Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas

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Ti­tle: Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Re­vealed af­ter the Kitab-​i-​Aq­das

Au­thor: Bahá'u'lláh

Re­lease Date: Oc­to­ber 28, 2005 [Ebook #17310]

Lan­guage: En­glish

Char­ac­ter set en­cod­ing: ISO 8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTEN­BERG EBOOK TABLETS OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH RE­VEALED AF­TER THE KITAB-​I-​AQ­DAS***

Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Re­vealed af­ter the Kitab-​i-​Aq­das

by Bahá'u'lláh

Edi­tion 1, (Oc­to­ber 28, 2005)

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CON­TENTS

Ba­ha'i Terms of Use Ref­er­ences to the Qur'án LAWH-​I-​KARMIL (Tablet of Carmel) LAWH-​I-​AQ­DAS (The Most Holy Tablet) BISHÁRÁT (Glad-​Tid­ings) TARAZÁT (Or­na­ments) TA­JAL­LÍYÁT (Ef­ful­gences) KALÍMÁT-​I-​FIR­DAWSÍYY­IH (Words of Par­adise) LAWH-​I-​DUN­YÁ (Tablet of the World) ISHRÁQÁT (Splen­dours) LAWH-​I-​HIK­MAT (Tablet of Wis­dom) ASL-​I-​KUL­LU'L-​KHAYR (Words of Wis­dom) LAWH-​I-​MAQSÚD (Tablet of Maqsúd) SÚRIY-​I-​VAFÁ (Tablet to Vafá) LAWH-​I-​SÍYYID-​I-​MI­HDÍY-​I-​DAHÁJÍ (Tablet to Siyyid Mi­hdíy-​i-​Dahájí) LAWH-​I-​BURHÁN (Tablet of the Proof) KITÁB-​I-'AHD (Book of the Covenant) LAWH-​I-​ARD-​I-​BÁ (Tablet of the Land of Bá) EX­CERPTS FROM OTH­ER TABLETS “GOD tes­ti­fi­eth that there is none oth­er God but...” “ALL praise be to Thee, O my God, inas­much as Thou...” “O HUSAYN! God grant thou shalt ev­er be bright and...” “THIS is a Tablet which the Lord of all be­ing hath sent...” “O FRIEND! In the Bayán We di­rect­ed ev­ery­one in this...” “O JAVÁD! Such is the great­ness of this Day that the Hour...” “WE make men­tion of him who hath been at­tract­ed by Our...” “O THOU who bear­est My Name, Júd [Boun­ty]! Up­on...” “O HAY­DAR! This Wronged One hath heard thy voice...” “BY the righ­teous­ness of God! The Moth­er Book is made...” “O MUHAM­MAD HUSAYN! Be thou pre­pared to re­ceive the...” “O MY hand­maid­en and My leaf! Re­joice with great joy...” “AT one time this sub­lime Word was heard from the...” “THIS is a Tablet sent down by the All-​Mer­ci­ful from the...” “O MY hand­maid­en, O My leaf! Ren­der thou thanks un­to...” “O HAND­MAID of God! Hear­ken un­to the Voice of the...” “FIX your gaze up­on wis­dom in all things, for it is an...” “THIS Wronged One doth men­tion him who hath set his...” “HE Who lead­eth to true vic­to­ry is come. By the righ­teous­ness...” “THIS is a Tablet sent down by the Lord of mer­cy that the...” “WE de­sire to men­tion him who hath set his face to­wards...” “GIVE ear un­to that which the Spir­it im­parteth un­to thee from...” “THIS Wronged One hath pe­rused thy let­ter in the Most...”

REF­ER­ENCES TO THE QUR'ÁN

In foot­notes re­fer­ring to the Qur'án the súrihs have been num­bered ac­cord­ing to the orig­inal, where­as the verse num­bers are those in Rod­well's trans­la­tion which dif­fer some­times from those of the Ara­bic.

LAWH-​I-​KARMIL (TABLET OF CARMEL)

ALL glo­ry be to this Day, the Day in which the fra­grances of mer­cy have been waft­ed over all cre­at­ed things, a Day so blest that past ages and cen­turies can nev­er hope to ri­val it, a Day in which the coun­te­nance of the An­cient of Days hath turned to­wards His holy seat. There­upon the voic­es of all cre­at­ed things, and be­yond them those of the Con­course on High, were heard call­ing aloud: 'Haste thee, O Carmel, for lo, the light of the coun­te­nance of God, the Ruler of the King­dom of Names and Fash­ioner of the heav­ens, hath been lift­ed up­on thee.'

Seized with trans­ports of joy, and rais­ing high her voice, she thus ex­claimed: 'May my life be a sac­ri­fice to Thee, inas­much as Thou hast fixed Thy gaze up­on me, hast be­stowed up­on me Thy boun­ty, and hast di­rect­ed to­wards me Thy steps. Sep­ara­tion from Thee, O Thou Source of ev­er­last­ing life, hath well nigh con­sumed me, and my re­mote­ness from Thy pres­ence hath burned away my soul. All praise be to Thee for hav­ing en­abled me to hear­ken to Thy call, for hav­ing hon­oured me with Thy foot­steps, and for hav­ing quick­ened my soul through the vi­tal­iz­ing fra­grance of Thy Day and the shrilling voice of Thy Pen, a voice Thou didst or­dain as Thy trum­pet-​call amidst Thy peo­ple. And when the hour at which Thy re­sist­less Faith was to be made man­ifest did strike, Thou didst breathe a breath of Thy spir­it in­to Thy Pen, and lo, the en­tire cre­ation shook to its very foun­da­tions, un­veil­ing to mankind such mys­ter­ies as lay hid­den with­in the trea­suries of Him Who is the Pos­ses­sor of all cre­at­ed things.'

No soon­er had her voice reached that most ex­alt­ed Spot than We made re­ply: 'Ren­der thanks un­to thy Lord, O Carmel. The fire of thy sep­ara­tion from Me was fast con­sum­ing thee, when the ocean of My pres­ence surged be­fore thy face, cheer­ing thine eyes and those of all cre­ation, and fill­ing with de­light all things vis­ible and in­vis­ible. Re­joice, for God hath in this Day es­tab­lished up­on thee His throne, hath made thee the dawn­ing-​place of His signs and the dayspring of the ev­idences of His Rev­ela­tion. Well is it with him that cir­cleth around thee, that pro­claimeth the rev­ela­tion of thy glo­ry, and re­coun­teth that which the boun­ty of the Lord thy God hath show­ered up­on thee. Seize thou the Chal­ice of Im­mor­tal­ity in the name of thy Lord, the All-​Glo­ri­ous, and give thanks un­to Him, inas­much as He, in to­ken of His mer­cy un­to thee, hath turned thy sor­row in­to glad­ness, and trans­mut­ed thy grief in­to bliss­ful joy. He, ver­ily, loveth the spot which hath been made the seat of His throne, which His foot­steps have trod­den, which hath been hon­oured by His pres­ence, from which He raised His call, and up­on which He shed His tears.

'Call out to Zion, O Carmel, and an­nounce the joy­ful tid­ings: He that was hid­den from mor­tal eyes is come! His all-​con­quer­ing sovereign­ty is man­ifest; His all-​en­com­pass­ing splen­dour is re­vealed. Be­ware lest thou hes­itate or halt. Has­ten forth and cir­cum­am­bu­late the City of God that hath de­scend­ed from heav­en, the ce­les­tial Kaa­ba round which have cir­cled in ado­ra­tion the favoured of God, the pure in heart, and the com­pa­ny of the most ex­alt­ed an­gels. Oh, how I long to an­nounce un­to ev­ery spot on the sur­face of the earth, and to car­ry to each one of its cities, the glad-​tid­ings of this Rev­ela­tion--a Rev­ela­tion to which the heart of Sinai hath been at­tract­ed, and in whose name the Burn­ing Bush is call­ing: “Un­to God, the Lord of Lords, be­long the king­doms of earth and heav­en.” Ver­ily this is the Day in which both land and sea re­joice at this an­nounce­ment, the Day for which have been laid up those things which God, through a boun­ty be­yond the ken of mor­tal mind or heart, hath des­tined for rev­ela­tion. Ere long will God sail His Ark up­on thee, and will man­ifest the peo­ple of Bahá who have been men­tioned in the Book of Names.'

Sanc­ti­fied be the Lord of all mankind, at the men­tion of Whose name all the atoms of the earth have been made to vi­brate, and the Tongue of Grandeur hath been moved to dis­close that which had been wrapt in His knowl­edge and lay con­cealed with­in the trea­sury of His might. He, ver­ily, through the po­ten­cy of His name, the Mighty, the All-​Pow­er­ful, the Most High, is the ruler of all that is in the heav­ens and all that is on earth.

LAWH-​I-​AQ­DAS (THE MOST HOLY TABLET)(1)

This is the Most Holy Tablet sent down from the holy king­dom un­to the one who hath set his face to­wards the Ob­ject of the ado­ra­tion of the world, He Who hath come from the heav­en of eter­ni­ty, in­vest­ed with tran­scen­dent glo­ry

In the name of the Lord, the Lord of great glo­ry.

THIS is an Epis­tle from Our pres­ence un­to him whom the veils of names have failed to keep back from God, the Cre­ator of earth and heav­en, that his eyes may be cheered in the days of his Lord, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing.

Say, O fol­low­ers of the Son!(2) Have ye shut out your­selves from Me by rea­son of My Name? Where­fore pon­der ye not in your hearts? Day and night ye have been call­ing up­on your Lord, the Om­nipo­tent, but when He came from the heav­en of eter­ni­ty in His great glo­ry, ye turned aside from Him and re­mained sunk in heed­less­ness.

Con­sid­er those who re­ject­ed the Spir­it(3) when He came un­to them with man­ifest do­min­ion. How nu­mer­ous the Phar­isees who had se­clud­ed them­selves in syn­agogues in His name, lament­ing over their sep­ara­tion from Him, and yet when the por­tals of re­union were flung open and the di­vine Lu­mi­nary shone re­splen­dent from the Dayspring of Beau­ty, they dis­be­lieved in God, the Ex­alt­ed, the Mighty. They failed to at­tain His pres­ence, notwith­stand­ing that His ad­vent had been promised them in the Book of Isa­iah as well as in the Books of the Prophets and the Mes­sen­gers. No one from among them turned his face to­wards the Dayspring of di­vine boun­ty ex­cept such as were des­ti­tute of any pow­er amongst men. And yet, to­day, ev­ery man en­dowed with pow­er and in­vest­ed with sovereign­ty prideth him­self on His Name. More­over, call thou to mind the one who sen­tenced Je­sus to death. He was the most learned of his age in his own coun­try, whilst he who was on­ly a fish­er­man be­lieved in Him. Take good heed and be of them that ob­serve the warn­ing.

Con­sid­er like­wise, how nu­mer­ous at this time are the monks who have se­clud­ed them­selves in their church­es, call­ing up­on the Spir­it, but when He ap­peared through the pow­er of Truth, they failed to draw nigh un­to Him and are num­bered with those that have gone far astray. Hap­py are they that have aban­doned them and set their faces to­wards Him Who is the De­sire of all that are in the heav­ens and all that are on the earth.

They read the Evan­gel and yet refuse to ac­knowl­edge the All-​Glo­ri­ous Lord, notwith­stand­ing that He hath come through the po­ten­cy of His ex­alt­ed, His mighty and gra­cious do­min­ion. We, ver­ily, have come for your sakes, and have borne the mis­for­tunes of the world for your sal­va­tion. Flee ye the One Who hath sac­ri­ficed His life that ye may be quick­ened? Fear God, O fol­low­ers of the Spir­it, and walk not in the foot­steps of ev­ery di­vine that hath gone far astray. Do ye imag­ine that He seeketh His own in­ter­ests, when He hath, at all times, been threat­ened by the swords of the en­emies; or that He seeketh the van­ities of the world, af­ter He hath been im­pris­oned in the most des­olate of cities? Be fair in your judge­ment and fol­low not the foot­steps of the un­just.

Open the doors of your hearts. He Who is the Spir­it ver­ily standeth be­fore them. Where­fore keep ye afar from Him Who hath pur­posed to draw you nigh un­to a Re­splen­dent Spot? Say: We, in truth, have opened un­to you the gates of the King­dom. Will ye bar the doors of your hous­es in My face? This in­deed is naught but a grievous er­ror. He, ver­ily, hath again come down from heav­en, even as He came down from it the first time. Be­ware lest ye dis­pute that which He pro­claimeth, even as the peo­ple be­fore you dis­put­ed His ut­ter­ances. Thus in­structeth you the True One, could ye but per­ceive it.

The riv­er Jor­dan is joined to the Most Great Ocean, and the Son, 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: 'He Who is the De­sired One is come in His tran­scen­dent majesty.' Say, Lo! The Fa­ther is come, and that which ye were promised in the King­dom is ful­filled! This is the Word which the Son con­cealed, when to those around Him He said: 'Ye can­not bear it now.' And when the ap­point­ed time was ful­filled and the Hour had struck, the Word shone forth above the hori­zon of the Will of God. Be­ware, O fol­low­ers of the Son, that ye cast it not be­hind your backs. Take ye fast hold of it. Bet­ter is this for you than all that ye pos­sess. Ver­ily He is nigh un­to them that do good. The Hour which We had con­cealed from the knowl­edge of the peo­ples of the earth and of the favoured an­gels hath come to pass. Say, ver­ily, He hath tes­ti­fied of Me, and I do tes­ti­fy of Him. In­deed, He hath pur­posed no one oth­er than Me. Un­to this beareth wit­ness ev­ery fair-​mind­ed and un­der­stand­ing soul.

Though be­set with count­less af­flic­tions, We sum­mon the peo­ple un­to God, the Lord of names. Say, strive ye to at­tain that which ye have been promised in the Books of God, and walk not in the way of the ig­no­rant. My body hath en­dured im­pris­on­ment that ye may be re­leased from the bondage of self. Set your faces then to­wards His coun­te­nance and fol­low not the foot­steps of ev­ery hos­tile op­pres­sor. Ver­ily, He hath con­sent­ed to be sore­ly abased that ye may at­tain un­to glo­ry, and yet, ye are dis­port­ing your­selves in the vale of heed­less­ness. He, in truth, liveth in the most des­olate of abodes for your sakes, whilst ye dwell in your palaces.

