­der for his as­cent. Its ac­qui­si­tion is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one. The knowl­edge of such sci­ences, how­ev­er, should be ac­quired as can prof­it the peo­ples of the earth, and not those which be­gin with words and end with words. Great in­deed is the claim of sci­en­tists and crafts­men on the peo­ples of the world. Un­to this beareth wit­ness the Moth­er Book in this con­spic­uous sta­tion.”

In truth, knowl­edge is a ver­ita­ble trea­sure for man, and a source of glo­ry, of boun­ty, of joy, of ex­al­ta­tion, of cheer and glad­ness un­to him. Hap­py the man that cleaveth un­to it, and woe be­tide the heed­less.

It is in­cum­bent up­on thee to sum­mon the peo­ple, un­der all con­di­tions, to what­ev­er will cause them to show forth spir­itu­al char­ac­ter­is­tics and good­ly deeds, so that all may be­come aware of that which is the cause of hu­man up­lift­ment, and may, with the ut­most en­deav­or, di­rect them­selves to­wards the most sub­lime Sta­tion and the Pin­na­cle of Glo­ry. The fear of God hath ev­er been the prime fac­tor in the ed­uca­tion of His crea­tures. Well is it with them that have at­tained there­un­to!

The first word which the Ab­há Pen hath re­vealed and in­scribed on the first leaf of Par­adise is this: “Ver­ily I say: The fear of God hath ev­er been a sure de­fence and a safe stronghold for all the peo­ples of the world. It is the chief cause of the pro­tec­tion of mankind, and the supreme in­stru­ment for its preser­va­tion. In­deed, there ex­is­teth in man a fac­ul­ty which de­ter­reth him from, and guardeth him against, what­ev­er is un­wor­thy and un­seem­ly, and which is known as his sense of shame. This, how­ev­er, is con­fined to but a few; all have not pos­sessed, and do not pos­sess, it. It is in­cum­bent up­on the kings and the spir­itu­al lead­ers of the world to lay fast hold on re­li­gion, inas­much as through it the fear of God is in­stilled in all else but Him.”

The sec­ond word We have record­ed on the sec­ond leaf of Par­adise is the fol­low­ing: “The Pen of the Di­vine Ex­pounder ex­hort­eth, at this mo­ment, the man­ifes­ta­tions of au­thor­ity and the sources of pow­er, name­ly the kings and rulers of the earth--may God as­sist them--and en­joineth them to up­hold the cause of re­li­gion, and to cleave un­to it. Re­li­gion is, ver­ily, the chief in­stru­ment for the es­tab­lish­ment of or­der in the world, and of tran­quil­li­ty amongst its peo­ples. The weak­en­ing of the pil­lars of re­li­gion hath strength­ened the fool­ish, and em­bold­ened them, and made them more ar­ro­gant. Ver­ily I say: The greater the de­cline of re­li­gion, the more grievous the way­ward­ness of the un­god­ly. This can­not but lead in the end to chaos and con­fu­sion. Hear Me, O men of in­sight, and be warned, ye who are en­dued with dis­cern­ment!”

It is Our hope that thou wilt hear with at­ten­tive ears the things We have men­tioned un­to thee, that per­chance thou mayest turn men away from the things they pos­sess to the things that God pos­ses­seth. We en­treat God to de­liv­er the light of eq­ui­ty and the sun of jus­tice from the thick clouds of way­ward­ness, and cause them to shine forth up­on men. No light can com­pare with the light of jus­tice. The es­tab­lish­ment of or­der in the world and the tran­quil­li­ty of the na­tions de­pend up­on it.

In the Book of Ut­ter­ance these ex­alt­ed words have been writ­ten down and record­ed: “Say, O friends! Strive that hap­ly the tribu­la­tions suf­fered by this Wronged One and by you, in the path of God, may not prove to have been in vain. Cling ye to the hem of virtue, and hold fast to the cord of trust­wor­thi­ness and piety. Con­cern your­selves with the things that ben­efit mankind, and not with your cor­rupt and self­ish de­sires. O ye fol­low­ers of this Wronged One! Ye are the shep­herds of mankind; lib­er­ate ye your flocks from the wolves of evil pas­sions and de­sires, and adorn them with the or­na­ment of the fear of God. This is the firm com­mand­ment which hath, at this mo­ment, flowed out from the Pen of Him Who is the An­cient of Days. By the righ­teous­ness of God! The sword of a vir­tu­ous char­ac­ter and up­right con­duct is sharp­er than blades of steel. The voice of the true Faith cal­leth aloud, at this mo­ment, and saith: O peo­ple! Ver­ily, the Day is come, and My Lord hath made Me to shine forth with a light whose splen­dor hath eclipsed the suns of ut­ter­ance. Fear ye the Mer­ci­ful, and be not of them that have gone astray.”

The third word we have record­ed on the third leaf of Par­adise is this: “O son of man! If thine eyes be turned to­wards mer­cy, for­sake the things that prof­it thee, and cleave un­to that which will prof­it mankind. And if thine eyes be turned to­wards jus­tice, choose thou for thy neigh­bor that which thou choos­est for thy­self. Hu­mil­ity ex­al­teth man to the heav­en of glo­ry and pow­er, whilst pride abaseth him to the depths of wretched­ness and degra­da­tion. Great is the Day, and mighty the Call! In one of Our Tablets We have re­vealed these ex­alt­ed words: 'Were the world of the spir­it to be whol­ly con­vert­ed in­to the sense of hear­ing, it could then claim to be wor­thy to hear­ken un­to the Voice that cal­leth from the Supreme Hori­zon; for oth­er­wise, these ears that are de­filed with ly­ing tales have nev­er been, nor are they now, fit to hear it.' Well is it with them that hear­ken; and woe be­tide the way­ward.”

We pray God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--and cher­ish the hope that He may gra­cious­ly as­sist the man­ifes­ta­tions of af­flu­ence and pow­er and the daysprings of sovereign­ty and glo­ry, the kings of the earth--may God aid them through His strength­en­ing grace--to es­tab­lish the Less­er Peace. This, in­deed, is the great­est means for in­sur­ing the tran­quil­li­ty of the na­tions. It is in­cum­bent up­on the Sovereigns of the world--may God as­sist them--unit­ed­ly to hold fast un­to this Peace, which is the chief in­stru­ment for the pro­tec­tion of all mankind. It is Our hope that they will arise to achieve what will be con­ducive to the well-​be­ing of man. It is their du­ty to con­vene an all-​in­clu­sive as­sem­bly, which ei­ther they them­selves or their min­is­ters will at­tend, and to en­force what­ev­er mea­sures are re­quired to es­tab­lish uni­ty and con­cord amongst men. They must put away the weapons of war, and turn to the in­stru­ments of uni­ver­sal re­con­struc­tion. Should one king rise up against an­oth­er, all the oth­er kings must arise to de­ter him. Arms and ar­ma­ments will, then, be no more need­ed be­yond that which is nec­es­sary to in­sure the in­ter­nal se­cu­ri­ty of their re­spec­tive coun­tries. If they at­tain un­to this all-​sur­pass­ing bless­ing, the peo­ple of each na­tion will pur­sue, with tran­quil­li­ty and con­tent­ment, their own oc­cu­pa­tions, and the groan­ings and lamen­ta­tions of most men would be si­lenced. We be­seech God to aid them to do His will and plea­sure. He, ver­ily, is the Lord of the throne on high and of earth be­low, and the Lord of this world and of the world to come. It would be prefer­able and more fit­ting that the high­ly hon­ored kings them­selves should at­tend such an as­sem­bly, and pro­claim their edicts. Any king who will arise and car­ry out this task, he ver­ily will, in the sight of God, be­come the cyno­sure of all kings. Hap­py is he, and great is his blessed­ness!

In this land, ev­ery time men are con­script­ed for the army, a great ter­ror seizeth the peo­ple. Ev­ery na­tion aug­menteth, each year, its forces, for their min­is­ters of war are in­sa­tiable in their de­sire to add fresh re­cruits to their bat­tal­ions. We have learned that the gov­ern­ment of Per­sia--may God as­sist them--have, like­wise de­cid­ed to re­in­force their army. In the opin­ion of this Wronged One a force of one hun­dred thou­sand ful­ly-​equipped and well-​dis­ci­plined men would suf­fice. We hope that thou wilt cause the light of jus­tice to shine more bright­ly. By the righ­teous­ness of God! Jus­tice is a pow­er­ful force. It is, above all else, the con­queror of the citadels of the hearts and souls of men, and the re­veal­er of the se­crets of the world of be­ing, and the stan­dard-​bear­er of love and boun­ty.

In the trea­suries of the knowl­edge of God there li­eth con­cealed a knowl­edge which, when ap­plied, will large­ly, though not whol­ly, elim­inate fear. This knowl­edge, how­ev­er, should be taught from child­hood, as it will great­ly aid in its elim­ina­tion. What­ev­er de­creaseth fear in­creaseth courage. Should the Will of God as­sist Us, there would flow out from the Pen of the Di­vine Ex­pounder a lengthy ex­po­si­tion of that which hath been men­tioned, and there would be re­vealed, in the field of arts and sci­ences, what would re­new the world and the na­tions. A word hath, like­wise, been writ­ten down and record­ed by the Pen of the Most High in the Crim­son Book which is ca­pa­ble of ful­ly dis­clos­ing that force which is hid in men, nay of re­dou­bling its po­ten­cy. We im­plore God--ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied be He--to gra­cious­ly as­sist His ser­vants to do that which is pleas­ing and ac­cept­able un­to Him.

In these days en­emies have com­passed Us about, and the fire of ha­tred is kin­dled. O peo­ples of the earth! By My life and by your own! This Wronged One hath nev­er had, nor hath He now any de­sire for lead­er­ship. Mine aim hath ev­er been, and still is, to sup­press what­ev­er is the cause of con­tention amidst the peo­ples of the earth, and of sep­ara­tion amongst the na­tions, so that all men may be sanc­ti­fied from ev­ery earth­ly at­tach­ment, and be set free to oc­cu­py them­selves with their own in­ter­ests. We en­treat Our loved ones not to be­smirch the hem of Our rai­ment with the dust of false­hood, nei­ther to al­low ref­er­ences to what they have re­gard­ed as mir­acles and prodi­gies to de­base Our rank and sta­tion, or to mar the pu­ri­ty and sanc­ti­ty of Our name.

Gra­cious God! This is the day where­on the wise should seek the ad­vice of this Wronged One, and ask Him Who is the Truth what things are con­ducive to the glo­ry and tran­quil­li­ty of men. And yet, all are earnest­ly striv­ing to put out this glo­ri­ous and shin­ing light, and are dili­gent­ly seek­ing ei­ther to es­tab­lish Our guilt, or to voice their protest against Us. Mat­ters have come to such a pass, that the con­duct of this Wronged One hath, in ev­ery way, been gross­ly mis­rep­re­sent­ed, and in a man­ner which it would be un­seem­ly to men­tion. One of Our friends hath re­port­ed that among the res­idents of the Great City (Con­stantino­ple) he had heard with the great­est re­gret some­one state that, each year, a sum of fifty thou­sand tu­mans was be­ing despatched from his na­tive land to Akká! It hath not, how­ev­er, been made clear who had dis­bursed the sum, nor through whose hands it had passed!

Briefly, this Wronged One hath, in the face of all that hath be­fall­en Him at their hands, and all that hath been said of Him, en­dured pa­tient­ly, and held His peace, inas­much as it is Our pur­pose, through the lov­ing prov­idence of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--and His sur­pass­ing mer­cy, to abol­ish, through the force of Our ut­ter­ance, all dis­putes, war, and blood­shed, from the face of the earth. Un­der all con­di­tions We have, in spite of what they have said, en­dured with seem­ly pa­tience, and have left them to God. In an­swer to this par­tic­ular im­pu­ta­tion, how­ev­er, We have replied, that if that which he af­firmeth be true, it be­hooveth him to be thank­ful to Him Who is the Lord of all be­ing, and the King of the seen and un­seen, for hav­ing raised up in Per­sia One Who, though a pris­on­er and with none to help and as­sist Him, hath suc­ceed­ed in es­tab­lish­ing His as­cen­den­cy over that land, and in draw­ing from it a year­ly rev­enue. Such an achieve­ment should be praised rather than cen­sured, if he be of them that judge eq­ui­tably. Should any­one seek to be ac­quaint­ed with the con­di­tion of this Wronged One, let him be told that these cap­tives whom the world hath per­se­cut­ed and the na­tions wronged have, for days and nights, been en­tire­ly de­nied the barest means of sub­sis­tence. We are loth to men­tion such things, nei­ther have We had, nor do We have now, any de­sire to com­plain against Our ac­cus­er. With­in the walls of this prison a high­ly es­teemed man was for some time obliged to break stones that he might earn a liv­ing, whilst oth­ers had, at times, to nour­ish them­selves with that Di­vine sus­te­nance which is hunger! We en­treat God--ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied be He--to aid all men to be just and fair-​mind­ed, and to gra­cious­ly as­sist them to re­pent and re­turn un­to Him. He, ver­ily, heareth, and is ready to an­swer.

Glo­ri­fied art Thou, O Lord my God! Thou seest what hath be­fall­en this Wronged One at the hands of them that have not as­so­ci­at­ed with Me, and who have arisen to harm and abase Me, in a man­ner which no pen can de­scribe, nor tongue re­count, nor can any Tablet sus­tain its weight. Thou hear­est the cry of Mine heart, and the groan­ing of Mine in­most be­ing, and the things that have be­fall­en Thy trust­ed ones in Thy cities and Thy cho­sen ones in Thy land, at the hands of such as have bro­ken Thy Covenant and Thy Tes­ta­ment. I be­seech Thee, O my Lord, by the sighs of Thy lovers through­out the world, and by their lamen­ta­tion in their re­mote­ness from the court of Thy pres­ence, and by the blood that hath been shed for love of Thee, and by the hearts that have melt­ed in Thy path, to pro­tect Thy loved ones from the cru­el­ty of such as have re­mained un­aware of the mys­ter­ies of Thy Name, the Un­con­strained. As­sist them, O my Lord, by Thy pow­er that hath pre­vailed over all things, and aid them to be pa­tient and long-​suf­fer­ing. Thou art the All-​Pow­er­ful, the Almighty, the All-​Boun­ti­ful. No God is there but Thee, the Gen­er­ous, the Lord of grace abound­ing.

In these days there are some who, far from be­ing just and fair-​mind­ed, have as­sault­ed Me with the sword of ha­tred and the spear of en­mi­ty, for­get­ting that it be­hooveth ev­ery fair-​mind­ed per­son to suc­cor Him Whom the world hath cast away and the na­tions aban­doned, and to lay hold on piety and righ­teous­ness. Most men have un­til now failed to dis­cov­er the pur­pose of this Wronged One, nor have they known the rea­son for which He hath been will­ing to en­dure count­less af­flic­tions. Mean­while, the voice of Mine heart cri­eth out these words: “O that My peo­ple knew!” This Wronged One, rid of at­tach­ment un­to all things, ut­tereth these ex­alt­ed words: “Waves have en­com­passed the Ark of God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. Fear not the tem­pes­tu­ous gales, O Mariner! He Who causeth the dawn to ap­pear is, ver­ily, with Thee in this dark­ness that hath struck ter­ror in­to the hearts of all men, ex­cept such as God, the Almighty, the Un­con­strained, hath been pleased to spare.”

O _Sh_ay_kh_! I swear by the Sun of Truth Which hath risen and shineth above the hori­zon of this Prison! The bet­ter­ment of the world hath been the sole aim of this Wronged One. Un­to this beareth wit­ness ev­ery man of judg­ment, of dis­cern­ment, of in­sight and un­der­stand­ing. Whilst af­flict­ed with tri­als, He held fast un­to the cord of pa­tience and for­ti­tude, and was sat­is­fied with the things which have be­fall­en Him at the hands of His en­emies, and was cry­ing out: “I have re­nounced My de­sire for Thy de­sire, O my God, and My will for the rev­ela­tion of Thy Will. By Thy glo­ry! I de­sire nei­ther My­self nor My life ex­cept for the pur­pose of serv­ing Thy Cause, and I love not My be­ing save that I may sac­ri­fice it in Thy path. Thou seest and know­est, O my Lord, that those whom We asked to be fair and just, have, un­just­ly and cru­el­ly, risen up against Us. Open­ly they were with Me, yet se­cret­ly they as­sist­ed My foes, who have arisen to dis­hon­or Me. O God, my God! I tes­ti­fy that Thou hast cre­at­ed Thy ser­vants to aid Thy Cause and ex­alt Thy Word, and yet they have helped Thine en­emies. I be­seech Thee, by Thy Cause that hath en­com­passed the world of be­ing, and by Thy Name where­with Thou hast sub­ject­ed the seen and un­seen, to adorn the peo­ples of the earth with the light of Thy jus­tice, and to il­lu­mi­nate their hearts with the bright­ness of Thy knowl­edge. I am, O my Lord, Thy ser­vant and the son of Thy ser­vant. I bear wit­ness un­to Thy uni­ty, and Thy one­ness, and to the sanc­ti­ty of Thy self and the pu­ri­ty of Thine Essence. Thou be­hold­est, O my Lord, Thy trust­ed ones at the mer­cy of the treach­er­ous among Thy crea­tures, and the ca­lum­ni­ators amidst Thy peo­ple. Thou know­est what hath be­fall­en Us at the hands of them whom Thou know­est bet­ter than we know them. They have com­mit­ted what hath torn the veil from such of Thy crea­tures as are nigh un­to Thee. I be­seech Thee to as­sist them to ob­tain that which hath es­caped them in the days of the Dawn­ing-​Place of Thy Rev­ela­tion and the Dayspring of Thine In­spi­ra­tion. Po­tent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee, and in Thy grasp are the reins of all that is in heav­en and all that is on earth.” The voice and the lamen­ta­tion of the true Faith have been raised. It cal­leth aloud and saith: “O peo­ple! By the righ­teous­ness of God! I have at­tained un­to Him Who hath man­ifest­ed me and sent me down. This is the Day where­on Sinai hath smiled at Him Who con­versed up­on it, and Carmel at its Re­veal­er, and the Sadrah at Him Who taught it. Fear ye God, and be not of them that have de­nied Him. With­hold not your­selves from that which hath been re­vealed through His grace. Seize ye the liv­ing wa­ters of im­mor­tal­ity in the name of your Lord, the Lord of all names, and drink ye in the re­mem­brance of Him, Who is the Mighty, the Peer­less.”

We have, un­der all cir­cum­stances, en­joined on men what is right, and for­bid­den what is wrong. He Who is the Lord of Be­ing is wit­ness that this Wronged One hath be­sought from God for His crea­tures what­ev­er is con­ducive to uni­ty and har­mo­ny, fel­low­ship and con­cord. By the righ­teous­ness of God! This Wronged One is not ca­pa­ble of dis­sim­ula­tion. He, ver­ily, hath re­vealed that which He de­sired; He, tru­ly, is the Lord of strength, the Un­re­strained.

We once again re­fer un­to some of the sub­lime words re­vealed in the Tablet to His Majesty the _Sh_áh, so that thou mayest know of a cer­tain­ty that what­ev­er hath been men­tioned hath come from God: "O King! I was but a man like oth­ers, asleep up­on My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-​Glo­ri­ous were waft­ed over Me, and taught Me the knowl­edge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-​Know­ing. And He bade Me lift up My voice be­tween earth and heav­en, and for this there be­fell Me what hath caused the tears of ev­ery man of un­der­stand­ing to flow. The learn­ing cur­rent amongst men I stud­ied not; their schools I en­tered not. Ask of the city where­in I dwelt, that thou mayest be well as­sured that I am not of them who speak false­ly. This is but a leaf which the winds of the will of thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-​Praised, have stirred. Can it be still when the tem­pes­tu­ous winds are blow­ing? Nay, by Him Who is the Lord of all Names and At­tributes! They move it as they list. The evanes­cent is as noth­ing be­fore Him Who is the Ev­er-​Abid­ing. His all-​com­pelling sum­mons hath reached Me, and caused Me to speak His praise amidst all peo­ple. I was in­deed as one dead when His be­hest was ut­tered. The hand of the will of thy Lord, the Com­pas­sion­ate, the Mer­ci­ful, trans­formed Me. Can any­one speak forth of his own ac­cord that for which all men, both high and low, will protest against him? Nay, by Him Who taught the Pen the eter­nal mys­ter­ies, save him whom the grace of the Almighty, the All-​Pow­er­ful, hath strength­ened.

"Look up­on this Wronged One, O King, with the eyes of jus­tice; judge thou, then, with truth con­cern­ing what hath be­fall­en Him. Of a ver­ity, God hath made thee His shad­ow amongst men, and the sign of His pow­er un­to all that dwell on earth. Judge thou be­tween Us and them that have wronged Us with­out proof and with­out an en­light­en­ing Book. They that sur­round thee love thee for their own sakes, where­as this Youth loveth thee for thine own sake, and hath had no de­sire ex­cept to draw thee nigh un­to the seat of grace, and to turn thee to­ward the right-​hand of jus­tice. Thy Lord beareth wit­ness un­to that which I de­clare.

“O King! Wert thou to in­cline thine ears un­to the shrill voice of the Pen of Glo­ry and the coo­ing of the Dove of Eter­ni­ty, which on the branch­es of the Lote-​Tree be­yond which there is no pass­ing, ut­tereth prais­es to God, the Mak­er of all Names and the Cre­ator of earth and heav­en, thou wouldst at­tain un­to a sta­tion from which thou wouldst be­hold in the world of be­ing naught save the ef­ful­gence of the Adored One, and wouldst re­gard thy sovereign­ty as the most con­temptible of thy pos­ses­sions, aban­don­ing it to whoso­ev­er might de­sire it, and set­ting thy face to­ward the Hori­zon aglow with the light of His coun­te­nance. Nei­ther wouldst thou ev­er be will­ing to bear the bur­den of do­min­ion save for the pur­pose of help­ing thy Lord, the Ex­alt­ed, the Most High. Then would the Con­course on high bless thee. O how ex­cel­lent is this most sub­lime sta­tion, couldst thou as­cend there­un­to through the pow­er of a sovereign­ty rec­og­nized as de­rived from the Name of God!”

Ei­ther thou or some­one else hath said: “Let the Súrih of Tawhíd be trans­lat­ed, so that all may know and be ful­ly per­suad­ed that the one true God beget­teth not, nor is He be­got­ten. More­over, the Bábís be­lieve in his (Bahá'u'lláh's) Di­vin­ity and God­hood.”

O _Sh_ay_kh_! This sta­tion is the sta­tion in which one di­eth to him­self and liveth in God. Di­vin­ity, when­ev­er I men­tion it, in­di­cateth My com­plete and ab­so­lute self-​ef­face­ment. This is the sta­tion in which I have no con­trol over mine own weal or woe nor over my life nor over my res­ur­rec­tion.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! How do the di­vines of this age ac­count for the ef­ful­gent glo­ry which the Sadrah of Ut­ter­ance hath shed up­on the Son of 'Im­rán (Moses) on the Sinai of Di­vine knowl­edge? He (Moses) hear­kened un­to the Word which the Burn­ing Bush had ut­tered, and ac­cept­ed it; and yet most men are bereft of the pow­er of com­pre­hend­ing this, inas­much as they have bus­ied them­selves with their own con­cerns, and are un­aware of the things which be­long un­to God. Re­fer­ring to this, the Siyyid of Find­irisk hath well said: “This theme no mor­tal mind can fath­om; be it even that of Abú-​Nasr, or Abú-'Alí Síná (Avi­cen­na).” What ex­pla­na­tion can they give con­cern­ing that which the Seal of the Prophets (Muham­mad)--may the souls of all else but Him be of­fered up for His sake--hath said?: “Ye, ver­ily, shall be­hold your Lord as ye be­hold the full moon on its four­teenth night.” The Com­man­der of the Faith­ful (Imám 'Alí)--peace be up­on him--more­over, saith in the _Kh_ut­biy-​i-​Tutún­jíyy­ih: “An­tic­ipate ye the Rev­ela­tion of Him Who con­versed with Moses from the Burn­ing Bush on Sinai.” Husayn, the son of 'Alí--peace be up­on him--like­wise saith: “Will there be vouch­safed un­to any­one be­sides Thee a Rev­ela­tion which hath not been vouch­safed un­to Thy­self--A Rev­ela­tion Whose Re­veal­er will be He Who re­vealed Thee. Blind be the eye that seeth Thee not!”

Sim­ilar say­ings from the Imáms--the bless­ings of God be up­on them--have been record­ed and are wide­ly known, and are em­bod­ied in books wor­thy of cre­dence. Blessed is he that per­ceiveth, and speaketh the pure truth. Well is it with him who, aid­ed by the liv­ing wa­ters of the ut­ter­ance of Him Who is the De­sire of all men, hath pu­ri­fied him­self from idle fan­cies and vain imag­in­ings, and torn away, in the name of the All-​Pos­sess­ing, the Most High, the veils of doubt, and re­nounced the world and all that is there­in, and di­rect­ed him­self to­wards the Most Great Prison.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! No breeze can com­pare with the breezes of Di­vine Rev­ela­tion, whilst the Word which is ut­tered by God shineth and flasheth as the sun amidst the books of men. Hap­py the man that hath dis­cov­ered it, and rec­og­nized it, and said: “Praised be Thou, Who art the De­sire of the world, and thanks be to Thee, O Well-​Beloved of the hearts of such as are de­vot­ed to Thee!”

Men have failed to per­ceive Our pur­pose in the ref­er­ences We have made to Di­vin­ity and God­hood. Were they to ap­pre­hend it, they would arise from their places, and cry out: “We, ver­ily, ask par­don of God!” The Seal of the Prophets--may the souls of all else but Him be of­fered up for His sake--saith: “Man­ifold are Our re­la­tion­ships with God. At one time, We are He Him­self, and He is We Our­self. At an­oth­er He is that He is, and We are that We are.”

Aside from this, why is it that thou didst not men­tion those oth­er sta­tions which the Ab­há Pen hath dis­closed? The tongue of this Wronged One hath, many a day and night, giv­en ut­ter­ance to these sub­lime words: “O God, my God! I bear wit­ness to Thy uni­ty and Thy one­ness, and that Thou art God, and that there is none oth­er God but Thee. Thou hast ev­er­last­ing­ly been sanc­ti­fied above the men­tion of any one but Thee and the praise of all else ex­cept Thy­self, and Thou wilt ev­er­last­ing­ly con­tin­ue to be the same as Thou wast from the be­gin­ning and hast ev­er been. I be­seech Thee, O King of Eter­ni­ty, by the Most Great Name, and by the ef­ful­gences of the Daystar of Thy Rev­ela­tion up­on the Sinai of Ut­ter­ance, and by the bil­lows of the Ocean of Thy knowl­edge among all cre­at­ed things, to gra­cious­ly as­sist Me in that which will draw Me nigh un­to Thee, and will de­tach Me from all ex­cept Thee. By Thy glo­ry, O Lord of all be­ing, and the De­sire of all cre­ation! I would love to lay My face up­on ev­ery sin­gle spot of Thine earth, that per­chance it might be hon­ored by touch­ing a spot en­no­bled by the foot­steps of Thy loved ones!”

By the righ­teous­ness of God! Idle fan­cies have de­barred men from the Hori­zon of Cer­ti­tude, and vain imag­in­ings with­held them from the Choice Sealed Wine. In truth I say, and for the sake of God I de­clare: This Ser­vant, this Wronged One, is abashed to claim for Him­self any ex­is­tence what­ev­er, how much more those ex­alt­ed grades of be­ing! Ev­ery man of dis­cern­ment, while walk­ing up­on the earth, feeleth in­deed abashed, inas­much as he is ful­ly aware that the thing which is the source of his pros­per­ity, his wealth, his might, his ex­al­ta­tion, his ad­vance­ment and pow­er is, as or­dained by God, the very earth which is trod­den be­neath the feet of all men. There can be no doubt that who­ev­er is cog­nizant of this truth, is cleansed and sanc­ti­fied from all pride, ar­ro­gance, and vain­glo­ry. What­ev­er hath been said hath come from God. Un­to this, He, ver­ily, hath borne, and beareth now, wit­ness, and He, in truth, is the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed.

Be­seech God to grant un­to men hear­ing ears, and sharp sight, and di­lat­ed breasts, and re­cep­tive hearts, that hap­ly His ser­vants may at­tain un­to their hearts' De­sire, and set their faces to­wards their Beloved. Trou­bles, such as no eye hath be­held, have touched this Wronged One. In pro­claim­ing His Cause, He, in no wise, hes­itat­ed. Ad­dress­ing Him­self un­to the kings and rulers of the earth--may God, ex­alt­ed be He, as­sist them--He im­part­ed un­to them that which is the cause of the well-​be­ing, the uni­ty, the har­mo­ny, and the re­con­struc­tion of the world, and of the tran­quil­li­ty of the na­tions. Among them was Napoleon III, who is re­port­ed to have made a cer­tain state­ment, as a re­sult of which We sent him Our Tablet while in Adri­anople. To this, how­ev­er, he did not re­ply. Af­ter Our ar­rival in the Most Great Prison there reached Us a let­ter from his Min­is­ter, the first part of which was in Per­sian, and the lat­ter in his own hand­writ­ing. In it he was cor­dial, and wrote the fol­low­ing: “I have, as re­quest­ed by you, de­liv­ered your let­ter, and un­til now have re­ceived no an­swer. We have, how­ev­er, is­sued the nec­es­sary rec­om­men­da­tions to our Min­is­ter in Con­stantino­ple and our con­suls in those re­gions. If there be any­thing you wish done, in­form us, and we will car­ry it out.”