Say, did ye not hear­ken to the Voice of the Crier, call­ing aloud in the wilder­ness of the Bayán, bear­ing un­to you the glad-​tid­ings of the com­ing of your Lord, the All-​Mer­ci­ful? Lo! He is come in the shel­ter­ing shad­ow of Tes­ti­mo­ny, in­vest­ed with con­clu­sive proof and ev­idence, and those who tru­ly be­lieve in Him re­gard His pres­ence as the em­bod­iment of the King­dom of God. Blessed is the man who tur­neth to­wards Him, and woe be­tide such as de­ny or doubt Him.

An­nounce thou un­to the priests: Lo! He Who is the Ruler is come. Step out from be­hind the veil in the name of thy Lord, He Who layeth low the necks of all men. Pro­claim then un­to all mankind the glad-​tid­ings of this mighty, this glo­ri­ous Rev­ela­tion. Ver­ily, He Who is the Spir­it of Truth is come to guide you un­to all truth. He speaketh not as prompt­ed by His own self, but as bid­den by Him Who is the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

Say, this is the One Who hath glo­ri­fied the Son and hath ex­alt­ed His Cause. Cast away, O peo­ples of the earth, that which ye have and take fast hold of that which ye are bid­den by the All-​Pow­er­ful, He Who is the Bear­er of the Trust of God. Purge ye your ears and set your hearts to­wards Him that ye may hear­ken to the most won­drous Call which hath been raised from Sinai, the habi­ta­tion of your Lord, the Most Glo­ri­ous. It will, in truth, draw you nigh un­to the Spot where­in ye will per­ceive the splen­dour of the light of His coun­te­nance which shineth above this lu­mi­nous Hori­zon.

O con­course of priests! Leave the bells, and come forth, then, from your church­es. It be­hoveth you, in this day, to pro­claim aloud the Most Great Name among the na­tions. Pre­fer ye to be silent, whilst ev­ery stone and ev­ery tree shouteth aloud: 'The Lord is come in His great glo­ry!'? Well is it with the man who has­teneth un­to Him. Ver­ily, he is num­bered among them whose names will be eter­nal­ly record­ed and who will be men­tioned by the Con­course on High. Thus hath it been de­creed by the Spir­it in this won­drous Tablet. He that sum­mon­eth men in My name is, ver­ily, of Me, and he will show forth that which is be­yond the pow­er of all that are on earth. Fol­low ye the Way of the Lord and walk not in the foot­steps of them that are sunk in heed­less­ness. Well is it with the slum­ber­er who is stirred by the Breeze of God and ariseth from amongst the dead, di­rect­ing his steps to­wards the Way of the Lord. Ver­ily, such a man is re­gard­ed, in the sight of God, the True One, as a jew­el amongst men and is reck­oned with the bliss­ful.

Say: In the East the light of His Rev­ela­tion hath bro­ken; in the West have ap­peared the signs of His do­min­ion. Pon­der this in your hearts, O peo­ple, and be not of those who have turned a deaf ear to the ad­mo­ni­tions of Him Who is the Almighty, the All-​Praised. Let the Breeze of God awak­en you. Ver­ily, it hath waft­ed over the world. Well is it with him that hath dis­cov­ered the fra­grance there­of and been ac­count­ed among the well-​as­sured.

O con­course of bish­ops! Ye are the stars of the heav­en of My knowl­edge. My mer­cy de­sireth not that ye should fall up­on the earth. My jus­tice, how­ev­er, de­clareth: 'This is that which the Son hath de­creed.' And what­so­ev­er hath pro­ceed­ed out of His blame­less, His truth-​speak­ing, trust­wor­thy mouth, can nev­er be al­tered. The bells, ver­ily, peal out My Name, and lament over Me, but My spir­it re­joiceth with ev­ident glad­ness. The body of the Loved One year­neth for the cross, and His head is ea­ger for the spear, in the path of the All-​Mer­ci­ful. The as­cen­dan­cy of the op­pres­sor can in no wise de­ter Him from His pur­pose. We have sum­moned all cre­at­ed things to at­tain the pres­ence of thy Lord, the King of all names. Blessed is the man that hath set his face to­wards God, the Lord of the Day of Reck­on­ing.

O con­course of monks! If ye choose to fol­low Me, I will make you heirs of My King­dom; and if ye transgress against Me, I will, in My long-​suf­fer­ing, en­dure it pa­tient­ly, and I, ver­ily, am the Ev­er-​For­giv­ing, the All-​Mer­ci­ful.

O land of Syr­ia! What hath be­come of thy righ­teous­ness? Thou art, in truth, en­no­bled by the foot­steps of thy Lord. Hast thou per­ceived the fra­grance of heav­en­ly re­union, or art thou to be ac­count­ed of the heed­less?

Beth­le­hem is astir with the Breeze of God. We hear her voice say­ing: 'O most gen­er­ous Lord! Where is Thy great glo­ry es­tab­lished? The sweet savours of Thy pres­ence have quick­ened me, af­ter I had melt­ed in my sep­ara­tion from Thee. Praised be Thou in that Thou hast raised the veils, and come with pow­er in ev­ident glo­ry.' We called un­to her from be­hind the Taber­na­cle of Majesty and Grandeur: 'O Beth­le­hem! This Light hath risen in the ori­ent, and trav­elled to­wards the oc­ci­dent, un­til it reached thee in the evening of its life. Tell Me then: Do the sons rec­og­nize the Fa­ther, and ac­knowl­edge Him, or do they de­ny Him, even as the peo­ple afore­time de­nied Him (Je­sus)?' Where­upon she cried out say­ing: 'Thou art, in truth, the All-​Know­ing, the Best-​In­formed.' Ver­ily, We be­hold all cre­at­ed things moved to bear wit­ness un­to Us. Some know Us and bear wit­ness, while the ma­jor­ity bear wit­ness, yet know Us not.

Mount Sinai is astir with the joy of be­hold­ing Our coun­te­nance. She hath lift­ed her en­thralling voice in glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of her Lord, say­ing: 'O Lord! I sense the fra­grance of Thy gar­ment. Me­thinks Thou art near, in­vest­ed with the signs of God. Thou hast en­no­bled these re­gions with Thy foot­steps. Great is the blessed­ness of Thy peo­ple, could they but know Thee and in­hale Thy sweet savours; and woe be­tide them that are fast asleep.'

Hap­py art thou who hast turned thy face to­wards My coun­te­nance, inas­much as thou hast rent the veils asun­der, hast shat­tered the idols and rec­og­nized thine eter­nal Lord. The peo­ple of the Qur'án have risen up against Us with­out any clear proof or ev­idence, tor­ment­ing Us at ev­ery mo­ment with a fresh tor­ment. They idly imag­ine that tribu­la­tions can frus­trate Our Pur­pose. Vain in­deed is that which they have imag­ined. Ver­ily, thy Lord is the One Who or­daineth what­so­ev­er He pleaseth.

I nev­er passed a tree but Mine heart ad­dressed it say­ing: 'O would that thou wert cut down in My name, and My body cru­ci­fied up­on thee.' We re­vealed this pas­sage in the Epis­tle to the Sháh that it might serve as a warn­ing to the fol­low­ers of re­li­gions. Ver­ily, thy Lord is the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

Let not the things they have per­pe­trat­ed grieve thee. Tru­ly they are even as dead, and not liv­ing. Leave them un­to the dead, then turn thy face to­wards Him Who is the Life-​Giv­er of the world. Be­ware lest the say­ings of the heed­less sad­den thee. Be thou stead­fast in the Cause, and teach the peo­ple with con­sum­mate wis­dom. Thus en­joineth thee the Ruler of earth and heav­en. He is in truth the Almighty, the Most Gen­er­ous. Ere long will God ex­alt thy re­mem­brance and will in­scribe with the Pen of Glo­ry that which thou didst ut­ter for the sake of His love. He is in truth the Pro­tec­tor of the do­ers of good.

Give My re­mem­brance to the one named Murád and say: 'Blessed art thou, O Murád, inas­much as thou didst cast away the prompt­ings of thine own de­sire and hast fol­lowed Him Who is the De­sire of all mankind.'

Say: Blessed the slum­ber­er who is awak­ened by My Breeze. Blessed the life­less one who is quick­ened through My re­viv­ing breaths. Blessed the eye that is so­laced by gaz­ing at My beau­ty. Blessed the way­far­er who di­recteth his steps to­wards the Taber­na­cle of My glo­ry and majesty. Blessed the dis­tressed one who seeketh refuge be­neath the shad­ow of My canopy. Blessed the sore athirst who has­teneth to the soft-​flow­ing wa­ters of My lov­ing-​kind­ness. Blessed the in­sa­tiate soul who casteth away his self­ish de­sires for love of Me and taketh his place at the ban­quet ta­ble which I have sent down from the heav­en of di­vine boun­ty for My cho­sen ones. Blessed the abased one who layeth fast hold on the cord of My glo­ry; and the needy one who en­tereth be­neath the shad­ow of the Taber­na­cle of My wealth. Blessed the ig­no­rant one who seeketh the foun­tain of My knowl­edge; and the heed­less one who cleaveth to the cord of My re­mem­brance. Blessed the soul that hath been raised to life through My quick­en­ing breath and hath gained ad­mit­tance in­to My heav­en­ly King­dom. Blessed the man whom the sweet savours of re­union with Me have stirred and caused to draw nigh un­to the Dayspring of My Rev­ela­tion. Blessed the ear that hath heard and the tongue that hath borne wit­ness and the eye that hath seen and rec­og­nized the Lord Him­self, in His great glo­ry and majesty, in­vest­ed with grandeur and do­min­ion. Blessed are they that have at­tained His pres­ence. Blessed the man who hath sought en­light­en­ment from the Day-​Star of My Word. Blessed he who hath at­tired his head with the di­adem of My love. Blessed is he who hath heard of My grief and hath arisen to aid Me among My peo­ple. Blessed is he who hath laid down his life in My path and hath borne man­ifold hard­ships for the sake of My Name. Blessed the man who, as­sured of My Word, hath arisen from among the dead to cel­ebrate My praise. Blessed is he that hath been en­rap­tured by My won­drous melodies and hath rent the veils asun­der through the po­ten­cy of My might. Blessed is he who hath re­mained faith­ful to My Covenant, and whom the things of the world have not kept back from at­tain­ing My Court of ho­li­ness. Blessed is the man who hath de­tached him­self from all else but Me, hath soared in the at­mo­sphere of My love, hath gained ad­mit­tance in­to My King­dom, gazed up­on My realms of glo­ry, quaffed the liv­ing wa­ters of My boun­ty, hath drunk his fill from the heav­en­ly riv­er of My lov­ing prov­idence, ac­quaint­ed him­self with My Cause, ap­pre­hend­ed that which I con­cealed with­in the trea­sury of My Words, and hath shone forth from the hori­zon of di­vine knowl­edge en­gaged in My praise and glo­ri­fi­ca­tion. Ver­ily, he is of Me. Up­on him rest My mer­cy, My lov­ing-​kind­ness, My boun­ty and My glo­ry.

BISHÁRÁT (GLAD-​TID­INGS)

This is the Call of the All-​Glo­ri­ous which is pro­claimed from the Supreme Hori­zon in the Prison of Akká

He is the Ex­pounder, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed.

GOD, the True One, tes­ti­fi­eth and the Re­veal­ers of His names and at­tributes bear wit­ness that Our sole pur­pose in rais­ing the Call and in pro­claim­ing His sub­lime Word is that the ear of the en­tire cre­ation may, through the liv­ing wa­ters of di­vine ut­ter­ance, be purged from ly­ing tales and be­come at­tuned to the holy, the glo­ri­ous and ex­alt­ed Word which hath is­sued forth from the repos­ito­ry of the knowl­edge of the Mak­er of the Heav­ens and the Cre­ator of Names. Hap­py are they that judge with fair­ness.

O peo­ple of the earth!

The first Glad-​Tid­ings which the Moth­er Book hath, in this Most Great Rev­ela­tion, im­part­ed un­to all the peo­ples of the world is that the law of holy war hath been blot­ted out from the Book. Glo­ri­fied be the All-​Mer­ci­ful, the Lord of grace abound­ing, through Whom the door of heav­en­ly boun­ty hath been flung open in the face of all that are in heav­en and on earth.

The sec­ond Glad-​Tid­ings

It is per­mit­ted that the peo­ples and kin­dreds of the world as­so­ciate with one an­oth­er with joy and ra­di­ance. O peo­ple! Con­sort with the fol­low­ers of all re­li­gions in a spir­it of friend­li­ness and fel­low­ship. Thus hath the day-​star of His sanc­tion and au­thor­ity shone forth above the hori­zon of the de­cree of God, the Lord of the worlds.

The third Glad-​Tid­ings con­cer­neth the study of divers lan­guages. This de­cree hath for­mer­ly streamed forth from the Pen of the Most High: It be­hoveth the sovereigns of the world--may God as­sist them--or the min­is­ters of the earth to take coun­sel to­geth­er and to adopt one of the ex­ist­ing lan­guages or a new one to be taught to chil­dren in schools through­out the world, and like­wise one script. Thus the whole earth will come to be re­gard­ed as one coun­try. Well is it with him who hear­keneth un­to His Call and ob­serveth that where­un­to he is bid­den by God, the Lord of the Mighty Throne.

The fourth Glad-​Tid­ings

Should any of the kings--may God aid them--arise to pro­tect and help this op­pressed peo­ple, all must vie with one an­oth­er in lov­ing and in serv­ing him. This mat­ter is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one. Well is it with them that act ac­cord­ing­ly.

The fifth Glad-​Tid­ings

In ev­ery coun­try where any of this peo­ple re­side, they must be­have to­wards the gov­ern­ment of that coun­try with loy­al­ty, hon­esty and truth­ful­ness. This is that which hath been re­vealed at the be­hest of Him Who is the Or­dain­er, the An­cient of Days.

It is bind­ing and in­cum­bent up­on the peo­ples of the world, one and all, to ex­tend aid un­to this mo­men­tous Cause which is come from the heav­en of the Will of the ev­er-​abid­ing God, that per­chance the fire of an­imos­ity which blazeth in the hearts of some of the peo­ples of the earth may, through the liv­ing wa­ters of di­vine wis­dom and by virtue of heav­en­ly coun­sels and ex­hor­ta­tions, be quenched, and the light of uni­ty and con­cord may shine forth and shed its ra­di­ance up­on the world.

We cher­ish the hope that through the earnest en­deav­ours of such as are the ex­po­nents of the pow­er of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--the weapons of war through­out the world may be con­vert­ed in­to in­stru­ments of re­con­struc­tion and that strife and con­flict may be re­moved from the midst of men.

The sixth Glad-​Tid­ings is the es­tab­lish­ment of the Less­er Peace, de­tails of which have for­mer­ly been re­vealed from Our Most Ex­alt­ed Pen. Great is the blessed­ness of him who up­hold­eth it and ob­serveth what­so­ev­er hath been or­dained by God, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

The sev­enth Glad-​Tid­ings

The choice of cloth­ing and the cut of the beard and its dress­ing are left to the dis­cre­tion of men. But be­ware, O peo­ple, lest ye make your­selves the play­things of the ig­no­rant.

The eighth Glad-​Tid­ings

The pi­ous deeds of the monks and priests among the fol­low­ers of the Spir­it(4)--up­on Him be the peace of God--are re­mem­bered in His pres­ence. In this Day, how­ev­er, let them give up the life of seclu­sion and di­rect their steps to­wards the open world and busy them­selves with that which will prof­it them­selves and oth­ers. We have grant­ed them leave to en­ter in­to wed­lock that they may bring forth one who will make men­tion of God, the Lord of the seen and the un­seen, the Lord of the Ex­alt­ed Throne.

The ninth Glad-​Tid­ings

When the sin­ner find­eth him­self whol­ly de­tached and freed from all save God, he should beg for­give­ness and par­don from Him. Con­fes­sion of sins and trans­gres­sions be­fore hu­man be­ings is not per­mis­si­ble, as it hath nev­er been nor will ev­er be con­ducive to di­vine for­give­ness. More­over such con­fes­sion be­fore peo­ple re­sults in one's hu­mil­ia­tion and abase­ment, and God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--wisheth not the hu­mil­ia­tion of His ser­vants. Ver­ily He is the Com­pas­sion­ate, the Mer­ci­ful. The sin­ner should, be­tween him­self and God, im­plore mer­cy from the Ocean of mer­cy, beg for­give­ness from the Heav­en of gen­eros­ity and say:

O God, my God! I im­plore Thee by the blood of Thy true lovers who were so en­rap­tured by Thy sweet ut­ter­ance that they has­tened un­to the Pin­na­cle of Glo­ry, the site of the most glo­ri­ous mar­tyr­dom, and I be­seech Thee by the mys­ter­ies which lie en­shrined in Thy knowl­edge and by the pearls that are trea­sured in the ocean of Thy boun­ty to grant for­give­ness un­to me and un­to my fa­ther and my moth­er. Of those who show forth mer­cy, Thou art in truth the Most Mer­ci­ful. No God is there but Thee, the Ev­er-​For­giv­ing, the All-​Boun­ti­ful.

O Lord! Thou seest this essence of sin­ful­ness turn­ing un­to the ocean of Thy favour and this fee­ble one seek­ing the king­dom of Thy di­vine pow­er and this poor crea­ture in­clin­ing him­self to­wards the day-​star of Thy wealth. By Thy mer­cy and Thy grace, dis­ap­point him not, O Lord, nor de­bar him from the rev­ela­tions of Thy boun­ty in Thy days, nor cast him away from Thy door which Thou hast opened wide to all that dwell in Thy heav­en and on Thine earth.

Alas! Alas! My sins have pre­vent­ed me from ap­proach­ing the Court of Thy ho­li­ness and my tres­pass­es have caused me to stray far from the Taber­na­cle of Thy majesty. I have com­mit­ted that which Thou didst for­bid me to do and have put away what Thou didst or­der me to ob­serve.

I pray Thee by Him Who is the sovereign Lord of Names to write down for me with the Pen of Thy boun­ty that which will en­able me to draw nigh un­to Thee and will purge me from my tres­pass­es which have in­ter­vened be­tween me and Thy for­give­ness and Thy par­don.

Ver­ily, Thou art the Po­tent, the Boun­ti­ful. No God is there but Thee, the Mighty, the Gra­cious.

The tenth Glad-​Tid­ings

As a to­ken of grace from God, the Re­veal­er of this Most Great An­nounce­ment, We have re­moved from the Holy Scrip­tures and Tablets the law pre­scrib­ing the de­struc­tion of books.

The eleventh Glad-​Tid­ings

It is per­mis­si­ble to study sci­ences and arts, but such sci­ences as are use­ful and would re­dound to the progress and ad­vance­ment of the peo­ple. Thus hath it been de­creed by Him Who is the Or­dain­er, the All-​Wise.

The twelfth Glad-​Tid­ings

It is en­joined up­on ev­ery one of you to en­gage in some form of oc­cu­pa­tion, such as crafts, trades and the like. We have gra­cious­ly ex­alt­ed your en­gage­ment in such work to the rank of wor­ship un­to God, the True One. Pon­der ye in your hearts the grace and the bless­ings of God and ren­der thanks un­to Him at even­tide and at dawn. Waste not your time in idle­ness and sloth. Oc­cu­py your­selves with that which prof­iteth your­selves and oth­ers. Thus hath it been de­creed in this Tablet from whose hori­zon the day-​star of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance shineth re­splen­dent.

The most de­spised of men in the sight of God are those who sit idly and beg. Hold ye fast un­to the cord of ma­te­ri­al means, plac­ing your whole trust in God, the Provider of all means. When any­one oc­cu­pi­eth him­self in a craft or trade, such oc­cu­pa­tion it­self is re­gard­ed in the es­ti­ma­tion of God as an act of wor­ship; and this is naught but a to­ken of His in­fi­nite and all-​per­va­sive boun­ty.

The thir­teenth Glad-​Tid­ings

The men of God's House of Jus­tice have been charged with the af­fairs of the peo­ple. They, in truth, are the Trustees of God among His ser­vants and the daysprings of au­thor­ity in His coun­tries.

O peo­ple of God! That which traineth the world is Jus­tice, for it is up­held by two pil­lars, re­ward and pun­ish­ment. These two pil­lars are the sources of life to the world. Inas­much as for each day there is a new prob­lem and for ev­ery prob­lem an ex­pe­di­ent so­lu­tion, such af­fairs should be re­ferred to the Min­is­ters of the House of Jus­tice that they may act ac­cord­ing to the needs and re­quire­ments of the time. They that, for the sake of God, arise to serve His Cause, are the re­cip­ients of di­vine in­spi­ra­tion from the un­seen King­dom. It is in­cum­bent up­on all to be obe­di­ent un­to them. All mat­ters of State should be re­ferred to the House of Jus­tice, but acts of wor­ship must be ob­served ac­cord­ing to that which God hath re­vealed in His Book.

O peo­ple of Bahá! Ye are the dawn­ing-​places of the love of God and the daysprings of His lov­ing-​kind­ness. De­file not your tongues with the curs­ing and re­vil­ing of any soul, and guard your eyes against that which is not seem­ly. Set forth that which ye pos­sess. If it be favourably re­ceived, your end is at­tained; if not, to protest is vain. Leave that soul to him­self and turn un­to the Lord, the Pro­tec­tor, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. Be not the cause of grief, much less of dis­cord and strife. The hope is cher­ished that ye may ob­tain true ed­uca­tion in the shel­ter of the tree of His ten­der mer­cies and act in ac­cor­dance with that which God de­sireth. Ye are all the leaves of one tree and the drops of one ocean.

The four­teenth Glad-​Tid­ings

It is not nec­es­sary to un­der­take spe­cial jour­neys to vis­it the rest­ing-​places of the dead. If peo­ple of sub­stance and af­flu­ence of­fer the cost of such jour­neys to the House of Jus­tice, it will be pleas­ing and ac­cept­able in the pres­ence of God. Hap­py are they that ob­serve His pre­cepts.

The fif­teenth Glad-​Tid­ings

Al­though a re­pub­li­can form of gov­ern­ment prof­iteth all the peo­ples of the world, yet the majesty of king­ship is one of the signs of God. We do not wish that the coun­tries of the world should re­main de­prived there­of. If the saga­cious com­bine the two forms in­to one, great will be their re­ward in the pres­ence of God.

In for­mer re­li­gions such or­di­nances as holy war, de­struc­tion of books, the ban on as­so­ci­ation and com­pan­ion­ship with oth­er peo­ples or on read­ing cer­tain books had been laid down and af­firmed ac­cord­ing to the ex­igen­cies of the time; how­ev­er, in this mighty Rev­ela­tion, in this mo­men­tous An­nounce­ment, the man­ifold be­stowals and favours of God have over­shad­owed all men, and from the hori­zon of the Will of the Ev­er-​Abid­ing Lord, His in­fal­li­ble de­cree hath pre­scribed that which We have set forth above.

We yield praise un­to God--hal­lowed and glo­ri­fied be He--for what­so­ev­er He hath gra­cious­ly re­vealed in this blessed, this glo­ri­ous and in­com­pa­ra­ble Day. In­deed if ev­ery­one on earth were en­dowed with a myr­iad tongues and were to con­tin­ual­ly praise God and mag­ni­fy His Name to the end that knoweth no end, their thanks­giv­ing would not prove ad­equate for even one of the gra­cious favours We have men­tioned in this Tablet. Un­to this beareth wit­ness ev­ery man of wis­dom and dis­cern­ment, of un­der­stand­ing and knowl­edge.

We earnest­ly be­seech God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--to aid the rulers and sovereigns, who are the ex­po­nents of pow­er and the daysprings of glo­ry, to en­force His laws and or­di­nances. He is in truth the Om­nipo­tent, the All-​Pow­er­ful, He Who is wont to an­swer the call of men.

TARAZÁT (OR­NA­MENTS)

In My Name, which standeth supreme above all names

PRAISE and glo­ry be­seem the Lord of Names and the Cre­ator of the heav­ens, He, the waves of Whose ocean of Rev­ela­tion surge be­fore the eyes of the peo­ples of the world. The Day-​Star of His Cause shineth through ev­ery veil and His Word of af­fir­ma­tion standeth be­yond the reach of nega­tion. Nei­ther the as­cen­dan­cy of the op­pres­sor nor the tyran­ny of the wicked hath been able to thwart His Pur­pose. How glo­ri­fied is His sovereign­ty, how ex­alt­ed His do­min­ion!

Great God! Al­though His signs have en­com­passed the world and His proofs and tes­ti­monies are shin­ing forth and man­ifest as the light, yet the ig­no­rant ap­pear heed­less, nay rather, re­bel­lious. Would that they had been con­tent with op­po­si­tion. But at all times they are plot­ting to cut down the sa­cred Lote-​Tree. Since the dawn of this Rev­ela­tion the em­bod­iments of self­ish­ness have, by re­sort­ing to cru­el­ty and op­pres­sion, striv­en to ex­tin­guish the Light of di­vine man­ifes­ta­tion. But God, hav­ing stayed their hands, re­vealed this Light through His sovereign au­thor­ity and pro­tect­ed it through the pow­er of His might un­til earth and heav­en were il­lu­mined by its ra­di­ance and bright­ness. Praise be un­to Him un­der all con­di­tions.

Glo­ry be un­to Thee, O Lord of the world and De­sire of the na­tions, O Thou Who hast be­come man­ifest in the Great­est Name where­by the pearls of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance have ap­peared from the shells of the great sea of Thy knowl­edge, and the heav­ens of di­vine rev­ela­tion have been adorned with the light of the ap­pear­ance of the Sun of Thy coun­te­nance.

I beg of Thee, by that Word through which Thy proof was per­fect­ed among Thy crea­tures and Thy tes­ti­mo­ny was ful­filled among Thy ser­vants to strength­en Thy peo­ple in that where­by the face of the Cause will ra­di­ate in Thy do­min­ion, the stan­dards of Thy pow­er will be plant­ed among Thy ser­vants, and the ban­ners of Thy guid­ance will be raised through­out Thy do­min­ions.

O my Lord! Thou be­hold­est them cling­ing to the rope of Thy grace and hold­ing fast un­to the hem of the man­tle of Thy benef­icence. Or­dain for them that which may draw them near­er un­to Thee, and with­hold them from all else save Thee. I beg of Thee, O Thou King of ex­is­tence and Pro­tec­tor of the seen and the un­seen, to make whoso­ev­er ariseth to serve Thy Cause as a sea mov­ing by Thy de­sire, as one ablaze with the fire of Thy Sa­cred Tree, shin­ing from the hori­zon of the heav­en of Thy Will. Ver­ily Thou art the mighty One Whom nei­ther the pow­er of all the world nor the strength of na­tions can weak­en. There is no God but Thee, the One, the In­com­pa­ra­ble, the Pro­tec­tor, the Self-​Sub­sis­tent.

O thou who hast quaffed the wine of Mine ut­ter­ance from the chal­ice of My knowl­edge! These sub­lime words were heard to­day from the rustling of the di­vine Lote-​Tree which the Lord of Names hath, with the hand of ce­les­tial pow­er, plant­ed in the All-​High­est Par­adise:

The first Taráz and the first ef­ful­gence which hath dawned from the hori­zon of the Moth­er Book is that man should know his own self and rec­og­nize that which lead­eth un­to lofti­ness or low­li­ness, glo­ry or abase­ment, wealth or pover­ty. Hav­ing at­tained the stage of ful­fil­ment and reached his ma­tu­ri­ty, man standeth in need of wealth, and such wealth as he ac­quireth through crafts or pro­fes­sions is com­mend­able and praise­wor­thy in the es­ti­ma­tion of men of wis­dom, and es­pe­cial­ly in the eyes of ser­vants who ded­icate them­selves to the ed­uca­tion of the world and to the ed­ifi­ca­tion of its peo­ples. They are, in truth, cup-​bear­ers of the life-​giv­ing wa­ter of knowl­edge and guides un­to the ide­al way. They di­rect the peo­ples of the world to the straight path and ac­quaint them with that which is con­ducive to hu­man up­lift­ment and ex­al­ta­tion. The straight path is the one which guideth man to the dayspring of per­cep­tion and to the dawn­ing-​place of true un­der­stand­ing and lead­eth him to that which will re­dound to glo­ry, hon­our and great­ness.

We cher­ish the hope that through the lov­ing-​kind­ness of the All-​Wise, the All-​Know­ing, ob­scur­ing dust may be dis­pelled and the pow­er of per­cep­tion en­hanced, that the peo­ple may dis­cov­er the pur­pose for which they have been called in­to be­ing. In this Day what­so­ev­er serveth to re­duce blind­ness and to in­crease vi­sion is wor­thy of con­sid­er­ation. This vi­sion acteth as the agent and guide for true knowl­edge. In­deed in the es­ti­ma­tion of men of wis­dom keen­ness of un­der­stand­ing is due to keen­ness of vi­sion. The peo­ple of Bahá must un­der all cir­cum­stances ob­serve that which is meet and seem­ly and ex­hort the peo­ple ac­cord­ing­ly.