From his words it be­came ap­par­ent that he un­der­stood the pur­pose of this Ser­vant to have been a re­quest for ma­te­ri­al as­sis­tance. We, there­fore, re­vealed in his (Napoleon III's) name vers­es in the Súratu'l-​Haykal, some of which We now quote, that thou mayest know that the Cause of this Wronged One hath been re­vealed for the sake of God, and hath come from Him:

"O King of Paris! Tell the priest to ring the bells no longer. By God, the True One! The Most Mighty Bell hath ap­peared in the form of Him Who is the Most Great Name, and the fin­gers of the will of Thy Lord, the Most Ex­alt­ed, the Most High, toll it out in the heav­en of Im­mor­tal­ity, in His name, the All-​Glo­ri­ous. Thus have the mighty vers­es of Thy Lord been again sent down un­to thee, that thou mayest arise to re­mem­ber God, the Cre­ator of earth and heav­en, in these days when all the tribes of the earth have mourned, and the foun­da­tions of the cities have trem­bled, and the dust of ir­re­li­gion hath en­wrapped all men, ex­cept such as God, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise, was pleased to spare. Say: He Who is the Un­con­di­tioned is come, in the clouds of light, that He may quick­en all cre­at­ed things with the breezes of His Name, the Most Mer­ci­ful, and uni­fy the world, and gath­er all men around this Ta­ble which hath been sent down from heav­en. Be­ware that ye de­ny not the fa­vor of God af­ter it hath been sent down un­to you. Bet­ter is this for you than that which ye pos­sess; for that which is yours per­isheth, whilst that which is with God en­dureth. He, in truth, or­daineth what He pleaseth. Ver­ily, the breezes of for­give­ness have been waft­ed from the di­rec­tion of your Lord, the God of Mer­cy; whoso tur­neth there­un­to, shall be cleansed of his sins, and of all pain and sick­ness. Hap­py the man that hath turned to­wards them, and woe be­tide him that hath turned aside.

"Wert thou to in­cline thine in­ner ear un­to all cre­at­ed things, thou wouldst hear: 'The An­cient of Days is come in His great glo­ry!' Ev­ery­thing cel­ebrateth the praise of its Lord. Some have known God and re­mem­ber Him; oth­ers re­mem­ber Him, yet know Him not. Thus have We set down Our de­cree in a per­spic­uous Tablet.

"Give ear, O King, un­to the Voice that cal­leth from the Fire which bur­neth in this ver­dant Tree, on this Sinai which hath been raised above the hal­lowed and snow-​white Spot, be­yond the Ev­er­last­ing City; 'Ver­ily, there is none oth­er God but Me, the Ev­er-​For­giv­ing, the Most Mer­ci­ful!' We, in truth, have sent Him Whom We aid­ed with the Holy Spir­it (Je­sus Christ) that He may an­nounce un­to you this Light that hath shone forth from the hori­zon of the will of your Lord, the Most Ex­alt­ed, the All-​Glo­ri­ous, and Whose signs have been re­vealed in the West. Set your faces to­wards Him (Bahá'u'lláh), on this Day which God hath ex­alt­ed above all oth­er days, and where­on the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath shed the splen­dor of His ef­ful­gent glo­ry up­on all who are in heav­en and all who are on earth. Arise thou to serve God and help His Cause. He, ver­ily, will as­sist thee with the hosts of the seen and un­seen, and will set thee king over all that where­on the sun riseth. Thy Lord, in truth, is the All-​Pow­er­ful, the Almighty.

"The breezes of the Most Mer­ci­ful have passed over all cre­at­ed things; hap­py the man that hath dis­cov­ered their fra­grance, and set him­self to­wards them with a sound heart. At­tire thy tem­ple with the or­na­ment of My Name, and thy tongue with re­mem­brance of Me, and thine heart with love for Me, the Almighty, the Most High. We have de­sired for thee naught ex­cept that which is bet­ter for thee than what thou dost pos­sess and all the trea­sures of the earth. Thy Lord, ver­ily, is know­ing, in­formed of all. Arise, in My Name, amongst My ser­vants, and say: 'O ye peo­ples of the earth! Turn your­selves to­wards Him Who hath turned to­wards you. He, ver­ily, is the Face of God amongst you, and His Tes­ti­mo­ny and His Guide un­to you. He hath come to you with signs which none can pro­duce.' The voice of the Burn­ing Bush is raised in the mid­most heart of the world, and the Holy Spir­it cal­leth aloud among the na­tions: 'Lo, the De­sired One is come with man­ifest do­min­ion!'

"O King! The stars of the heav­en of knowl­edge have fall­en, they who seek to es­tab­lish the truth of My Cause through the things they pos­sess, and who make men­tion of God in My Name. And yet, when I came un­to them in My glo­ry, they turned aside. They, in­deed, are of the fall­en. This is, tru­ly, that which the Spir­it of God (Je­sus Christ) hath an­nounced, when He came with truth un­to you, He with Whom the Jew­ish doc­tors dis­put­ed, till at last they per­pe­trat­ed what hath made the Holy Spir­it to lament, and the tears of them that have near ac­cess to God to flow.

"Say: O con­course of monks! Se­clude not your­selves in your church­es and clois­ters. Come ye out of them by My leave, and busy, then, your­selves with what will prof­it you and oth­ers. Thus com­man­deth you He Who is the Lord of the Day of Reck­on­ing. Se­clude your­selves in the stronghold of My love. This, tru­ly, is the seclu­sion that be­fit­teth you, could ye but know it. He that se­cludeth him­self in his house is in­deed as one dead. It be­hooveth man to show forth that which will ben­efit mankind. He that bringeth forth no fruit is fit for the fire. Thus ad­mon­isheth you your Lord; He, ver­ily, is the Mighty, the Boun­ti­ful. En­ter ye in­to wed­lock, that af­ter you an­oth­er may arise in your stead. We, ver­ily, have for­bid­den you lech­ery, and not that which is con­ducive to fi­deli­ty. Have ye clung un­to the prompt­ings of your na­ture, and cast be­hind your backs the statutes of God? Fear ye God, and be not of the fool­ish. But for man, who, on My earth, would re­mem­ber Me, and how could My at­tributes and My names be re­vealed? Re­flect, and be not of them that have shut them­selves out as by a veil from Him, and were of those that are fast asleep. He that mar­ried not (Je­sus Christ) could find no place where­in to abide, nor where to lay His head, by rea­son of what the hands of the treach­er­ous had wrought. His ho­li­ness con­sist­ed not in the things ye have be­lieved and imag­ined, but rather in the things which be­long un­to Us. Ask, that ye may be made aware of His sta­tion which hath been ex­alt­ed above the vain imag­in­ings of all the peo­ples of the earth. Blessed are they that un­der­stand.

"O King! We heard the words thou didst ut­ter in an­swer to the Czar of Rus­sia, con­cern­ing the de­ci­sion made re­gard­ing the war (Crimean War). Thy Lord, ver­ily, knoweth, is in­formed of all. Thou didst say: 'I lay asleep up­on my couch, when the cry of the op­pressed, who were drowned in the Black Sea, wak­ened me.' This is what We heard thee say, and, ver­ily, thy Lord is wit­ness un­to what I say. We tes­ti­fy that that which wak­ened thee was not their cry but the prompt­ings of thine own pas­sions, for We test­ed thee, and found thee want­ing. Com­pre­hend the mean­ing of My words, and be thou of the dis­cern­ing. It is not Our wish to ad­dress thee words of con­dem­na­tion, out of re­gard for the dig­ni­ty We con­ferred up­on thee in this mor­tal life. We, ver­ily, have cho­sen cour­tesy, and made it the true mark of such as are nigh un­to Him. Cour­tesy is, in truth, a rai­ment which fit­teth all men, whether young or old. Well is it with him that ador­neth his tem­ple there­with, and woe un­to him who is de­prived of this great boun­ty. Hadst thou been sin­cere in thy words, thou wouldst have not cast be­hind thy back the Book of God, when it was sent un­to thee by Him Who is the Almighty, the All-​Wise. We have proved thee through it, and found thee oth­er than that which thou didst pro­fess. Arise, and make amends for that which es­caped thee. Ere­long the world and all that thou pos­sess­est will per­ish, and the king­dom will re­main un­to God, thy Lord and the Lord of thy fa­thers of old. It be­hooveth thee not to con­duct thine af­fairs ac­cord­ing to the dic­tates of thy de­sires. Fear the sighs of this Wronged One, and shield Him from the darts of such as act un­just­ly.

"For what thou hast done, thy king­dom shall be thrown in­to con­fu­sion, and thine em­pire shall pass from thine hands, as a pun­ish­ment for that which thou hast wrought. Then wilt thou know how thou hast plain­ly erred. Com­mo­tions shall seize all the peo­ple in that land, un­less thou aris­est to help this Cause, and fol­low­est Him Who is the Spir­it of God (Je­sus Christ) in this, the Straight Path. Hath thy pomp made thee proud? By My Life! It shall not en­dure; nay, it shall soon pass away, un­less thou hold­est fast by this firm Cord. We see abase­ment has­ten­ing af­ter thee, whilst thou art of the heed­less. It be­hooveth thee when thou hear­est His Voice call­ing from the seat of glo­ry to cast away all that thou pos­sess­est, and cry out: 'Here am I, O Lord of all that is in heav­en and all that is on earth!'

“O King! We were in 'Iráq, when the hour of part­ing ar­rived. At the bid­ding of the King of Is­lám (Sultán of Turkey) We set Our steps in his di­rec­tion. Up­on Our ar­rival, there be­fell Us at the hands of the ma­li­cious that which the books of the world can nev­er ad­equate­ly re­count. There­upon the in­mates of Par­adise, and they that dwell with­in the re­treats of ho­li­ness, lament­ed; and yet the peo­ple are wrapped in a thick veil!”

And fur­ther We have said: “More grievous be­came Our plight from day to day, nay, from hour to hour, un­til they took Us forth from Our prison and made Us, with glar­ing in­jus­tice, en­ter the Most Great Prison. And if any­one ask them: 'For what crime were they im­pris­oned?' they would an­swer and say: 'They, ver­ily, sought to sup­plant the Faith with a new re­li­gion!' If that which is an­cient be what ye pre­fer, where­fore, then, have ye dis­card­ed that which hath been set down in the Torah and the Evan­gel? Clear it up, O men! By My life! There is no place for you to flee to in this day. If this be My crime, then Muham­mad, the Apos­tle of God, com­mit­ted it be­fore Me, and be­fore Him He Who was the Spir­it of God (Je­sus Christ), and yet ear­li­er He Who con­versed with God (Moses). And if My sin be this, that I have ex­alt­ed the Word of God and re­vealed His Cause, then in­deed am I the great­est of sin­ners! Such a sin I will not barter for the king­doms of earth and heav­en.”

And fur­ther We have said: "As My tribu­la­tions mul­ti­plied, so did My love for God and for His Cause in­crease, in such wise that all that be­fell Me from the hosts of the way­ward was pow­er­less to de­ter Me from My pur­pose. Should they hide Me away in the depths of the earth, yet would they find Me rid­ing aloft on the clouds, and call­ing out un­to God, the Lord of strength and of might. I have of­fered My­self up in the way of God, and I yearn af­ter tribu­la­tions in My love for Him, and for the sake of His good plea­sure. Un­to this bear wit­ness the woes which now af­flict Me, the like of which no oth­er man hath suf­fered. Ev­ery sin­gle hair of Mine head cal­leth out that which the Burn­ing Bush ut­tered on Sinai, and each vein of My body in­voketh God and saith: 'O would I had been sev­ered in Thy path, so that the world might be quick­ened, and all its peo­ples be unit­ed!' Thus hath it been de­creed by Him Who is the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed.

“Know of a truth that your sub­jects are God's trust amongst you. Watch ye, there­fore, over them as ye watch over your own selves. Be­ware that ye al­low not wolves to be­come the shep­herds of the fold, or pride and con­ceit to de­ter you from turn­ing un­to the poor and the des­olate. Arise thou, in My name, above the hori­zon of re­nun­ci­ation, and set, then, thy face to­wards the King­dom, at the bid­ding of thy Lord, the Lord of strength and of might.”

And fur­ther We have said: “Adorn the body of Thy king­dom with the rai­ment of My name, and arise, then, to teach My Cause. Bet­ter is this for thee than that which thou pos­sess­est. God will, there­by, ex­alt thy name among all the kings. Po­tent is He over all things. Walk thou amongst men in the name of God, and by the pow­er of His might, that thou mayest show forth His signs amidst the peo­ples of the earth.”

And fur­ther We have said: “Doth it be­hoove you to re­late your­selves to Him Who is the God of mer­cy, and yet com­mit the things which the Evil One hath com­mit­ted? Nay, by the Beau­ty of Him Who is the All-​Glo­ri­fied! could ye but know it. Purge your hearts from love of the world, and your tongues from calum­ny, and your limbs from what­so­ev­er may with­hold you from draw­ing nigh un­to God, the Mighty, the All-​Praised. Say: By the world is meant that which tur­neth you aside from Him Who is the Dawn­ing-​Place of Rev­ela­tion, and in­clineth you un­to that which is un­prof­itable un­to you. Ver­ily, the thing that de­ter­reth you, in this day, from God is world­li­ness in its essence. Es­chew it, and ap­proach the Most Sub­lime Vi­sion, this shin­ing and re­splen­dent Seat. Shed not the blood of any­one, O peo­ple, nei­ther judge ye any­one un­just­ly. Thus have ye been com­mand­ed by Him Who knoweth, Who is in­formed of all. They that com­mit dis­or­ders in the land af­ter it hath been well or­dered, these in­deed have out­stepped the bounds that have been set in the Book. Wretched shall be the abode of the trans­gres­sors!”

And fur­ther We have said: “Deal not treach­er­ous­ly with the sub­stance of your neigh­bor. Be ye trust­wor­thy on earth, and with­hold not from the poor the things giv­en un­to you by God through His grace. He, ver­ily, will be­stow up­on you the dou­ble of what ye pos­sess. He, in truth, is the All-​Boun­teous, the Most Gen­er­ous. O peo­ple of Bahá! Sub­due the citadels of men's hearts with the swords of wis­dom and of ut­ter­ance. They that dis­pute, as prompt­ed by their de­sires, are in­deed wrapped in a pal­pa­ble veil. Say: The sword of wis­dom is hot­ter than sum­mer heat, and sharp­er than blades of steel, if ye do but un­der­stand. Draw it forth in My name and through the pow­er of My might, and con­quer, then, with it the cities of the hearts of them that have se­clud­ed them­selves in the stronghold of their cor­rupt de­sires. Thus bid­deth you the Pen of the All-​Glo­ri­ous, whilst seat­ed be­neath the swords of the way­ward. If ye be­come aware of a sin com­mit­ted by an­oth­er, con­ceal it, that God may con­ceal your own sin. He, ver­ily, is the Con­ceal­er, the Lord of grace abound­ing. O ye rich ones on earth! If ye en­counter one who is poor, treat him not dis­dain­ful­ly. Re­flect up­on that where­of ye were cre­at­ed. Ev­ery one of you was cre­at­ed of a sor­ry germ.”

And fur­ther We have said: “Re­gard ye the world as a man's body, which is af­flict­ed with divers ail­ments, and the re­cov­ery of which de­pen­deth up­on the har­mo­niz­ing of all of its com­po­nent el­ements. Gath­er ye around that which We have pre­scribed un­to you, and walk not in the ways of such as cre­ate dis­sen­sion. Med­itate on the world and the state of its peo­ple. He, for Whose sake the world was called in­to be­ing, hath been im­pris­oned in the most des­olate of cities (Akká), by rea­son of that which the hands of the way­ward have wrought. From the hori­zon of His prison-​city He sum­mon­eth mankind un­to the Dayspring of God, the Ex­alt­ed, the Great. Ex­ul­test thou over the trea­sures thou dost pos­sess, know­ing they shall per­ish? Re­joic­est thou in that thou rulest a span of earth, when the whole world, in the es­ti­ma­tion of the peo­ple of Bahá, is worth as much as the black in the eye of a dead ant? Aban­don it un­to such as have set their af­fec­tions up­on it, and turn thou un­to Him Who is the De­sire of the world. Whith­er are gone the proud and their palaces? Gaze thou in­to their tombs, that thou mayest prof­it by this ex­am­ple, inas­much as We made it a les­son un­to ev­ery be­hold­er. Were the breezes of Rev­ela­tion to seize thee, thou wouldst flee the world, and turn un­to the King­dom, and wouldst ex­pend all thou pos­sess­est, that thou mayest draw nigh un­to this sub­lime Vi­sion.”

We bade a Chris­tian dis­patch this Tablet, and he in­formed Us that he trans­mit­ted both the orig­inal and its trans­la­tion. God, the Almighty, the All-​Know­ing, hath knowl­edge of all things.

One of the sec­tions of the Súratu'l-​Haykal is the Tablet ad­dressed to His Majesty, the Czar of Rus­sia--may God, ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied be He--as­sist him:

“O Czar of Rus­sia! In­cline thine ear un­to the voice of God, the King, the Holy, and turn thou un­to Par­adise, the Spot where­in abideth He Who, among the Con­course on high, beareth the most ex­cel­lent ti­tles, and Who, in the king­dom of cre­ation, is called by the name of God, the Ef­ful­gent, the All-​Glo­ri­ous. Be­ware that noth­ing de­ter thee from set­ting thy face to­wards thy Lord, the Com­pas­sion­ate, the Most Mer­ci­ful. We, ver­ily, have heard the thing for which thou didst sup­pli­cate thy Lord, whilst se­cret­ly com­muning with Him. Where­fore, the breeze of My lov­ing-​kind­ness waft­ed forth, and the sea of My mer­cy surged, and We an­swered thee in truth. Thy Lord, ver­ily, is the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise. Whilst I lay, chained and fet­tered, in the prison of Tihrán, one of thy min­is­ters ex­tend­ed Me his aid. Where­fore hath God or­dained for thee a sta­tion which the knowl­edge of none can com­pre­hend ex­cept His knowl­edge. Be­ware lest thou barter away this sub­lime sta­tion.”

And fur­ther We have said: "He Who is the Fa­ther is come, and the Son (Je­sus Christ), in the holy vale, cri­eth out: 'Here am I, here am I, O Lord, my God!', whilst Sinai cir­cleth round the House, and the Burn­ing Bush cal­leth aloud: 'The All-​Boun­teous is come mount­ed up­on the clouds! Blessed is he that draweth nigh un­to Him, and woe be­tide them that are far away.'

“Arise thou amongst men in the name of this all-​com­pelling Cause, and sum­mon, then, the na­tions un­to God, the Mighty, the Great. Be thou not of them who called up­on God by one of His names, but who, when He Who is the Ob­ject of all names ap­peared, de­nied Him and turned aside from Him, and, in the end, pro­nounced sen­tence against Him with man­ifest in­jus­tice. Con­sid­er and call thou to mind the days where­on the Spir­it of God (Je­sus Christ) ap­peared, and Herod gave judg­ment against Him. God, how­ev­er, aid­ed Him with the hosts of the un­seen, and pro­tect­ed Him with truth, and sent Him down un­to an­oth­er land, ac­cord­ing to His promise. He, ver­ily, or­daineth what He pleaseth. Thy Lord tru­ly pre­serveth whom He wil­leth, be he in the midst of the seas or in the maw of the ser­pent, or be­neath the sword of the op­pres­sor.”

And fur­ther We have said: “Again I say: Hear­ken un­to My voice that cal­leth from My prison, that it may ac­quaint thee with the things that have be­fall­en My Beau­ty, at the hands of them that are the man­ifes­ta­tions of My glo­ry, and that thou mayest per­ceive how great hath been My pa­tience, notwith­stand­ing My might, and how im­mense My for­bear­ance, notwith­stand­ing My pow­er. By My life! Couldst thou but know the things sent down by My Pen, and dis­cov­er the trea­sures of My Cause, and the pearls of My mys­ter­ies which lie hid in the seas of My names and in the gob­lets of My words, thou wouldst for long­ing af­ter His glo­ri­ous and sub­lime King­dom, lay down thy life in the path of God. Know thou that though My body be be­neath the swords of My foes, and My limbs be be­set with in­cal­cu­la­ble af­flic­tions, yet My spir­it is filled with a glad­ness with which all the joys of the earth can nev­er com­pare.”

Like­wise, We men­tion some vers­es from the Tablet of Her Majesty, the Queen (Queen Vic­to­ria)--may God, ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied be He, as­sist her. Our pur­pose is that hap­ly the breezes of Rev­ela­tion may en­vel­op thee, and cause thee to arise, whol­ly for the sake of God, and serve His Cause, and that thou mayest trans­mit any of the Tablets of the kings which might have re­mained un­de­liv­ered. This mis­sion is a great mis­sion, and this ser­vice a great ser­vice. In those re­gions dis­tin­guished di­vines are nu­mer­ous, among whom are those Siyyids who are renowned for their em­inence and dis­tinc­tion. Con­fer with them, and show them what hath flowed out of the Pen of Glo­ry, that hap­ly they may be gra­cious­ly aid­ed to bet­ter the con­di­tion of the world, and im­prove the char­ac­ter of peo­ples of dif­fer­ent na­tions, and may, through the liv­ing wa­ters of God's coun­sels, quench the ha­tred and the an­imos­ity which lie hid and smol­der in the hearts of men. We pray God that thou mayest be as­sist­ed there­in. And this, ver­ily, would not be hard for Him.

“O Queen in Lon­don! In­cline thine ear un­to the voice of thy Lord, the Lord of all mankind, call­ing from the Di­vine Lote-​Tree: Ver­ily, no God is there but Me, the Almighty, the All-​Wise! Cast away all that is on earth, and at­tire the head of thy king­dom with the crown of the re­mem­brance of Thy Lord, the All-​Glo­ri­ous. He, in truth, hath come un­to the world in His most great glo­ry, and all that hath been men­tioned in the Gospel hath been ful­filled. The land of Syr­ia hath been hon­ored by the foot­steps of its Lord, the Lord of all men, and North and South are both ine­bri­at­ed with the wine of His pres­ence. Blessed is the man that hath in­haled the fra­grance of the Most Mer­ci­ful, and turned un­to the Dawn­ing-​Place of His beau­ty, in this re­splen­dent Dawn. The Mosque of Aqsá vi­brateth through the breezes of its Lord, the All-​Glo­ri­ous, whilst Bathá (Mec­ca) trem­bleth at the voice of God, the Ex­alt­ed, the Most High. Ev­ery sin­gle stone of them cel­ebrateth the praise of the Lord, through this Great Name.”

And fur­ther We said: "We make men­tion of thee for the sake of God, and de­sire that thy name may be ex­alt­ed through thy re­mem­brance of God, the Cre­ator of earth and of heav­en. He, ver­ily, is wit­ness un­to that which I say. We have been in­formed that thou hast for­bid­den the trad­ing in slaves, both men and wom­en. This, ver­ily, is what God hath en­joined in this won­drous Rev­ela­tion. God hath, tru­ly, des­tined a re­ward for thee, be­cause of this. He, ver­ily, will pay the do­er of good, whether man or wom­an, his due rec­om­pense, wert thou to fol­low what hath been sent un­to thee by Him Who is the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed. As to him who tur­neth aside, and swelleth with pride, af­ter that the clear to­kens have come un­to him, from the Re­veal­er of signs, his work shall God bring to naught. He, in truth, hath pow­er over all things. Man's ac­tions are ac­cept­able af­ter his hav­ing rec­og­nized (the Man­ifes­ta­tion). He that tur­neth aside from the True One is in­deed the most veiled amongst His crea­tures. Thus hath it been de­creed by Him Who is the Almighty, the Most Pow­er­ful.

"We have al­so heard that thou hast en­trust­ed the reins of coun­sel in­to the hands of the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the peo­ple. Thou, in­deed, hast done well, for there­by the foun­da­tions of the ed­ifice of thine af­fairs will be strength­ened, and the hearts of all that are be­neath thy shad­ow, whether high or low, will be tran­quil­lized. It be­hooveth them, how­ev­er, to be trust­wor­thy among His ser­vants, and to re­gard them­selves as the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of all that dwell on earth. This is what coun­sel­leth them, in this Tablet, He Who is the Ruler, the All-​Wise. And if any one of them di­recteth him­self to­wards the As­sem­bly, let him turn his eyes un­to the Supreme Hori­zon, and say: 'O my God! I ask Thee, by Thy most glo­ri­ous Name, to aid me in that which will cause the af­fairs of Thy ser­vants to pros­per, and Thy cities to flour­ish. Thou, in­deed, hast pow­er over all things!' Blessed is he that en­tereth the As­sem­bly for the sake of God, and jud­geth be­tween men with pure jus­tice. He, in­deed, is of the bliss­ful.

“O ye mem­bers of As­sem­blies in that land and in oth­er coun­tries! Take ye coun­sel to­geth­er, and let your con­cern be on­ly for that which prof­iteth mankind, and bet­tereth the con­di­tion there­of, if ye be of them that scan heed­ful­ly. Re­gard the world as the hu­man body which, though at its cre­ation whole and per­fect, hath been af­flict­ed, through var­ious caus­es, with grave dis­or­ders and mal­adies. Not for one day did it gain ease, nay, its sick­ness waxed more se­vere, as it fell un­der the treat­ment of ig­no­rant physi­cians, who gave full rein to their per­son­al de­sires, and have erred grievous­ly. And if at one time, through the care of an able physi­cian, a mem­ber of that body was healed, the rest re­mained af­flict­ed as be­fore. Thus in­formeth you the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise. We be­hold it, in this day, at the mer­cy of rulers, so drunk with pride that they can­not dis­cern clear­ly their own best ad­van­tage, much less rec­og­nize a Rev­ela­tion so be­wil­der­ing and chal­leng­ing as this.”

And fur­ther We have said: "That which God hath or­dained as the sovereign rem­edy and might­iest in­stru­ment for the heal­ing of the world is the union of all its peo­ples in one uni­ver­sal Cause, one com­mon Faith. This can in no wise be achieved ex­cept through the pow­er of a skilled, an all-​pow­er­ful, and in­spired Physi­cian. By My life! This is the truth, and all else naught but er­ror. Each time that Most Mighty In­stru­ment hath come, and that Light shone forth from the An­cient Dayspring, He was with­held by ig­no­rant physi­cians who, even as clouds, in­ter­posed them­selves be­tween Him and the world. It failed there­fore, to re­cov­er, and its sick­ness hath per­sist­ed un­til this day. They in­deed were pow­er­less to pro­tect it, or to ef­fect a cure, whilst He Who hath been the Man­ifes­ta­tion of Pow­er amongst men was with­held from achiev­ing His pur­pose, by rea­son of what the hands of the ig­no­rant physi­cians have wrought.

“Con­sid­er these days in which He Who is the An­cient Beau­ty hath come in the Most Great Name, that He may quick­en the world and unite its peo­ples. They, how­ev­er, rose up against Him with sharp­ened swords, and com­mit­ted that which caused the Faith­ful Spir­it to lament, un­til in the end they im­pris­oned Him in the most des­olate of cities, and broke the grasp of the faith­ful up­on the hem of His robe. Were any­one to tell them: 'The World Re­former is come,' they would an­swer and say: 'In­deed it is proven that He is a fo­menter of dis­cord!', and this notwith­stand­ing that they have nev­er as­so­ci­at­ed with Him, and have per­ceived that He did not seek, for one mo­ment, to pro­tect Him­self. At all times He was at the mer­cy of the wicked do­ers. At one time they cast Him in­to prison, at an­oth­er they ban­ished Him, and at yet an­oth­er hur­ried Him from land to land. Thus have they pro­nounced judg­ment against Us, and God, tru­ly, is aware of what I say.”

This charge of fo­ment­ing dis­cord is the same as that im­put­ed afore­time by the Pharaohs of Egypt to Him Who con­versed with God (Moses). Read thou what the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath re­vealed in the Qur'án. He--may He be blessed and glo­ri­fied--saith: “More­over We had sent Moses of old with Our signs and with clear au­thor­ity to Pharaoh, and Hamán, and Qarún: and they said: 'Sor­cer­er, im­pos­tor!' And when He came to them from Our pres­ence with the truth, they said: 'Slay the sons of those who be­lieve as He doth, and save their fe­males alive,' but the stratagem of the un­be­liev­ers is­sued on­ly in fail­ure. And Pharaoh said: 'Let me alone, that I may kill Moses; and let him call up­on his Lord: I fear lest he change your re­li­gion, or cause dis­or­der to show it­self in the land.' And Moses said: 'I take refuge with my Lord, and your Lord from ev­ery proud one who be­lieveth not in the Day of Reck­on­ing.'”

Men have, at all times, con­sid­ered ev­ery World Re­former a fo­menter of dis­cord, and have re­ferred un­to Him in terms with which all are fa­mil­iar. Each time the Daystar of Di­vine Rev­ela­tion shed its ra­di­ance from the hori­zon of God's Will a great num­ber of men de­nied Him, oth­ers turned aside from Him, and still oth­ers ca­lum­ni­at­ed Him, and there­by with­held the ser­vants of God from the riv­er of lov­ing prov­idence of Him Who is the King of cre­ation. In like man­ner, they who, in this day, have nei­ther met this Wronged One nor as­so­ci­at­ed with Him have said, and even now con­tin­ue to say, the things thou hast heard and hear­est still. Say: “O peo­ple! The Sun of Ut­ter­ance beameth forth in this day, above the hori­zon of boun­ty, and the ra­di­ance of the Rev­ela­tion of Him Who spoke on Sinai flasheth and glis­teneth be­fore all re­li­gions. Purge and sanc­ti­fy your breasts, and your hearts, and your ears, and your eyes with the liv­ing wa­ters of the ut­ter­ance of the All-​Mer­ci­ful, and set, then, your faces to­wards Him. By the righ­teous­ness of God! Ye shall hear all things pro­claim: 'Ver­ily, He the True One is come. Blessed are they that judge with fair­ness, and blessed they that turn to­wards Him!'”

Among the things they have im­put­ed to the Di­vine Lote-​Tree (Moses) are charges to the fal­si­ty of which ev­ery dis­cern­ing man of knowl­edge, and ev­ery wise and un­der­stand­ing heart, will wit­ness. Thou must, no doubt, have read and con­sid­ered the vers­es which have been sent down con­cern­ing Him Who con­versed with God. He--may He be blessed and glo­ri­fied--saith: “He said: 'Did We not rear thee among us when a child? And hast thou not passed years of thy life among us? And yet what a deed is that which thou hast done! Thou art one of the un­grate­ful.' He said: 'I did it in­deed, and I was one of those who erred. And I fled from you be­cause I feared you; but My Lord hath giv­en Me wis­dom and hath made Me one of His Apos­tles.'” And else­where He--may He be blessed and ex­alt­ed--saith: “And He en­tered a city at the time when its in­hab­itants would not ob­serve Him, and found there­in two men fight­ing, the one, of His own peo­ple; the oth­er, of His en­emies. And he who was of His own peo­ple asked His help against him who was of His en­emies. And Moses smote him with His fist and slew him. Said He: 'This is a work of Sa­tan; for he is an en­emy, a man­ifest mis­lead­er.' He said: 'O my Lord! I have sinned to mine own hurt, for­give me.' So God for­gave Him; for He is the For­giv­ing, the Mer­ci­ful. He said: 'Lord! be­cause Thou hast showed me this grace, I will nev­er again be the helper of the wicked.' And in the city at noon He was full of fear, cast­ing furtive glances round Him, and lo, the man whom He had helped the day be­fore, cried out to Him again for help. Said Moses to him: 'Thou art plain­ly a most de­praved per­son.' And when He would have laid vi­olent hands on him who was their com­mon foe, he said to Him: 'O Moses! Dost Thou de­sire to slay me, as thou slewest a man yes­ter­day? Thou de­sirest on­ly to be­come a tyrant in this land, and de­sirest not to be­come a peace­mak­er.'” Thine ears and thine eyes must needs now be cleansed and sanc­ti­fied, that thou mayest be able to judge with fair­ness and jus­tice. Moses Him­self, more­over, ac­knowl­edged His in­jus­tice and way­ward­ness, and tes­ti­fied that fear had seized Him, and that He had trans­gressed, and fled away. He asked God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--to for­give Him, and He was for­giv­en.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Ev­ery time God the True One--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--re­vealed Him­self in the per­son of His Man­ifes­ta­tion, He came un­to men with the stan­dard of “He doeth what He wil­leth, and or­daineth what He pleaseth.” None hath the right to ask why or where­fore, and he that doth so, hath in­deed turned aside from God, the Lord of Lords. In the days of ev­ery Man­ifes­ta­tion these things ap­pear and are ev­ident. Like­wise, they have said that about this Wronged One, to the fal­si­ty of which they who are nigh un­to God and are de­vot­ed to Him have borne, and still bear, wit­ness. By the righ­teous­ness of God! This Hem of His Robe hath ev­er been and re­maineth un­sul­lied, though many have, at the present time, pur­posed to be­smirch it with their ly­ing and un­seem­ly calum­nies. God, how­ev­er, knoweth and they know not. He Who, through the might and pow­er of God, hath arisen be­fore the face of all the kin­dreds of the earth, and sum­moned the mul­ti­tudes to the Supreme Hori­zon, hath been re­pu­di­at­ed by them and they have clung in­stead un­to such men as have in­vari­ably with­drawn them­selves be­hind veils and cur­tains, and bus­ied them­selves about their own pro­tec­tion. More­over, many are now en­gaged in spread­ing lies and calum­nies, and have no oth­er in­ten­tion than to in­still dis­trust in­to the hearts and souls of men. As soon as some­one leaveth the Great City (Con­stantino­ple) to vis­it this land, they at once tele­graph and pro­claim that he hath stolen mon­ey and fled to Akká. A high­ly ac­com­plished, learned and dis­tin­guished man vis­it­ed, in his de­clin­ing years, the Holy Land, seek­ing peace and re­tire­ment, and about him they have writ­ten such things as have caused them who are de­vot­ed to God and are nigh un­to Him to sigh.

His Ex­cel­len­cy, the late Mírzá Husayn _Kh_án, Mu_sh_íru'd-​Dawlih,--may God for­give him--hath known this Wronged One, and he, no doubt, must have giv­en to the Au­thor­ities a cir­cum­stan­tial ac­count of the ar­rival of this Wronged One at the Sub­lime Porte, and of the things which He said and did. On the day of Our ar­rival the Gov­ern­ment Of­fi­cial, whose du­ty it was to re­ceive and en­ter­tain of­fi­cial vis­itors, met Us and es­cort­ed Us to the place he had been bid­den to take Us. In truth, the Gov­ern­ment showed these wronged ones the ut­most kind­ness and con­sid­er­ation. The fol­low­ing day Prince _Sh_uja'u'd-​Dawlih, ac­com­pa­nied by Mírzá Safá, act­ing as the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the late Mu_sh_íru'd-​Dawlih, the Min­is­ter (ac­cred­it­ed to the Im­pe­ri­al Court) came to vis­it Us. Oth­ers, among whom were sev­er­al Min­is­ters of the Im­pe­ri­al Gov­ern­ment, and in­clud­ing the late Kamál Pá_sh_á, like­wise called on Us. Whol­ly re­liant on God, and with­out any ref­er­ence to any need He might have had, or to any oth­er mat­ter, this Wronged One so­journed for a pe­ri­od of four months in that city. His ac­tions were known and ev­ident un­to all, and none can de­ny them ex­cept such as hate Him, and speak not the truth. He that hath rec­og­nized God, rec­og­nizeth none oth­er but Him. We have nev­er liked, nor like We, to make men­tion of such things.

When­ev­er high dig­ni­taries of Per­sia came to that city (Con­stantino­ple) they would ex­ert them­selves to the ut­most so­lic­it­ing at ev­ery door such al­lowances and gifts as they might ob­tain. This Wronged One, how­ev­er, if He hath done noth­ing that would re­dound to the glo­ry of Per­sia, hath at least act­ed in a man­ner that could in no wise dis­grace it. That which was done by his late Ex­cel­len­cy (Mu_sh_íru'd-​Dawlih)--may God ex­alt his sta­tion--was not ac­tu­at­ed by his friend­ship to­wards this Wronged One, but rather was prompt­ed by his own saga­cious judg­ment, and by his de­sire to ac­com­plish the ser­vice he se­cret­ly con­tem­plat­ed ren­der­ing his Gov­ern­ment. I tes­ti­fy that he was so faith­ful in his ser­vice to his Gov­ern­ment that dis­hon­esty played no part, and was held in con­tempt, in the do­main of his ac­tiv­ities. It was he who was re­spon­si­ble for the ar­rival of these wronged ones in the Most Great Prison (Akká). As he was faith­ful, how­ev­er, in the dis­charge of his du­ty, he de­serveth Our com­men­da­tion. This Wronged One hath, at all times, aimed and striv­en to ex­alt and ad­vance the in­ter­ests of both the gov­ern­ment and the peo­ple, not to el­evate His own sta­tion. A num­ber of men have, now, gath­ered oth­ers about them, and have arisen to dis­hon­or this Wronged One. He, nev­er­the­less, be­seecheth God--hal­lowed and glo­ri­fied be He--to aid them to re­turn un­to Him, and as­sist them to com­pen­sate for that which es­caped them, and re­pent be­fore the door of His boun­ty. He, ver­ily, is the For­giv­ing, the Mer­ci­ful.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! My Pen, ver­ily, lamenteth over Mine own Self, and My Tablet weep­eth sore over what hath be­fall­en Me at the hands of one (Mírzá Yahyá) over whom We watched for suc­ces­sive years, and who, day and night, served in My pres­ence, un­til he was made to err by one of My ser­vants, named Siyyid Muham­mad. Un­to this bear wit­ness My be­liev­ing ser­vants who ac­com­pa­nied Me in My ex­ile from Ba_gh_dád to this, the Most Great Prison. And there be­fell Me at the hands of both of them that which made ev­ery man of un­der­stand­ing to cry out, and he who is en­dued with in­sight to groan aloud, and the tears of the fair-​mind­ed to flow.

We pray to God to gra­cious­ly as­sist them that have been led astray to be just and fair-​mind­ed, and to make them aware of that where­of they have been heed­less. He, in truth, is the All-​Boun­teous, the Most Gen­er­ous. De­bar not Thy ser­vants, O my Lord, from the door of Thy grace, and drive them not away from the court of Thy pres­ence. As­sist them to dis­pel the mists of idle fan­cy, and to tear away the veils of vain imag­in­ings and hopes. Thou art, ver­ily, the All-​Pos­sess­ing, the Most High. No God is there but Thee, the Almighty, the Gra­cious.

I swear by the Daystar of God's Tes­ti­mo­ny that hath shone from the hori­zon of cer­ti­tude! This Wronged One, in the day­time and in the night-​sea­son, oc­cu­pied Him­self with that which would ed­ify the souls of men, un­til the light of knowl­edge pre­vailed over the dark­ness of ig­no­rance.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Time and again have I de­clared, and now yet again I af­firm, that for two score years We have, through the grace of God and by His ir­re­sistible and po­tent will, ex­tend­ed such aid to His Majesty the _Sh_áh--may God as­sist him--as the ex­po­nents of jus­tice and of eq­ui­ty would re­gard as in­con­testable and ab­so­lute. None can de­ny it, un­less he be a trans­gres­sor and sin­ner, or one who would hate Us or doubt Our truth. How very strange that un­til now the Min­is­ters of State and the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the peo­ple have alike re­mained un­aware of such con­spic­uous and un­de­ni­able ser­vice, and, if ap­prized of it, have, for rea­sons of their own, cho­sen to ig­nore it! Pre­vi­ous to these forty years con­tro­ver­sies and con­flicts con­tin­ual­ly pre­vailed and ag­itat­ed the ser­vants of God. But since then, aid­ed by the hosts of wis­dom, of ut­ter­ance, of ex­hor­ta­tions and un­der­stand­ing, they have all seized and tak­en fast hold of the firm cord of pa­tience and of the shin­ing hem of for­ti­tude, in such wise that this wronged peo­ple en­dured stead­fast­ly what­ev­er be­fell them, and com­mit­ted ev­ery­thing un­to God, and this notwith­stand­ing that in Mázin­darán and at Ra_sh_t a great many have been most hideous­ly tor­ment­ed. Among them was his hon­or, Hájí Násir, who, un­ques­tion­ably, was a bril­liant light that shone forth above the hori­zon of res­ig­na­tion. Af­ter he had suf­fered mar­tyr­dom, they plucked out his eyes and cut off his nose, and in­flict­ed on him such in­dig­ni­ties that strangers wept and lament­ed, and se­cret­ly raised funds to sup­port his wife and chil­dren.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! My Pen is abashed to re­count what ac­tu­al­ly took place. In the land of Sád (Is­fáhán) the fire of tyran­ny burned with such a hot flame that ev­ery fair-​mind­ed per­son groaned aloud. By thy life! The cities of knowl­edge and of un­der­stand­ing wept with such a weep­ing that the souls of the pi­ous and of the God-​fear­ing were melt­ed. The twin shin­ing lights, Hasan and Husayn (The King of Mar­tyrs and the Beloved of Mar­tyrs) of­fered up spon­ta­neous­ly their lives in that city. Nei­ther for­tune, nor wealth, nor glo­ry, could de­ter them! God knoweth the things which be­fell them and yet the peo­ple are, for the most part, un­aware!

Be­fore them one named Káz­im and they who were with him, and af­ter them, his hon­or A_sh_raf, all quaffed the draught of mar­tyr­dom with the ut­most fer­vor and long­ing, and has­tened un­to the Supreme Com­pan­ion. In like man­ner, at the time of Sardár Azíz _Kh_án, that god­ly man, Mírzá Mustafá, and his fel­low mar­tyrs, were ar­rest­ed, and despatched un­to the Supreme Friend in the All-​Glo­ri­ous Hori­zon. Briefly, in ev­ery city the ev­idences of a tyran­ny, be­yond like or equal, were un­mis­tak­ably clear and man­ifest, and yet none arose in self-​de­fence! Call thou to mind his hon­or Badí, who was the bear­er of the Tablet to His Majesty the _Sh_áh, and re­flect how he laid down his life. That knight, who spurred on his charg­er in the are­na of re­nun­ci­ation, threw down the pre­cious crown of life for the sake of Him Who is the In­com­pa­ra­ble Friend.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! If things such as these are to be de­nied, what shall, then, be deemed wor­thy of cre­dence? Set forth the truth, for the sake of God, and be not of them that hold their peace. They ar­rest­ed his hon­or Na­jaf-'Alí, who has­tened, with rap­ture and great long­ing, un­to the field of mar­tyr­dom, ut­ter­ing these words: “We have kept both Bahá and the _kh_ún-​bahá (blood­money)!” With these words he yield­ed up his spir­it. Med­itate on the splen­dor and glo­ry which the light of re­nun­ci­ation, shin­ing from the up­per cham­ber of the heart of Mul­lá 'Alí-​Ján, hath shed. He was so car­ried away by the breezes of the Most Sub­lime Word and by the pow­er of the Pen of Glo­ry that to him the field of mar­tyr­dom equalled, nay out­rivalled, the haunts of earth­ly de­lights. Pon­der up­on the con­duct of 'Abá-​Básir and Siyyid A_sh_raf-​i-​Zan­jání. They sent for the moth­er of A_sh_raf to dis­suade her son from his pur­pose. But she spurred him on un­til he suf­fered a most glo­ri­ous mar­tyr­dom.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! This peo­ple have passed be­yond the nar­row straits of names, and pitched their tents up­on the shores of the sea of re­nun­ci­ation. They would will­ing­ly lay down a myr­iad lives, rather than breathe the word de­sired by their en­emies. They have clung to that which pleaseth God, and are whol­ly de­tached and freed from the things which per­tain un­to men. They have pre­ferred to have their heads cut off rather than ut­ter one un­seem­ly word. Pon­der this in thine heart. Me­thinks they have quaffed their fill of the ocean of re­nun­ci­ation. The life of the present world hath failed to with­hold them from suf­fer­ing mar­tyr­dom in the path of God.

In Mázin­darán a vast num­ber of the ser­vants of God were ex­ter­mi­nat­ed. The Gov­er­nor, un­der the in­flu­ence of ca­lum­ni­ators, robbed a great many of all that they pos­sessed. Among the charges he laid against them was that they had been lay­ing up arms, where­as up­on in­ves­ti­ga­tion it was found out that they had noth­ing but an un­load­ed ri­fle! Gra­cious God! This peo­ple need no weapons of de­struc­tion, inas­much as they have gird­ed them­selves to re­con­struct the world. Their hosts are the hosts of good­ly deeds, and their arms the arms of up­right con­duct, and their com­man­der the fear of God. Blessed that one that jud­geth with fair­ness. By the righ­teous­ness of God! Such hath been the pa­tience, the calm, the res­ig­na­tion and con­tent­ment of this peo­ple that they have be­come the ex­po­nents of jus­tice, and so great hath been their for­bear­ance, that they have suf­fered them­selves to be killed rather than kill, and this notwith­stand­ing that these whom the world hath wronged have en­dured tribu­la­tions the like of which the his­to­ry of the world hath nev­er record­ed, nor the eyes of any na­tion wit­nessed. What is it that could have in­duced them to rec­on­cile them­selves to these grievous tri­als, and to refuse to put forth a hand to re­pel them? What could have caused such res­ig­na­tion and seren­ity? The true cause is to be found in the ban which the Pen of Glo­ry hath, day and night, cho­sen to im­pose, and in Our as­sump­tion of the reins of au­thor­ity, through the pow­er and might of Him Who is the Lord of all mankind.

Re­mem­ber the fa­ther of Badí. They ar­rest­ed that wronged one, and or­dered him to curse and re­vile his Faith. He, how­ev­er, through the grace of God and the mer­cy of his Lord, chose mar­tyr­dom, and at­tained there­un­to. If ye would reck­on up the mar­tyrs in the path of God, ye could not count them. Con­sid­er his hon­or Siyyid Is­má'íl--up­on him be the peace of God, and His lov­ing-​kind­ness--how, be­fore day­break he was wont to dust, with his own tur­ban, the doorstep of My house, and in the end, whilst stand­ing on the banks of the riv­er, with his eyes fixed on that same house, of­fered up, by his own hand, his life.

Do thou pon­der on the pen­etra­tive in­flu­ence of the Word of God. Ev­ery sin­gle one of these souls was first or­dered to blas­pheme and curse his faith, yet none was found to pre­fer his own will to the Will of God.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! In for­mer times he that was cho­sen to be slain was but one per­son, where­as now this Wronged One hath pro­duced for thee that which causeth ev­ery fair-​mind­ed man to mar­vel. Judge fair­ly, I ad­jure thee, and arise to serve thy Lord. He, ver­ily, shall re­ward thee with a re­ward which nei­ther the trea­sures of the earth nor all the pos­ses­sions of kings and rulers can equal. In all thine af­fairs put thy re­liance in God, and com­mit them un­to Him. He will ren­der thee a re­ward which the Book hath or­dained as great. Oc­cu­py thy­self, dur­ing these fleet­ing days of thy life, with such deeds as will dif­fuse the fra­grance of Di­vine good plea­sure, and will be adorned with the or­na­ment of His ac­cep­tance. The acts of his hon­or, Balál, the Ethiopi­an, were so ac­cept­able in the sight of God that the “sín” of his stut­ter­ing tongue ex­celled the “_sh_ín” pro­nounced by all the world. This is the day where­on all peo­ples should shed the light of uni­ty and con­cord. In brief, the pride and van­ity of cer­tain of the peo­ples of the world have made hav­oc of true un­der­stand­ing, and laid waste the home of jus­tice and of eq­ui­ty.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! That which hath touched this Wronged One is be­yond com­pare or equal. We have borne it all with the ut­most will­ing­ness and res­ig­na­tion, so that the souls of men may be ed­ified, and the Word of God be ex­alt­ed. While con­fined in the prison of the Land of Mím (Mázin­darán) We were one day de­liv­ered in­to the hands of the di­vines. Thou canst well imag­ine what be­fell Us. Shouldst thou at some time hap­pen to vis­it the dun­geon of His Majesty the _Sh_áh, ask the di­rec­tor and chief jail­er to show thee those two chains, one of which is known as Qará-​Guhar, and the oth­er as Salásil. I swear by the Daystar of Jus­tice that for four months this Wronged One was tor­ment­ed and chained by one or the oth­er of them. “My grief ex­ceedeth all the woes to which Ja­cob gave vent, and all the af­flic­tions of Job are but a part of My sor­rows!”

Like­wise, pon­der thou up­on the mar­tyr­dom of Hájí Muham­mad-​Ridá in the City of Love (I_sh_qábád). The tyrants of the earth have sub­ject­ed that wronged one to such tri­als as have caused many for­eign­ers to weep and lament for, as re­port­ed and as­cer­tained, no less than thir­ty-​two wounds were in­flict­ed up­on his blessed body. Yet none of the faith­ful trans­gressed My com­mand­ment, nor raised his hand in re­sis­tance. Come what might, they re­fused to al­low their own in­cli­na­tions to su­per­sede that which the Book hath de­creed, though a con­sid­er­able num­ber of this peo­ple have resid­ed, and still re­side, in that city.

We en­treat His Majesty the _Sh_áh,--may God, hal­lowed and glo­ri­fied be He, as­sist him--him­self to pon­der up­on these things, and to judge with eq­ui­ty and jus­tice. Al­though in re­cent years a num­ber of the faith­ful have, in most of the cities of Per­sia, suf­fered them­selves to be killed rather than kill, yet the ha­tred smoul­der­ing in cer­tain hearts hath blazed more fierce­ly than be­fore. For the vic­tims of op­pres­sion to in­ter­cede in fa­vor of their en­emies is, in the es­ti­ma­tion of rulers, a prince­ly deed. Some must have cer­tain­ly heard that this op­pressed peo­ple have, in that city (I_sh_qábád), plead­ed with the Gov­er­nor on be­half of their mur­der­ers, and asked for the mit­iga­tion of their sen­tence. Take, then, good heed, ye who are men of in­sight!

O _Sh_ay_kh_! These per­spic­uous vers­es have been sent down in one of the Tablets by the Ab­há Pen: “Hear­ken, O ser­vant, un­to the voice of this Wronged One, Who hath en­dured grievous vex­ations and tri­als in the path of God, the Lord of all Names, un­til such time as He was cast in­to prison, in the Land of Tá (Tihrán). He sum­moned men un­to the most sub­lime Par­adise, and yet they seized Him and pa­rad­ed Him through cities and coun­tries. How many the nights dur­ing which slum­ber fled from the eyes of My loved ones, be­cause of their love for Me; and how nu­mer­ous the days where­on I had to face the as­saults of the peo­ples against Me! At one time I found My­self on the heights of moun­tains; at an­oth­er in the depths of the prison of Tá (Tihrán), in chains and fet­ters. By the righ­teous­ness of God! I was at all times thank­ful un­to Him, ut­ter­ing His praise, en­gaged in re­mem­ber­ing Him, di­rect­ed to­wards Him, sat­is­fied with His plea­sure, and low­ly and sub­mis­sive be­fore Him. So passed My days, un­til they end­ed in this Prison (Akká) which hath made the earth to trem­ble and the heav­ens to sigh. Hap­py that one who hath cast away his vain imag­in­ings, when He Who was hid came with the stan­dards of His signs. We, ver­ily, have an­nounced un­to men this Most Great Rev­ela­tion, and yet the peo­ple are in a state of strange stu­por.”

There­upon, a Voice was raised from the di­rec­tion of Hi­jáz, call­ing aloud and say­ing: “Great is thy blessed­ness, O Akká, in that God hath made thee the dayspring of His Most Sweet Voice, and the dawn of His most mighty signs. Hap­py art thou in that the Throne of Jus­tice hath been es­tab­lished up­on thee, and the Daystar of God's lov­ing-​kind­ness and boun­ty hath shone forth above thy hori­zon. Well is it with ev­ery fair-​mind­ed per­son that hath judged fair­ly Him Who is the Most Great Re­mem­brance, and woe be­tide him that hath erred and doubt­ed.”

Fol­low­ing up­on the death of some of the mar­tyrs, the Lawh-​i-​Burhán (Tablet of the Proof) was sent down from the heav­en of the Rev­ela­tion of Him Who is the Lord of Re­li­gions:

"He is the Almighty, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise! The winds of ha­tred have en­com­passed the Ark of Bathá (Mec­ca), by rea­son of that which the hands of the op­pres­sors have wrought. O thou who art re­put­ed for thy learn­ing! Thou hast pro­nounced sen­tence against them for whom the books of the world have wept, and in whose fa­vor the scrip­tures of all re­li­gions have tes­ti­fied. Thou, who art gone far astray, art in­deed wrapt in a thick veil. By God Him­self! Thou hast pro­nounced judg­ment against them through whom the hori­zon of faith hath been il­lu­mined. Un­to this bear wit­ness They Who are the Dawn­ing-​Places of Rev­ela­tion and the Man­ifes­ta­tions of the Cause of thy Lord, the Most Mer­ci­ful, Who have sac­ri­ficed Their souls and all that They pos­sessed in His straight Path. The Faith of God hath cried ev­ery­where, by rea­son of thy tyran­ny, and yet thou dis­portest thy­self and art of them that ex­ult. There is no ha­tred in Mine heart for thee nor for any­one. Ev­ery man of dis­cern­ment be­hold­eth thee, and such as are like thee, en­gulfed in ev­ident fol­ly. Hadst thou re­al­ized that which thou hast done, thou wouldst have cast thy­self in­to the fire, or aban­doned thine home and fled un­to the moun­tains, or wouldst have groaned un­til thou hadst re­turned un­to the place des­tined for thee by Him Who is the Lord of strength and of might. O thou who art even as noth­ing! Rend thou asun­der the veils of idle fan­cies and vain imag­in­ings, that thou mayest be­hold the Daystar of knowl­edge shin­ing from this re­splen­dent Hori­zon. Thou hast torn in pieces a rem­nant of the Prophet Him­self, and imag­ined that thou hadst helped the Faith of God. Thus hath thy soul prompt­ed thee, and thou art tru­ly one of the heed­less. Thine act hath con­sumed the hearts of the Con­course on high, and those of such as have cir­cled round the Cause of God, the Lord of the worlds. The soul of the Chaste One (Fá­tim­ih) melt­ed, by rea­son of thy cru­el­ty, and the in­mates of Par­adise wept sore in that blessed Spot.

"Judge thou fair­ly, I ad­jure thee by God. What proof did the Jew­ish doc­tors ad­duce where­with to con­demn Him Who was the Spir­it of God (Je­sus Christ), when He came un­to them with truth? What could have been the ev­idence pro­duced by the Phar­isees and the idol­atrous priests to jus­ti­fy their de­nial of Muham­mad, the Apos­tle of God when He came un­to them with a Book that judged be­tween truth and false­hood with a jus­tice which turned in­to light the dark­ness of the earth, and en­rap­tured the hearts of such as had known Him? In­deed thou hast pro­duced, in this day, the same proofs which the fool­ish di­vines ad­vanced in that age. Un­to this tes­ti­fi­eth He Who is the King of the realm of grace in this great Prison. Thou hast, tru­ly, walked in their ways, nay, hast sur­passed them in their cru­el­ty, and hast deemed thy­self to be help­ing the Faith and de­fend­ing the Law of God, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise. By Him Who is the Truth! Thine in­iq­ui­ty hath made Gabriel to groan, and hath drawn tears from the Law of God, through which the breezes of jus­tice have been waft­ed over all who are in heav­en and on earth. Hast thou fond­ly imag­ined that the judg­ment thou didst pro­nounce hath prof­it­ed thee? Nay, by Him Who is the King of all Names! Un­to thy loss tes­ti­fi­eth He with Whom is the knowl­edge of all things as record­ed in the pre­served Tablet.

“O thou who hast gone astray! Thou hast nei­ther seen Me, nor as­so­ci­at­ed with Me, nor been My com­pan­ion for the frac­tion of a mo­ment. How is it, then, that thou hast bid­den men to curse Me? Didst thou, in this, fol­low the prompt­ings of thine own de­sires, or didst thou obey thy Lord? Pro­duce thou a sign, if thou art one of the truth­ful. We tes­ti­fy that thou hast cast be­hind thy back the Law of God, and laid hold on the dic­tates of thy pas­sions. Noth­ing, in truth, es­capeth His knowl­edge; He, ver­ily, is the In­com­pa­ra­ble, the All-​In­formed. O heed­less one! Hear­ken un­to that which the Mer­ci­ful hath re­vealed in the Qur'án: 'Say not to ev­ery one who meeteth you with a greet­ing, ”Thou art not a be­liev­er."' Thus hath He de­creed in Whose grasp are the king­doms of Rev­ela­tion and of cre­ation, if thou be of them that hear­ken. Thou hast set aside the com­mand­ment of God, and clung un­to the prompt­ings of thine own de­sire. Woe, then, un­to thee, O care­less one that doubtest! If thou de­ni­est Me, by what proof canst thou vin­di­cate the truth of that which thou dost pos­sess? Pro­duce it, then, O thou who hast joined part­ners with God, and turned aside from His sovereign­ty that hath en­com­passed the worlds!

"Know thou that he is tru­ly learned who hath ac­knowl­edged My Rev­ela­tion, and drunk from the Ocean of My knowl­edge, and soared in the at­mo­sphere of My love, and cast away all else be­sides Me, and tak­en firm hold on that which hath been sent down from the King­dom of My won­drous ut­ter­ance. He, ver­ily, is even as an eye un­to mankind, and as the spir­it of life un­to the body of all cre­ation. Glo­ri­fied be the All-​Mer­ci­ful Who hath en­light­ened him, and caused him to arise and serve His great and mighty Cause. Ver­ily, such a man is blessed by the Con­course on high, and by them who dwell with­in the Taber­na­cle of Grandeur, who have quaffed My sealed Wine in My Name, the Om­nipo­tent, the All-​Pow­er­ful. If thou be of them that oc­cu­py such a sub­lime sta­tion, pro­duce then a sign from God, the Cre­ator of the heav­ens. And shouldst thou rec­og­nize thy pow­er­less­ness, do thou rein in thy pas­sions, and re­turn un­to thy Lord, that per­chance He may for­give thee thy sins which have caused the leaves of the Di­vine Lote-​Tree to be burnt up, and the Rock to cry out, and the eyes of men of un­der­stand­ing to weep. Be­cause of thee the Veil of Di­vin­ity was rent asun­der, and the Ark has foundered, and the She-​Camel was ham­strung, and the Spir­it (Je­sus) groaned in His sub­lime re­treat. Dis­putest thou with Him Who hath come un­to thee with the tes­ti­monies of God and His signs which thou pos­sess­est and which are in the pos­ses­sion of them that dwell on earth? Open thine eyes that thou mayest be­hold this Wronged One shin­ing forth above the hori­zon of the will of God, the Sovereign, the Truth, the Re­splen­dent. Un­stop, then, the ear of thine heart that thou mayest hear­ken un­to the speech of the Di­vine Lote-​Tree that hath been raised up in truth by God, the Almighty, the Benef­icent. Ver­ily, this Tree, notwith­stand­ing the things that be­fell it by rea­son of thy cru­el­ty and of the trans­gres­sions of such as are like thee, cal­leth aloud and sum­mon­eth all men un­to the Sadratu'l-​Muntahá and the Supreme Hori­zon. Blessed is the soul that hath gazed on the Most Mighty Sign, and the ear that hath heard His most sweet Voice, and woe to whoso­ev­er hath turned aside and done wicked­ly.

"O thou who hast turned away from God! Wert thou to look with the eye of fair­ness up­on the Di­vine Lote-​Tree, thou wouldst per­ceive the marks of thy sword on its boughs, and its branch­es, and its leaves, notwith­stand­ing that God cre­at­ed thee for the pur­pose of rec­og­niz­ing and of serv­ing it. Re­flect, that hap­ly thou mayest rec­og­nize thine in­iq­ui­ty and be num­bered with such as have re­pent­ed. Think­est thou that We fear thy cru­el­ty? Know thou and be well as­sured that from the first day where­on the voice of the Most Sub­lime Pen was raised be­twixt earth and heav­en We of­fered up Our souls, and Our bod­ies, and Our sons, and Our pos­ses­sions in the path of God, the Ex­alt­ed, the Great, and We glo­ry there­in amongst all cre­at­ed things and the Con­course on high. Un­to this tes­ti­fy the things which have be­fall­en Us in this straight Path. By God! Our hearts were con­sumed, and Our bod­ies were cru­ci­fied, and Our blood was spilt, while Our eyes were fixed on the hori­zon of the lov­ing-​kind­ness of their Lord, the Wit­ness, the All-​See­ing. The more grievous their woes, the greater waxed the love of the peo­ple of Bahá. Un­to their sin­cer­ity hath borne wit­ness what the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath sent down in the Qur'án. He saith: 'Wish ye, then, for death, if ye are sin­cere.' Who is to be pre­ferred, he that hath shel­tered him­self be­hind cur­tains, or he that hath of­fered him­self in the path of God? Judge thou fair­ly, and be not of them that rove dis­traught in the wilder­ness of false­hood. So car­ried away have they been by the liv­ing wa­ters of the love of the Most Mer­ci­ful, that nei­ther the arms of the world nor the swords of the na­tions have de­terred them from set­ting their faces to­wards the ocean of the boun­ty of their Lord, the Giv­er, the Gen­er­ous.