The sec­ond Taráz is to con­sort with the fol­low­ers of all re­li­gions in a spir­it of friend­li­ness and fel­low­ship, to pro­claim that which the Speak­er on Sinai hath set forth and to ob­serve fair­ness in all mat­ters.

They that are en­dued with sin­cer­ity and faith­ful­ness should as­so­ciate with all the peo­ples and kin­dreds of the earth with joy and ra­di­ance, inas­much as con­sort­ing with peo­ple hath pro­mot­ed and will con­tin­ue to pro­mote uni­ty and con­cord, which in turn are con­ducive to the main­te­nance of or­der in the world and to the re­gen­er­ation of na­tions. Blessed are such as hold fast to the cord of kind­li­ness and ten­der mer­cy and are free from an­imos­ity and ha­tred.

This Wronged One ex­hort­eth the peo­ples of the world to ob­serve tol­er­ance and righ­teous­ness, which are two lights amidst the dark­ness of the world and two ed­uca­tors for the ed­ifi­ca­tion of mankind. Hap­py are they who have at­tained there­to and woe be­tide the heed­less.

The third Taráz con­cer­neth good char­ac­ter. A good char­ac­ter is, ver­ily, the best man­tle for men from God. With it He ador­neth the tem­ples of His loved ones. By My life! The light of a good char­ac­ter sur­pas­seth the light of the sun and the ra­di­ance there­of. Whoso at­taineth un­to it is ac­count­ed as a jew­el among men. The glo­ry and the up­lift­ment of the world must needs de­pend up­on it. A good­ly char­ac­ter is a means where­by men are guid­ed to the Straight Path and are led to the Great An­nounce­ment. Well is it with him who is adorned with the saint­ly at­tributes and char­ac­ter of the Con­course on High.

It be­seemeth you to fix your gaze un­der all con­di­tions up­on jus­tice and fair­ness. In The Hid­den Words this ex­alt­ed ut­ter­ance hath been re­vealed from Our Most Au­gust Pen:

'O Son of Spir­it! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Jus­tice; turn not away there­from if thou de­sirest Me, and ne­glect it not that I may con­fide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of oth­ers, and shalt know of thine own knowl­edge and not through the knowl­edge of thy neigh­bour. Pon­der this in thy heart; how it be­hoveth thee to be. Ver­ily jus­tice is My gift to thee and the sign of My lov­ing-​kind­ness. Set it then be­fore thine eyes.'

They that are just and fair-​mind­ed in their judge­ment oc­cu­py a sub­lime sta­tion and hold an ex­alt­ed rank. The light of piety and up­right­ness shineth re­splen­dent from these souls. We earnest­ly hope that the peo­ples and coun­tries of the world may not be de­prived of the splen­dours of these two lu­mi­nar­ies.

The fourth Taráz con­cer­neth trust­wor­thi­ness. Ver­ily it is the door of se­cu­ri­ty for all that dwell on earth and a to­ken of glo­ry on the part of the All-​Mer­ci­ful. He who par­taketh there­of hath in­deed par­tak­en of the trea­sures of wealth and pros­per­ity. Trust­wor­thi­ness is the great­est por­tal lead­ing un­to the tran­quil­li­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of the peo­ple. In truth the sta­bil­ity of ev­ery af­fair hath de­pend­ed and doth de­pend up­on it. All the do­mains of pow­er, of grandeur and of wealth are il­lu­mined by its light.

Not long ago these sub­lime words were re­vealed from the Pen of the Most High:

'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.'

O peo­ple of Bahá! Trust­wor­thi­ness is in truth the best of ves­tures for your tem­ples and the most glo­ri­ous crown for your heads. Take ye fast hold of it at the be­hest of Him Who is the Or­dain­er, the All-​In­formed.

The fifth Taráz con­cer­neth the pro­tec­tion and preser­va­tion of the sta­tions of God's ser­vants. One should not ig­nore the truth of any mat­ter, rather should one give ex­pres­sion to that which is right and true. The peo­ple of Bahá should not de­ny any soul the re­ward due to him, should treat crafts­men with def­er­ence, and, un­like the peo­ple afore­time, should not de­file their tongues with abuse.

In this Day the sun of crafts­man­ship shineth above the hori­zon of the oc­ci­dent and the riv­er of arts is flow­ing out of the sea of that re­gion. One must speak with fair­ness and ap­pre­ci­ate such boun­ty. By the life of God! The word 'Eq­ui­ty' shineth bright and re­splen­dent even as the sun. We pray God to gra­cious­ly shed its ra­di­ance up­on ev­ery­one. He is in truth pow­er­ful over all things, He Who is wont to an­swer the prayers of all men.

In these days truth­ful­ness and sin­cer­ity are sore­ly af­flict­ed in the clutch­es of false­hood, and jus­tice is tor­ment­ed by the scourge of in­jus­tice. The smoke of cor­rup­tion hath en­veloped the whole world in such wise that naught can be seen in any di­rec­tion save reg­iments of sol­diers and noth­ing is heard from any land but the clash­ing of swords. We be­seech God, the True One, to strength­en the wield­ers of His pow­er in that which will re­ha­bil­itate the world and bring tran­quil­li­ty to the na­tions.

The sixth Taráz

Knowl­edge is one of the won­drous gifts of God. It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to ac­quire it. Such arts and ma­te­ri­al means as are now man­ifest have been achieved by virtue of His knowl­edge and wis­dom which have been re­vealed in Epis­tles and Tablets through His Most Ex­alt­ed Pen--a Pen out of whose trea­sury pearls of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance and the arts and crafts of the world are brought to light.

In this Day the se­crets of the earth are laid bare be­fore the eyes of men. The pages of swift­ly-​ap­pear­ing news­pa­pers are in­deed the mir­ror of the world. They re­flect the deeds and the pur­suits of divers peo­ples and kin­dreds. They both re­flect them and make them known. They are a mir­ror en­dowed with hear­ing, sight and speech. This is an amaz­ing and po­tent phe­nomenon. How­ev­er, it be­hoveth the writ­ers there­of to be purged from the prompt­ings of evil pas­sions and de­sires and to be at­tired with the rai­ment of jus­tice and eq­ui­ty. They should en­quire in­to sit­ua­tions as much as pos­si­ble and as­cer­tain the facts, then set them down in writ­ing.

Con­cern­ing this Wronged One, most of the things re­port­ed in the news­pa­pers are de­void of truth. Fair speech and truth­ful­ness, by rea­son of their lofty rank and po­si­tion, are re­gard­ed as a sun shin­ing above the hori­zon of knowl­edge. The waves ris­ing from this Ocean are ap­par­ent be­fore the eyes of the peo­ples of the world and the ef­fu­sions of the Pen of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance are man­ifest ev­ery­where.

It is re­port­ed in the press that this Ser­vant hath fled from the land of Tá (Tihrán) and gone to 'Iráq. Gra­cious God! Not even for a sin­gle mo­ment hath this Wronged One ev­er con­cealed Him­self. Rather hath He at all times re­mained stead­fast and con­spic­uous be­fore the eyes of all men. Nev­er have We re­treat­ed, nor shall We ev­er seek flight. In truth it is the fool­ish peo­ple who flee from Our pres­ence. We left Our home coun­try ac­com­pa­nied by two mount­ed es­corts, rep­re­sent­ing the two hon­oured gov­ern­ments of Per­sia and Rus­sia un­til We ar­rived in 'Iráq in the plen­itude of glo­ry and pow­er. Praise be to God! The Cause where­of this Wronged One is the Bear­er standeth as high as heav­en and shineth re­splen­dent as the sun. Con­ceal­ment hath no ac­cess un­to this sta­tion, nor is there any oc­ca­sion for fear or si­lence.

The mys­ter­ies of Res­ur­rec­tion and the events of the Last Hour are open­ly man­ifest, but the peo­ple are sunk in heed­less­ness and have suf­fered them­selves to be wrapt in veils. 'And when the seas shall boil... And when the Scrip­tures shall be un­rolled.'(5) By the righ­teous­ness of God! The Dawn hath tru­ly bright­ened and the light hath shone forth and the night hath re­ced­ed. Hap­py are they that com­pre­hend. Hap­py are they that have at­tained there­un­to.

Glo­ri­fied be God! The Pen is per­plexed what to write and the Tongue won­dereth what to ut­ter. De­spite un­prece­dent­ed hard­ships and af­ter en­dur­ing years of im­pris­on­ment, cap­tiv­ity and woe­ful tri­als, We now per­ceive that veils thick­er than the ones We have al­ready torn asun­der have in­ter­vened, ob­struct­ing the vi­sion and caus­ing the light of un­der­stand­ing to be ob­scured. More­over We ob­serve that the fresh calum­nies which are now rife are far more ma­li­cious than those of for­mer days.

O peo­ple of the Bayán! Fear ye the mer­ci­ful Lord. Con­sid­er the peo­ple of for­mer times. What were their deeds and what fruit did they gath­er? Ev­ery thing they ut­tered was but im­pos­ture and what­ev­er they wrought hath proved worth­less, ex­cept for those whom God hath gra­cious­ly pro­tect­ed through His pow­er.

I swear by the life of Him Who is the De­sire of the world! Were a man to pon­der in his heart he would, free of all at­tach­ment to the world, has­ten un­to the Most Great Light and would purge and pu­ri­fy him­self from the dust of vain imag­in­ings and the smoke of idle fan­cy. What could have prompt­ed the peo­ple of the past to err and by whom were they mis­led? They still re­ject the truth and have turned to­wards their own self­ish de­sires. This Wronged One cal­leth aloud for the sake of God. Whoso­ev­er wisheth, let him turn there­un­to; whoso­ev­er wisheth, let him turn away. Ver­ily God can well af­ford to dis­pense with all things, whether of the past or of the fu­ture.

O peo­ple of the Bayán! It is men like un­to Hádí Dawlat-​Ábádí(6) who, with tur­ban and staff,(7) have been the source of op­po­si­tion and hin­drance and have so grievous­ly bur­dened the peo­ple with su­per­sti­tions that even at the present time they still ex­pect the ap­pear­ance of a fic­ti­tious per­son from a fic­ti­tious place. Be ye warned, O men of un­der­stand­ing.

O Hádí! Give ear un­to the Voice of this trust­wor­thy Coun­sel­lor: di­rect thy steps from the left un­to the right, that is turn away from idle fan­cy un­to cer­ti­tude. Lead not the peo­ple in­to er­ror. The di­vine Lu­mi­nary shineth, His Cause is man­ifest and His signs are all-​em­brac­ing. Set thy face to­wards God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. Re­nounce thy lead­er­ship for the sake of God and leave the peo­ple un­to them­selves. Thou art ig­no­rant of the es­sen­tial truth, thou art not ac­quaint­ed there­with.

O Hádí! Be thou of one face in the path of God. When in com­pa­ny with the in­fi­dels, thou art an in­fi­del and with the pi­ous, thou art pi­ous. Re­flect thou up­on such souls as of­fered up their lives and their sub­stance in that land, that hap­ly thou mayest be ad­mon­ished and roused from slum­ber. Con­sid­er: who is to be pre­ferred, he who pre­serveth his body, his life and his pos­ses­sions or the one who sur­ren­dereth his all in the path of God? Judge thou fair­ly and be not of the un­just. Take fast hold of jus­tice and ad­here un­to eq­ui­ty that per­chance thou mayest not, for self­ish mo­tives, use re­li­gion as a snare, nor dis­re­gard the truth for the sake of gold. In­deed thine in­iq­ui­ty and the in­iq­ui­ty of such peo­ple as thy­self have waxed so grievous that the Pen of Glo­ry was moved to make such ob­ser­va­tions. Fear thou God. He Who her­ald­ed this Rev­ela­tion hath de­clared: 'He shall pro­claim un­der all con­di­tions: “Ver­ily, ver­ily, I am God, no God is there but Me, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing.”'

O peo­ple of the Bayán! Ye have been for­bid­den to con­tact the loved ones of God. Why hath this ban been im­posed and for what pur­pose? Be ye fair, I ad­jure you by God, and be not of the heed­less. Un­to such as are en­dued with in­sight, and be­fore the Most Great Beau­ty, the ob­ject of this ban is known and ev­ident; it is so that no one may be­come aware of his (Hádí's) se­crets and deeds.

O Hádí! Thou hast not been in Our com­pa­ny, thou art there­fore ig­no­rant of the Cause. Act not ac­cord­ing to thine idle imag­in­ings. Aside from these things, scru­ti­nize the Writ­ings with thine own eyes and pon­der up­on that which hath come to pass. Have pity up­on thy­self and up­on the ser­vants of God and be not the cause of way­ward­ness like un­to the peo­ple afore­time. The path is un­mis­tak­able and the proof is ev­ident. Change in­jus­tice in­to jus­tice and in­equity in­to eq­ui­ty. We cher­ish the hope that the breaths of di­vine in­spi­ra­tion may strength­en thee and that thine in­ner ear may be en­abled to hear the blessed words: 'Say, it is God, then leave them to en­ter­tain them­selves with their cav­illings.'(8) Thou has been there (Cyprus) and hast seen him (Mírzá Yahyá). Now speak forth with fair­ness. Do not mis­rep­re­sent the mat­ter, nei­ther to thy­self nor to the peo­ple. Thou art both ig­no­rant and un­in­formed. Give ear un­to the Voice of this Wronged One and has­ten to­wards the ocean of di­vine knowl­edge that per­chance thou mayest be adorned with the or­na­ment of com­pre­hen­sion and mayest re­nounce all else but God. Hear­ken un­to the Voice of this benev­olent Coun­sel­lor, call­ing aloud, un­veiled and man­ifest, be­fore the faces of kings and their sub­jects, and sum­mon the peo­ple of the world, one and all, un­to Him Who is the Lord of Eter­ni­ty. This is the Word from Whose hori­zon the day-​star of un­fail­ing grace shineth re­splen­dent.