“By God! Trou­bles have failed to un­nerve Me, and the re­pu­di­ation of the di­vines hath been pow­er­less to weak­en Me. I have spo­ken, and still speak forth be­fore the face of men: 'The door of grace hath been un­locked and He Who is the Dayspring of Jus­tice is come with per­spic­uous signs and ev­ident tes­ti­monies, from God, the Lord of strength and of might!' Present thy­self be­fore Me that thou mayest hear the mys­ter­ies which were heard by the Son of 'Im­rán (Moses) up­on the Sinai of Wis­dom. Thus com­man­deth thee He Who is the Dawn­ing-​Place of the Rev­ela­tion of thy Lord, the God of Mer­cy, from His great Prison.”

There­upon hath the cry and the lamen­ta­tion of the true Faith been raised once again, say­ing: “Ver­ily, Sinai cal­leth aloud and saith: 'O peo­ple of the Bayán! Fear ye the Mer­ci­ful. In­deed have I at­tained un­to Him Who con­versed up­on me, and the ec­stasies of my joy have seized the peb­bles of the earth and the dust there­of.' And the Bush ex­claimeth: 'O peo­ple of the Bayán! Judge ye fair­ly that which hath in truth been man­ifest­ed. Ver­ily the Fire which God re­vealed un­to the One Who con­versed with Him is now man­ifest­ed. Un­to this beareth wit­ness ev­ery man of in­sight and un­der­stand­ing.'”

We have made men­tion of cer­tain mar­tyrs of this Rev­ela­tion, and have like­wise cit­ed some of the vers­es which were sent down con­cern­ing them from the king­dom of Our ut­ter­ance. We fain would hope that, rid of all at­tach­ment to the world, thou wilt pon­der the things which We have men­tioned.

It be­hooveth thee now to re­flect up­on the state of Mírzá Hádí Dawlat-​Ábádí and of Sád-​i-​Is­fáhání (Sadru'l-'Ulamá), who re­side in the Land of Tá (Tihrán). No soon­er had the for­mer heard that he had been called a Bábí than he be­came so per­turbed that his poise and dig­ni­ty for­sook him. He as­cend­ed the pul­pits and spoke words which ill be­fit­ted him. From time im­memo­ri­al the clay clods of the world have, whol­ly by rea­son of their love of lead­er­ship, per­pe­trat­ed such acts as have caused men to err. Thou must not, how­ev­er, imag­ine that all the faith­ful are such as these two. We have de­scribed un­to thee the con­stan­cy, the firm­ness, the stead­fast­ness, the cer­ti­tude, the im­per­turba­bil­ity and the dig­ni­ty of the mar­tyrs of this Rev­ela­tion, that thou mayest be well-​in­formed. My pur­pose in cit­ing the pas­sages from the Tablets to the kings and oth­ers hath been that thou mayest know of a cer­tain­ty that this Wronged One hath not con­cealed the Cause of God, but hath pro­claimed and de­liv­ered, in the most elo­quent lan­guage, be­fore the face of the world, the things He had been com­mis­sioned to set forth. Cer­tain faint-​heart­ed ones, how­ev­er, such as Hádí and oth­ers, have tam­pered with the Cause of God and have, in their con­cern for this fleet­ing life, said and done that which caused the eye of jus­tice to weep and the Pen of Glo­ry to groan, notwith­stand­ing their ig­no­rance of the es­sen­tials of this Cause; where­as this Wronged One hath re­vealed it for the sake of God.

O Hádí! Thou hast gone un­to My broth­er and hast seen him. Set now thy face to­wards the court of this Wronged One, that hap­ly the breezes of Rev­ela­tion and the breaths of in­spi­ra­tion may as­sist thee and en­able thee to at­tain thy goal. Who­ev­er gazeth this day on My signs will dis­tin­guish truth from false­hood as the sun from shad­ow, and will be made cog­nizant of the goal. God is aware and beareth Me wit­ness that what­ev­er hath been men­tioned was for the sake of God, that hap­ly thou mayest be the cause of the guid­ance of men, and mayest de­liv­er the peo­ples of the world from idle fan­cies and vain imag­in­ings. Gra­cious God! Un­til now they that have turned aside and de­nied Me have failed to rec­og­nize Who despatched that which was de­liv­ered un­to the Her­ald--the Pri­mal Point! The knowl­edge of it is with God, the Lord of the worlds.

Ex­ert thy­self, O _Sh_ay_kh_, and arise to serve this Cause. The Sealed Wine is dis­closed in this day be­fore the faces of men. Seize it in the name of thy Lord, and quaff thy fill in re­mem­brance of Him Who is the Mighty, the In­com­pa­ra­ble. Night and day hath this Wronged One been oc­cu­pied in that which would unite the hearts, and ed­ify the souls of men. The events that have hap­pened in Per­sia dur­ing the ear­ly years have tru­ly sad­dened the well-​fa­vored and sin­cere ones. Each year wit­nessed a fresh mas­sacre, pil­lage, plun­der, and shed­ding of blood. At one time there ap­peared in Zan­ján that which caused the great­est con­ster­na­tion; at an­oth­er in Nayríz, and at yet an­oth­er in Tabarsí, and fi­nal­ly there oc­curred the episode of the Land of Tá (Tihrán). From that time on­wards this Wronged One, as­sist­ed by the One True God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--ac­quaint­ed this op­pressed peo­ple with the things which be­seemed them. All have sanc­ti­fied them­selves from the things which they and oth­ers pos­sess, and have clung un­to, and fixed their eyes up­on that which per­taineth un­to God.

It is now in­cum­bent up­on His Majesty the _Sh_áh--may God, ex­alt­ed be He, pro­tect him--to deal with this peo­ple with lov­ing-​kind­ness and mer­cy. This Wronged One pled­geth Him­self, be­fore the Di­vine Kaa­ba, that, apart from truth­ful­ness and trust­wor­thi­ness, this peo­ple will show forth noth­ing that can in any way con­flict with the world-​adorn­ing views of His Majesty. Ev­ery na­tion must have a high re­gard for the po­si­tion of its sovereign, must be sub­mis­sive un­to him, must car­ry out his be­hests, and hold fast his au­thor­ity. The sovereigns of the earth have been and are the man­ifes­ta­tions of the pow­er, the grandeur and the majesty of God. This Wronged One hath at no time dealt de­ceit­ful­ly with any­one. Ev­ery one is well aware of this, and beareth wit­ness un­to it. Re­gard for the rank of sovereigns is di­vine­ly or­dained, as is clear­ly at­test­ed by the words of the Prophets of God and His cho­sen ones. He Who is the Spir­it (Je­sus)--may peace be up­on Him--was asked: “O Spir­it of God! Is it law­ful to give trib­ute to Cae­sar or not?” And He made re­ply: “Yea, ren­der to Cae­sar the things that are Cae­sar's and to God the things that are God's.” He for­bade it not. These two say­ings are, in the es­ti­ma­tion of men of in­sight, one and the same, for if that which be­longed to Cae­sar had not come from God, He would have for­bid­den it. And like­wise in the sa­cred verse: “Obey God and obey the Apos­tle, and those among you in­vest­ed with au­thor­ity.” By “those in­vest­ed with au­thor­ity” is meant pri­mar­ily and more es­pe­cial­ly the Imáms--the bless­ings of God rest up­on them! They, ver­ily, are the man­ifes­ta­tions of the pow­er of God, and the sources of His au­thor­ity, and the repos­ito­ries of His knowl­edge, and the daysprings of His com­mand­ments. Sec­on­dar­ily these words re­fer un­to the kings and rulers--those through the bright­ness of whose jus­tice the hori­zons of the world are re­splen­dent and lu­mi­nous. We fain would hope that His Majesty the _Sh_áh will shine forth with a light of jus­tice whose ra­di­ance will en­vel­op all the kin­dreds of the earth. It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery one to be­seech the one true God on his be­half for that which is meet and seem­ly in this day.

O God, my God, and my Mas­ter, and my Main­stay, and my De­sire, and my Beloved! I ask Thee by the mys­ter­ies which were hid in Thy knowl­edge, and by the signs which have dif­fused the fra­grance of Thy lov­ing-​kind­ness, and by the bil­lows of the ocean of Thy boun­ty, and by the heav­en of Thy grace and gen­eros­ity, and by the blood spilt in Thy path, and by the hearts con­sumed in their love for Thee, to as­sist His Majesty the _Sh_áh with Thy pow­er and Thy sovereign­ty, that from him may be man­ifest­ed that which will ev­er­last­ing­ly en­dure in Thy Books, and Thy Scrip­tures, and Thy Tablets. Hold Thou his hand, O my Lord, with the hand of Thine om­nipo­tence, and il­lu­mi­nate him with the light of Thy knowl­edge, and adorn him with the adorn­ment of Thy virtues. Po­tent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee, and in Thy grasp are the reins of all cre­at­ed things. No God is there but Thee, the Ev­er-​For­giv­ing, the All-​Boun­teous.

In the Epis­tle to the Ro­mans Saint Paul hath writ­ten: “Let ev­ery soul be sub­ject un­to the high­er pow­ers. For there is no pow­er but of God; the pow­ers that be are or­dained of God. Whoso­ev­er there­fore re­sisteth the pow­er, re­sisteth the or­di­nance of God.” And fur­ther: “For he is the min­is­ter of God, a re­venger to ex­ecute wrath up­on him that doeth evil.” He saith that the ap­pear­ance of the kings, and their majesty and pow­er are of God.

More­over, in the tra­di­tions of old, ref­er­ences have been made which the di­vines have seen and heard. We be­seech God--blessed and glo­ri­fied be He--to aid thee, O _Sh_ay_kh_, to lay fast hold on that which hath been sent down from the heav­en of the boun­ty of God, the Lord of the worlds. The di­vines must needs unite with His Majesty, the _Sh_áh, and cleave un­to that which will in­sure the pro­tec­tion, the se­cu­ri­ty, the wel­fare and pros­per­ity of men. A just king en­joyeth near­er ac­cess un­to God than any­one. Un­to this tes­ti­fi­eth He Who speaketh in His Most Great Prison. God! There is none oth­er God but Him, the One, the In­com­pa­ra­ble, the Almighty, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

Wert thou, for the sake of God, to pon­der, though it be but for an hour, up­on the things which have oc­curred in for­mer times and more re­cent­ly, thou wouldst turn away from the things thou dost pos­sess un­to the things which be­long un­to God, and wouldst be­come a means for the ex­al­ta­tion of His Word. Hath, from the foun­da­tion of the world un­til the present day, any Light or Rev­ela­tion shone forth from the dayspring of the will of God which the kin­dreds of the earth have ac­cept­ed, and Whose Cause they have ac­knowl­edged? Where is it to be found, and what is its name? Since the Seal of the Prophets (Muham­mad)--may all else but Him be His sac­ri­fice--and be­fore Him the Spir­it of God (Je­sus), as far back as the First Man­ifes­ta­tion, all have at the time of Their ap­pear­ance suf­fered grievous­ly. Some were held to be pos­sessed, oth­ers were called im­pos­tors, and were treat­ed in a man­ner that the pen is ashamed to de­scribe. By God! There be­fell Them what hath made all cre­at­ed things to sigh, and yet the peo­ple are, for the most part, sunk in man­ifest ig­no­rance! We pray God to as­sist them to re­turn un­to Him, and to re­pent be­fore the door of His mer­cy. Po­tent is He over all things.

At this mo­ment the shrill voice of the Most Sub­lime Pen hath been raised, and hath ad­dressed Me say­ing: “Ad­mon­ish the _Sh_ay_kh_ even as Thou hast ad­mon­ished one of Thy Branch­es (sons), that hap­ly the breezes of Thine ut­ter­ance may at­tract and draw him nigh un­to God, the Lord of the worlds.”

“Be gen­er­ous in pros­per­ity, and thank­ful in ad­ver­si­ty. Be wor­thy of the trust of thy neigh­bor, and look up­on him with a bright and friend­ly face. Be a trea­sure to the poor, an ad­mon­ish­er to the rich, an an­swer­er to the cry of the needy, a pre­serv­er of the sanc­ti­ty of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judg­ment, and guard­ed in thy speech. Be un­just to no man, and show all meek­ness to all men. Be as a lamp un­to them that walk in dark­ness, a joy to the sor­row­ful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the dis­tressed, an up­hold­er and de­fend­er of the vic­tim of op­pres­sion. Let in­tegri­ty and up­right­ness dis­tin­guish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suf­fer­ing, a tow­er of strength for the fugi­tive. Be eyes to the blind, and a guid­ing light un­to the feet of the erring. Be an or­na­ment to the coun­te­nance of truth, a crown to the brow of fi­deli­ty, a pil­lar of the tem­ple of righ­teous­ness, a breath of life to the body of mankind, an en­sign of the hosts of jus­tice, a lu­mi­nary above the hori­zon of virtue, a dew to the soil of the hu­man heart, an ark on the ocean of knowl­edge, a sun in the heav­en of boun­ty, a gem on the di­adem of wis­dom, a shin­ing light in the fir­ma­ment of thy gen­er­ation, a fruit up­on the tree of hu­mil­ity. We pray God to pro­tect thee from the heat of jeal­ousy and the cold of ha­tred. He ver­ily is nigh, ready to an­swer.” Thus hath My tongue spo­ken un­to one of My Branch­es (sons), and We have men­tioned it un­to such of Our loved ones as have cast away their idle fan­cies, and clung un­to that which hath been pre­scribed un­to them in the day where­on the Daystar of Cer­ti­tude hath shone forth above the hori­zon of the will of God, the Lord of the worlds. This is the day on which the Bird of Ut­ter­ance hath war­bled its melody up­on the branch­es, in the name of its Lord, the God of Mer­cy. Blessed is the man that hath, on the wings of long­ing, soared to­wards God, the Lord of the Judg­ment Day.

The one true God well knoweth, and all the com­pa­ny of His trust­ed ones tes­ti­fy, that this Wronged One hath, at all times, been faced with dire per­il. But for the tribu­la­tions that have touched Me in the path of God, life would have held no sweet­ness for Me, and My ex­is­tence would have prof­it­ed Me noth­ing. For them who are en­dued with dis­cern­ment, and whose eyes are fixed up­on the Sub­lime Vi­sion, it is no se­cret that I have been, most of the days of My life, even as a slave, sit­ting un­der a sword hang­ing on a thread, know­ing not whether it would fall soon or late up­on him. And yet, notwith­stand­ing all this We ren­der thanks un­to God, the Lord of the worlds. Mine in­ner tongue re­citeth, in the day­time and in the night-​sea­son, this prayer: “Glo­ry to Thee, O my God! But for the tribu­la­tions which are sus­tained in Thy path, how could Thy true lovers be rec­og­nized; and were it not for the tri­als which are borne for love of Thee, how could the sta­tion of such as yearn for Thee be re­vealed? Thy might beareth Me wit­ness! The com­pan­ions of all who adore Thee are the tears they shed, and the com­forters of such as seek Thee are the groans they ut­ter, and the food of them who haste to meet Thee is the frag­ments of their bro­ken hearts. How sweet to my taste is the bit­ter­ness of death suf­fered in Thy path, and how pre­cious in my es­ti­ma­tion are the shafts of Thine en­emies when en­coun­tered for the sake of the ex­al­ta­tion of Thy Word! Let me quaff in Thy Cause, O my God and my Mas­ter, what­so­ev­er Thou didst de­sire, and send down up­on me in Thy love all Thou didst or­dain. By Thy glo­ry! I wish on­ly what Thou wish­est, and cher­ish what Thou cher­ish­est. In Thee have I, at all times, placed My whole trust and con­fi­dence. Thou art ver­ily the All-​Pos­sess­ing, the Most High. Raise up, I im­plore Thee, O my God, as helpers to this Rev­ela­tion such as shall be count­ed wor­thy of Thy Name and of Thy sovereign­ty, that they may re­mem­ber Thee among Thy crea­tures, and hoist the en­signs of Thy vic­to­ry in Thy land, and adorn them with Thy virtues and Thy com­mand­ments. No God is there but Thee, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing.”

There­upon the voice of the true Faith was lift­ed up, call­ing aloud again and again and say­ing: “O con­course of the earth! By God! I am the true Faith of God amongst you. Be­ware that ye de­ny Me not. God hath man­ifest­ed Me with a light that hath en­com­passed all that are in the heav­ens and all that are on earth. Judge ye eq­ui­tably, O peo­ple, My man­ifes­ta­tion, and the rev­ela­tion of My glo­ry, and the ra­di­ance of My light, and be not of them that act un­just­ly.”

O _Sh_ay_kh_! This Wronged One be­seecheth God--blessed and glo­ri­fied be He--to make thee the one who will open the door of jus­tice, and re­veal through thee His Cause among His ser­vants. He, ver­ily, is the All-​Pow­er­ful, the Almighty, the All-​Boun­teous.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! En­treat thou the one true God to sanc­ti­fy the ears, and the eyes, and the hearts of mankind, and to pro­tect them from the de­sires of a cor­rupt in­cli­na­tion. For mal­ice is a grievous mal­ady which de­priv­eth man from rec­og­niz­ing the Great Be­ing, and de­bar­reth him from the splen­dors of the sun of cer­ti­tude. We pray and hope that through the grace and mer­cy of God He may re­move this mighty ob­sta­cle. He, ver­ily, is the Po­tent, the All-​Sub­du­ing, the Almighty.

At this mo­ment a Voice was raised from the right-​hand of the Lu­mi­nous Spot: “God! There is none oth­er God but Him, the Or­dain­er, the All-​Wise! Re­cite Thou un­to the _Sh_ay_kh_ the re­main­ing pas­sages of the Lawh-​i-​Burhán (Tablet of the Proof) that they may draw him un­to the hori­zon of the Rev­ela­tion of his Lord, the God of Mer­cy, that hap­ly he may arise to aid My Cause with per­spic­uous signs and ex­alt­ed tes­ti­monies, and may speak forth amongst men that which the Tongue of Tes­ti­mo­ny hath spo­ken: 'The King­dom is God's, the Lord of the worlds!'”

"Pe­ruse thou the Kitáb-​i-​Íqán (Book of Cer­ti­tude) and that which the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath sent down un­to the King of Paris (Napoleon III) and to such as are like him, that thou mayest be made aware of the things that have hap­pened in the past, and be per­suad­ed that We have not sought to spread dis­or­der in the land af­ter it had been well-​or­dered. We ex­hort, whol­ly for the sake of God, His ser­vants. Let him who wisheth turn un­to Him, and him who wisheth turn aside. Our Lord, the Mer­ci­ful, is ver­ily the All-​Suf­fic­ing, the All-​Praised. O con­course of the kin­dreds of the earth! This is the day where­on noth­ing amongst all things, nor any name amongst all names, can prof­it you save through this Name which God hath made the Man­ifes­ta­tion of His Cause and the Dayspring of His Most Ex­cel­lent Ti­tles un­to all who are in the king­dom of cre­ation. Blessed is that man that hath rec­og­nized the fra­grance of the All-​Mer­ci­ful and been num­bered with the stead­fast. Your sci­ences shall not prof­it you in this day, nor your arts, nor your trea­sures, nor your glo­ry. Cast them all be­hind your backs, and set your faces to­wards the Most Sub­lime Word through which the Scrip­tures and the Books and this lu­cid Tablet have been dis­tinct­ly set forth. Cast away, O peo­ple, the things ye have com­posed with the pen of your idle fan­cies and vain imag­in­ings. By God! The Daystar of Knowl­edge hath shone forth above the hori­zon of cer­ti­tude.

"O thou who art gone astray! If thou hast any doubt con­cern­ing Our con­duct, know thou that We bear wit­ness un­to that where­un­to God hath Him­self borne wit­ness ere the cre­ation of the heav­ens and of the earth, that there is none oth­er God but Him, the Almighty, the All-​Boun­teous. We tes­ti­fy that He is One in His Essence, One in His At­tributes. He hath none to equal Him in the whole uni­verse, nor any part­ner in all cre­ation. He hath sent forth His Mes­sen­gers, and sent down His Books, that they may an­nounce un­to His crea­tures the Straight Path.

"Hath the _Sh_áh been in­formed, and cho­sen to close his eyes to thine acts? Or hath he been seized with fear at the howl­ing of a pack of wolves who have cast the path of God be­hind their backs and fol­lowed in thy way with­out any clear proof or Book? We have heard that the provinces of Per­sia have been adorned with the adorn­ment of jus­tice. When We ob­served close­ly, how­ev­er, We found them to be the dawn­ing-​places of tyran­ny and the daysprings of in­jus­tice. We be­hold jus­tice in the clutch­es of tyran­ny. We be­seech God to set it free through the pow­er of His might and His sovereign­ty. He, ver­ily, over­shad­oweth all that is in the heav­ens and on earth. To none is giv­en the right to protest against any one con­cern­ing that which hath be­fall­en the Cause of God. It be­hooveth whoso­ev­er hath set his face to­wards the Most Sub­lime Hori­zon to cleave tena­cious­ly un­to the cord of pa­tience, and to put his re­liance in God, the Help in Per­il, the Un­con­strained. O ye loved ones of God! Drink your fill from the well­spring of wis­dom, and soar ye in the at­mo­sphere of wis­dom, and speak forth with wis­dom and elo­quence. Thus bid­deth you your Lord, the Almighty, the All-​Know­ing.

"O heed­less one! Re­ly not on thy glo­ry, and thy pow­er. Thou art even as the last trace of sun­light up­on the moun­tain-​top. Soon will it fade away as de­creed by God, the All-​Pos­sess­ing, the Most High. Thy glo­ry and the glo­ry of such as are like thee have been tak­en away, and this ver­ily is what hath been or­dained by the One with Whom is the Moth­er Tablet. Where is he to be found who con­tend­ed with God, and whith­er is gone he that gain­said His signs, and turned aside from His sovereign­ty? Where are they who have slain His cho­sen ones and spilt the blood of His holy ones? Re­flect, that hap­ly thou mayest per­ceive the breaths of thine acts, O fool­ish doubter! Be­cause of you the Apos­tle (Muham­mad) lament­ed, and the Chaste One (Fá­tim­ih) cried out, and the coun­tries were laid waste, and dark­ness fell up­on all re­gions. O con­course of di­vines! Be­cause of you the peo­ple were abased, and the ban­ner of Is­lám was hauled down, and its mighty throne sub­vert­ed. Ev­ery time a man of dis­cern­ment hath sought to hold fast un­to that which would ex­alt Is­lám, ye raised a clam­or, and there­by was he de­terred from achiev­ing his pur­pose, while the land re­mained fall­en in clear ru­in.

“O My Supreme Pen! Call Thou to re­mem­brance the She-​Ser­pent (Imám-​Jum'ih of Is­fáhán) whose cru­el­ty hath caused all cre­at­ed things to groan, and the limbs of the holy ones to quake. Thus bid­deth Thee the Lord of all names, in this glo­ri­ous sta­tion. The Chaste One (Fá­tim­ih) hath cried out by rea­son of thine in­iq­ui­ty, and yet thou dost imag­ine thy­self to be of the fam­ily of the Apos­tle of God! Thus hath thy soul prompt­ed thee, O thou who hast with­drawn thy­self from God, the Lord of all that hath been and shall be. Judge thou eq­ui­tably, O She-​Ser­pent! For what crime didst thou sting the chil­dren of the Apos­tle of God (King of Mar­tyrs and Beloved of Mar­tyrs), and pil­lage their pos­ses­sions? Hast thou de­nied Him Who cre­at­ed thee by His com­mand 'be, and it was'? Thou hast dealt with the chil­dren of the Apos­tle of God as nei­ther 'Ád hath dealt with Húd, nor _Th_ámúd with Sálih, nor the Jews with the Spir­it of God (Je­sus), the Lord of all be­ing. Gain­sayest thou the signs of thy Lord which had no soon­er been sent down from the heav­en of His Cause than all the books of the world bowed down be­fore them? Med­itate, that thou mayest be made aware of thine act, O heed­less out­cast! Ere­long will the breaths of chas­tise­ment seize thee, as they seized oth­ers be­fore thee. Wait, O thou who hast joined part­ners with God, the Lord of the vis­ible and the in­vis­ible. This is the day which God hath an­nounced through the tongue of His Apos­tle. Re­flect, that thou mayest ap­pre­hend what the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath sent down in the Qur'án and in this in­scribed Tablet. This is the day where­on He Who is the Dayspring of Rev­ela­tion hath come with clear to­kens which none can num­ber. This is the day where­on ev­ery man en­dued with per­cep­tion hath dis­cov­ered the fra­grance of the breeze of the All-​Mer­ci­ful in the world of cre­ation, and ev­ery man of in­sight hath has­tened un­to the liv­ing wa­ters of the mer­cy of his Lord, the King of Kings. O heed­less one! The tale of the Sac­ri­fice (Ish­mael) hath been re­told, and he who was to be of­fered up hath di­rect­ed his steps to­wards the place of sac­ri­fice, and re­turned not, by rea­son of that which thy hand hath wrought, O per­verse hater! Didst thou imag­ine that mar­tyr­dom could abase this Cause? Nay, by Him Whom God hath made to be the Repos­ito­ry of His Rev­ela­tion, if thou be of them that com­pre­hend. Woe be­tide thee, O thou who hast joined part­ners with God, and woe be­tide them that have tak­en thee as their lead­er, with­out a clear to­ken or a per­spic­uous Book. How nu­mer­ous the op­pres­sors be­fore thee who have arisen to quench the light of God, and how many the im­pi­ous who mur­dered and pil­laged un­til the hearts and souls of men groaned by rea­son of their cru­el­ty! The sun of jus­tice hath been ob­scured, inas­much as the em­bod­iment of tyran­ny hath been sta­blished up­on the throne of ha­tred, and yet the peo­ple un­der­stand not. O fool­ish one! Thou hast slain the chil­dren of the Apos­tle and pil­laged their pos­ses­sions. Say: Was it, in thine es­ti­ma­tion, their pos­ses­sions or them­selves that de­nied God? Judge fair­ly, O ig­no­rant one that hath been shut out as by a veil from God. Thou hast clung to tyran­ny, and cast away jus­tice; where­upon all cre­at­ed things have lament­ed, and still thou art among the way­ward. Thou hast put to death the aged, and plun­dered the young. Think­est thou that thou wilt con­sume that which thine in­iq­ui­ty hath amassed? Nay, by My­self! Thus in­formeth thee He Who is cog­nizant of all. By God! The things thou pos­sess­est shall prof­it thee not, nor what thou hast laid up through thy cru­el­ty. Un­to this beareth wit­ness thy Lord, the All-​Know­ing. Thou hast arisen to put out the light of this Cause; ere­long will thine own fire be quenched, at His be­hest. He, ver­ily, is the Lord of strength and of might. The changes and chances of the world, and the pow­ers of the na­tions, can­not frus­trate Him. He doeth what He pleaseth, and or­daineth what He wil­leth through the pow­er of His sovereign­ty. Con­sid­er the she-​camel. Though but a beast, yet hath the All-​Mer­ci­ful ex­alt­ed her to so high a sta­tion that the tongues of the earth made men­tion of her and cel­ebrat­ed her praise. He, ver­ily, over­shad­oweth all that is in the heav­ens and on earth. No God is there but Him, the Almighty, the Great. Thus have We adorned the heav­en of Our Tablet with the suns of Our words. Blessed the man that hath at­tained there­un­to, and been il­lu­mined with their light, and woe be­tide such as have turned aside, and de­nied Him, and strayed far from Him. Praised be God, the Lord of the worlds!”

O _Sh_ay_kh_! We have en­abled thee to hear the melodies of the Nightin­gale of Par­adise, and un­veiled to thine eyes the signs which God, by His all-​com­pelling be­hest, hath sent down in the Most Great Prison, that thine eye might be cheered, and thy soul be well-​as­sured. He, ver­ily, is the All-​Boun­teous, the Gen­er­ous. Arise thou through the pow­er of His tes­ti­mo­ny to serve the Cause of God, thy Lord, the God of Mer­cy. If thy faith be fear­ful, seize thou My Tablet, and pre­serve it in the bo­som of trust. And when thou en­ter­est in­to the place of res­ur­rec­tion, and God as­keth thee by what proof thou hast be­lieved in this Rev­ela­tion, draw forth the Tablet and say: “By this Book, the holy, the mighty, the in­com­pa­ra­ble.” There­upon all will lift up their hands to­wards thee, and will seize the Tablet, and will press it to their eyes, and will in­hale there­from the fra­grance of the ut­ter­ance of God, the Lord of the worlds. Were God to tor­ment thee for hav­ing be­lieved in His signs in this Rev­ela­tion, for what rea­son could He then tor­ment such as have dis­be­lieved in Muham­mad, the Apos­tle of God, and be­fore Him in Je­sus, the Son of Mary, and be­fore Him in the One Who con­versed with God (Moses), and be­fore Him in the One Who is the Friend of God (Abra­ham), and as far back as the One Who was the First Man­ifes­ta­tion, Who was cre­at­ed by the will of thy Lord, the Po­tent, the All-​En­com­pass­ing. Thus have We sent down Our vers­es un­to one be­fore thee, and re­called them un­to thee, in this day, that thou mayest un­der­stand, and be of them who are well as­sured. O thou who as­sumest the voice of knowl­edge! This Cause is too ev­ident to be ob­scured, and too con­spic­uous to be con­cealed. It shineth as the sun in its merid­ian glo­ry. None can de­ny it un­less he be a hater and a doubter.

At this mo­ment it be­hooveth us to turn un­to the De­sired One, and cleave un­to these most sub­lime words: “O God, my God! Thou hast light­ed the lamp of Thy Cause with the oil of wis­dom; pro­tect it from con­trary winds. The lamp is Thine, and the glass is Thine, and all things in the heav­ens and on earth are in the grasp of Thy pow­er. Be­stow jus­tice up­on the rulers, and fair­ness up­on the di­vines. Thou art the All-​Pow­er­ful, Who, through the mo­tion of Thy Pen, hast aid­ed Thine ir­re­sistible Cause, and guid­ed aright Thy loved ones. Thou art the Pos­ses­sor of pow­er, and the King of might. No God is there but Thee, the Strong, the Un­con­strained.” Say thou al­so: “O God, my God! I yield Thee thanks inas­much as Thou hast made me to drink of Thy Sealed Wine from the hand of the boun­ty of Thy Name, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. I en­treat Thee by the splen­dors of the Dayspring of Thy Rev­ela­tion, and by the po­ten­cy of Thy Most Sub­lime Word, and by the might of Thy Most Ex­alt­ed Pen, through Whose move­ment the re­al­ities of all cre­at­ed things have been en­rap­tured, to aid His Majesty the _Sh_áh to ren­der Thy Cause vic­to­ri­ous, and to turn to­wards the hori­zon of Thy Rev­ela­tion, and to set his face in the di­rec­tion of the lights of Thy coun­te­nance. As­sist him, O my Lord, to draw nigh un­to Thee. Help him, then, with the hosts of the heav­ens and of earth. I im­plore Thee, O Thou Who art the Lord of all Names and the Mak­er of the heav­ens, by the light of Thy Cause, and by the fire of the Lote-​Tree of Thy lov­ing-​kind­ness, to help His Majesty to re­veal Thy Cause amidst Thy crea­tures. Open, then, be­fore his face the doors of Thy grace, and Thy mer­cy, and Thy boun­ty. Po­tent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee by Thy word: 'Be, and it is.'”

O _Sh_ay_kh_! We had seized the reins of au­thor­ity by the pow­er of God and His Di­vine might, as He alone can seize, Who is the Mighty, the Strong. None had the pow­er to stir up mis­chief or sedi­tion. Now, how­ev­er, as they have failed to ap­pre­ci­ate this lov­ing-​kind­ness and these boun­ties, they have been, and will be, af­flict­ed with the ret­ri­bu­tion which their acts must en­tail. The State of­fi­cials, con­sid­er­ing the se­cret progress of the Ex­tend­ed Cord have, from ev­ery di­rec­tion, in­cit­ed and aid­ed Mine ad­ver­saries. In the Great City (Con­stantino­ple) they have roused a con­sid­er­able num­ber of peo­ple to op­pose this Wronged One. Things have come to such a pass that the of­fi­cials in that city have act­ed in a man­ner which hath brought shame to both the gov­ern­ment and the peo­ple. A dis­tin­guished siyyid, whose well-​known in­tegri­ty, ac­cept­able con­duct, and com­mer­cial rep­uta­tion, were rec­og­nized by the ma­jor­ity of fair-​mind­ed men, and who was re­gard­ed by all as a high­ly hon­ored mer­chant, once vis­it­ed Beirut. In view of his friend­ship for this Wronged One they tele­graphed the Per­sian Drago­man in­form­ing him that this siyyid, as­sist­ed by his ser­vant, had stolen a sum of mon­ey and oth­er things and gone to Akká. Their de­sign in this mat­ter was to dis­hon­or this Wronged One. And yet, far be it from the peo­ple of this coun­try to al­low them­selves to be de­flect­ed, by these un­seem­ly tales, from the straight path of up­right­ness and truth. Briefly, they have as­sault­ed Me from ev­ery side, and are re­in­forc­ing Mine ad­ver­saries. This Wronged One, how­ev­er, be­seecheth the one true God to gra­cious­ly as­sist ev­ery one in that which be­seemeth these days. Day and night I fix My gaze on these per­spic­uous words, and re­cite: “O God, my God! I be­seech Thee by the sun of Thy grace, and the sea of Thy knowl­edge, and the heav­en of Thy jus­tice, to aid them that have de­nied Thee to con­fess, and such as have turned aside from Thee to re­turn, and those who have ca­lum­ni­at­ed Thee to be just and fair-​mind­ed. As­sist them, O my Lord, to re­turn un­to Thee, and to re­pent be­fore the door of Thy grace. Pow­er­ful art Thou to do what Thou willest, and in Thy grasp are the reins of all that is in the heav­ens and all that is on earth. Praise be un­to God, the Lord of the worlds.”

The time is at hand when what­so­ev­er li­eth hid in the souls and hearts of men will be dis­closed. This Day is the Day where­of Luqmán spoke un­to his son, the Day which the Lord of Glo­ry an­nounced and with which He ac­quaint­ed Him Who was His Friend (Muham­mad) through these, His words--ex­alt­ed be He:--“O my son! Ver­ily, God will bring ev­ery­thing to light, though it were but the weight of a grain of mus­tard-​seed, and hid­den in a rock or in the heav­ens or in the earth; for God is Sub­tile, in­formed of all.” This Day the de­ceit­ful of eye, and all that men's breasts con­ceal, are made known and laid bare be­fore the throne of His Rev­ela­tion. Noth­ing what­so­ev­er can es­cape His knowl­edge. He heareth and seeth, and He, in truth, is the All-​Hear­ing, the All-​See­ing. How very strange that they dis­cern not be­tween the trust­wor­thy and the treach­er­ous!

Would that His Majesty the _Sh_áh of Per­sia--may God per­pet­uate his sovereign­ty--would in­quire from the Con­suls of the hon­ored Per­sian Gov­ern­ment who have been in this coun­try, that he might be­come ac­quaint­ed with the ac­tiv­ities and be­hav­ior of this Wronged One. Briefly, they have in­cit­ed a great many such as A_kh_tar and oth­ers, and are busy­ing them­selves in spread­ing calum­nies. It is clear and ev­ident that they will sur­round with their swords of ha­tred and their shafts of en­mi­ty the one whom they know to be an out­cast among men and to have been ban­ished from one coun­try to an­oth­er. This is not the first time that such in­iq­ui­ty hath been per­pe­trat­ed, nor the first gob­let that hath been dashed to the ground, nor the first veil that hath been rent in twain in the path of God, the Lord of the worlds. This Wronged One, how­ev­er, re­mained calm and silent in the Most Great Prison, busy­ing Him­self with His own af­fairs, and com­plete­ly de­tached from all else but God. In­iq­ui­ty waxed so grievous that the pens of the world are pow­er­less to record it.

In this con­nec­tion it is nec­es­sary to men­tion the fol­low­ing oc­cur­rence, that hap­ly men may take fast hold of the cord of jus­tice and truth­ful­ness. Hájí _Sh_ay_kh_ Muham­mad 'Alí--up­on him be the glo­ry of God, the Ev­er-​Abid­ing--was a mer­chant of high re­pute, well-​known un­to most of the in­hab­itants of the Great City (Con­stantino­ple). Not long ago, when the Per­sian Em­bassy in Con­stantino­ple was se­cret­ly en­gaged in stir­ring up mis­chief, it was no­ticed that this be­liev­ing and sin­cere soul was great­ly dis­tressed. Fi­nal­ly, one night he threw him­self in­to the sea, but was res­cued by some passers-​by who chanced to come up­on him at that mo­ment. His act was wide­ly com­ment­ed up­on and giv­en var­ied in­ter­pre­ta­tions by dif­fer­ent peo­ple. Fol­low­ing this, one night he re­paired to a mosque, and, as re­port­ed by the guardian of that place, kept vig­il the whole night, and was oc­cu­pied un­til the morn­ing in of­fer­ing, ar­dent­ly and with tear­ful eyes, his prayers and sup­pli­ca­tions. Up­on hear­ing him sud­den­ly cease his de­vo­tions, the guardian went to him, and found that he had al­ready sur­ren­dered his soul. An emp­ty bot­tle was found by his side, in­di­cat­ing that he had poi­soned him­self. Briefly, the guardian, while great­ly as­ton­ished, broke the news to the peo­ple. It was found out that he had left two tes­ta­ments. In the first he rec­og­nized and con­fessed the uni­ty of God, that His Ex­alt­ed Be­ing had nei­ther peer nor equal, and that His Essence was ex­alt­ed above all praise, all glo­ri­fi­ca­tion and de­scrip­tion. He al­so tes­ti­fied to the Rev­ela­tion of the Prophets and the holy ones, and rec­og­nized what had been writ­ten down in the Books of God, the Lord of all men. On an­oth­er page, in which he had set down a prayer, he wrote these words in con­clu­sion: “This ser­vant and the loved ones of God are per­plexed. On the one hand the Pen of the Most High hath for­bid­den all men to en­gage in sedi­tion, con­tention or con­flict, and on the oth­er that same Pen hath sent down these most sub­lime words: 'Should any­one, in the pres­ence of the Man­ifes­ta­tion, dis­cov­er an evil in­ten­tion on the part of any soul, he must not op­pose him, but must leave him to God.' Con­sid­er­ing that on the one hand this bind­ing com­mand is clear and firm­ly es­tab­lished, and that on the oth­er calum­nies, be­yond hu­man strength to bear or en­dure, have been ut­tered, this ser­vant hath cho­sen to com­mit this most grievous sin. I turn sup­pli­ant­ly un­to the ocean of God's boun­ty and the heav­en of Di­vine mer­cy, and hope that He will blot out with the pen of His grace and boun­teous­ness the mis­deeds of this ser­vant. Though my trans­gres­sions be man­ifold, and un­num­bered my evil­do­ings, yet do I cleave tena­cious­ly to the cord of His boun­ty, and cling un­to the hem of His gen­eros­ity. God is wit­ness, and they that are nigh un­to His Thresh­old know full well, that this ser­vant could not bear to hear the tales re­lat­ed by the per­fid­ious. I, there­fore, have com­mit­ted this act. If He chas­tise me, He ver­ily is to be praised for what He doeth; and if He for­give me, His be­hest shall be obeyed.”

Pon­der, now, O _Sh_ay_kh_, the in­flu­ence of the word of God, that hap­ly thou mayest turn from the left hand of idle fan­cy un­to the right hand of cer­ti­tude. This Wronged One hath nev­er act­ed hyp­ocrit­ical­ly to­wards any one, in the Cause of God, and hath loud­ly pro­claimed the Word of God be­fore the face of His crea­tures. Let him who wisheth turn there­un­to, and let him who wisheth turn aside. If these things, how­ev­er, that are so clear, so man­ifest and in­du­bitable, be de­nied, what else can be deemed ac­cept­able and wor­thy of cre­dence in the es­ti­ma­tion of men of in­sight? We be­seech God--blessed and glo­ri­fied be He--to for­give the afore­men­tioned per­son (Hájí _Sh_ay_kh_ Muham­mad-'Alí), and change his evil deeds in­to good ones. He, ver­ily, is the All-​Pow­er­ful, the Almighty, the All-​Boun­teous.

Such things have ap­peared in this Rev­ela­tion that there is no re­course for ei­ther the ex­po­nents of sci­ence and knowl­edge or the man­ifes­ta­tions of jus­tice and eq­ui­ty oth­er than to rec­og­nize them. It is in­cum­bent up­on thee, in this day, to arise with ce­les­tial pow­er and dis­si­pate, with the aid of knowl­edge, the doubts of the peo­ples of the world, so that all men may be sanc­ti­fied, and di­rect their steps to­wards the Most Great Ocean and cleave fast un­to that which God hath pur­posed.

Ev­ery one who hath turned aside from Me hath clung to his own idle words, and there­with voiced his ob­jec­tions to Him Who is the Truth. Gra­cious God! Such ref­er­ences as have been made to Di­vin­ity and God­head by the holy ones and cho­sen ones of God have been made a cause for de­nial and re­pu­di­ation. The Imám Sádiq hath said: “Servi­tude is a sub­stance, the essence of which is Di­vin­ity.” The Com­man­der of the Faith­ful (Imám 'Alí) an­swered an Arab, who had ques­tioned him con­cern­ing the soul, as fol­lows: “The third is the soul which is di­vine and ce­les­tial. It is a di­vine en­er­gy, a sub­stance, sim­ple, and self-​sub­sis­tent.” And fur­ther he--peace be up­on him--said: “There­fore it is the Most Sub­lime Essence of God, the Tree of Blessed­ness, the Lote-​Tree be­yond which there is no pass­ing, the Gar­den of Re­pose.” The Imám Sádiq hath said: “When our Qá'im will arise, the earth will shine with the light of her Lord.” Like­wise, a lengthy tra­di­tion is at­tribut­ed to Ábí-'Ab­di'lláh--peace be up­on him--in which these sub­lime words are found: “There­upon will He Who is the All-​Com­pelling--ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied be He--de­scend from the clouds with the an­gels.” And in the mighty Qur'án: “What can such ex­pect but that God should come down to them over­shad­owed with clouds?” And in the tra­di­tion of Mu­fad­dál it is said: “The Qá'im will lean His back against the Sanc­tu­ary, and will stretch forth His hand, and lo, it shall be snow-​white but un­hurt. And He shall say: 'This is the hand of God, the right hand of God, that cometh from God, at the com­mand of God!'” In whichev­er man­ner these tra­di­tions are in­ter­pret­ed, in that same man­ner let them al­so in­ter­pret that which the Most Sub­lime Pen hath set down. The Com­man­der of the Faith­ful (Imám 'Alí) hath said: “I am He Who can nei­ther be named, nor de­scribed.” And like­wise He hath said: “Out­ward­ly I am an Imám; in­ward­ly I am the Un­seen, the Un­know­able.” Abú-​Ja'far-​i-​Túsí hath said: “I said to Ábí 'Ab­di'lláh: 'You are the Way men­tioned in the Book of God, and you are the Im­post, and you are the Pil­grim­age.' He replied: 'O man! We are the Way men­tioned in the Book of God,--ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied be He--and We are the Im­post, and We are the Fast, and We are the Pil­grim­age, and We are the Sa­cred Month, and We are the Sa­cred City, and We are the Kaa­ba of God, and We are the Qi­blih of God, and We are the Face of God.'” Jabír hath said that Abú-​Ja'far--peace be up­on him--spoke to him as fol­lows: “O Jabír! Give heed un­to the Bayán (Ex­po­si­tion) and the Má'ání (Sig­nif­icances).” He--peace be up­on him--added: “As to the Bayán, it con­sis­teth in thy recog­ni­tion of God--glo­ri­fied be He--as the One Who hath no equal, and in thy ado­ra­tion of Him, and in thy re­fusal to join part­ners with Him. As to the Má'ání, We are its mean­ing, and its side, and its hand, and its tongue, and its cause, and its com­mand, and its knowl­edge, and its right. If We wish for some­thing, it is God Who wisheth it, and He de­sireth that which We de­sire.” More­over, the Com­man­der of the Faith­ful (Imám 'Alí)--peace be up­on him--hath said: “How can I wor­ship a Lord Whom I have not seen?” And, in an­oth­er con­nec­tion, he saith: “Noth­ing have I per­ceived ex­cept that I per­ceived God be­fore it, God af­ter it, or God with it.”

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Pon­der up­on the things which have been men­tioned, per­chance thou mayest quaff the Sealed Wine through the pow­er of the name of Him Who is the Self-​Sub­sist­ing, and ob­tain that which no one is ca­pa­ble of com­pre­hend­ing. Gird up the loins of en­deav­or, and di­rect thy­self to­wards the Most Sub­lime King­dom, that hap­ly thou mayest per­ceive, as they de­scend up­on Me, the breaths of Rev­ela­tion and in­spi­ra­tion, and at­tain there­un­to. Ver­ily, I say: The Cause of God hath nev­er had, nor hath it now, any peer or equal. Rend asun­der the veils of idle fan­cies. He, in truth, will re­in­force thee, and as­sist thee, as a to­ken of His grace. He, ver­ily, is the Strong, the All-​Sub­du­ing, the Almighty. While there is yet time, and the blessed Lote-​Tree is still call­ing aloud amongst men, suf­fer not thy­self to be de­prived. Place thy trust in God, and com­mit thine af­fairs un­to Him, and en­ter then the Most Great Prison, that thou mayest hear what no ear hath ev­er heard, and gaze on that which no eye hath ev­er seen. Af­ter such an ex­po­si­tion, can there re­main any room for doubt? Nay, by God, Who standeth over His Cause! In truth I say: On this day the blessed words “But He is the Apos­tle of God, and the Seal of the Prophets” have found their con­sum­ma­tion in the verse “The day when mankind shall stand be­fore the Lord of the worlds.” Ren­der thou thanks­giv­ing un­to God, for so great a boun­ty.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! The breezes of Rev­ela­tion can nev­er be con­found­ed with oth­er breezes. Now the Lote-​Tree be­yond which there is no pass­ing standeth laden with count­less fruits be­fore thy face; be­smirch not thy­self with idle fan­cies, as have done the peo­ple afore­time. These ut­ter­ances them­selves pro­claim the true na­ture of the Faith of God. He it is Who wit­nes­seth un­to all things. To demon­strate the truth of His Rev­ela­tion He hath not been, nor is He, de­pen­dent up­on any one. Well nigh a hun­dred vol­umes of lu­mi­nous vers­es and per­spic­uous words have al­ready been sent down from the heav­en of the will of Him Who is the Re­veal­er of signs, and are avail­able un­to all. It is for thee to di­rect thy­self to­wards the Ul­ti­mate Goal, and the Supreme End, and the Most Sub­lime Pin­na­cle, that thou mayest hear and be­hold what hath been re­vealed by God, the Lord of the worlds.

Pon­der a while up­on the vers­es con­cern­ing the Di­vine Pres­ence, which have been sent down in the Qur'án by Him Who is the Lord of the king­dom of names, per­chance thou mayest dis­cov­er the Straight Path, and be made an in­stru­ment for the guid­ance of His crea­tures. Such a one as thou must needs in this day arise to serve this Cause. The abase­ment of this Wronged One as well as thy glo­ry shall both pass away. Strive thou, that hap­ly thou mayest achieve a deed the fra­grance of which shall nev­er fade from the earth. Con­cern­ing the Di­vine Pres­ence there hath been sent down what no de­nier hath been or is now able to re­fute or re­pu­di­ate. He--blessed and ex­alt­ed be He--saith: “It is God Who hath reared the heav­ens with­out pil­lars thou canst be­hold; then mount­ed His throne, and im­posed laws on the sun and moon: each trav­eleth to its ap­point­ed goal. He or­dereth all things. He maketh His signs clear, that ye may have firm faith in the Pres­ence of your Lord.” He al­so saith: “To him who hopeth to at­tain the Pres­ence of God, the set time of God will sure­ly come. And He is the Hear­er, the Know­er.” And fur­ther He--ex­alt­ed be He--saith: “As for those who be­lieve not in the signs of God, or that they shall ev­er at­tain His Pres­ence, these of My mer­cy shall de­spair, and these doth a grievous chas­tise­ment await.” And like­wise He saith: “And they say, 'What! when we shall have lain hid­den in the earth, shall we be­come a new cre­ation?' Yea, they de­ny that they shall at­tain the Pres­ence of their Lord.” And like­wise He saith: “They tru­ly doubt the Pres­ence of their Lord. He, ver­ily, over­shad­oweth all things.” And like­wise He saith: “Ver­ily, they who hope not to at­tain Our Pres­ence, and find their sat­is­fac­tion in this world's life, and rest on it, and who of Our signs are heed­less--these! their abode the fire, in rec­om­pense of their deeds!” And like­wise He saith: “But when Our clear signs are re­cit­ed to them, they who look not for­ward to at­tain Our Pres­ence, say, 'Bring a dif­fer­ent Qur'án from this, or make some change in it.' Say: It is not for Me to change it as Mine own soul prompteth. I fol­low on­ly what is re­vealed to Me: ver­ily, I fear, if I rebel against My Lord, the pun­ish­ment of a great day.” And like­wise He saith: “Then gave We the Book to Moses--com­plete for Him who should do right, and a de­ci­sion for all mat­ters, and a guid­ance, and a mer­cy, that they might be­lieve in the Pres­ence of their Lord.” And like­wise he saith: “They are those who be­lieve not in the signs of the Lord, or that they shall ev­er at­tain His Pres­ence. Vain, there­fore, are their works; and no weight will We al­low them on the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion. This shall be their re­ward--Hell. Be­cause they were un­be­liev­ers, and treat­ed My signs and My Apos­tles with scorn.” And like­wise He saith: “Hath the his­to­ry of Moses reached thee? When He saw a fire, and said to His fam­ily, 'Tar­ry ye here, for I per­ceive a fire; hap­ly I may bring you a brand from it, or find at the fire a guide.' And when He came to it, He was called to, 'O Moses! Ver­ily, I am Thy Lord; there­fore pull off Thy shoes, for Thou art in the holy vale of Towa. And I have cho­sen Thee; hear­ken then to what shall be re­vealed. Ver­ily, I am God, there is no God but Me. There­fore, wor­ship Me.'” And like­wise He saith: “Have they not con­sid­ered with­in them­selves that God hath not cre­at­ed the heav­ens and the earth and all that is be­tween them but for a se­ri­ous end, and for a fixed term? But tru­ly most men be­lieve not that they shall at­tain the Pres­ence of their Lord.” And like­wise He saith: “What! Have they no thought that they shall be raised again for the Great Day, the Day when mankind shall stand be­fore the Lord of the worlds?” And like­wise He saith: “We hereto­fore gave the Book to Moses. Have thou no doubt as to His at­tain­ing Our Pres­ence.” And He saith: “Aye! But when the earth shall be crushed with crush­ing, crush­ing, and thy Lord shall come and the an­gels rank on rank.” And like­wise He saith: “Fain would they put out the light of God with their mouths! But though the in­fi­dels hate it, God will per­fect His light.” And like­wise He saith: “And when Moses had ful­filled the term, and was jour­ney­ing with His fam­ily, He per­ceived a fire on the moun­tain side. He said to His fam­ily: 'Wait ye, for I per­ceive a fire, hap­ly I may bring you tid­ings from it, or a brand from the fire to warm you.' And when He came up to it, a Voice cried to Him out of the Bush from the right side of the Vale in the sa­cred Spot: 'O Moses, I tru­ly am God, the Lord of the worlds!'”

In all the Di­vine Books the promise of the Di­vine Pres­ence hath been ex­plic­it­ly record­ed. By this Pres­ence is meant the Pres­ence of Him Who is the Dayspring of the signs, and the Dawn­ing-​Place of the clear to­kens, and the Man­ifes­ta­tion of the Ex­cel­lent Names, and the Source of the at­tributes, of the true God, ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry. God in His Essence and in His own Self hath ev­er been un­seen, in­ac­ces­si­ble, and un­know­able. By Pres­ence, there­fore, is meant the Pres­ence of the One Who is His Vicegerent amongst men. He, more­over, hath nev­er had, nor hath He, any peer or like­ness. For were He to have any peer or like­ness, how could it then be demon­strat­ed that His be­ing is ex­alt­ed above, and His essence sanc­ti­fied from, all com­par­ison and like­ness? Briefly, there hath been re­vealed in the Kitáb-​i-​Íqán (Book of Cer­ti­tude) con­cern­ing the Pres­ence and Rev­ela­tion of God that which will suf­fice the fair-​mind­ed. We be­seech Him--ex­alt­ed be He--to aid ev­ery one to be­come the essence of truth­ful­ness, and to draw nigh un­to Him. He, ver­ily, is the Lord of strength and pow­er. No God is there but Him, the All-​Hear­ing, the Lord of Ut­ter­ance, the Almighty, the All-​Praised.

O thou who art re­put­ed for thy learn­ing! Bid men to do that which is praise­wor­thy, and be not of such as tar­ry. Ob­serve thou with a keen eye. The Sun of Truth shineth re­splen­dent­ly, at the bid­ding of the Lord of the king­dom of ut­ter­ance, and the King of the heav­en of knowl­edge, above the hori­zon of the prison-​city of Akká. Re­pu­di­ation hath not veiled it, and ten thou­sand hosts ar­rayed against it were pow­er­less to with­hold it from shin­ing. Thou canst ex­cuse thy­self no longer. Ei­ther thou must rec­og­nize it, or--God for­bid--arise and de­ny all the Prophets!

Re­flect, O _Sh_ay_kh_, up­on the _Sh_í'ih sect. How many the ed­ifices which they reared with the hands of idle fan­cies and vain imag­in­ings, and how nu­mer­ous the cities which they built! At length those vain imag­in­ings were con­vert­ed in­to bul­lets and aimed at Him Who is the Prince of the world. Not one sin­gle soul among the lead­ers of that sect ac­knowl­edged Him in the Day of His Rev­ela­tion! When­ev­er His blessed name was men­tioned, all would say: “May God has­ten the joy His com­ing will bring!” On the day of the Rev­ela­tion of that Sun of Truth, how­ev­er, all, as hath been ob­served, have ex­claimed, say­ing: “May God has­ten His chas­tise­ment!” He Who was the Essence of be­ing and Lord of the seen and un­seen they sus­pend­ed, and com­mit­ted what made the Tablet to weep, and the Pen to groan, and the cries of the sin­cere to break forth, and the tears of the fa­vored ones to flow.

Med­itate, O _Sh_ay_kh_, and be fair in what thou sayest. The fol­low­ers of _Sh_ay_kh_-i-​Ah­sá'í (_Sh_ay_kh_ Ah­mad) have, by the aid of God, ap­pre­hend­ed that which was veiled from the com­pre­hen­sion of oth­ers, and of which they re­mained de­prived. Briefly, in ev­ery age and cen­tu­ry dif­fer­ences have arisen in the days of the man­ifes­ta­tion of the Daysprings of Rev­ela­tion, and the Dawn­ing-​Places of in­spi­ra­tion, and the Repos­ito­ries of Di­vine knowl­edge, dif­fer­ences which have been caused and pro­voked by ly­ing and im­pi­ous souls. To ex­pa­ti­ate on this is not per­mis­si­ble. Thou art thy­self bet­ter ac­quaint­ed and more fa­mil­iar with the idle fan­cies of the su­per­sti­tious and the vain imag­in­ings of the doubters.

In this day, this Wronged One re­questeth thee and the oth­er di­vines who have drunk of the cup of the knowl­edge of God, and are il­lu­mined by the shin­ing words of the Daystar of Jus­tice, to ap­point some per­son, with­out in­form­ing any one, and despatch him to these re­gions, and en­able him to re­main a while in the is­land of Cyprus, and as­so­ciate with Mírzá Yahyá, per­chance he may be­come aware of the fun­da­men­tals of this Faith and of the source of the Di­vine laws and com­mand­ments.

Wert thou to pon­der a while, thou wouldst bear wit­ness un­to the wis­dom, and the pow­er, and the sovereign­ty of God, ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry. The few who were un­aware of this Cause, and had not met Us, have spo­ken in such a man­ner that all things, and those souls who are well as­sured, pleased, and pleas­ing un­to God, have tes­ti­fied un­to the im­pos­ture of these heed­less ones. Wert thou now to ex­ert thy­self, the truth of this Cause would be made ap­par­ent un­to mankind, and the peo­ple would be de­liv­ered from this grievous and op­pres­sive dark­ness. Who else but Bahá can speak forth be­fore the face of men, and who else but He can have the pow­er to pro­nounce that which He was bid­den by God, the Lord of Hosts?

This heed­less one hath now clung to the prac­tice of Rawdih-_kh_ání (tra­di­tion­al lamen­ta­tion for the Imám Husayn). He--I swear by God--is in ev­ident er­ror. For it is the be­lief of this peo­ple that dur­ing the Rev­ela­tion of the Qá'im, the Imáms--may the peace of God be up­on them--have arisen from their sepul­chres. This ver­ily is the truth, and no doubt is there about it. We be­seech God to be­stow up­on the su­per­sti­tious a por­tion of the liv­ing wa­ters of cer­ti­tude which are stream­ing from the well­spring of the Most Sub­lime Pen, that all may at­tain un­to that which be­cometh these days.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! While hemmed in by tribu­la­tions this Wronged One is oc­cu­pied in set­ting down these words. On ev­ery side the flame of op­pres­sion and tyran­ny can be dis­cerned. On the one hand, tid­ings have reached Us that Our loved ones have been ar­rest­ed in the land of Tá (Tihrán) and this notwith­stand­ing that the sun, and the moon, and the land, and the sea all tes­ti­fy that this peo­ple are adorned with the adorn­ment of fi­deli­ty, and have clung and will cling to naught ex­cept that which can en­sure the ex­al­ta­tion of the gov­ern­ment, and the main­te­nance of or­der with­in the na­tion, and the tran­quil­li­ty of the peo­ple.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! We have time and again stat­ed that for a num­ber of years We have ex­tend­ed Our aid un­to His Majesty the _Sh_áh. For years no un­to­ward in­ci­dent hath oc­curred in Per­sia. The reins of the stir­rers of sedi­tion among var­ious sects were held firm­ly in the grasp of pow­er. None hath trans­gressed his lim­its. By God! This peo­ple have nev­er been, nor are they now, in­clined to mis­chief. Their hearts are il­lu­mined with the light of the fear of God, and adorned with the adorn­ment of His love. Their con­cern hath ev­er been and now is for the bet­ter­ment of the world. Their pur­pose is to oblit­er­ate dif­fer­ences, and quench the flame of ha­tred and en­mi­ty, so that the whole earth may come to be viewed as one coun­try.

On the oth­er hand, the of­fi­cials of the Per­sian Em­bassy in the Great City (Con­stantino­ple) are en­er­get­ical­ly and as­sid­uous­ly seek­ing to ex­ter­mi­nate these wronged ones. They de­sire one thing, and God de­sireth an­oth­er. Con­sid­er now what hath be­fall­en the trust­ed ones of God in ev­ery land. At one time they have been ac­cused of theft and larce­ny; at an­oth­er they have been ca­lum­ni­at­ed in a man­ner with­out par­al­lel in this world. An­swer thou fair­ly. What could be the re­sults and con­se­quences, in for­eign coun­tries, of the ac­cu­sa­tion of theft brought by the Per­sian Em­bassy against its own sub­jects? If this Wronged One was ashamed, it was not be­cause of the hu­mil­ia­tion it brought this ser­vant, but rather be­cause of the shame of its be­com­ing known to the Am­bas­sadors of for­eign coun­tries how in­com­pe­tent and lack­ing in un­der­stand­ing are sev­er­al em­inent of­fi­cials of the Per­sian Em­bassy. “Flingest thou thy calum­nies in­to the face of Them Whom the one true God hath made the Trustees of the trea­sures of His sev­enth sphere?” Briefly, in­stead of seek­ing, as they should, through Him Who oc­cu­pi­eth this sub­lime sta­tion, to at­tain un­to the most ex­alt­ed ranks, and to ob­tain His ad­vice, they have ex­ert­ed them­selves and are striv­ing their ut­most to put out His light. How­ev­er, ac­cord­ing to what hath been re­port­ed, His Ex­cel­len­cy the Am­bas­sador Mu'ínu'l-​Mulk, Mírzá Muhsin _Kh_án--may God as­sist him--was, at that time, ab­sent from Con­stantino­ple. Such things have hap­pened be­cause it was be­lieved that His Majesty the _Sh_áh of Per­sia--may the All-​Mer­ci­ful as­sist him--was an­gry with them that have at­tained and re­volve round the Sanc­tu­ary of Wis­dom. God well knoweth and tes­ti­fi­eth that this Wronged One hath, at all times, been cleav­ing fast un­to what­ev­er would be con­ducive to the glo­ry of both the gov­ern­ment and the peo­ple. God, ver­ily, is suf­fi­cient Wit­ness.