O Hádí! This Wronged One, rid of all at­tach­ment to the world, hath striv­en with ut­most en­deav­our to quench the fire of an­imos­ity and ha­tred which bur­neth fierce­ly in the hearts of the peo­ples of the earth. It be­hoveth ev­ery just and fair-​mind­ed per­son to ren­der thanks un­to God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--and to arise to pro­mote this pre-​em­inent Cause, that fire may turn in­to light, and ha­tred may give way to fel­low­ship and love. I swear by the righ­teous­ness of God! This is the sole pur­pose of this Wronged One. In­deed in pro­claim­ing this mo­men­tous Cause and in demon­strat­ing its Truth We have en­dured man­ifold suf­fer­ings, hard­ships and tribu­la­tions. Thou thy­self wouldst bear wit­ness un­to that which We have men­tioned, couldst thou but speak with fair­ness. Ver­ily God speaketh the truth and lead­eth the Way. He is the Pow­er­ful, the Mighty, the Gra­cious.

May Our Glo­ry rest up­on the peo­ple of Bahá whom nei­ther the tyran­ny of the op­pres­sor nor the as­cen­dan­cy of the ag­gres­sor have been able to with­hold from God, the Lord of the worlds.

TA­JAL­LÍYÁT (EF­FUL­GENCES)

This is the Epis­tle of God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing

He is the One Who heareth from His Realm of Glo­ry.

GOD tes­ti­fi­eth that there is none oth­er God but Him and that He Who hath ap­peared is the Hid­den Mys­tery, the Trea­sured Sym­bol, the Most Great Book for all peo­ples, and the Heav­en of boun­ty for the whole world. He is the Most Mighty Sign amongst men and the Dayspring of the most au­gust at­tributes in the realm of cre­ation. Through Him hath ap­peared that which had been hid­den from time im­memo­ri­al and been veiled from the eyes of men. He is the One Whose Man­ifes­ta­tion was an­nounced by the heav­en­ly Scrip­tures, in for­mer times and more re­cent­ly. Whoso ac­knowl­ed­geth be­lief in Him and in His signs and tes­ti­monies hath in truth ac­knowl­edged that which the Tongue of Grandeur ut­tered ere the cre­ation of earth and heav­en and the rev­ela­tion of the King­dom of Names. Through Him the ocean of knowl­edge hath surged amidst mankind and the riv­er of di­vine wis­dom hath gushed out at the be­hest of God, the Lord of Days.

Well is it with the man of dis­cern­ment who hath rec­og­nized and per­ceived the Truth, and the one pos­sessed of a hear­ing ear who hath hear­kened un­to His sweet Voice, and the hand that hath re­ceived His Book with such re­solve as is born of God, the Lord of this world and of the next, and the earnest way­far­er who hath has­tened un­to His glo­ri­ous Hori­zon, and the one en­dued with strength whom nei­ther the over­pow­er­ing might of the rulers, nor the tu­mult raised by the lead­ers of re­li­gion hath been able to shake. And woe be­tide him who hath re­ject­ed the grace of God and His boun­ty, and hath de­nied His ten­der mer­cy and au­thor­ity; such a man is in­deed reck­oned with those who have through­out eter­ni­ty re­pu­di­at­ed the tes­ti­mo­ny of God and His proof.

Great is the blessed­ness of him who hath in this Day cast away the things cur­rent amongst men and hath clung un­to that which is or­dained by God, the Lord of Names and the Fash­ioner of all cre­at­ed things, He Who is come from the heav­en of eter­ni­ty through the pow­er of the Most Great Name, in­vest­ed with so in­vin­ci­ble an au­thor­ity that all the pow­ers of the earth are un­able to with­stand Him. Un­to this beareth wit­ness the Moth­er Book, call­ing from the Most Sub­lime Sta­tion.

O 'Alí-​Ak­bar!(9) We have re­peat­ed­ly heard thy voice and have re­spond­ed to thee with that which the praise of all mankind can nev­er ri­val; from which the sin­cere ones in­hale the sweet savours of the say­ings of the All-​Mer­ci­ful, and His true lovers per­ceive the fra­grance of heav­en­ly re­union, and the sore athirst dis­cov­er the mur­mur­ing of the wa­ter that is life in­deed. Blessed the man who hath at­tained there­to and hath rec­og­nized that which is at this mo­ment be­ing dif­fused from the Pen of God, the Help in Per­il, the Almighty, the All-​Boun­ti­ful.

We tes­ti­fy that thou hast set thy face to­wards God and trav­elled far un­til thou didst at­tain His pres­ence and gavest ear un­to the Voice of this Wronged One, Who hath been cast in­to prison through the mis­deeds of those who have dis­be­lieved in the signs and tes­ti­monies of God and have de­nied this heav­en­ly grace through which the whole world hath been made to shine. Blessed thy face, for it hath turned un­to Him, and thine ear, for it hath heard His Voice, and thy tongue, for it hath cel­ebrat­ed the praise of God, the Lord of lords. We pray God to gra­cious­ly aid thee to be­come a stan­dard for the pro­mo­tion of His Cause and to en­able thee to draw nigh un­to Him at all times and un­der all con­di­tions.

The cho­sen ones of God and His loved ones in that land are re­mem­bered by Us, and We give them the joy­ful tid­ings of that which hath been sent down in their hon­our from the King­dom of the ut­ter­ance of their Lord, the sovereign Ruler of the Day of Reck­on­ing. Make men­tion of Me to them and il­lu­mine them with the re­splen­dent glo­ry of Mine ut­ter­ance. Ver­ily thy Lord is the Gra­cious, the Boun­ti­ful.

O thou who dost mag­ni­fy My praise! Give ear un­to that which the peo­ple of tyran­ny as­cribe un­to Me in My days. Some of them say: 'He hath laid claim to di­vin­ity'; oth­ers say: 'He hath de­vised a lie against God'; still oth­ers say: 'He is come to fo­ment sedi­tion'. Base and wretched are they. Lo! They are, in truth, en­slaved to idle imag­in­ings.

We shall now cease us­ing the elo­quent lan­guage.(10) Tru­ly thy Lord is the Po­tent, the Un­con­strained. We would fain speak in the Per­sian tongue that per­chance the peo­ple of Per­sia, one and all, may be­come aware of the ut­ter­ances of the mer­ci­ful Lord, and come forth to dis­cov­er the Truth.

The first Ta­jal­lí which hath dawned from the Day-​Star of Truth is the knowl­edge of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry. And the knowl­edge of the King of ev­er­last­ing days can in no wise be at­tained save by rec­og­niz­ing Him Who is the Bear­er of the Most Great Name. He is, in truth, the Speak­er on Sinai Who is now seat­ed up­on the throne of Rev­ela­tion. He is the Hid­den Mys­tery and the Trea­sured Sym­bol. All the for­mer and lat­ter Books of God are adorned with His praise and ex­tol His glo­ry. Through Him the stan­dard of knowl­edge hath been plant­ed in the world and the en­sign of the one­ness of God hath been un­furled amidst all peo­ples. At­tain­ment un­to the Di­vine Pres­ence can be re­al­ized sole­ly by at­tain­ing His pres­ence. Through His po­ten­cy ev­ery­thing that hath, from time im­memo­ri­al, been veiled and hid­den, is now re­vealed. He is made man­ifest through the pow­er of Truth and hath ut­tered a Word where­by all that are in the heav­ens and on the earth have been dumb­found­ed, ex­cept those whom the Almighty was pleased to ex­empt. True be­lief in God and recog­ni­tion of Him can­not be com­plete save by ac­cep­tance of that which He hath re­vealed and by ob­ser­vance of what­so­ev­er hath been de­creed by Him and set down in the Book by the Pen of Glo­ry.

They that im­merse them­selves in the ocean of His ut­ter­ances should at all times have the ut­most re­gard for the di­vine­ly-​re­vealed or­di­nances and pro­hi­bi­tions. In­deed His or­di­nances con­sti­tute the might­iest stronghold for the pro­tec­tion of the world and the safe­guard­ing of its peo­ples--a light up­on those who ac­knowl­edge and rec­og­nize the truth, and a fire un­to such as turn away and de­ny.

The sec­ond Ta­jal­lí is to re­main stead­fast in the Cause of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--and to be unswerv­ing in His love. And this can in no wise be at­tained ex­cept through full recog­ni­tion of Him; and full recog­ni­tion can­not be ob­tained save by faith in the blessed words: 'He doeth what­so­ev­er He wil­leth.' Whoso tena­cious­ly cleaveth un­to this sub­lime word and drin­keth deep from the liv­ing wa­ters of ut­ter­ance which are in­her­ent there­in, will be im­bued with such a con­stan­cy that all the books of the world will be pow­er­less to de­ter him from the Moth­er Book. O how glo­ri­ous is this sub­lime sta­tion, this ex­alt­ed rank, this ul­ti­mate pur­pose!

O 'Alí-​Ak­bar! Con­sid­er how ab­ject is the state of the dis­be­liev­ers. They all give ut­ter­ance to the words: 'Ver­ily He is to be praised in His deeds and is to be obeyed in His be­hest.' Nev­er­the­less if We re­veal aught which, even to the ex­tent of a nee­dle's eye, run­neth counter to their self­ish ways and de­sires, they will dis­dain­ful­ly re­ject it. Say, none can ev­er fath­om the man­ifold ex­igen­cies of God's con­sum­mate wis­dom. In truth, were He to pro­nounce the earth to be heav­en, no one hath the right to ques­tion His au­thor­ity. This is that where­un­to the Point of the Bayán hath tes­ti­fied in all that was sent down un­to Him with truth at the be­hest of God, He Who hath caused the Dawn to break.

The third Ta­jal­lí is con­cern­ing arts, crafts and sci­ences. 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 on the day of His re­turn. Hap­py are those pos­sessed of a hear­ing ear. 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. Thus hath the Tongue of Grandeur spo­ken in this Most Great Prison.

The fourth Ta­jal­lí is con­cern­ing Di­vin­ity, God­head and the like. Were a man of in­sight to di­rect his gaze to­wards the blessed, the man­ifest Lote-​Tree and its fruits, he would be so en­riched there­by as to be in­de­pen­dent of aught else and to ac­knowl­edge his be­lief in that which the Speak­er on Sinai hath ut­tered from the throne of Rev­ela­tion.

O 'Alí-​Ak­bar! Ac­quaint the peo­ple with the holy vers­es of thy Lord and make known un­to them His straight Path, His mighty An­nounce­ment.

Say: O peo­ple, if ye judge fair­ly and eq­ui­tably, ye will tes­ti­fy to the truth of what­so­ev­er hath streamed forth from the Most Ex­alt­ed Pen. If ye be of the peo­ple of the Bayán, the Per­sian Bayán will guide you aright and will prove a suf­fi­cient tes­ti­mo­ny un­to you; and if ye be of the peo­ple of the Qur'án, pon­der ye up­on the Rev­ela­tion on Sinai and the Voice from the Bush which came un­to the Son of 'Im­rán [Moses].

Gra­cious God! It was in­tend­ed that at the time of the man­ifes­ta­tion of the One true God the fac­ul­ty of rec­og­niz­ing Him would have been de­vel­oped and ma­tured and would have reached its cul­mi­na­tion. How­ev­er, it is now clear­ly demon­strat­ed that in the dis­be­liev­ers this fac­ul­ty hath re­mained un­de­vel­oped and hath, in­deed, de­gen­er­at­ed.

O 'Alí! That which they ac­cept­ed from the Bush they now refuse to ac­cept from Him Who is the Tree of the world of ex­is­tence. Say, O peo­ple of the Bayán, speak not ac­cord­ing to the dic­tates of pas­sion and self­ish de­sire. Most of the peo­ples of the earth at­test the truth of the blessed Word which hath come forth from the Bush.

By the righ­teous­ness of God! But for the an­them of praise voiced by Him Who her­ald­ed the di­vine Rev­ela­tion, this Wronged One would nev­er have breathed a word which might have struck ter­ror in­to the hearts of the ig­no­rant and caused them to per­ish. Dwelling on the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of Him Whom God shall make man­ifest--ex­alt­ed be His Man­ifes­ta­tion--the Báb in the be­gin­ning of the Bayán saith: 'He is the One Who shall pro­claim un­der all con­di­tions, “Ver­ily, ver­ily, I am God, no God is there but Me, the Lord of all cre­at­ed things. In truth all oth­ers ex­cept Me are My crea­tures. O, My crea­tures! Me alone do ye wor­ship.”' Like­wise in an­oth­er in­stance He, mag­ni­fy­ing the Name of Him Who shall be made man­ifest, saith: 'I would be the first to adore Him.' Now it be­hoveth one to re­flect up­on the sig­nif­icance of the 'Ador­er' and the 'Adored One', that per­chance the peo­ple of the earth may par­take of a dew­drop from the ocean of di­vine knowl­edge and may be en­abled to per­ceive the great­ness of this Rev­ela­tion. Ver­ily, He hath ap­peared and hath un­loosed His tongue to pro­claim the Truth. Well is it with him who doth ac­knowl­edge and rec­og­nize the truth, and woe be­tide the froward and the way­ward.

O kin­dreds of the earth! In­cline your ears un­to the Voice from the di­vine Lote-​Tree which over­shad­oweth the world and be not of the peo­ple of tyran­ny on earth--men who have re­pu­di­at­ed the Man­ifes­ta­tion of God and His in­vin­ci­ble au­thor­ity and have re­nounced His favours--they in truth are reck­oned with the con­temptible in the Book of God, the Lord of all mankind.

The Glo­ry which hath dawned above the hori­zon of My ten­der mer­cy rest up­on thee and up­on whoso­ev­er is with thee and giveth ear to thy words con­cern­ing the Cause of God, the Almighty, the All-​Praised.

KALÍMÁT-​I-​FIR­DAWSÍYY­IH (WORDS OF PAR­ADISE)

He is the One Who speaketh through the pow­er of Truth in the King­dom of Ut­ter­ance

O YE the em­bod­iments of jus­tice and eq­ui­ty and the man­ifes­ta­tions of up­right­ness and of heav­en­ly boun­ties! In tears and lament­ing, this Wronged One cal­leth aloud and saith: O God, my God! Adorn the heads of Thy loved ones with the crown of de­tach­ment and at­tire their tem­ples with the rai­ment of righ­teous­ness.

It be­hoveth the peo­ple of Bahá to ren­der the Lord vic­to­ri­ous through the pow­er of their ut­ter­ance and to ad­mon­ish the peo­ple by their good­ly deeds and char­ac­ter, inas­much as deeds ex­ert greater in­flu­ence than words.