De­scrib­ing the peo­ple of Bahá, the Most Sub­lime Pen hath sent down these words: “These, ver­ily, are men who if they come to cities of pure gold will con­sid­er them not; and if they meet the fairest and most come­ly of wom­en will turn aside.” Thus hath it been sent down by the Most Sub­lime Pen for the peo­ple of Bahá, on the part of Him Who is the Coun­sel­lor, the Om­ni­scient. In the con­clud­ing pas­sages of the Tablet to His Majesty the Em­per­or of Paris (Napoleon III) these ex­alt­ed words have been re­vealed: “Ex­ul­test thou over the trea­sures thou dost pos­sess, know­ing they shall per­ish? Re­joic­est thou in that thou rulest a span of earth, when the whole world, in the es­ti­ma­tion of the peo­ple of Bahá, is worth as much as the black in the eye of a dead ant? Aban­don it un­to such as have set their af­fec­tions up­on it, and turn thou un­to Him Who is the De­sire of the world.”

God alone--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--is cog­nizant of the things which be­fell this Wronged One. Ev­ery day bringeth a fresh re­port of sto­ries cur­rent against Us at the Em­bassy in Con­stantino­ple. Gra­cious God! The sole aim of their machi­na­tions is to bring about the ex­ter­mi­na­tion of this ser­vant. They are, how­ev­er, obliv­ious of the fact that abase­ment in the path of God is My true glo­ry. In the news­pa­pers the fol­low­ing hath been record­ed: “Touch­ing the fraud­ulent deal­ings of some of the ex­iles of Akká, and the ex­cess­es com­mit­ted by them against sev­er­al peo­ple, etc....” Un­to them who are the ex­po­nents of jus­tice and the daysprings of eq­ui­ty the in­ten­tion of the writ­er is ev­ident and his pur­pose clear. Briefly, he arose and in­flict­ed up­on Me divers tribu­la­tions, and treat­ed Me with in­jus­tice and cru­el­ty. By God! This Wronged One would not barter this place of ex­ile for the Most Sub­lime Habi­ta­tion. In the es­ti­ma­tion of men of in­sight what­so­ev­er be­fal­leth in the path of God is man­ifest glo­ry and a supreme at­tain­ment. Al­ready We have said: “Glo­ry to Thee, O my God! But for the tribu­la­tions which are sus­tained in Thy path, how could Thy true lovers be rec­og­nized; and were it not for the tri­als which are borne for love of Thee, how could the sta­tion of such as yearn for Thee be re­vealed?”

Such abase­ment hath been in­flict­ed that each day they spread fresh calum­nies. This Wronged One, how­ev­er, cleaveth to seem­ly pa­tience. Would that His Majesty the _Sh_áh of Per­sia would ask for a re­port of the things which be­fell Us in Con­stantino­ple, that he might be­come ful­ly ac­quaint­ed with the true facts. O _Sh_áh! I ad­jure thee by thy Lord, the God of Mer­cy, to look in­to this mat­ter with the eye of fair­ness. Is there to be found a just man who will judge in this day ac­cord­ing to that which God hath sent down in His Book? Where is the fair-​mind­ed per­son who will eq­ui­tably con­sid­er what hath been per­pe­trat­ed against Us with­out any clear to­ken or proof?

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Pon­der the be­hav­ior of men. The in­mates of the cities of knowl­edge and wis­dom are sore per­plexed ask­ing them­selves why it is that the _Sh_í'ih sect, which re­gard­ed it­self as the most learned, the most righ­teous, and the most pi­ous of all the peo­ples of the world, hath turned aside in the Day of His Rev­ela­tion, and hath shown a cru­el­ty such as hath nev­er been ex­pe­ri­enced. It is in­cum­bent up­on thee to re­flect a while. From the in­cep­tion of this sect un­til the present day how great hath been the num­ber of the di­vines that have ap­peared, none of whom be­came cog­nizant of the na­ture of this Rev­ela­tion. What could have been the cause of this way­ward­ness? Were We to men­tion it, their limbs would cleave asun­der. It is nec­es­sary for them to med­itate, to med­itate for a thou­sand thou­sand years, that hap­ly they may at­tain un­to a sprin­kling from the ocean of knowl­edge, and dis­cov­er the things where­of they are obliv­ious in this day.

I was walk­ing in the Land of Tá (Tihrán)--the dayspring of the signs of thy Lord--when lo, I heard the lamen­ta­tion of the pul­pits and the voice of their sup­pli­ca­tion un­to God, blessed and glo­ri­fied be He. They cried out and said: “O God of the world and Lord of the na­tions! Thou be­hold­est our state and the things which have be­fall­en us by rea­son of the cru­el­ty of Thy ser­vants. Thou hast cre­at­ed us and re­vealed us for Thy glo­ri­fi­ca­tion and praise. Thou dost now hear what the way­ward pro­claim up­on us in Thy days. By Thy might! Our souls are melt­ed and our limbs are trem­bling. Alas, alas! Would that we had nev­er been cre­at­ed and re­vealed by Thee!”

The hearts of them that en­joy near ac­cess to God are con­sumed by these words, and from them the cries of such as are de­vot­ed to Him are raised. Time and again have We, for the sake of God, ad­mon­ished the dis­tin­guished di­vines, and sum­moned them un­to the Most Sub­lime Hori­zon, that per­chance they might, in the days of His Rev­ela­tion, ob­tain their por­tion of the ocean of the ut­ter­ance of Him Who is the De­sire of the world, and re­main not ut­ter­ly de­prived there­of.

In most of Our Tablets this most weighty ex­hor­ta­tion hath been sent down from the heav­en of His all-​en­com­pass­ing mer­cy. We said: “O con­course of rulers and di­vines! In­cline your ears un­to the Voice call­ing from the hori­zon of Akká. Ver­ily, it aideth you to pro­ceed aright, and draweth you nigh un­to Him, and di­recteth your steps to­wards the sta­tion which God hath made the Dayspring of His Rev­ela­tion and the Dawn­ing-​Place of His splen­dors. O peo­ples of the world! He Who is the Most Great Name is come, on the part of the An­cient King, and hath an­nounced un­to men this Rev­ela­tion which lay hid in His knowl­edge, and was pre­served in the trea­sury of His pro­tec­tion, and was writ­ten down by the Most Sub­lime Pen in the Books of God, the Lord of Lords. O peo­ple of _Sh_ín (_Sh_íráz)! Have ye for­got­ten My lov­ing-​kind­ness and My mer­cy that have sur­passed all cre­at­ed things, and which pro­ceed­ed from God Who layeth low the necks of men?”

In the Kitáb-​i-​Aq­das (Most Holy Book) the fol­low­ing hath been re­vealed: “Say: O lead­ers of re­li­gion! Weigh not the Book of God with such stan­dards and sci­ences as are cur­rent amongst you, for the Book it­self is the unerring Bal­ance es­tab­lished amongst men. In this most per­fect Bal­ance what­so­ev­er the peo­ples and kin­dreds pos­sess must be weighed, while the mea­sure of its weight should be test­ed ac­cord­ing to its own stan­dard, did ye but know it. The eye of My lov­ing-​kind­ness weep­eth sore over you, inas­much as ye have failed to rec­og­nize the One up­on Whom ye have been call­ing in the day­time and in the night sea­son, at even and at morn. Ad­vance, O peo­ple, with snow-​white faces and ra­di­ant hearts, un­to the blest and crim­son Spot, where­in the Tree be­yond which there is no pass­ing is call­ing: 'Ver­ily, there is none oth­er God be­side Me, the Om­nipo­tent Pro­tec­tor, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing!' O ye lead­ers of re­li­gion in Per­sia! Who is the man amongst you that can ri­val Me in vi­sion or in­sight? Where is he to be found that dareth to claim to be My equal in ut­ter­ance or wis­dom? No, by My Lord, the All-​Mer­ci­ful! All on the earth shall pass away; and this is the face of your Lord, the Almighty, the Well-​Beloved. We have de­creed, O peo­ple, that the high­est and last end of all learn­ing be the recog­ni­tion of Him Who is the Ob­ject of all knowl­edge; and yet be­hold how ye have al­lowed your learn­ing to shut you out, as by a veil, from Him Who is the Dayspring of this Light, through Whom ev­ery hid­den thing hath been re­vealed. Say: This, ver­ily, is the heav­en in which the Moth­er Book is trea­sured, could ye but com­pre­hend it. He it is Who hath caused the Rock to shout, and the Burn­ing Bush to lift up its voice up­on the Mount ris­ing above the Holy Land, and pro­claim: 'The King­dom is God's, the sovereign Lord of all, the All-​Pow­er­ful, the Lov­ing!' We have not en­tered any school, nor read any of your dis­ser­ta­tions. In­cline your ears to the words of this un­let­tered One, where­with He sum­mon­eth you un­to God, the Ev­er-​Abid­ing. Bet­ter is this for you than all the trea­sures of the earth, could ye but com­pre­hend it. Whoso in­ter­preteth what hath been sent down from the heav­en of Rev­ela­tion, and al­tereth its ev­ident mean­ing, he, ver­ily, is of them that have per­vert­ed the Sub­lime Word of God, and is of the lost ones in the Lu­cid Book.”

There­upon We heard the groan­ing of the true Faith, and said un­to it: “Where­fore, O true Faith, do I hear Thee cry out in the night sea­son, and groan in the day­time, and ut­ter Thy lamen­ta­tions at day­break?” She made re­ply: “O Prince of the world that stand­est re­vealed in the Most Great Name! The heed­less ones have ham­strung Thy white She-​Camel, and caused Thy Crim­son Ark to founder, and wished to put out Thy Light, and to veil the face of Thy Cause. Where­fore hath the voice of My lamen­ta­tion been lift­ed up, as well as the voice of the lamen­ta­tion of all cre­at­ed things, and yet the peo­ple are for the most part un­aware.” The true Faith hath laid fast hold, in this day, on the hem of Our boun­ty, and cir­cleth about Our Per­son.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! En­ter thou My pres­ence, that thou mayest be­hold what the eye of the uni­verse hath nev­er be­held, and hear that which the ear of the whole cre­ation hath nev­er heard, that hap­ly thou mayest free thy­self from the mire of vague fan­cies, and set thy face to­wards the Most Sub­lime Sta­tion, where­in this Wronged One cal­leth aloud: “The King­dom is God's, the Almighty, the All-​Praised!” We fain would hope that through thine ex­er­tions the wings of men may be sanc­ti­fied from the mire of self and de­sire, and be made wor­thy to soar in the at­mo­sphere of God's love. Wings that are be­smirched with mire can nev­er soar. Un­to this tes­ti­fy they who are the ex­po­nents of jus­tice and eq­ui­ty, and yet the peo­ple are in ev­ident doubt.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Protests have been voiced against Us from ev­ery side--protests such as Our pen craveth par­don for set­ting down. Nev­er­the­less, by rea­son of Our great mer­cy, We have replied un­to them, in ac­cor­dance with the un­der­stand­ing of men, that hap­ly they may be de­liv­ered from the fire of nega­tion and de­nial, and be­come il­lu­mined with the light of af­fir­ma­tion and ac­cep­tance. Eq­ui­ty is rarely to be found, and jus­tice hath ceased to ex­ist.

Among oth­ers, these per­spic­uous vers­es have, in an­swer to cer­tain in­di­vid­uals, been sent down from the King­dom of Di­vine knowl­edge: “O thou who hast set thy face to­wards the splen­dors of My Coun­te­nance! Vague fan­cies have en­com­passed the dwellers of the earth and de­barred them from turn­ing to­wards the Hori­zon of Cer­ti­tude, and its bright­ness, and its man­ifes­ta­tions and its lights. Vain imag­in­ings have with­held them from Him Who is the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. They speak as prompt­ed by their own caprices, and un­der­stand not. Among them are those who have said: 'Have the vers­es been sent down?' Say: 'Yea, by Him Who is the Lord of the heav­ens!' 'Hath the Hour come?' 'Nay, more; it hath passed, by Him Who is the Re­veal­er of clear to­kens! Ver­ily, the In­evitable is come, and He, the True One, hath ap­peared with proof and tes­ti­mo­ny. The Plain is dis­closed, and mankind is sore vexed and fear­ful. Earth­quakes have bro­ken loose, and the tribes have lament­ed, for fear of God, the Lord of Strength, the All-​Com­pelling.' Say: 'The stun­ning trum­pet blast hath been loud­ly raised, and the Day is God's, the One, the Un­con­strained.' 'Hath the Catas­tro­phe come to pass?' Say: 'Yea, by the Lord of Lords!' 'Is the Res­ur­rec­tion come?' 'Nay, more; He Who is the Self-​Sub­sist­ing hath ap­peared with the King­dom of His signs.' 'Seest thou men laid low?' 'Yea, by my Lord, the Ex­alt­ed, the Most High!' 'Have the tree-​stumps been up­root­ed?' 'Yea, more; the moun­tains have been scat­tered in dust; by Him the Lord of at­tributes!' They say: 'Where is Par­adise, and where is Hell?' Say: 'The one is re­union with Me; the oth­er thine own self, O thou who dost as­so­ciate a part­ner with God and doubtest.' They say: 'We see not the Bal­ance.' Say: 'Sure­ly, by my Lord, the God of Mer­cy! None can see it ex­cept such as are en­dued with in­sight.' 'Have the stars fall­en?' Say: 'Yea, when He Who is the Self-​Sub­sist­ing dwelt in the Land of Mys­tery (Adri­anople). Take heed, ye who are en­dued with dis­cern­ment!' All the signs ap­peared when We drew forth the Hand of Pow­er from the bo­som of majesty and might. Ver­ily, the Crier hath cried out, when the promised time came, and they that have rec­og­nized the splen­dors of Sinai have swooned away in the wilder­ness of hes­ita­tion, be­fore the aw­ful majesty of thy Lord, the Lord of cre­ation. The trum­pet as­keth: 'Hath the Bu­gle been sound­ed?' Say: 'Yea, by the King of Rev­ela­tion!, when He mount­ed the throne of His Name, the All-​Mer­ci­ful.' Dark­ness hath been chased away by the dawn­ing-​light of the mer­cy of thy Lord, the Source of all light. The breeze of the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath waft­ed, and the souls have been quick­ened in the tombs of their bod­ies. Thus hath the de­cree been ful­filled by God, the Mighty, the Benef­icent. They that have gone astray have said: 'When were the heav­ens cleft asun­der?' Say: 'While ye lay in the graves of way­ward­ness and er­ror.' Among the heed­less is he who rub­beth his eyes, and looketh to the right and to the left. Say: 'Blind­ed art thou. No refuge hast thou to flee to.' And among them is he who saith: 'Have men been gath­ered to­geth­er?' Say: 'Yea, by my Lord!, whilst thou didst lie in the cra­dle of idle fan­cies.' And among them is he who saith: 'Hath the Book been sent down through the pow­er of the true Faith?' Say: 'The true Faith it­self is as­tound­ed. Fear ye, O ye men of un­der­stand­ing heart!' And among them is he who saith: 'Have I been as­sem­bled with oth­ers, blind?' Say: 'Yea, by Him that rideth up­on the clouds!' Par­adise is decked with mys­tic ros­es, and hell hath been made to blaze with the fire of the im­pi­ous. Say: 'The light hath shone forth from the hori­zon of Rev­ela­tion, and the whole earth hath been il­lu­mined at the com­ing of Him Who is the Lord of the Day of the Covenant!' The doubters have per­ished, whilst he that turned, guid­ed by the light of as­sur­ance, un­to the Dayspring of Cer­ti­tude hath pros­pered. Blessed art thou, who hast fixed thy gaze up­on Me, for this Tablet which hath been sent down for thee--a Tablet which causeth the souls of men to soar. Com­mit it to mem­ory, and re­cite it. By My life! It is a door to the mer­cy of thy Lord. Well is it with him that re­citeth it at even­tide and at dawn. We, ver­ily, hear thy praise of this Cause, through which the moun­tain of knowl­edge was crushed, and men's feet have slipped. My glo­ry be up­on thee and up­on whom­so­ev­er hath turned un­to the Almighty, the All-​Boun­teous. The Tablet is end­ed, but the theme is un­ex­haust­ed. Be pa­tient, for thy Lord is pa­tient.”

These are vers­es We sent down pre­vi­ous­ly, soon af­ter Our ar­rival in the prison-​city of Akká, and We have sent them un­to thee, that thou mayest be ac­quaint­ed with what their ly­ing tongues have spo­ken, when Our Cause came un­to them with might and sovereign­ty. The foun­da­tions of idle fan­cies have trem­bled, and the heav­en of vain imag­in­ings hath been cleft asun­der, and yet the peo­ple are in doubt and in con­tention with Him. They have de­nied the tes­ti­mo­ny of God and His proof, af­ter He came from the heav­en of pow­er with the king­dom of His signs. They have cast away what had been pre­scribed, and per­pe­trat­ed what had been for­bid­den them in the Book. They have aban­doned their God, and clung un­to their de­sires. They tru­ly have strayed and are in er­ror. They read the vers­es and de­ny them. They be­hold the clear to­kens and turn aside. They tru­ly are lost in strange doubt.

We have ad­mon­ished Our loved ones to fear God, a fear which is the foun­tain-​head of all good­ly deeds and virtues. It is the com­man­der of the hosts of jus­tice in the city of Bahá. Hap­py the man that hath en­tered the shad­ow of its lu­mi­nous stan­dard, and laid fast hold there­on. He, ver­ily, is of the Com­pan­ions of the Crim­son Ark, which hath been men­tioned in the Qayyúm-​i-​As­má.

Say: O peo­ple of God! Adorn your tem­ples with the adorn­ment of trust­wor­thi­ness and piety. Help, then, your Lord with the hosts of good­ly deeds and a praise­wor­thy char­ac­ter. We have for­bid­den you dis­sen­sion and con­flict in My Books, and My Scrip­tures, and My Scrolls, and My Tablets, and have wished there­by naught else save your ex­al­ta­tion and ad­vance­ment. Un­to this tes­ti­fy the heav­ens and the stars there­of, and the sun and the ra­di­ance there­of, and the trees and the leaves there­of, and the seas and the waves there­of, and the earth and the trea­sures there­of. We pray God to as­sist His loved ones, and aid them in that which be­seemeth them in this blest, this mighty, and won­drous sta­tion.

Fur­ther, in an­oth­er Tablet, We have said: “O thou who hast fixed thy gaze up­on My coun­te­nance! Ad­mon­ish men to fear God. By God! This fear is the chief com­man­der of the army of thy Lord. Its hosts are a praise­wor­thy char­ac­ter and good­ly deeds. Through it have the cities of men's hearts been opened through­out the ages and cen­turies, and the stan­dards of as­cen­dan­cy and tri­umph raised above all oth­er stan­dards.”

“We will now men­tion un­to thee Trust­wor­thi­ness and the sta­tion there­of in the es­ti­ma­tion of God, thy Lord, the Lord of the Mighty Throne. One day of days We re­paired un­to Our Green Is­land. Up­on Our ar­rival, We be­held its streams flow­ing, and its trees lux­uri­ant, and the sun­light play­ing in their midst. Turn­ing Our face to the right, We be­held what the pen is pow­er­less to de­scribe; nor can it set forth that which the eye of the Lord of Mankind wit­nessed in that most sanc­ti­fied, that most sub­lime, that blest, and most ex­alt­ed Spot. Turn­ing, then, to the left We gazed on one of the Beau­ties of the Most Sub­lime Par­adise, stand­ing on a pil­lar of light, and call­ing aloud say­ing: 'O in­mates of earth and heav­en! Be­hold ye My beau­ty, and My ra­di­ance, and My rev­ela­tion, and My ef­ful­gence. By God, the True One! I am Trust­wor­thi­ness and the rev­ela­tion there­of, and the beau­ty there­of. I will rec­om­pense whoso­ev­er will cleave un­to Me, and rec­og­nize My rank and sta­tion, and hold fast un­to My hem. I am the most great or­na­ment of the peo­ple of Bahá, and the ves­ture of glo­ry un­to all who are in the king­dom of cre­ation. I am the supreme in­stru­ment for the pros­per­ity of the world, and the hori­zon of as­sur­ance un­to all be­ings.' Thus have We sent down for thee that which will draw men nigh un­to the Lord of cre­ation.”

This Wronged One hath, at all times, sum­moned the peo­ples of the world un­to that which will ex­alt them, and draw them nigh un­to God. From the Most Sub­lime Hori­zon there hath shone forth that which leaveth no room un­to any one for vac­il­la­tion, re­pu­di­ation or de­nial. The way­ward, how­ev­er, have failed to prof­it there­from; nay, it shall on­ly in­crease their loss.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! It is in­cum­bent up­on the di­vines to unite with His Majesty, the _Sh_áh--may God as­sist him--and to cleave day and night un­to that which will ex­alt the sta­tion of both the gov­ern­ment and the na­tion. This peo­ple are as­sid­uous­ly oc­cu­pied in en­light­en­ing the souls of men and in re­ha­bil­itat­ing their con­di­tion. Un­to this tes­ti­fi­eth that which hath been sent down by the Most Sub­lime Pen in this lu­cid Tablet. How of­ten have things been sim­ple and easy of ac­com­plish­ment, and yet most men have been heed­less, and bus­ied them­selves with that which wasteth their time!

One day, while in Con­stantino­ple, Kamál Pá_sh_á vis­it­ed this Wronged One. Our con­ver­sa­tion turned up­on top­ics prof­itable un­to man. He said that he had learned sev­er­al lan­guages. In re­ply We ob­served: “You have wast­ed your life. It be­seemeth you and the oth­er of­fi­cials of the Gov­ern­ment to con­vene a gath­er­ing and choose one of the divers lan­guages, and like­wise one of the ex­ist­ing scripts, or else to cre­ate a new lan­guage and a new script to be taught chil­dren in schools through­out the world. They would, in this way, be ac­quir­ing on­ly two lan­guages, one their own na­tive tongue, the oth­er the lan­guage in which all the peo­ples of the world would con­verse. Were men to take fast hold on that which hath been men­tioned, the whole earth would come to be re­gard­ed as one coun­try, and the peo­ple would be re­lieved and freed from the ne­ces­si­ty of ac­quir­ing and teach­ing dif­fer­ent lan­guages.” When in Our pres­ence, he ac­qui­esced, and even evinced great joy and com­plete sat­is­fac­tion. We then told him to lay this mat­ter be­fore the of­fi­cials and min­is­ters of the Gov­ern­ment, in or­der that it might be put in­to ef­fect through­out the dif­fer­ent coun­tries. How­ev­er, al­though he of­ten re­turned to see Us af­ter this, he nev­er again re­ferred to this sub­ject, al­though that which had been sug­gest­ed is con­ducive to the con­cord and the uni­ty of the peo­ples of the world.

We fain would hope that the Per­sian Gov­ern­ment will adopt it and car­ry it out. At present, a new lan­guage and a new script have been de­vised. If thou de­sirest, We will com­mu­ni­cate them to thee. Our pur­pose is that all men may cleave un­to that which will re­duce un­nec­es­sary la­bor and ex­er­tion, so that their days may be be­fit­ting­ly spent and end­ed. God, ver­ily, is the Helper, the Know­er, the Or­dain­er, the Om­ni­scient.

God will­ing, Per­sia may be adorned with, and at­tain un­to, that where­of she hath thus far been de­prived. Say: “O _Sh_áh! Ex­ert thy­self so that all the peo­ples of the world may be il­lu­mined with the ef­ful­gent splen­dors of the sun of thy jus­tice. The eyes of this Wronged One are turned to­wards naught save trust­wor­thi­ness, truth­ful­ness, pu­ri­ty, and all that prof­iteth men.” Re­gard Him not as a traitor. Glo­ri­fied art Thou, O my God, and my Mas­ter, and my Main­stay! Aid Thou His Majesty the _Sh_áh to ex­ecute Thy laws and Thy com­mand­ments, and show forth Thy jus­tice among Thy ser­vants. Thou art, ver­ily, the All-​Boun­teous, the Lord of grace abound­ing, the Almighty, the All-​Pow­er­ful. The Cause of God hath come as a to­ken of His grace. Hap­py are they who act; hap­py are they who un­der­stand; hap­py the man that hath clung un­to the truth, de­tached from all that is in the heav­ens and all that is on earth.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Seek thou the shore of the Most Great Ocean, and en­ter, then, the Crim­son Ark which God hath or­dained in the Qayyúm-​i-​As­má for the peo­ple of Bahá. Ver­ily, it pas­seth over land and sea. He that en­tereth there­in is saved, and he that tur­neth aside per­isheth. Shouldst thou en­ter there­in and at­tain un­to it, set thy face to­wards the Kaa­ba of God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing, and say: “O my God! I be­seech Thee by Thy most glo­ri­ous light, and all Thy lights are ver­ily glo­ri­ous.” There­upon, will the doors of the King­dom be flung wide be­fore thy face, and thou wilt be­hold what eyes have nev­er be­held, and hear what ears have nev­er heard. This Wronged One ex­hort­eth thee as He hath ex­hort­ed thee be­fore, and hath nev­er had any wish for thee save that thou shouldst en­ter the ocean of the uni­ty of God, the Lord of the worlds. This is the day where­on all cre­at­ed things cry out, and an­nounce un­to men this Rev­ela­tion, through which hath ap­peared what was con­cealed and pre­served in the knowl­edge of God, the Mighty, the All-​Praised.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Thou hast heard the sweet melodies of the Doves of Ut­ter­ance coo­ing on the boughs of the Lote-​Tree of knowl­edge. Hear­ken, now, un­to the notes of the Birds of Wis­dom up­raised in the Most Sub­lime Par­adise. They ver­ily will ac­quaint thee with things of which thou wert whol­ly un­aware. Give ear un­to that which the Tongue of Might and Pow­er hath spo­ken in the Books of God, the De­sire of ev­ery un­der­stand­ing heart. At this mo­ment a Voice was raised from the Lote-​Tree be­yond which there is no pass­ing, in the heart of the Most Sub­lime Par­adise, bid­ding Me re­late un­to thee that which hath been sent down in the Books and Tablets, and the things spo­ken by My Fore­run­ner, Who laid down His life for this Great An­nounce­ment, this Straight Path. He hath said--and He, ver­ily, speaketh the truth: “I have writ­ten down in My men­tion of Him these gem-​like words: 'No al­lu­sion of Mine can al­lude un­to Him, nei­ther any­thing men­tioned in the Bayán.'” And fur­ther, He--ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied be He--saith, con­cern­ing this most mighty Rev­ela­tion, this Great An­nounce­ment: “Ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied is He above the pow­er of any one to re­veal Him ex­cept Him­self, or the de­scrip­tion of any of His crea­tures. I My­self am but the first ser­vant to be­lieve in Him and in His signs, and to par­take of the sweet sa­vors of His words from the first-​fruits of the Par­adise of His knowl­edge. Yea, by His glo­ry! He is the Truth. There is none oth­er God but Him. All have arisen at His bid­ding.” Such are the words sung by the Dove of Truth on the boughs of the Di­vine Lote-​Tree. Well is it with him that hath giv­en ear un­to its Voice, and quaffed from the oceans of Di­vine ut­ter­ance that lie con­cealed in each of these words. In an­oth­er con­nec­tion hath the Voice of the Bayán called aloud from the lofti­est branch­es. He saith--blessed and glo­ri­fied be He: “In the year nine ye will at­tain un­to all good.” On an­oth­er oc­ca­sion He saith: “In the year nine ye will at­tain un­to the Pres­ence of God.” These melodies, ut­tered by the Birds of the cities of Knowl­edge, con­form with that which hath been sent down by the All-​Mer­ci­ful in the Qur'án. Blessed are the men of in­sight; blessed they that at­tain there­un­to.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! I swear by God! The Riv­er of Mer­cy floweth, and the Ocean of Ut­ter­ance sur­geth, and the Sun of Rev­ela­tion shineth forth re­splen­dent. With a de­tached heart, and a di­lat­ed breast, and an ut­ter­ly truth­ful tongue, re­cite thou these sub­lime words that have been re­vealed by My Fore­run­ner--the Pri­mal Point. He saith--glo­ri­fied be His ut­ter­ance--ad­dress­ing his hon­or, Azím: “This, ver­ily, is the thing We promised thee, ere the mo­ment We an­swered thy call. Wait thou un­til nine will have elapsed from the time of the Bayán. Then ex­claim: 'Blessed, there­fore, be God, the most ex­cel­lent of Mak­ers!' Say: This, ver­ily, is an An­nounce­ment which none ex­cept God hath com­pre­hend­ed. Ye, how­ev­er, will be un­aware on that day.” In the year nine this Most Great Rev­ela­tion arose and shone forth bright­ly above the hori­zon of the Will of God. None can de­ny it save he who is heed­less and doubteth. We pray God to aid His ser­vants to re­turn un­to Him, and beg for­give­ness for the things they com­mit­ted in this vain life. He, ver­ily, is the For­giv­ing, the Par­don­er, the All-​Mer­ci­ful. In an­oth­er con­nec­tion He saith: “I am the first ser­vant to be­lieve in Him, and in His signs.” In like man­ner, in the Per­sian Bayán, He saith: “He, ver­ily, is the One Who, un­der all con­di­tions, pro­claimeth: 'I, in very truth, am God!'” and so on--blessed and glo­ri­fied be He. That which is meant by Di­vin­ity and God­head hath pre­vi­ous­ly been stat­ed. We have in truth rent the veils asun­der and dis­closed that which will draw men nigh un­to God, Who layeth low the necks of men. Hap­py the man that hath at­tained un­to jus­tice and eq­ui­ty in this Grace that hath en­com­passed all that is in the heav­ens and all that is on earth, as bid­den by God, the Lord of the worlds.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Hear­ken un­to the melodies of the Gospel with the ear of fair­ness. He saith--glo­ri­fied be His ut­ter­ance--proph­esy­ing the things that are to come: “But of that Day and Hour knoweth no man, no, not the an­gels of heav­en, nor the Son, but the Fa­ther.” By Fa­ther in this con­nec­tion is meant God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry. He, ver­ily, is the True Ed­uca­tor, and the Spir­itu­al Teach­er.