O Hay­dar-'Alí!(11) Up­on thee be the praise of God and His glo­ry. Say: Hon­esty, virtue, wis­dom and a saint­ly char­ac­ter re­dound to the ex­al­ta­tion of man, while dis­hon­esty, im­pos­ture, ig­no­rance and hypocrisy lead to his abase­ment. By My life! Man's dis­tinc­tion li­eth not in or­na­ments or wealth, but rather in vir­tu­ous be­haviour and true un­der­stand­ing. Most of the peo­ple in Per­sia are steeped in de­cep­tion and idle fan­cy. How great the dif­fer­ence be­tween the con­di­tion of these peo­ple and the sta­tion of such valiant souls as have passed be­yond the sea of names and pitched their tents up­on the shores of the ocean of de­tach­ment. In­deed none but a few of the ex­ist­ing gen­er­ation hath yet earned the mer­it of hear­ken­ing un­to the war­blings of the doves of the all-​high­est Par­adise. 'Few of My ser­vants are tru­ly thank­ful.'(12) Peo­ple for the most part de­light in su­per­sti­tions. They re­gard a sin­gle drop of the sea of delu­sion as prefer­able to an ocean of cer­ti­tude. By hold­ing fast un­to names they de­prive them­selves of the in­ner re­al­ity and by cling­ing to vain imag­in­ings they are kept back from the Dayspring of heav­en­ly signs. God grant you may be gra­cious­ly aid­ed un­der all con­di­tions to shat­ter the idols of su­per­sti­tion and to tear away the veils of the imag­ina­tions of men. Au­thor­ity li­eth in the grasp of God, the Foun­tain­head of rev­ela­tion and in­spi­ra­tion and the Lord of the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion.

We heard that which the per­son in ques­tion hath men­tioned re­gard­ing cer­tain teach­ers of the Faith. In­deed he hath spo­ken tru­ly. Some heed­less souls roam the lands in the name of God, ac­tive­ly en­gaged in ru­in­ing His Cause, and call it pro­mot­ing and teach­ing the Word of God; and this notwith­stand­ing that the qual­ifi­ca­tions of the teach­ers of the Faith, like un­to stars, shine re­splen­dent through­out the heav­ens of the di­vine Tablets. Ev­ery fair-​mind­ed per­son tes­ti­fi­eth and ev­ery man of in­sight is well aware that the One true God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--hath un­ceas­ing­ly set forth and ex­pound­ed that which will el­evate the sta­tion and will ex­alt the rank of the chil­dren of men.

The peo­ple of Bahá burn bright­ly amidst the gath­er­ings even as a can­dle and hold fast un­to that which God hath pur­posed. This sta­tion standeth supreme above all sta­tions. Well is it with him who hath cast away the things that the peo­ple of the world pos­sess, yearn­ing for that which per­taineth un­to God, the Sovereign Lord of eter­ni­ty.

Say: O God, my God! Thou be­hold­est me cir­cling round Thy Will with mine eyes turned to­wards the hori­zon of Thy boun­ty, ea­ger­ly await­ing the rev­ela­tion of the ef­ful­gent splen­dours of the sun of Thy favours. I beg of Thee, O Beloved of ev­ery un­der­stand­ing heart and the De­sire of such as have near ac­cess un­to Thee, to grant that Thy loved ones may be­come whol­ly de­tached from their own in­cli­na­tions, hold­ing fast un­to that which pleaseth Thee. At­tire them, O Lord, with the robe of righ­teous­ness and il­lu­mine them with the splen­dours of the light of de­tach­ment. Sum­mon then to their as­sis­tance the hosts of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance that they may ex­alt Thy Word amongst Thy crea­tures and pro­claim Thy Cause amidst Thy ser­vants. Ver­ily, po­tent art Thou to do what Thou willest, and with­in Thy grasp lie the reins of all af­fairs. No God is there but Thee, the Mighty, the Ev­er-​For­giv­ing.

O thou who hast turned thy gaze to­wards My face! In these days there oc­curred that which hath plunged Me in­to dire sad­ness. Cer­tain wrong-​do­ers who pro­fess al­le­giance to the Cause of God com­mit­ted such deeds as have caused the limbs of sin­cer­ity, of hon­esty, of jus­tice, of eq­ui­ty to quake. One known in­di­vid­ual to whom the ut­most kind­ness and favour had been ex­tend­ed per­pe­trat­ed such acts as have brought tears to the eye of God. For­mer­ly We ut­tered words of warn­ing and pre­mo­ni­tion, then for a num­ber of years We kept the mat­ter se­cret that hap­ly he might take heed and re­pent. But all to no pur­pose. In the end he bent his en­er­gies up­on vil­ify­ing the Cause of God be­fore the eyes of all men. He tore the veil of fair­ness asun­der and felt sym­pa­thy nei­ther for him­self nor for the Cause of God. Now, how­ev­er, the deeds of cer­tain in­di­vid­uals have brought sor­rows far more grievous than those which the deeds of the for­mer had caused. Be­seech thou God, the True One, that He may gra­cious­ly en­able the heed­less to re­tract and re­pent. Ver­ily He is the For­giv­ing, the Boun­ti­ful, the Most Gen­er­ous.

In these days it is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to ad­here tena­cious­ly un­to uni­ty and con­cord and to labour dili­gent­ly in pro­mot­ing the Cause of God, that per­chance the way­ward souls may at­tain that which will lead un­to abid­ing pros­per­ity.

In brief, dis­sen­sions among var­ious sects have opened the way to weak­ness. Each sect hath picked out a way for it­self and is cling­ing to a cer­tain cord. De­spite man­ifest blind­ness and ig­no­rance they pride them­selves on their in­sight and knowl­edge. Among them are mys­tics who bear al­le­giance to the Faith of Is­lám, some of whom in­dulge in that which lead­eth to idle­ness and seclu­sion. I swear by God! It low­ereth man's sta­tion and maketh him swell with pride. Man must bring forth fruit. One who yield­eth no fruit is, in the words of the Spir­it,(13) like un­to a fruit­less tree, and a fruit­less tree is fit but for the fire.

That which the afore­said per­sons have men­tioned con­cern­ing the sta­tions of Di­vine Uni­ty will con­duce in no small mea­sure to idle­ness and vain imag­in­ings. These mor­tal men have ev­ident­ly set aside the dif­fer­ences of sta­tion and have come to re­gard them­selves as God, while God is im­mea­sur­ably ex­alt­ed above all things. Ev­ery cre­at­ed be­ing how­ev­er re­vealeth His signs which are but em­ana­tions from Him and not His Own Self. All these signs are re­flect­ed and can be seen in the book of ex­is­tence, and the scrolls that de­pict the shape and pat­tern of the uni­verse are in­deed a most great book. There­in ev­ery man of in­sight can per­ceive that which would lead to the Straight Path and would en­able him to at­tain the Great An­nounce­ment. Con­sid­er the rays of the sun whose light hath en­com­passed the world. The rays em­anate from the sun and re­veal its na­ture, but are not the sun it­self. What­so­ev­er can be dis­cerned on earth am­ply demon­strateth the pow­er of God, His knowl­edge and the out­pour­ings of His boun­ty, while He Him­self is im­mea­sur­ably ex­alt­ed above all crea­tures.

Christ saith: 'Thou hast grant­ed to chil­dren that where­of the learned and the wise are de­prived.' The sage of Sabzí­var(14) hath said: 'Alas! At­ten­tive ears are lack­ing, oth­er­wise the whis­per­ings of the Sina­ic Bush could be heard from ev­ery tree.' In a Tablet to a man of wis­dom who had made en­quiry as to the mean­ing of El­emen­tary Re­al­ity, We ad­dressed this fa­mous sage in these words: 'If this say­ing is tru­ly thine, how is it that thou hast failed to hear­ken un­to the Call which the Tree of Man hath raised from the lofti­est heights of the world? If thou didst hear the Call yet fear and the de­sire to pre­serve thy life prompt­ed thee to re­main heed­less to it, thou art such a per­son as hath nev­er been nor is wor­thy of men­tion; if thou hast not heard it, then thou art bereft of the sense of hear­ing.' In brief, such men are they whose words are the pride of the world, and whose deeds are the shame of the na­tions.

Ver­ily We have sound­ed the Trum­pet which is none oth­er than My Pen of Glo­ry, and lo, mankind hath swooned away be­fore it, save them whom God pleaseth to de­liv­er as a to­ken of His grace. He is the Lord of boun­ty, the An­cient of Days.

Say: O con­course of di­vines! Pro­nounce ye cen­sure against this Pen un­to which, as soon as it raised its shrill voice, the king­dom of ut­ter­ance pre­pared it­self to hear­ken, and be­fore whose mighty and glo­ri­ous theme ev­ery oth­er theme hath paled in­to in­signif­icance? Fear ye God and fol­low not your idle fan­cies and cor­rupt imag­in­ings, but rather fol­low Him Who is come un­to you in­vest­ed with un­de­ni­able knowl­edge and un­shake­able cer­ti­tude.

Glo­ri­fied be God! Man's trea­sure is his ut­ter­ance, yet this Wronged One hath with­held His Tongue, for the dis­be­liev­ers are ly­ing in am­bush; how­ev­er, pro­tec­tion is af­ford­ed by God, the Lord of all worlds. Ver­ily, in Him have We placed Our trust and un­to Him have We com­mit­ted all af­fairs. All-​Suf­fi­cient is He for Us and for all cre­at­ed things. He is the One by Whose leave, and through the po­ten­cy of Whose com­mand, the Day-​Star of sovereign might hath shone re­splen­dent above the hori­zon of the world. Well is it with him who per­ceiveth and rec­og­nizeth the Truth and woe be­tide the froward and the faith­less.

This Wronged One hath in­vari­ably treat­ed the wise with af­fec­tion. By the wise is meant men whose knowl­edge is not con­fined to mere words and whose lives have been fruit­ful and have pro­duced en­dur­ing re­sults. It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to hon­our these blessed souls. Hap­py are they that ob­serve God's pre­cepts; hap­py are they that have rec­og­nized the Truth; hap­py are they that judge with fair­ness in all mat­ters and hold fast to the Cord of My in­vi­olable Jus­tice.

The peo­ple of Per­sia have turned away from Him Who is the Pro­tec­tor and the Helper. They are cling­ing to and have en­meshed them­selves in the vain imag­in­ings of the fool­ish. So firm­ly do they ad­here to su­per­sti­tions that naught can sev­er them there­from save the po­tent arm of God--ex­alt­ed is His glo­ry. Be­seech thou the Almighty that He may re­move with the fin­gers of di­vine pow­er the veils which have shut out the divers peo­ples and kin­dreds, that they may at­tain the things that are con­ducive to se­cu­ri­ty, progress and ad­vance­ment and may has­ten forth to­wards the in­com­pa­ra­ble Friend.

The word of God which the Ab­há Pen hath re­vealed and in­scribed on the

_first leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed 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.

The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath record­ed on the

_sec­ond leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed Par­adise is the fol­low­ing: The Pen of the Most High ex­hort­eth, at this mo­ment, the man­ifes­ta­tions of au­thor­ity and the sources of pow­er, name­ly the kings, the sovereigns, the pres­idents, the rulers, the di­vines and the wise, 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!

The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath record­ed on the

_third leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed 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 neigh­bour 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.

O peo­ple of God! 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.

The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath record­ed on the

_fourth leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed Par­adise is the fol­low­ing: O peo­ple of God! Be­seech ye the True One--glo­ri­fied be His Name--that He may gra­cious­ly shield the man­ifes­ta­tions of do­min­ion and pow­er from the sug­ges­tions of self and de­sire and shed the ra­di­ance of jus­tice and guid­ance up­on them.

His Majesty Muham­mad Sháh, de­spite the ex­cel­lence of his rank, com­mit­ted two heinous deeds. One was the or­der to ban­ish the Lord of the Realms of Grace and Boun­ty, the Pri­mal Point; and the oth­er, the mur­der of the Prince of the City of States­man­ship and Lit­er­ary Ac­com­plish­ment.(15)

The faults of kings, like their favours, can be great. A king who is not de­terred by the vain­glo­ry of pow­er and au­thor­ity from ob­serv­ing jus­tice, nor is de­prived of the splen­dours of the day-​star of eq­ui­ty by lux­ury, rich­es, glo­ry or the mar­shalling of hosts and le­gions shall oc­cu­py a high rank and a sub­lime sta­tion amongst the Con­course on high. It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to ex­tend aid and to man­ifest kind­ness to so no­ble a soul. Well is it with the king who keep­eth a tight hold on the reins of his pas­sion, re­straineth his anger and pre­fer­reth jus­tice and fair­ness to in­jus­tice and tyran­ny.

The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath record­ed on the

_fifth leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed Par­adise is this: Above all else, the great­est gift and the most won­drous bless­ing hath ev­er been and will con­tin­ue to be Wis­dom. It is man's un­fail­ing Pro­tec­tor. It aideth him and strength­eneth him. Wis­dom is God's Emis­sary and the Re­veal­er of His Name the Om­ni­scient. Through it the lofti­ness of man's sta­tion is made man­ifest and ev­ident. It is all-​know­ing and the fore­most Teach­er in the school of ex­is­tence. It is the Guide and is in­vest­ed with high dis­tinc­tion. Thanks to its ed­ucat­ing in­flu­ence earth­ly be­ings have be­come im­bued with a gem-​like spir­it which out­shineth the heav­ens. In the city of jus­tice it is the un­ri­valled Speak­er Who, in the year nine, il­lu­mined the world with the joy­ful tid­ings of this Rev­ela­tion. And it was this peer­less Source of wis­dom that at the be­gin­ning of the foun­da­tion of the world as­cend­ed the stair of in­ner mean­ing and when en­throned up­on the pul­pit of ut­ter­ance, through the op­er­ation of the di­vine Will, pro­claimed two words. The first her­ald­ed the promise of re­ward, while the sec­ond voiced the omi­nous warn­ing of pun­ish­ment. The promise gave rise to hope and the warn­ing be­gat fear. Thus the ba­sis of world or­der hath been firm­ly es­tab­lished up­on these twin prin­ci­ples. Ex­alt­ed is the Lord of Wis­dom, the Pos­ses­sor of Great Boun­ty.

The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath record­ed on the

_sixth leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed Par­adise is the fol­low­ing: The light of men is Jus­tice. Quench it not with the con­trary winds of op­pres­sion and tyran­ny. The pur­pose of jus­tice is the ap­pear­ance of uni­ty among men. The ocean of di­vine wis­dom sur­geth with­in this ex­alt­ed word, while the books of the world can­not con­tain its in­ner sig­nif­icance. Were mankind to be adorned with this rai­ment, they would be­hold the day-​star of the ut­ter­ance, 'On that day God will sat­is­fy ev­ery­one out of His abun­dance,'(16) shin­ing re­splen­dent above the hori­zon of the world. Ap­pre­ci­ate ye the val­ue of this ut­ter­ance; it is a no­ble fruit that the Tree of the Pen of Glo­ry hath yield­ed. Hap­py is the man that giveth ear un­to it and ob­serveth its pre­cepts. Ver­ily I say, what­ev­er is sent down from the heav­en of the Will of God is the means for the es­tab­lish­ment of or­der in the world and the in­stru­ment for pro­mot­ing uni­ty and fel­low­ship among its peo­ples. Thus hath the Tongue of this Wronged One spo­ken from His Most Great Prison.

The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath record­ed on the

_sev­enth leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed Par­adise is this: O ye men of wis­dom among na­tions! Shut your eyes to es­trange­ment, then fix your gaze up­on uni­ty. Cleave tena­cious­ly un­to that which will lead to the well-​be­ing and tran­quil­li­ty of all mankind. This span of earth is but one home­land and one habi­ta­tion. It be­hoveth you to aban­don vain­glo­ry which causeth alien­ation and to set your hearts on what­ev­er will en­sure har­mo­ny. In the es­ti­ma­tion of the peo­ple of Bahá man's glo­ry li­eth in his knowl­edge, his up­right con­duct, his praise­wor­thy char­ac­ter, his wis­dom, and not in his na­tion­al­ity or rank. O peo­ple of the earth! Ap­pre­ci­ate the val­ue of this heav­en­ly word. In­deed it may be likened un­to a ship for the ocean of knowl­edge and a shin­ing lu­mi­nary for the realm of per­cep­tion.

The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath record­ed on the

_eighth leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed Par­adise is the fol­low­ing: Schools must first train the chil­dren in the prin­ci­ples of re­li­gion, so that the Promise and the Threat record­ed in the Books of God may pre­vent them from the things for­bid­den and adorn them with the man­tle of the com­mand­ments; but this in such a mea­sure that it may not in­jure the chil­dren by re­sult­ing in ig­no­rant fa­nati­cism and big­otry.

It is in­cum­bent up­on the Trustees of the House of Jus­tice to take coun­sel to­geth­er re­gard­ing those things which have not out­ward­ly been re­vealed in the Book, and to en­force that which is agree­able to them. God will ver­ily in­spire them with what­so­ev­er He wil­leth, and He, ver­ily, is the Provider, the Om­ni­scient.

We have for­mer­ly or­dained that peo­ple should con­verse in two lan­guages, yet ef­forts must be made to re­duce them to one, like­wise the scripts of the world, that men's lives may not be dis­si­pat­ed and wast­ed in learn­ing divers lan­guages. Thus the whole earth would come to be re­gard­ed as one city and one land.

The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath record­ed on the

_ninth leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed Par­adise is this: In all mat­ters mod­er­ation is de­sir­able. If a thing is car­ried to ex­cess, it will prove a source of evil. Con­sid­er the civ­iliza­tion of the West, how it hath ag­itat­ed and alarmed the peo­ples of the world. An in­fer­nal en­gine hath been de­vised, and hath proved so cru­el a weapon of de­struc­tion that its like none hath ev­er wit­nessed or heard. The purg­ing of such deeply-​root­ed and over­whelm­ing cor­rup­tions can­not be ef­fect­ed un­less the peo­ples of the world unite in pur­suit of one com­mon aim and em­brace one uni­ver­sal faith. In­cline your ears un­to the Call of this Wronged One and ad­here firm­ly to the Less­er Peace.

Strange and as­ton­ish­ing things ex­ist in the earth but they are hid­den from the minds and the un­der­stand­ing of men. These things are ca­pa­ble of chang­ing the whole at­mo­sphere of the earth and their con­tam­ina­tion would prove lethal. Great God! We have ob­served an amaz­ing thing. Light­ning or a force sim­ilar to it is con­trolled by an op­er­ator and moveth at his com­mand. Im­mea­sur­ably ex­alt­ed is the Lord of Pow­er Who hath laid bare that which He pur­posed through the po­ten­cy of His weighty and in­vin­ci­ble com­mand.

O peo­ple of Bahá! Each one of the or­di­nances We have re­vealed is a mighty stronghold for the preser­va­tion of the world of be­ing. Ver­ily, this Wronged One de­sireth naught but your se­cu­ri­ty and el­eva­tion.

We ex­hort the men of the House of Jus­tice and com­mand them to en­sure the pro­tec­tion and safe­guard­ing of men, wom­en and chil­dren. It is in­cum­bent up­on them to have the ut­most re­gard for the in­ter­ests of the peo­ple at all times and un­der all con­di­tions. Blessed is the ruler who suc­coureth the cap­tive, and the rich one who careth for the poor, and the just one who se­cureth from the wrong do­er the rights of the down­trod­den, and hap­py the trustee who ob­serveth that which the Or­dain­er, the An­cient of Days hath pre­scribed un­to him.

O Hay­dar-'Alí! Up­on thee be My glo­ry and My praise. My coun­sels and ad­mo­ni­tions have com­passed the world. Yet, in­stead of im­part­ing joy and glad­ness they have caused grief, be­cause some of those who claim to love Me have waxed haughty and have in­flict­ed up­on Me such tribu­la­tions as nei­ther the fol­low­ers of for­mer re­li­gions nor the di­vines of Per­sia did ev­er in­flict.

We have said: 'My im­pris­on­ment doeth Me no harm, nor do the things that have be­fall­en Me at the hands of My en­emies. That which harmeth Me is the con­duct of my loved ones who, though they bear My name, yet com­mit that which maketh My heart and My pen to lament.' Such ut­ter­ances as these have again and again been re­vealed, yet the heed­less have failed to prof­it there­by, since they are cap­tive to their own evil pas­sions and cor­rupt de­sires. Be­seech thou the One true God that He may en­able ev­ery­one to re­pent and re­turn un­to Him. So long as one's na­ture yield­eth un­to evil pas­sions, crime and trans­gres­sion will pre­vail. We cher­ish the hope that the hand of di­vine pow­er and the out­pour­ing of heav­en­ly bless­ings may sus­tain all men, may at­tire them with the ves­ture of for­give­ness and boun­ty and guard them against that which would harm His Cause among His ser­vants. He is, in truth, the Po­tent, the All-​Pow­er­ful, and He is the Ev­er-​For­giv­ing, the Mer­ci­ful.

The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath record­ed on the

_tenth leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed Par­adise is the fol­low­ing: O peo­ple of the earth! Liv­ing in seclu­sion or prac­tis­ing as­ceti­cism is not ac­cept­able in the pres­ence of God. It be­hoveth them that are en­dued with in­sight and un­der­stand­ing to ob­serve that which will cause joy and ra­di­ance. Such prac­tices as are sprung from the loins of idle fan­cy or are be­got­ten of the womb of su­per­sti­tion ill be­seem men of knowl­edge. In for­mer times and more re­cent­ly some peo­ple have been tak­ing up their abodes in the caves of the moun­tains while oth­ers have re­paired to grave­yards at night. Say, give ear un­to the coun­sels of this Wronged One. Aban­don the things cur­rent amongst you and adopt that which the faith­ful Coun­sel­lor bid­deth you. De­prive not your­selves of the boun­ties which have been cre­at­ed for your sake.

Char­ity is pleas­ing and praise­wor­thy in the sight of God and is re­gard­ed as a prince among good­ly deeds. Con­sid­er ye and call to mind that which the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath re­vealed in the Qur'án: 'They pre­fer them be­fore them­selves, though pover­ty be their own lot. And with such as are pre­served from their own cov­etous­ness shall it be well.'(17) Viewed in this light, the blessed ut­ter­ance above is, in truth, the day-​star of ut­ter­ances. Blessed is he who pre­fer­reth his broth­er be­fore him­self. Ver­ily, such a man is reck­oned, by virtue of the Will of God, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise, with the peo­ple of Bahá who dwell in the Crim­son Ark.

The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath record­ed on the

_eleventh leaf_

of the Most Ex­alt­ed Par­adise is this: We en­join up­on them that are the em­blems of His names and at­tributes to firm­ly ad­here hence­forth un­to that which hath been set forth in this Most Great Rev­ela­tion, not to al­low them­selves to be­come the cause of strife, and, un­til the end that knoweth no end, to keep their eyes di­rect­ed to­wards the dayspring of these re­splen­dent words which have been record­ed in this Tablet. Strife leads to blood­shed and pro­vokes com­mo­tion amongst peo­ple. Hear­ken ye un­to the Voice of this Wronged One and de­vi­ate not there­from.

Were any­one to pon­der in his heart that which hath, in this Rev­ela­tion, streamed forth from the Pen of Glo­ry, he would be as­sured that what­ev­er this Wronged One hath af­firmed He hath had no in­ten­tion of es­tab­lish­ing any po­si­tion or dis­tinc­tion for Him­self. The pur­pose hath rather been to at­tract the souls, through the sub­lim­ity of His words, un­to the sum­mit of tran­scen­dent glo­ry and to en­dow them with the ca­pac­ity of per­ceiv­ing that which will purge and pu­ri­fy the peo­ples of the world from the strife and dis­sen­sion which re­li­gious dif­fer­ences pro­voke. Un­to this bear wit­ness My heart, My Pen, My in­ner and My out­er Be­ing. God grant that all men may turn un­to the trea­suries la­tent with­in their own be­ings.

O peo­ple of Bahá! The source of crafts, sci­ences and arts is the pow­er of re­flec­tion. Make ye ev­ery ef­fort that out of this ide­al mine there may gleam forth such pearls of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance as will pro­mote the well-​be­ing and har­mo­ny of all the kin­dreds of the earth.

Un­der all con­di­tions, whether in ad­ver­si­ty or at ease, whether hon­oured or af­flict­ed, this Wronged One hath di­rect­ed all men to show forth love, af­fec­tion, com­pas­sion and har­mo­ny. And yet when­ev­er there was any slight ev­idence of progress and ad­vance­ment, those con­cealed be­hind the veils would sal­ly forth and ut­ter calum­nies more wound­ing than the sword. They cling un­to mis­lead­ing and rep­re­hen­si­ble words and suf­fer them­selves to be de­prived of the ocean of vers­es re­vealed by God.

If these ob­struct­ing veils had not in­ter­vened Per­sia would, in some two years, have been sub­dued through the pow­er of ut­ter­ance, the po­si­tion of both the gov­ern­ment and the peo­ple would have been raised and the Supreme Goal, un­veiled and un­con­cealed, would have ap­peared in the plen­itude of glo­ry. In short, some­times in ex­plic­it lan­guage, at oth­er times by al­lu­sion, We said what­ev­er had to be said. Thus, once Per­sia had been re­ha­bil­itat­ed, the sweet savours of the Word of God would have waft­ed over all coun­tries, inas­much as that which hath streamed forth from the Most Ex­alt­ed Pen is con­ducive to the glo­ry, the ad­vance­ment and ed­uca­tion of all the peo­ples and kin­dreds of the earth. In­deed it is the sovereign rem­edy for ev­ery dis­ease, could they but com­pre­hend and per­ceive it.

Re­cent­ly the Afnáns and Amín--up­on them be My glo­ry and lov­ing-​kind­ness--at­tained Our pres­ence and be­held Our coun­te­nance; like­wise Nabíl, the son of Nabíl and the son of Saman­dar--up­on them rest the glo­ry of God and His lov­ing-​kind­ness--are present and have drunk the cup of re­union. We en­treat God that He may gra­cious­ly or­dain for them the good of this world and of the next and that the out­pour­ing of His bless­ings and grace may de­scend up­on them from the heav­en of His gen­eros­ity and the clouds of His ten­der com­pas­sion. Ver­ily of those who show mer­cy He is the Most Mer­ci­ful, and He is the Gra­cious, the Benef­icent.

O Hay­dar-'Alí! Thine oth­er let­ter which thou hadst for­ward­ed through him who beareth the ti­tle of Júd(18) (Boun­ty) hath reached Our holy court. Praised be God! It was adorned with the light of di­vine uni­ty and of de­tach­ment and was ablaze with the fire of love and af­fec­tion. Pray thou un­to God that He may grant keen­ness to the eyes and il­lu­mine them with a new light, per­chance they may per­ceive that which hath no par­al­lel nor peer.

In this day the vers­es of the Moth­er Book are re­splen­dent and un­mis­tak­able even as the sun. They can in no wise be mis­tak­en for any of the past or more re­cent ut­ter­ances. Tru­ly this Wronged One de­sireth not to demon­strate His Own Cause with proofs pro­duced by oth­ers. He is the One Who em­braceth all things, while all else be­sides Him is cir­cum­scribed. Say, O peo­ple, pe­ruse that which is cur­rent amongst you and We will pe­ruse what per­taineth un­to Us. I swear by God! Nei­ther the praise of the peo­ples of the world, nor the things that the kin­dreds of the earth pos­sess are wor­thy of men­tion be­fore the re­mem­brance of His Name. Un­to this beareth wit­ness He Who un­der all con­di­tions pro­claimeth, 'Ver­ily He is God, the sovereign Ruler of the Day of Reck­on­ing and the Lord of the mighty Throne.'

Glo­ri­fied be God! One won­dereth by what proof or rea­son the dis­be­liev­ers among the peo­ple of the Bayán have turned away from the Lord of be­ing. In truth the sta­tion of this Rev­ela­tion tran­scen­deth the sta­tion of what­ev­er hath been man­ifest­ed in the past or will be made man­ifest in the fu­ture.

Were the Point of the Bayán present in this day and should He, God for­bid, hes­itate to ac­knowl­edge this Cause, then the very blessed words which have streamed forth from the well­spring of His Own Bayán would ap­ply to Him. He saith, and His word is the truth, 'Law­ful is it for Him Whom God will make man­ifest to re­ject him who is the great­est on earth.' Say, O ye that are bereft of un­der­stand­ing! To­day that Most Ex­alt­ed Be­ing is pro­claim­ing: 'Ver­ily, ver­ily, I am the first to adore Him.' How shal­low is the fund of men's knowl­edge and how fee­ble their pow­er of per­cep­tion. Our Pen of Glo­ry beareth wit­ness to their ab­ject pover­ty and to the wealth of God, the Lord of all worlds.