Joel saith: “For the Day of the Lord is great and very ter­ri­ble; and who can abide it?” First­ly, in the sub­lime ut­ter­ance set forth in the Gospel He saith that none is aware of the time of the Rev­ela­tion, that none knoweth it ex­cept God, the All-​Know­ing, Who is cog­nizant of all. Sec­ond­ly, He set­teth forth the great­ness of the Rev­ela­tion. Like­wise, in the Qur'án He saith: “Of what ask they of one an­oth­er? Of the Great An­nounce­ment.” This is the An­nounce­ment, the great­ness of which hath been men­tioned in most of the Books of old and of more re­cent times. This is the An­nounce­ment that hath caused the limbs of mankind to quake, ex­cept such as God, the Pro­tec­tor, the Helper, the Suc­cor­er, hath willed to ex­empt. Men have in­deed with their own eyes wit­nessed how all men and all things have been thrown in­to con­fu­sion and been sore per­plexed, save those whom God hath cho­sen to ex­empt.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Great is the Cause, and great the An­nounce­ment! Pa­tient­ly and calm­ly pon­der thou up­on the re­splen­dent signs and the sub­lime words, and all that hath been re­vealed in these days, that hap­ly thou mayest fath­om the mys­ter­ies that are hid in the Books, and mayest strive to guide His ser­vants. Hear­ken with thine in­ner ear un­to the Voice of Jeremi­ah, Who saith: “Oh, for great is that Day, and it hath no equal.” Wert thou to ob­serve with the eye of fair­ness, thou wouldst per­ceive the great­ness of the Day. In­cline thine ear un­to the Voice of this All-​Know­ing Coun­sel­lor, and suf­fer not thy­self to be de­prived of the mer­cy that hath sur­passed all cre­at­ed things, vis­ible and in­vis­ible. Lend an ear un­to the song of David. He saith: “Who will bring me in­to the Strong City?” The Strong City is Akká, which hath been named the Most Great Prison, and which pos­ses­seth a fortress and mighty ram­parts.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Pe­ruse that which Isa­iah hath spo­ken in His Book. He saith: “Get thee up in­to the high moun­tain, O Zion, that bringest good tid­ings; lift up Thy Voice with strength, O Jerusalem, that bringest good tid­ings. Lift it up, be not afraid; say un­to the cities of Ju­dah: 'Be­hold your God! Be­hold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him.'” This Day all the signs have ap­peared. A Great City hath de­scend­ed from heav­en, and Zion trem­bleth and ex­ul­teth with joy at the Rev­ela­tion of God, for it hath heard the Voice of God on ev­ery side. This Day Jerusalem hath at­tained un­to a new Evan­gel, for in the stead of the sycamore standeth the cedar. Jerusalem is the place of pil­grim­age for all the peo­ples of the world, and hath been named the Holy City. To­geth­er with Zion and Pales­tine, they are all in­clud­ed with­in these re­gions. Where­fore, hath it been said: “Blessed is the man that hath mi­grat­ed to Akká.”

Amos saith: “The Lord will roar from Zion, and ut­ter His Voice from Jerusalem; and the habi­ta­tions of the shep­herds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall with­er.” Carmel, in the Book of God, hath been des­ig­nat­ed as the Hill of God, and His Vine­yard. It is here that, by the grace of the Lord of Rev­ela­tion, the Taber­na­cle of Glo­ry hath been raised. Hap­py are they that at­tain there­un­to; hap­py they that set their faces to­wards it. And like­wise He saith: “Our God will come, and He will not be silent.”

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Re­flect up­on these words ad­dressed by Him Who is the De­sire of the world to Amos. He saith: “Pre­pare to meet thy God, O Is­rael, for, lo, He that formeth the moun­tains and cre­ateth the wind, and de­clareth un­to man what is his thought, that maketh the morn­ing dark­ness, and tread­eth up­on the high places of the earth, the Lord, the God of Hosts, is His name.” He saith that He maketh the morn­ing dark­ness. By this is meant that if, at the time of the Man­ifes­ta­tion of Him Who con­versed on Sinai any­one were to re­gard him­self as the true morn, he will, through the might and pow­er of God, be turned in­to dark­ness. He tru­ly is the false dawn, though be­liev­ing him­self to be the true one. Woe un­to him, and woe un­to such as fol­low him with­out a clear to­ken from God, the Lord of the worlds.

Isa­iah saith: “The Lord alone shall be ex­alt­ed in that Day.” Con­cern­ing the great­ness of the Rev­ela­tion He saith: “En­ter in­to the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glo­ry of His majesty.” And in an­oth­er con­nec­tion He saith: “The wilder­ness and the soli­tary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall re­joice, and blos­som as the rose. It shall blos­som abun­dant­ly, and re­joice even with joy and singing: the glo­ry of Lebanon shall be giv­en un­to it, the splen­dor of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glo­ry of the Lord, and the splen­dor of our God.”

These pas­sages stand in need of no com­men­tary. They are shin­ing and man­ifest as the sun, and glow­ing and lu­mi­nous as light it­self. Ev­ery fair-​mind­ed per­son is led, by the fra­grance of these words, un­to the gar­den of un­der­stand­ing, and at­taineth un­to that from which most men are veiled and de­barred. Say: Fear God, O peo­ple, and fol­low not the doubts of such as shout aloud, who have bro­ken the Covenant of God and His Tes­ta­ment, and de­nied His mer­cy that hath pre­ced­ed all that are in the heav­ens and all that are on earth.

And like­wise, He saith: “Say to them that are of a fear­ful heart: be strong, fear not, be­hold your God.” This blessed verse is a proof of the great­ness of the Rev­ela­tion, and of the great­ness of the Cause, inas­much as the blast of the trum­pet must needs spread con­fu­sion through­out the world, and fear and trem­bling amongst all men. Well is it with him who hath been il­lu­mined with the light of trust and de­tach­ment. The tribu­la­tions of that Day will not hin­der or alarm him. Thus hath the Tongue of Ut­ter­ance spo­ken, as bid­den by Him Who is the All-​Mer­ci­ful. He, ver­ily, is the Strong, the All-​Pow­er­ful, the All-​Sub­du­ing, the Almighty. It is now in­cum­bent up­on them who are en­dowed with a hear­ing ear and a see­ing eye to pon­der these sub­lime words, in each of which the oceans of in­ner mean­ing and ex­pla­na­tion are hid­den, that hap­ly the words ut­tered by Him Who is the Lord of Rev­ela­tion may en­able His ser­vants to at­tain, with the ut­most joy and ra­di­ance, un­to the Supreme Goal and Most Sub­lime Sum­mit--the dawn­ing-​place of this Voice.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Wert thou to per­ceive, be it less than a nee­dle's eye, the breaths of Mine ut­ter­ance, thou wouldst aban­don the world and all that is there­in, and wouldst set thy face to­wards the lights of the coun­te­nance of the De­sired One. Briefly, in the say­ings of Him Who is the Spir­it (Je­sus) un­num­bered sig­nif­icances lie con­cealed. Un­to many things did He re­fer, but as He found none pos­sessed of a hear­ing ear or a see­ing eye He chose to con­ceal most of these things. Even as He saith: “But ye can­not bear them now.” That Dawn­ing-​Place of Rev­ela­tion saith that on that Day He Who is the Promised One will re­veal the things which are to come. Ac­cord­ing­ly in the Kitáb-​i-​Aq­das, and in the Tablets to the Kings, and in the Lawh-​i-​Ra'ís, and in the Lawh-​i-​Fu'ád, most of the things which have come to pass on this earth have been an­nounced and proph­esied by the Most Sub­lime Pen.

In the Kitáb-​i-​Aq­das the fol­low­ing hath been re­vealed: “O Land of Tá (Tihrán)! Let noth­ing grieve thee, for God hath cho­sen thee to be the source of the joy of all mankind. He shall, if it be His Will, bless thy throne with one who will rule with jus­tice, who will gath­er to­geth­er the flock of God which the wolves have scat­tered. Such a ruler will, with joy and glad­ness, turn his face to­wards, and ex­tend his fa­vors un­to, the peo­ple of Bahá. He in­deed is ac­count­ed in the sight of God, as a jew­el among men. Up­on him rest for­ev­er the glo­ry of God, and the glo­ry of all that dwell in the king­dom of His rev­ela­tion.” These vers­es were re­vealed pre­vi­ous­ly. Now, how­ev­er, the fol­low­ing verse hath been sent down: “O God, my God! Bahá be­seecheth Thee and im­ploreth Thee, by the lights of Thy coun­te­nance and the bil­lows of the ocean of Thy Rev­ela­tion, and the ef­ful­gent splen­dors of the Sun of Thine ut­ter­ance, to aid the _Sh_áh to be fair and eq­ui­table. If it be Thy wish, bless Thou, through him, the throne of au­thor­ity and sovereign­ty. Po­tent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. There is none oth­er God but Thee, Who hear­est, Who art ready to an­swer.” “Re­joice with great joy, O Land of Tá (Tihrán), for God hath made thee the dayspring of His light, inas­much as with­in thee was born the Man­ifes­ta­tion of His glo­ry. Be thou glad for this name that hath been con­ferred up­on thee--a name through which the Daystar of grace hath shed its splen­dor, through which both earth and heav­en have been il­lu­mined. Ere­long will the state of af­fairs with­in thee be changed, and the reins of pow­er fall in­to the hands of the peo­ple. Ver­ily, thy Lord is the All-​Know­ing. His au­thor­ity em­braceth all things. Rest thou as­sured in the gra­cious fa­vor of thy Lord. The eye of His lov­ing-​kind­ness shall ev­er­last­ing­ly be di­rect­ed to­wards thee. The day is ap­proach­ing when thy ag­ita­tion will have been trans­mut­ed in­to peace and qui­et calm. Thus hath it been de­creed in the Won­drous Book.”

And like­wise, in the Lawh-​i-​Fu'ád, and in the Tablet of the King of Paris (Napoleon III), and in oth­er Tablets, there hath been re­vealed that which will lead ev­ery fair-​mind­ed per­son to tes­ti­fy un­to the pow­er, and the majesty, and the wis­dom of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry. Were men to ob­serve with the eye of jus­tice, they would be made aware of the se­cret of this blessed verse: “Nei­ther is there a thing green or sere, but it is not­ed in a dis­tinct writ­ing,” and would com­pre­hend it. On this day, how­ev­er, men's re­pu­di­ation of the truth hath pre­vent­ed them from un­der­stand­ing what hath been sent down in truth by Him Who is the Re­veal­er, the An­cient of Days. Gra­cious God! Per­spic­uous signs have ap­peared on ev­ery side, and yet men are, for the most part, de­prived of the priv­ilege of be­hold­ing and of com­pre­hend­ing them. We be­seech God to be­stow His aid, that all men may rec­og­nize the pearls that lie hid with­in the shells of the Most Great Ocean, and ex­claim: “Praised be Thou, O God of the world!”

O con­course of the fair-​mind­ed! Ob­serve and re­flect up­on the bil­lows of the ocean of the ut­ter­ance and knowl­edge of God, so that ye may tes­ti­fy with your in­ner and out­er tongues that with Him is the knowl­edge of all that is in the Book. Noth­ing es­capeth His knowl­edge. He, ver­ily, hath man­ifest­ed that which was hid­den, when He, up­on His re­turn, mount­ed the throne of the Bayán. All that hath been sent down hath and will come to pass, word for word, up­on earth. No pos­si­bil­ity is left for any­one ei­ther to turn aside or protest. As fair­ness, how­ev­er, is dis­graced and con­cealed, most men speak as prompt­ed by their own idle fan­cies.

O God, my God! De­bar not Thy ser­vants from turn­ing their faces to­wards the light of cer­ti­tude, that hath dawned above the hori­zon of Thy will, and suf­fer them not to be de­prived, O my God, of the oceans of Thy signs. They, O my Lord, are Thy ser­vants in Thy cities, and Thy slaves in Thy lands. If Thou hast not mer­cy up­on them, who, then, will show them mer­cy? Take Thou, O my God, the hands of such as have been drowned in the sea of idle fan­cies, and de­liv­er them by Thy pow­er and Thy sovereign­ty. Save them, then, with the arms of Thy might. Pow­er­ful art Thou to do what Thou willest, and in Thy right hand are the reins of all that is in the heav­ens and all that is on earth.

In like man­ner, the Pri­mal Point saith: “Be­hold ye Him with His own eyes. Were ye to be­hold Him with the eyes of an­oth­er, ye would nev­er rec­og­nize and know Him.” This re­fer­reth to naught else ex­cept this Most Great Rev­ela­tion. Well is it with them that judge fair­ly. And like­wise, He saith: “The year-​old germ that hold­eth with­in it­self the po­ten­tial­ities of the Rev­ela­tion that is to come is en­dowed with a po­ten­cy su­pe­ri­or to the com­bined forces of the whole of the Bayán.” These glad-​tid­ings of the Bayán and of the Books of for­mer times have been re­peat­ed­ly men­tioned un­der divers names in nu­mer­ous books, that per­chance men might judge eq­ui­tably that which hath arisen and shone forth above the hori­zon of the will of God, the Lord of the Mighty Throne.

O _Sh_ay_kh_! Tell the peo­ple of the Bayán: “Pon­der ye these blessed words. He saith: 'The whole of the Bayán is on­ly a leaf amongst the leaves of His Par­adise.' Be fair, O peo­ple, and be not of such as are ac­count­ed as lost in the Book of God, the Lord of the worlds.” The blessed Lote-​Tree standeth, in this day, be­fore thy face, laden with heav­en­ly, with new and won­drous fruits. Gaze on it, de­tached from all else save it. Thus hath the Tongue of might and pow­er spo­ken at this Spot which God hath adorned with the foot­steps of His Most Great Name and Mighty An­nounce­ment.

And like­wise, He saith: “Ere nine will have elapsed from the in­cep­tion of this Cause, the re­al­ities of the cre­at­ed things will not be made man­ifest. All that thou hast as yet seen is but the stage from the moist germ un­til We clothed it with flesh. Be pa­tient, un­til thou be­hold­est a new cre­ation. Say: 'Blessed, there­fore, be God, the most ex­cel­lent of Mak­ers!'” And like­wise, He hath said re­gard­ing the pow­er of this Rev­ela­tion: “Law­ful is it for Him Whom God will make man­ifest to re­ject him who is great­est on earth, inas­much as such a one is but a crea­ture in His grasp, and all things adore Him. Af­ter Hin (68) a Cause shall be giv­en un­to you which ye shall come to know.” And al­so He saith: “Know thou with ab­so­lute cer­tain­ty, and through the firm­ly es­tab­lished and most ir­re­vo­ca­ble de­cree, that He--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry, and mag­ni­fied be His might, and sanc­ti­fied be His ho­li­ness, and glo­ri­fied be His grandeur, and laud­ed be His ways, maketh each thing to be known through its own self; who then can know Him through any one ex­cept Him­self?” And fur­ther, He saith--ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied be He: “Be­ware, be­ware lest, in the days of His Rev­ela­tion, the Vahíd of the Bayán (eigh­teen Let­ters of the Liv­ing) shut thee not out as by a veil from Him, inas­much as this Vahíd is but a crea­ture in His sight. And be­ware, be­ware that the words sent down in the Bayán shut thee not out as by a veil from Him.” And again, He--ex­alt­ed be He--saith: “Look not up­on Him with any eye ex­cept His own. For whoso­ev­er looketh up­on Him with His eye, will rec­og­nize Him; oth­er­wise he will be veiled from Him. Shouldst thou seek God and His Pres­ence, seek thou Him and gaze up­on Him.” And like­wise, He saith: “Bet­ter is it for thee to re­cite but one of the vers­es of Him Whom God shall make man­ifest than to set down the whole of the Bayán, for on that Day that one verse can save thee, where­as the en­tire Bayán can­not save thee.”

Say: O peo­ple of the Bayán! Be fair, be fair; and again, be fair, be fair. Be ye not of them who have made men­tion of the Man­ifes­ta­tion of the Cause of God in the day­time and in the night sea­son, and who, when He, through His grace, ap­peared, and when the Hori­zon of Rev­ela­tion was il­lu­mined, pro­nounced against Him such a judg­ment as hath pro­voked the lamen­ta­tions of the in­mates of the King­dom and of the Realm of Glo­ry, and of such as have cir­cled about the will of God, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

Med­itate up­on these sub­lime words. He saith: “I, ver­ily, am a be­liev­er in Him, and in His Faith, and in His Book, and in His Tes­ti­monies, and in His Ways, and in all that pro­ceedeth from Him con­cern­ing them. I glo­ry in My kin­ship with Him, and pride My­self on My be­lief in Him.” And like­wise, He saith: “O con­gre­ga­tion of the Bayán and all who are there­in! Rec­og­nize ye the lim­its im­posed up­on you, for such a One as the Point of the Bayán Him­self hath be­lieved in Him Whom God shall make man­ifest, be­fore all things were cre­at­ed. There­in, ver­ily, do I glo­ry be­fore all who are in the king­dom of heav­en and earth.” By God! All the atoms of the uni­verse groan and lament at the cru­el­ty per­pe­trat­ed by the froward among the peo­ple of the Bayán. Whith­er are gone they who are en­dued with in­sight and hear­ing? We be­seech God--blessed and glo­ri­fied be He--to sum­mon them and ex­hort them un­to that which will prof­it them, and with­hold them from that which will harm them. He, in truth, is the Strong, the All-​Sub­du­ing, the Almighty.

And like­wise, He saith: “Suf­fer not your­selves to be shut out as by a veil from God af­ter He hath re­vealed Him­self. For all that hath been ex­alt­ed in the Bayán is but as a ring up­on My hand, and I My­self am, ver­ily, but a ring up­on the hand of Him Whom God shall make man­ifest--glo­ri­fied be His men­tion! He tur­neth it as He pleaseth, for what­so­ev­er He pleaseth, and through what­so­ev­er He pleaseth. He, ver­ily, is the Help in Per­il, the Most High.” And like­wise, He saith: “Were He to make of ev­ery one on earth a Prophet, all would, in very truth, be ac­count­ed as Prophets in the sight of God.” And like­wise, He saith: “In the day of the rev­ela­tion of Him Whom God shall make man­ifest all that dwell on earth will be equal in His es­ti­ma­tion. Whom­so­ev­er He or­daineth as a Prophet, he, ver­ily, hath been a Prophet from the be­gin­ning that hath no be­gin­ning, and will thus re­main un­til the end that hath no end, inas­much as this is an act of God. And whoso­ev­er is made a Vicegerent by Him, shall be a Vicegerent in all the worlds, for this is an act of God. For the will of God can in no wise be re­vealed ex­cept through His will, nor His wish be man­ifest­ed save through His wish. He, ver­ily, is the All-​Con­quer­ing, the All-​Pow­er­ful, the All-​High­est.”

Briefly, in ev­ery in­stance He hath stat­ed that which is con­ducive to the con­ver­sion, the ad­vance­ment, the ex­al­ta­tion, and the guid­ance of men. A few un­fair ones, how­ev­er, have be­come a veil, and an in­sur­mount­able bar­ri­er, and de­barred the peo­ple from turn­ing to­wards the lights of His Coun­te­nance. We pray God to cast them out by His sovereign­ty, and seize on them with His seiz­ing pow­er. He, ver­ily, is the Lord of Strength, the Mighty, the All-​Wise.

And like­wise, He saith: “He--glo­ri­fied be His men­tion--re­sem­bleth the sun. Were un­num­bered mir­rors to be placed be­fore it, each would, ac­cord­ing to its ca­pac­ity, re­flect the splen­dor of that sun, and were none to be placed be­fore it, it would still con­tin­ue to rise and set, and the mir­rors alone would be veiled from its light. I, ver­ily, have not fall­en short of My du­ty to ad­mon­ish that peo­ple, and to de­vise means where­by they may turn to­wards God, their Lord, and be­lieve in God, their Cre­ator. If, on the day of His Rev­ela­tion, all that are on earth bear Him al­le­giance, Mine in­most be­ing will re­joice, inas­much as all will have at­tained the sum­mit of their ex­is­tence, and will have been brought face to face with their Beloved, and will have rec­og­nized, to the fullest ex­tent at­tain­able in the world of be­ing, the splen­dor of Him Who is the De­sire of their hearts. If not, My soul will in­deed be sad­dened. I tru­ly have nur­tured all things for this pur­pose. How, then, can any­one be veiled from Him? For this have I called up­on God, and will con­tin­ue to call up­on Him. He, ver­ily, is nigh, ready to an­swer.”

And like­wise, He saith: “They will even refuse un­to that Tree, which is nei­ther of the East nor of the West, the name be­liev­er, for were they so to name Him, they would fail to sad­den Him.” Hath thine ear, O world, heard with what help­less­ness these words were re­vealed from the dayspring of the will of Him Who is the Dawn­ing-​Place of all names? He saith: “I have ed­ucat­ed all men, that they may rec­og­nize this Rev­ela­tion, and yet the peo­ple of the Bayán refuse to con­cede even the name be­liev­er to that blessed Tree that be­longeth nei­ther to the East nor to the West.” Alas, alas, for the things which have be­fall­en Me! By God! There be­fell Me at the hands of him whom I have nur­tured (Mírzá Yahyá), by day and by night, what hath caused the Holy Spir­it, and the dwellers of the Taber­na­cle of the Grandeur of God, the Lord of this won­drous Day, to lament.

Like­wise, re­fut­ing cer­tain dis­be­liev­ers, He saith: “For none knoweth the time of the Rev­ela­tion ex­cept God. When­ev­er it ap­peareth, all must ac­knowl­edge the Point of Truth, and ren­der thanks un­to God.” They that have turned aside from Me have spo­ken even as the fol­low­ers of John (the Bap­tist) spoke. For they, too, protest­ed against Him Who was the Spir­it (Je­sus) say­ing: “The dis­pen­sa­tion of John hath not yet end­ed; where­fore hast thou come?” Now, too, they that have re­pu­di­at­ed Us, though they have nev­er known Us and have been at all times ig­no­rant of the fun­da­men­tals of this Cause, know­ing not from Whom it pro­ceed­ed or what it sig­ni­fi­eth, have spo­ken that which hath made all cre­at­ed things to sigh and lament. By My life! The mute can nev­er con­front the One Who in­car­nateth in Him­self the king­dom of ut­ter­ance. Fear God, O peo­ple, and pe­ruse, then, that which hath been sent down with truth in the eighth Chap­ter of the sixth Vahíd of the Bayán, and be not of such as have turned aside. He, like­wise, hath com­mand­ed: “Once ev­ery nine­teen days this Chap­ter should be read, that hap­ly they may not be veiled, in the time of the rev­ela­tion of Him Whom God shall make man­ifest, by con­sid­er­ations for­eign to the vers­es, which have been, and are still, the weight­iest of all proofs and tes­ti­monies.”

John, son of Zacharias, said what My Fore­run­ner hath said: “Say­ing, re­pent ye, for the King­dom of heav­en is at hand. I in­deed bap­tize you with wa­ter un­to re­pen­tance, but He that cometh af­ter Me is might­ier than I, Whose shoes I am not wor­thy to bear.” Where­fore, hath My Fore­run­ner, as a sign of sub­mis­sive­ness and hu­mil­ity, said: “The whole of the Bayán is on­ly a leaf amongst the leaves of His Par­adise.” And like­wise, He saith: “I am the first to adore Him, and pride My­self on My kin­ship with Him.” And yet, O men, the peo­ple of the Bayán have act­ed in such a man­ner that _Dh_i'l-​Jaw_sh_an, and Ibn-​i-​Anas, and As­báhí have sought and still seek refuge with God against such deeds. This Wronged One hath, in the face of all re­li­gions, bus­ied Him­self day and night with the things that are con­ducive un­to the ex­al­ta­tion of the Cause of God, where­as those men have clung un­to that which is the cause of hu­mil­ia­tion and in­jury.

And like­wise, He saith: “Rec­og­nize Him by His vers­es. The greater your ne­glect in seek­ing to know Him, the more grievous­ly will ye be veiled in fire.” O ye among the peo­ple of the Bayán that have turned aside from Me! Pon­der up­on these most sub­lime words, that have pro­ceed­ed from the well­spring of the ut­ter­ance of Him Who is the Point of Knowl­edge. Hear­ken ye, at this mo­ment, un­to these words. He saith: “On that Day, the Daystar of Truth will ad­dress the peo­ple of the Bayán and will re­cite this Súrih of the Qur'án: 'Say: O ye un­be­liev­ers! I wor­ship not that which ye wor­ship, and ye do not wor­ship that which I wor­ship. I shall nev­er wor­ship that which ye wor­ship, nei­ther will ye wor­ship that which I wor­ship. To you be your re­li­gion, to Me My re­li­gion.'” Gra­cious God! Notwith­stand­ing these lu­cid state­ments, and these shin­ing and lu­mi­nous to­kens all are oc­cu­pied with their vain imag­in­ings, and are un­aware of, and veiled from, the De­sired One. O ye that have gone astray! Awake from the sleep of heed­less­ness, and give ear un­to these words of My Fore­run­ner. He saith: “The tree of af­fir­ma­tion, by turn­ing aside from Him, is ac­count­ed as the tree of de­nial, and the tree of de­nial, by turn­ing to­wards Him, is ac­count­ed as the tree of af­fir­ma­tion.” And like­wise, He saith: “Should any­one lay claim un­to a Rev­ela­tion, and fail to pro­duce any proof, do not protest, and sad­den Him not.” Briefly, this Wronged One hath, night and day, been ut­ter­ing the words: “Say: O ye un­be­liev­ers!”, that hap­ly this may be the means of awak­en­ing the peo­ple, and may adorn them with the adorn­ment of fair­ness.

And now, med­itate up­on these words, which dif­fuse the breath of de­spair, in His sor­row­ful in­vo­ca­tion un­to God, the Lord of the worlds. He saith: “Glo­ri­fied art Thou, O My God! Bear Thou wit­ness that, through this Book, I have covenant­ed with all cre­at­ed things con­cern­ing the Mis­sion of Him Whom Thou shalt make man­ifest, ere the covenant con­cern­ing Mine own Mis­sion had been es­tab­lished. Suf­fi­cient wit­ness art Thou and they that have be­lieved in Thy signs. Thou, ver­ily, suf­ficest Me. In Thee have I placed My trust, and Thou, ver­ily, tak­est count of all things.”

In an­oth­er con­nec­tion He saith: “O Sun-​like Mir­rors! Look ye up­on the Sun of Truth. Ye, ver­ily, de­pend up­on it, were ye to per­ceive it. Ye are all as fish­es, mov­ing in the wa­ters of the sea, veil­ing your­selves there­from, and yet ask­ing what it is on which ye de­pend.” And like­wise, He saith: “I com­plain un­to thee, O Mir­ror of My gen­eros­ity, against all the oth­er Mir­rors. All look up­on Me through their own col­ors.” These words were sent down from the Source of the Rev­ela­tion of the All-​Boun­teous, and were ad­dressed to Siyyid Javád, known as Kar­bilá'í.

God tes­ti­fi­eth, and the world beareth Me wit­ness that this Siyyid stood by this Wronged One, and even wrote a de­tailed refu­ta­tion against them that turned aside from Me. Two com­mu­ni­ca­tions, more­over, in which he hath borne wit­ness un­to the Rev­ela­tion of the True One, and in which the ev­idences of his turn­ing away from all else but Him, are clear and man­ifest, have been sent by Us to Hay­dar-'Alí. The hand­writ­ing of the Siyyid is un­mis­tak­able, and is known un­to ev­ery­one. Our pur­pose in do­ing this was that per­chance they that have de­nied Us might at­tain un­to the liv­ing wa­ters of ac­knowl­edg­ment, and such as have turned aside be il­lu­mined with the light of con­ver­sion. God is My wit­ness that this Wronged One hath had no pur­pose ex­cept to con­vey the Word of God. Blessed are the fair-​mind­ed, and woe be­tide them that have turned aside. They that have turned away from Me have schemed many a time, and act­ed de­ceit­ful­ly in divers ways. They have, on one oc­ca­sion, se­cured a pic­ture of this Siyyid, and past­ed it on a sheet with that of oth­ers, sur­mount­ed by the por­trait of Mírzá Yahyá. Briefly, they have seized up­on ev­ery means in or­der to re­pu­di­ate the True One. Say: “The True One is come ev­ident as the shin­ing sun; O pity that He should have come in­to the city of the blind!” The afore-​men­tioned Siyyid ad­mon­ished the de­niers, and sum­moned them un­to the Most Sub­lime Hori­zon, but failed to im­press these stones that can take no im­print. Con­cern­ing him they have said things against which he sought refuge with God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry. The sup­pli­ca­tions which he hath sent to this Holy Court are now in Our pos­ses­sion. Hap­py are the fair-​mind­ed.

Pon­der now up­on the com­plaint of the Pri­mal Point against the Mir­rors, that hap­ly men may be awak­ened, and may turn from the left hand of idle fan­cies and imag­in­ings un­to the right hand of faith and cer­ti­tude, and may be made cog­nizant of that where­from they are veiled. It is in­deed for the pur­pose of rec­og­niz­ing this Most Great Cause that they have come out of the world of non-​ex­is­tence in­to the world of be­ing. And like­wise He saith: “Con­se­crate Thou, O my God, the whole of this Tree un­to Him, that from it may be re­vealed all the fruits cre­at­ed by God with­in it for Him through Whom God hath willed to re­veal all that He pleaseth. By Thy glo­ry! I have not wished that this Tree should ev­er bear any branch, leaf, or fruit that would fail to bow down be­fore Him, on the day of His Rev­ela­tion, or refuse to laud Thee through Him, as be­seemeth the glo­ry of His all-​glo­ri­ous Rev­ela­tion, and the sub­lim­ity of His most sub­lime Con­ceal­ment. And shouldst Thou be­hold, O my God, any branch, leaf, or fruit up­on Me that hath failed to bow down be­fore Him, on the day of His Rev­ela­tion, cut it off, O My God, from that Tree, for it is not of Me, nor shall it re­turn un­to Me.”

O peo­ple of the Bayán! I swear by God! This Wronged One hath had no oth­er in­ten­tion ex­cept to man­ifest the Cause He was com­mis­sioned to re­veal. Were ye to in­cline your in­ner ears un­to Him, ye would hear from ev­ery limb and mem­ber and vein and even from ev­ery sin­gle hair of this Wronged One that which would stir and en­rap­ture the Con­course on high and the world of cre­ation.

O Hádí! The blind fa­nati­cism of for­mer times hath with­held the hap­less crea­tures from the Straight Path. Med­itate on the _Sh_í'ih sect. For twelve hun­dred years they have cried “O Qá'im!”, un­til in the end all pro­nounced the sen­tence of His death, and caused Him to suf­fer mar­tyr­dom, notwith­stand­ing their be­lief in, and their ac­cep­tance and ac­knowl­edg­ment of, the True One--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--and of the Seal of the Prophets, and of the Cho­sen Ones. It is now nec­es­sary to re­flect a while, that hap­ly that which hath come be­tween the True One and His crea­tures may be dis­cov­ered, and the deeds which have been the cause of protest and de­nial be made known.

O Hádí! We have heard the moan­ing of the pul­pits which, as at­test­ed by all, the di­vines of the age of this Rev­ela­tion have as­cend­ed, and from which they have cursed the True One, and caused such things to be­fall Him Who is the Essence of Be­ing and His com­pan­ions as nei­ther the eye nor the ear of the world hath seen or heard. Thou hast now sum­moned, and art still sum­mon­ing the peo­ple, claim­ing to be His vicegerent and mir­ror, de­spite thine ig­no­rance of this Cause as a re­sult of thy not hav­ing been in Our com­pa­ny.

Ev­ery one of this peo­ple well knoweth that Siyyid Muham­mad was but one of Our ser­vants. In the days when, as re­quest­ed by the Im­pe­ri­al Ot­toman Gov­ern­ment, We pro­ceed­ed to their Cap­ital, he ac­com­pa­nied Us. Sub­se­quent­ly, he com­mit­ted that which--I swear by God--hath caused the Pen of the Most High to weep and His Tablet to groan. We, there­fore, cast him out; where­upon, he joined Mírzá Yahyá, and did what no tyrant hath ev­er done. We aban­doned him, and said un­to him: “Be­gone, O heed­less one!” Af­ter these words had been ut­tered, he joined the or­der of the Mawlavis, and re­mained in their com­pa­ny un­til the time when We were sum­moned to de­part.

O Hádí! Suf­fer not thy­self to be­come the in­stru­ment for the dis­sem­ina­tion of new su­per­sti­tions, and refuse to set up once again a sect sim­ilar to that of the _Sh_í'ihs. Re­flect how great the amount of blood which hath been spilt. Thou amongst oth­ers, who hast laid claim to knowl­edge, and like­wise the _Sh_í'ih di­vines, have, one and all, in the first and en­su­ing years, cursed the True One, and de­creed that His most holy blood be shed. Fear God, O Hádí! Be not will­ing that men be again af­flict­ed with the vain imag­in­ings of for­mer times. Fear God, and be not of them that act un­just­ly. In these days We have heard that thou hast striv­en to lay hands on and de­stroy ev­ery copy of the Bayán. This Wronged One re­questeth thee to re­nounce, for the sake of God, this in­ten­tion. Thine in­tel­li­gence and judg­ment have nev­er ex­celled, nor do they now ex­cel, the in­tel­li­gence and judg­ment of Him Who is the Prince of the World. God tes­ti­fi­eth and beareth Me wit­ness that this Wronged One hath not pe­rused the Bayán, nor been ac­quaint­ed with its con­tents. This much, how­ev­er, is known and is clear and in­du­bitable that He hath or­dained the Book of the Bayán to be the foun­da­tion of His works. Fear God, and med­dle not in mat­ters which far tran­scend thee. For twelve hun­dred years they that re­sem­ble thee have af­flict­ed the hap­less _Sh_í'ihs in the pit of vain fan­cies and idle imag­in­ings. Fi­nal­ly, there ap­peared, on the Day of Judg­ment things against which the op­pres­sors of old have sought refuge with the True One.

Ap­pre­hend now the cry of Him Who is the Point as raised by His ut­ter­ance. He sup­pli­cateth God that if there should ap­pear from this Tree--which is His blessed Self--any fruit, or leaf, or branch that would fail to be­lieve in Him, God should cut it off forth­with. And like­wise, He saith: “Should any one make a state­ment, and fail to sup­port it by any proof, re­ject him not.” And yet, now, though sup­port­ed by a hun­dred books, thou hast re­ject­ed Him and re­joic­est there­in!

Again I re­peat, and plead with thee to care­ful­ly scru­ti­nize that which hath been re­vealed. The breezes of ut­ter­ance in this Rev­ela­tion are not to be com­pared with those of for­mer ages. This Wronged One hath been per­pet­ual­ly af­flict­ed, and found no place of safe­ty in which He could pe­ruse ei­ther the writ­ings of the Most Ex­alt­ed One (the Báb) or those of any one else. About two months af­ter Our ar­rival in 'Iráq, fol­low­ing the com­mand of His Majesty the _Sh_áh of Per­sia--may God as­sist him--Mírzá Yahyá joined Us. We said un­to him: “In ac­cor­dance with the Roy­al com­mand We have been sent un­to this place. It is ad­vis­able for thee to re­main in Per­sia. We will send Our broth­er, Mírzá Músá, to some oth­er place. As your names have not been men­tioned in the Roy­al de­cree, you can arise and ren­der some ser­vice.” Sub­se­quent­ly, this Wronged One de­part­ed from Ba_gh_dád, and for two years with­drew from the world. Up­on Our re­turn, We found that he had not left, and had post­poned his de­par­ture. This Wronged One was great­ly sad­dened. God tes­ti­fi­eth and beareth Us wit­ness that We have, at all times, been bus­ied with the prop­aga­tion of this Cause. Nei­ther chains nor bonds, stocks nor im­pris­on­ment, have suc­ceed­ed in with­hold­ing Us from re­veal­ing Our Self. In that land We for­bad all mis­chief, and all un­seem­ly and un­holy deeds. Day and night We sent forth Our Tablets in ev­ery di­rec­tion. We had no oth­er pur­pose ex­cept to ed­ify the souls of men, and to ex­alt the blessed Word.

We es­pe­cial­ly ap­point­ed cer­tain ones to col­lect the writ­ings of the Pri­mal Point. When this was ac­com­plished, We sum­moned Mírzá Yahyá and Mírzá Vah­háb-​i-_Kh_urásání, known as Mírzá Javád, to meet in a cer­tain place. Con­form­ing with Our in­struc­tions, they com­plet­ed the task of tran­scrib­ing two copies of the works of the Pri­mal Point. I swear by God! This Wronged One, by rea­son of His con­stant as­so­ci­ation with men, hath not looked at these books, nor gazed with out­ward eyes on these writ­ings. When We de­part­ed, these writ­ings were in the pos­ses­sion of these two per­sons. It was agreed that Mírzá Yahyá should be en­trust­ed with them, and pro­ceed to Per­sia, and dis­sem­inate them through­out that land. This Wronged One pro­ceed­ed, at the re­quest of the Min­is­ters of the Ot­toman Gov­ern­ment to their cap­ital. When We ar­rived in Mo­sul, We found that Mírzá Yahyá had left be­fore Us for that city, and was await­ing Us there. Briefly, the books and writ­ings were left in Ba_gh_dád, while he him­self pro­ceed­ed to Con­stantino­ple and joined these ser­vants. God beareth now wit­ness un­to the things which have touched this Wronged One, for af­ter We had so ar­du­ous­ly striv­en, he (Mírzá Yahyá) aban­doned the writ­ings and joined the ex­iles. This Wronged One was, for a long pe­ri­od, over­whelmed by in­fi­nite sor­rows un­til such time when, in pur­suance of mea­sures of which none but the one true God is aware, We despatched the writ­ings un­to an­oth­er place and an­oth­er coun­try, ow­ing to the fact that in 'Iráq all doc­uments must ev­ery month be care­ful­ly ex­am­ined, lest they rot and per­ish. God, how­ev­er, pre­served them and sent them un­to a place which He had pre­vi­ous­ly or­dained. He, ver­ily, is the Pro­tec­tor, the Suc­cor­er.

Wher­ev­er this Wronged One went Mírzá Yahyá fol­lowed Him. Thou art thy­self a wit­ness and well know­est that what­ev­er hath been said is the truth. The Siyyid of Is­fáhán, how­ev­er, sur­rep­ti­tious­ly duped him. They com­mit­ted that which caused the great­est con­ster­na­tion. Would that thou wouldst in­quire from the of­fi­cials of the gov­ern­ment con­cern­ing the con­duct of Mírzá Yahyá in that land. Aside from all this, I ad­jure thee by God, the One, the In­com­pa­ra­ble, the Lord of Strength, the Most Pow­er­ful, to care­ful­ly look in­to the com­mu­ni­ca­tions ad­dressed in his name to the Pri­mal Point, that thou mayest be­hold the ev­idences of Him Who is the Truth as clear as the sun. Like­wise, there pro­ceed­ed from the words of the Point of the Bayán--may the souls of all else but Him be sac­ri­ficed for His sake--that which no veil can ob­scure, and which nei­ther the veils of glo­ry nor the veils in­ter­posed by such as have gone astray can hide. The veils have, ver­ily, been rent asun­der by the fin­ger of the will of thy Lord, the Strong, the All-​Sub­du­ing, the All-​Pow­er­ful. Yea, des­per­ate is the state of such as have ca­lum­ni­at­ed Me and en­vied Me. Not long ago it was stat­ed that thou hadst as­cribed the au­thor­ship of the Kitáb-​i-​Íqán and of oth­er Tablets un­to oth­ers. I swear by God! This is a grievous in­jus­tice. Oth­ers are in­ca­pable of ap­pre­hend­ing their mean­ing, how much more of re­veal­ing them!

Hasan-​i-​Mázin­darání was the bear­er of sev­en­ty Tablets. Up­on his death, these were not de­liv­ered un­to those for whom they were in­tend­ed, but were en­trust­ed to one of the sis­ters of this Wronged One, who, for no rea­son what­ev­er, had turned aside from Me. God knoweth what be­fell His Tablets. This sis­ter had nev­er lived with Us. I swear by the Sun of Truth that af­ter these things had hap­pened she nev­er saw Mírzá Yahyá, and re­mained un­aware of Our Cause, for in those days she had been es­tranged from Us. She lived in one quar­ter, and this Wronged One in an­oth­er. As a to­ken, how­ev­er, of Our lov­ing-​kind­ness, our af­fec­tion and mer­cy, We, a few days pri­or to Our de­par­ture, vis­it­ed her and her moth­er, that hap­ly she might quaff from the liv­ing wa­ters of faith, and at­tain un­to that which would draw her nigh un­to God, in this day. God well knoweth and beareth Me wit­ness, and she her­self tes­ti­fi­eth, that I had no thought what­so­ev­er ex­cept this. Fi­nal­ly, she--God be praised--at­tained un­to this through His grace, and was adorned with the adorn­ment of love. Af­ter We were ex­iled and had de­part­ed from 'Iráq to Con­stantino­ple, how­ev­er, news of her ceased to reach Us. Sub­se­quent to Our sep­ara­tion in the Land of Tá (Tihrán), We ceased to meet Mírzá Ridá-​Qulí, Our broth­er, and no spe­cial news reached Us con­cern­ing her. In the ear­ly days we all lived in one house, which lat­er on was sold at auc­tion, for a neg­li­gi­ble sum, and the two broth­ers, Far­mán-​Far­má and Hisá­mu's-​Saltanih, pur­chased it and di­vid­ed it be­tween them­selves. Af­ter this oc­curred, We sep­arat­ed from Our broth­er. He es­tab­lished his res­idence close to the en­trance of Masjid-​i-_Sh_áh, whilst We lived near the Gate of _Sh_imírán. There­after, how­ev­er, that sis­ter dis­played to­ward Us, for no rea­son what­ev­er, a hos­tile at­ti­tude. This Wronged One held His peace un­der all con­di­tions. How­ev­er, Our late broth­er Mírzá Muham­mad-​Hasan's daugh­ter--up­on him be the glo­ry of God and His peace and His mer­cy--who had been be­trothed to the Most Great Branch ('Ab­du'l-​Bahá) was tak­en by the sis­ter of this Wronged One from Núr to her own house, and from there sent un­to an­oth­er place. Some of Our com­pan­ions and friends in var­ious places com­plained against this, as it was a very grievous act, and was dis­ap­proved by all the loved ones of God. How strange that Our sis­ter should have tak­en her to her own house, and then ar­ranged for her to be sent else­where! In spite of this, this Wronged One re­mained, and still re­maineth, calm and silent. A word, how­ev­er, was said in or­der to tran­quil­ize Our loved ones. God tes­ti­fi­eth and beareth Me wit­ness that what­ev­er hath been said was the truth, and was spo­ken with sin­cer­ity. None of Our loved ones, whether in these re­gions or in that coun­try, could be­lieve Our sis­ter ca­pa­ble of an act so con­trary to de­cen­cy, af­fec­tion and friend­ship. Af­ter such a thing had oc­curred, they, rec­og­niz­ing that the way had been barred, con­duct­ed them­selves in a man­ner well-​known un­to thy­self and oth­ers. It must be ev­ident, there­fore, how in­tense was the grief which this act in­flict­ed up­on this Wronged One. Lat­er on, she threw in her lot with Mírzá Yahyá. Con­flict­ing re­ports con­cern­ing her are now reach­ing Us, nor is it clear what she is say­ing or do­ing. We be­seech God--blessed and glo­ri­fied be He--to cause her to turn un­to Him, and aid her to re­pent be­fore the door of His grace. He, ver­ily, is the Mighty, the For­giv­ing; and He is, in truth, the All-​Pow­er­ful, the Par­don­er.

In an­oth­er con­nec­tion He, like­wise, saith: “Were He to ap­pear this very mo­ment, I would be the first to adore Him, and the first to bow down be­fore Him.” Be fair, O peo­ple! The pur­pose of the Most Ex­alt­ed One (the Báb) was to in­sure that the prox­im­ity of the Rev­ela­tion should not with­hold men from the Di­vine and ev­er­last­ing Law, even as the com­pan­ions of John (the Bap­tist) were pre­vent­ed from ac­knowl­edg­ing Him Who is the Spir­it (Je­sus). Time and again He hath said: “Suf­fer not the Bayán and all that hath been re­vealed there­in to with­hold you from that Essence of Be­ing and Lord of the vis­ible and in­vis­ible.” Should any one, con­sid­er­ing this bind­ing in­junc­tion, cling un­to the Bayán, such a one hath, ver­ily, passed out of the shad­ow of the blessed and ex­alt­ed Tree. Be fair, O peo­ple, and be not of the heed­less.

And like­wise, He saith: “Let not names shut you out as by a veil from Him Who is their Lord, even the name of Prophet, for such a name is but a cre­ation of His ut­ter­ance.” And like­wise, He, in the sev­enth chap­ter of the sec­ond Vahíd, saith: “O peo­ple of the Bayán! Act not as the peo­ple of the Qur'án have act­ed, for if ye do so, the fruits of your night will come to naught.” And fur­ther, He saith--glo­ri­fied be His men­tion: “If thou at­tainest un­to His Rev­ela­tion, and obeyest Him, thou wilt have re­vealed the fruit of the Bayán; if not, thou art un­wor­thy of men­tion be­fore God. Take pity up­on thy­self. If thou aidest not Him Who is the Man­ifes­ta­tion of the Lord­ship of God, be not, then, a cause of sad­ness un­to Him.” And fur­ther He saith--mag­ni­fied be His sta­tion: “If thou at­tainest not un­to the Pres­ence of God, grieve not, then, the Sign of God. Ye will re­nounce that which can prof­it them that ac­knowl­edge the Bayán, if ye re­nounce that which can harm Him. I know, how­ev­er, that ye will refuse to do so.”

O Hádí! Me­thinks it is by rea­son of these in­du­bitable ut­ter­ances that thou hast de­ter­mined to blot out the Bayán. Give ear un­to the voice of this Wronged One, and re­nounce this op­pres­sion that hath made the pil­lars of the Bayán to trem­ble. I have been nei­ther in _Ch_ihríq nor in Máh-​Kú. At the present time state­ments have been cir­cu­lat­ed among thy dis­ci­ples iden­ti­cal with those made by the _Sh_í'ihs who have said that the Qur'án is un­fin­ished. These peo­ple al­so con­tend that this Bayán is not the orig­inal one. The copy in the hand­writ­ing of Siyyid Husayn is ex­tant, as is al­so the copy in the hand­writ­ing of Mírzá Ah­mad.

Re­gardest thou as one wronged he who in this world was nev­er dealt a sin­gle blow, and who was con­tin­ual­ly sur­round­ed by five of the hand­maid­ens of God? And im­putest thou un­to the True One, Who, from His ear­li­est years un­til the present day, hath been in the hands of His en­emies, and been tor­ment­ed with the worst af­flic­tions in the world, such charges as the Jews did not as­cribe un­to Christ? Hear­ken un­to the voice of this Wronged One, and be not of them that are in ut­ter loss.

And, like­wise, He saith: “How many the fires which God con­verteth in­to light through Him Whom God shall make man­ifest; and how nu­mer­ous the lights which are turned in­to fire through Him! I be­hold His ap­pear­ance even as the sun in the mid­most heav­en, and the dis­ap­pear­ance of all even as that of the stars of the night by day.” Hast thou ears, O world, where­with to hear the voice of the True One, and to judge eq­ui­tably this Rev­ela­tion Which, as soon as it ap­peared, Sinai ex­claimed: “He that dis­coursed up­on Me is come with ev­ident signs and re­splen­dent to­kens, in spite of ev­ery heed­less one that hath gone far astray, and of ev­ery ly­ing ca­lum­ni­ator, who hath wished to quench the light of God with his calum­nies, and blot out the signs of God through his mal­ice. They, ver­ily, are of such as have act­ed un­just­ly in the Book of God, the Lord of the worlds.”

And like­wise, He saith: “The Bayán is from be­gin­ning to end the repos­ito­ry of all of His at­tributes, and the trea­sury of both His fire and His light.” Great God! The soul is car­ried away by the fra­grance of this ut­ter­ance, inas­much as He de­clareth, with in­fi­nite sad­ness, that which He per­ceiveth. Like­wise, He saith to the Let­ter of the Liv­ing, Mul­lá Báqir--up­on him be the glo­ry of God and His lov­ing-​kind­ness: “Hap­ly thou mayest in eight years, in the day of His Rev­ela­tion, at­tain un­to His Pres­ence.”

Know thou, O Hádí, and be of them that hear­ken. Judge thou eq­ui­tably. The com­pan­ions of God and the Tes­ti­monies of Him Who is the Truth have, for the most part, suf­fered mar­tyr­dom. Thou, how­ev­er, art still alive. How is it that thou hast been spared? I swear by God! It is be­cause of thy de­nial, where­as the mar­tyr­dom of the blessed souls was due to their con­fes­sion. Ev­ery just and fair-​mind­ed per­son will bear wit­ness un­to this, inas­much as the cause and mo­tive of both are clear and ev­ident as the sun.

And like­wise He ad­dres­seth Dayyán, who was wronged and suf­fered mar­tyr­dom, say­ing: “Thou shalt rec­og­nize thy worth through the words of Him Whom God shall make man­ifest.” He, like­wise, hath pro­nounced him to be the third Let­ter to be­lieve in Him Whom God shall make man­ifest, through these words: “O thou who art the third Let­ter to be­lieve in Him Whom God shall make man­ifest!” And like­wise He saith: “Should God, how­ev­er, be will­ing, He will make thee known through the words of Him Whom God shall make man­ifest.” Dayyán, who, ac­cord­ing to the words of Him Who is the Point--may the souls of all else but Him be sac­ri­ficed for His sake--is the repos­ito­ry of the trust of the one true God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--and the trea­sury of the pearls of His knowl­edge, was made by them to suf­fer so cru­el a mar­tyr­dom that the Con­course on high wept and lament­ed. He it is whom He (the Báb) had taught the hid­den and pre­served knowl­edge and en­trust­ed him there­with, through His words: “O thou who art named Dayyán! This is a hid­den and pre­served Knowl­edge. We have en­trust­ed it un­to thee, and brought it to thee, as a mark of hon­or from God, inas­much as the eye of thine heart is pure. Thou wilt ap­pre­ci­ate its val­ue, and wilt cher­ish its ex­cel­lence. God, ver­ily, hath deigned to be­stow up­on the Point of the Bayán a hid­den and pre­served Knowl­edge, the like of which God hath not sent down pri­or to this Rev­ela­tion. More pre­cious is it than any oth­er knowl­edge in the es­ti­ma­tion of God--glo­ri­fied be He! He, ver­ily, hath made it His tes­ti­mo­ny, even as He hath made the vers­es to be His tes­ti­mo­ny.” This op­pressed one, who was the repos­ito­ry of the knowl­edge of God, to­geth­er with Mírzá 'Alí-​Ak­bar, one of the rel­atives of the Pri­mal Point--up­on him be the glo­ry of God and His mer­cy--and Abu'l-​Qásim-​i-​Ká_sh_í and sev­er­al oth­ers suf­fered mar­tyr­dom through the de­cree pro­nounced by Mírzá Yahyá.

O Hádí! His book which he hath en­ti­tled “Mus­tayqiz” is in thy pos­ses­sion. Read it. Al­though thou hast seen the book, pe­ruse it again, that hap­ly thou mayest ob­tain for thy­self a lofty seat be­neath the canopy of truth.

In like man­ner, Siyyid Ibráhím, con­cern­ing whom these words have flowed from the Pen of the Pri­mal Point--mag­ni­fied be His ut­ter­ance: “O thou who art men­tioned as My friend in My scrip­tures, and as My re­mem­brance in My books, next to My scrip­tures, and as My name in the Bayán”--such a one, to­geth­er with Dayyán, hath been sur­named by him (Mírzá Yahyá) Fa­ther of In­iq­ui­ties and Fa­ther of Calami­ties. Judge thou fair­ly, how grievous hath been the plight of these op­pressed ones, and this notwith­stand­ing that one of them was oc­cu­pied in serv­ing him, whilst the oth­er was his guest. Briefly, I swear by God, the deeds he com­mit­ted were such that Our Pen is ashamed to re­count.

Re­flect a while up­on the dis­hon­or in­flict­ed up­on the Pri­mal Point. Con­sid­er what hath hap­pened. When this Wronged One, af­ter a re­tire­ment of two years dur­ing which He wan­dered through the deserts and moun­tains, re­turned to Ba_gh_dád, as a re­sult of the in­ter­ven­tion of a few, who for a long time had sought Him in the wilder­ness, a cer­tain Mírzá Muham­mad-'Alí of Ra_sh_t came to see Him, and re­lat­ed, be­fore a large gath­er­ing of peo­ple, that which had been done, af­fect­ing the hon­or of the Báb, which hath tru­ly over­whelmed all lands with sor­row. Great God! How could they have coun­te­nanced this most grievous be­tray­al? Briefly, We be­seech God to aid the per­pe­tra­tor of this deed to re­pent, and re­turn un­to Him. He, ver­ily, is the Helper, the All-​Wise.

As to Dayyán--up­on him be the glo­ry of God and His mer­cy--he at­tained Our pres­ence in ac­cor­dance with that which had been re­vealed by the pen of the Pri­mal Point. We pray God to aid the heed­less to turn un­to Him, and such as have turned aside to di­rect them­selves to­wards Him, and them that have de­nied Him to ac­knowl­edge this Cause, which, no soon­er did it ap­pear than all cre­at­ed things pro­claimed: “He that was hid­den in the Trea­sury of Knowl­edge, and in­scribed by the Pen of the Most High in His Books, and His Scrip­tures, and His Scrolls, and His Tablets, is come!”

In this con­nec­tion it hath been deemed nec­es­sary to men­tion such tra­di­tions as have been record­ed re­gard­ing the blessed and hon­ored city of Akká, that hap­ly thou mayest, O Hádí, seek a path un­to the Truth, and a road lead­ing un­to God.

In the name of God, the Com­pas­sion­ate, the Mer­ci­ful.

The fol­low­ing hath been record­ed con­cern­ing the mer­its of Akká, and of the sea, and of Aynu'l-​Baqár (The Spring of the Cow) which is in Akká:

'Ab­du'l-'Azíz, son of 'Ab­du'-Salám, hath re­lat­ed un­to us that the Prophet--may the bless­ings of God and His salu­ta­tions be up­on him--hath said: “Akká is a city in Syr­ia to which God hath shown His spe­cial mer­cy.”

Ibn-​i-​Mas'úd--may God be pleased with him--hath stat­ed: “The Prophet--may the bless­ings of God and His salu­ta­tions be up­on Him--hath said: 'Of all shores the best is the shore of Askelon, and Akká is, ver­ily, bet­ter than Askelon, and the mer­it of Akká above that of Askelon and all oth­er shores is as the mer­it of Muham­mad above that of all oth­er Prophets. I bring you tid­ings of a city be­twixt two moun­tains in Syr­ia, in the mid­dle of a mead­ow, which is called Akká. Ver­ily, he that en­tereth there­in, long­ing for it and ea­ger to vis­it it, God will for­give his sins, both of the past and of the fu­ture. And he that de­parteth from it, oth­er than as a pil­grim, God will not bless his de­par­ture. In it is a spring called the Spring of the Cow. Whoso drin­keth a draught there­from, God will fill his heart with light, and will pro­tect him from the most great ter­ror on the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion.'”

Anas, son of Malík--may God be pleased with him--hath said: “The Apos­tle of God--may the bless­ings of God and His salu­ta­tions be up­on Him--hath said: 'By the shore of the sea is a city, sus­pend­ed be­neath the Throne, and named Akká. He that dwelleth there­in, firm and ex­pect­ing a re­ward from God--ex­alt­ed be He--God will write down for him, un­til the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion, the rec­om­pense of such as have been pa­tient, and have stood up, and knelt down, and pros­trat­ed them­selves, be­fore Him.'”

And He--may the bless­ings of God and His salu­ta­tions be up­on Him--hath said: “I an­nounce un­to you a city, on the shores of the sea, white, whose white­ness is pleas­ing un­to God--ex­alt­ed be He! It is called Akká. He that hath been bit­ten by one of its fleas is bet­ter, in the es­ti­ma­tion of God, than he who hath re­ceived a grievous blow in the path of God. And he that raiseth there­in the call to prayer, his voice will be lift­ed up un­to Par­adise. And he that re­maineth there­in for sev­en days in the face of the en­emy, God will gath­er him with _Kh_idr--peace be up­on Him--and God will pro­tect him from the most great ter­ror on the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion.” And He--may the bless­ings of God,--ex­alt­ed be He--and His salu­ta­tions be up­on Him--hath said: “There are kings and princes in Par­adise. The poor of Akká are the kings of Par­adise and the princes there­of. A month in Akká is bet­ter than a thou­sand years else­where.”

The Apos­tle of God--may the bless­ings of God and His salu­ta­tions be up­on Him--is re­port­ed to have said: “Blessed the man that hath vis­it­ed Akká, and blessed he that hath vis­it­ed the vis­itor of Akká. Blessed the one that hath drunk from the Spring of the Cow and washed in its wa­ters, for the black-​eyed damsels quaff the cam­phor in Par­adise, which hath come from the Spring of the Cow, and from the Spring of Salván (Siloam), and the Well of Za­mzam. Well is it with him that hath drunk from these springs, and washed in their wa­ters, for God hath for­bid­den the fire of hell to touch him and his body on the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion.”

The Prophet--may the bless­ings of God and His salu­ta­tions be up­on Him--is stat­ed to have said: “In Akká are works of su­pereroga­tion and acts which are ben­efi­cial, which God vouch­safed spe­cial­ly un­to whom­so­ev­er He pleaseth. And he that saith in Akká: 'Glo­ri­fied be God, and praise be un­to God, and there is none oth­er God but God, and most great is God, and there is no pow­er nor strength ex­cept in God, the Ex­alt­ed, the Mighty,' God will write down for him a thou­sand good deeds, and blot out from him a thou­sand evil deeds, and will up­lift him a thou­sand grades in Par­adise, and will for­give him his trans­gres­sions. And whoso saith in Akká: 'I beg for­give­ness of God,' God will for­give all his tres­pass­es. And he that re­mem­bereth God in Akká at morn and at even­tide, in the night-​sea­son and at dawn, is bet­ter in the sight of God than he who beareth swords, spears and arms in the path of God--ex­alt­ed be He!”

The Apos­tle of God--may the bless­ings of God and His salu­ta­tions be up­on Him--hath al­so said: “He that looketh up­on the sea at even­tide, and saith: 'God is Most Great!' at sun­set, God will for­give his sins, though they be heaped as piles of sand. And he that coun­teth forty waves, while re­peat­ing: 'God is Most Great!'--ex­alt­ed be He--God will for­give his sins, both past and fu­ture.”

The Apos­tle of God--may the bless­ings of God and His salu­ta­tions be up­on Him--hath said: “He that looketh up­on the sea a full night is bet­ter than he who pas­seth two whole months be­twixt the Rukn and the Maqám. And he that hath been brought up on the shores of the sea is bet­ter than he that hath been brought up else­where. And he that li­eth on the shore is as he that standeth else­where.”

Ver­ily, the Apos­tle of God--may the bless­ings of God, ex­alt­ed be He, and His salu­ta­tions be up­on Him--hath spo­ken the truth.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTEN­BERG EBOOK EPIS­TLE TO THE SON OF THE WOLF***

CRED­ITS

June 2005

Con­vert­ed from Mi­crosoft Word doc­ument for­mat to TEI mas­ter for­mat. Joshua Hutchin­son

June 2006

Added PG­Head­er/PG­Foot­er. Joshua Hutchin­son

A WORD FROM PROJECT GUTEN­BERG

This file should be named 16697-0.txt or 16697-0.zip.

This and all as­so­ci­at­ed files of var­ious for­mats will be found in:

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