Laud­ed and glo­ri­fied is He Who hath called the cre­ation in­to be­ing. He is the sovereign Truth, the Know­er of things un­seen. The Moth­er Book is re­vealed and the Lord of Boun­ty is es­tab­lished up­on the most blessed seat of glo­ry. The Dawn hath bro­ken, yet the peo­ple un­der­stand not. The signs have been ush­ered in, while He Who hath re­vealed them is over­whelmed with man­ifest sor­row. In­deed I have en­dured that which hath caused the world of ex­is­tence to lament.

Say: O Yahyá (Azal), pro­duce a sin­gle verse, if thou dost pos­sess di­vine­ly-​in­spired knowl­edge. These words were for­mer­ly spo­ken by My Her­ald Who at this hour pro­claimeth: 'Ver­ily, ver­ily, I am the first to adore Him.' Be fair, O My broth­er. Art thou able to ex­press thy­self when brought face to face with the bil­low­ing ocean of Mine ut­ter­ance? Canst thou un­loose thy tongue when con­front­ed with the shrill voice of My Pen? Hast thou any pow­er be­fore the rev­ela­tions of Mine om­nipo­tence? Judge thou fair­ly, I ad­jure thee by God, and call to mind when thou didst stand in the pres­ence of this Wronged One and We dic­tat­ed to thee the vers­es of God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. Be­ware lest the source of false­hood with­hold thee from the man­ifest Truth.

O thou who hast fixed thy gaze up­on My coun­te­nance! Say: O ye heed­less ones! By rea­son of a droplet ye have de­prived your­selves of the ocean of heav­en­ly vers­es and for the sake of an in­signif­icant atom ye have shut your­selves out from the splen­dours of the Day-​Star of Truth. Who else but Bahá hath the pow­er to speak forth be­fore the face of mankind? Judge ye fair­ly and be not of the un­just. Through Him the oceans have surged, the mys­ter­ies have been di­vulged and the trees have lift­ed up their voic­es ex­claim­ing: The king­doms of earth and heav­en are God's, the Re­veal­er of signs, the Foun­tain­head of clear to­kens. Pe­ruse ye the Per­sian Bayán re­vealed by Him Who her­ald­ed this Rev­ela­tion and look at it with the eye of fair­ness. Ver­ily He will guide you aright to His Path. At this mo­ment He pro­claimeth that which His tongue had for­mer­ly ut­tered when He was seat­ed up­on the throne of His most ex­alt­ed Name.

Thou hast made men­tion of the loved ones in those re­gions. Praised be God, each one of them at­tained the hon­our of be­ing re­mem­bered by the True One--ex­alt­ed is His glo­ry--and the names of them, one and all, flowed from the Tongue of Grandeur in the king­dom of ut­ter­ance. Great in­deed is their blessed­ness and hap­pi­ness, inas­much as they have drunk the choice wine of rev­ela­tion and in­spi­ra­tion from the hand of their Lord, the Com­pas­sion­ate, the Mer­ci­ful. We be­seech God to strength­en them to man­ifest in­flex­ible con­stan­cy and to sum­mon to their aid the hosts of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance. He is in truth the Mighty, the Om­nipo­tent. Con­vey my greet­ings to them and give them the joy­ful tid­ings that the Day-​Star of re­mem­brance hath dawned and shed its ra­di­ance from above the hori­zon of the boun­ti­ful favours of their Lord, the Ev­er-​For­giv­ing, the All-​Mer­ci­ful.

Thou hast men­tioned Husayn. We have at­tired his tem­ple with the robe of for­give­ness and adorned his head with the crown of par­don. It be­seemeth him to pride him­self among all men up­on this re­splen­dent, this ra­di­ant and man­ifest boun­ty. Say: Be not de­spon­dent. Af­ter the rev­ela­tion of this blessed verse it is as though thou hast been born anew from thy moth­er's womb. Say: Thou art free from sin and er­ror. Tru­ly God hath purged thee with the liv­ing wa­ters of His ut­ter­ance in His Most Great Prison. We en­treat Him--blessed and ex­alt­ed is He--to gra­cious­ly con­firm thee in ex­tolling Him and in mag­ni­fy­ing His glo­ry and to strength­en thee through the pow­er of His in­vis­ible hosts. Ver­ily, He is the Almighty, the Om­nipo­tent.

Thou hast made men­tion of the peo­ple of Tár.(19) We have set Our face to­ward the ser­vants of God there­in and ad­vise them first to con­sid­er that which the Point of the Bayán hath re­vealed con­cern­ing this Rev­ela­tion where­by all names and ti­tles have been shak­en, the idols of vain imag­in­ings have crum­bled and the Tongue of Grandeur hath, from the realm of glo­ry, pro­claimed: By the righ­teous­ness of God! The Hid­den Trea­sure, the Im­pen­etra­ble Mys­tery, hath been un­cov­ered to men's eyes, caus­ing all things, whether of the past or of the fu­ture, to re­joice. He hath said, and His word is the truth: 'Of all the trib­utes I have paid to Him Who is to come af­ter Me, the great­est is this, My writ­ten con­fes­sion, that no words of Mine can ad­equate­ly de­scribe Him, nor can any ref­er­ence to Him in My Book, the Bayán, do jus­tice to His Cause.'

More­over We coun­sel them to ob­serve jus­tice, eq­ui­ty, hon­esty, piety and that where­by both the Word of God and their own sta­tion will be ex­alt­ed amongst men. Ver­ily I am the One Who ex­hort­eth with jus­tice. Un­to this beareth wit­ness He from Whose Pen rivers of mer­cy have flowed and from Whose ut­ter­ance foun­tains of liv­ing wa­ters have streamed forth un­to all cre­at­ed things. Im­mea­sur­ably ex­alt­ed is this bound­less grace; im­mense­ly blessed is this re­splen­dent favour.

O peo­ple of Tár! Give ear un­to the Call of Him Who doeth what­so­ev­er He wil­leth. In truth He re­mindeth you of that which will draw you nigh un­to God, the Lord of the worlds. He hath turned His face to­wards you from the Prison of Akká and hath re­vealed for your sakes what will im­mor­tal­ize your mem­ory and your names in the Book which can­not be ef­faced and re­maineth un­af­fect­ed by the doubts of the froward. Cast away the things cur­rent amongst men and take fast hold on that where­un­to ye are bid­den by virtue of the Will of the Or­dain­er, the An­cient of Days. This is the Day where­in the di­vine Lote-​Tree cal­leth aloud, say­ing: O peo­ple! Be­hold ye My fruits and My leaves, in­cline then your ears un­to My rustling. Be­ware lest the doubts of men de­bar you from the light of cer­ti­tude. The Ocean of ut­ter­ance ex­claimeth and saith: 'O ye dwellers on the earth! Be­hold My bil­low­ing wa­ters and the pearls of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance which I have poured forth. Fear ye God and be not of the heed­less.'

In this Day a great fes­ti­val is tak­ing place in the Realm above; for what­so­ev­er was promised in the sa­cred Scrip­tures hath been ful­filled. This is the Day of great re­joic­ing. It be­hoveth ev­ery­one to has­ten to­wards the court of His near­ness with ex­ceed­ing joy, glad­ness, ex­ul­ta­tion and de­light and to de­liv­er him­self from the fire of re­mote­ness.

O peo­ple of Tár! Through the strength­en­ing pow­er of My Name seize ye the chal­ice of knowl­edge, drink then your fill in de­fi­ance of the peo­ple of the world who have bro­ken the Covenant of God and His Tes­ta­ment, re­ject­ed His proofs and clear to­kens, and cav­illed at His signs which have per­vad­ed all that are in heav­en and on earth.

The dis­be­liev­ers among the peo­ple of the Bayán are like the fol­low­ers of the Shí'ih sect and walk in their foot­steps. Leave them to their idle fan­cies and vain imag­in­ings. They are in truth ac­count­ed with the lost in the Book of God, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise. The Shí'ih di­vines, one and all, are now en­gaged in re­vil­ing and de­nounc­ing the True One from their pul­pits. Gra­cious God! Dawlat-​Ábádí(20) too hath fol­lowed suit. He as­cend­ed the pul­pit and gave voice to that which hath caused the Tablet to cry out in an­guish and the Pen to wail. Med­itate up­on his con­duct and the con­duct of Ashraf(21)--up­on him be My glo­ry and My ten­der mer­cy--and like­wise con­sid­er those loved ones who has­tened to the place of mar­tyr­dom in My Name, and of­fered up their lives in the path of Him Who is the De­sire of the world.

The Cause is man­ifest, it shineth re­splen­dent as the sun, but the peo­ple have be­come veils un­to them­selves. We en­treat God that He may gra­cious­ly as­sist them to re­turn un­to Him. He is, in truth, the For­giv­ing, the Mer­ci­ful.

O peo­ple of Tár! We send you greet­ings from this Spot and be­seech God--blessed and ex­alt­ed is He--to give you to drink the choice wine of con­stan­cy from the hand of His favour. Ver­ily, He is the Lord of Boun­ty, the Gra­cious, the All-​Praised. Leave ye un­to them­selves the im­ma­ture ones of the world--they that are moved by self­ish de­sire and cling to the ex­po­nents of idle fan­cy. Ver­ily He is your Helper and Suc­cour­er. He is, in truth, po­tent to do what­so­ev­er He wil­leth. No God is there but Him, the One, the Peer­less, the Mighty, the Most Great.

May glo­ry from Our pres­ence rest up­on those who have set their faces to­ward the Dayspring of His Rev­ela­tion and have ac­knowl­edged and rec­og­nized that which the Tongue of ut­ter­ance hath spo­ken in the king­dom of knowl­edge in this blessed, this glo­ri­ous and in­com­pa­ra­ble Day.

LAWH-​I-​DUN­YÁ (TABLET OF THE WORLD)

In My Name, call­ing aloud in the King­dom of Ut­ter­ance

PRAISE and thanks­giv­ing be­seem the Lord of man­ifest do­min­ion Who hath adorned the mighty prison with the pres­ence of their hon­ours 'Alí-​Ak­bar and Amín, and hath il­lu­mined it with the light of cer­ti­tude, con­stan­cy and as­sur­ance.(22) The glo­ry of God and the glo­ry of all that are in the heav­ens and on the earth be up­on them.

Light and glo­ry, greet­ing and praise be up­on the Hands of His Cause, through whom the light of for­ti­tude hath shone forth and the truth hath been es­tab­lished that the au­thor­ity to choose rests with God, the Pow­er­ful, the Mighty, the Un­con­strained, through whom the ocean of boun­ty hath surged and the fra­grance of the gra­cious favours of God, the Lord of mankind, hath been dif­fused. We be­seech Him--ex­alt­ed is He--to shield them through the pow­er of His hosts, to pro­tect them through the po­ten­cy of His do­min­ion and to aid them through His in­domitable strength which pre­vaileth over all cre­at­ed things. Sovereign­ty is God's, the Cre­ator of the heav­ens and the Lord of the King­dom of Names.

The Great An­nounce­ment pro­claimeth: O peo­ple of Per­sia! In for­mer times ye have been the sym­bols of mer­cy and the em­bod­iments of af­fec­tion and kind­li­ness. The re­gions of the world were il­lu­mined and em­bel­lished by the bright­ness of the light of your knowl­edge and by the blaze of your eru­di­tion. How is it that you have arisen to de­stroy your­selves and your friends with your own hands?

O Afnán, O thou that has branched from Mine an­cient Stock! My glo­ry and My lov­ing-​kind­ness rest up­on thee. How vast is the taber­na­cle of the Cause of God! It hath over­shad­owed all the peo­ples and kin­dreds of the earth, and will, ere long, gath­er to­geth­er the whole of mankind be­neath its shel­ter. Thy day of ser­vice is now come. Count­less Tablets bear the tes­ti­mo­ny of the boun­ties vouch­safed un­to thee. Arise for the tri­umph of My Cause, and, through the pow­er of thine ut­ter­ance, sub­due the hearts of men. Thou must show forth that which will en­sure the peace and the well-​be­ing of the mis­er­able and the down­trod­den. Gird up the loins of thine en­deav­our, that per­chance thou mayest re­lease the cap­tive from his chains, and en­able him to at­tain un­to true lib­er­ty.

Jus­tice is, in this day, be­wail­ing its plight, and Eq­ui­ty groaneth be­neath the yoke of op­pres­sion. The thick clouds of tyran­ny have dark­ened the face of the earth, and en­veloped its peo­ples. Through the move­ment of Our Pen of glo­ry We have, at the bid­ding of the om­nipo­tent Or­dain­er, breathed a new life in­to ev­ery hu­man frame, and in­stilled in­to ev­ery word a fresh po­ten­cy. All cre­at­ed things pro­claim the ev­idences of this world-​wide re­gen­er­ation. This is the most great, the most joy­ful tid­ings im­part­ed by the Pen of this Wronged One to mankind. Where­fore fear ye, O My well-​beloved ones? Who is it that can dis­may you? A touch of mois­ture suf­ficeth to dis­solve the hard­ened clay out of which this per­verse gen­er­ation is mould­ed. The mere act of your gath­er­ing to­geth­er is enough to scat­ter the forces of these vain and worth­less peo­ple.

Strife and con­flict be­fit the beasts of the wild. It was through the grace of God and with the aid of seem­ly words and praise­wor­thy deeds that the un­sheathed swords of the Bábí com­mu­ni­ty were re­turned to their scab­bards. In­deed through the pow­er of good words, the righ­teous have al­ways suc­ceed­ed in win­ning com­mand over the meads of the hearts of men. Say, O ye loved ones! Do not for­sake pru­dence. In­cline your hearts to the coun­sels giv­en by the Most Ex­alt­ed Pen and be­ware lest your hands or tongues cause harm un­to any­one among mankind.

Re­fer­ring to the land of Tá (Tihrán) We have re­vealed in the Kitáb-​i-​Aq­das that which will ad­mon­ish mankind. They that per­pe­trate tyran­ny in the world have usurped the rights of the peo­ples and kin­dreds of the earth and are sed­ulous­ly pur­su­ing their self­ish in­cli­na­tions. The tyrant(23) of the land of Yá (Yazd), com­mit­ted that which hath caused the Con­course on High to shed tears of blood.

O thou who hast quaffed from the wine of Mine ut­ter­ance and hast fixed thy gaze up­on the hori­zon of My Rev­ela­tion! How strange that the peo­ple of Per­sia, who were un­ri­valled in sci­ences and arts, should have sunk to the low­est lev­el of degra­da­tion among the kin­dreds of the earth. O peo­ple! In this blessed, this glo­ri­ous Day, de­prive not your­selves of the lib­er­al ef­fu­sions of boun­ty which the Lord of abound­ing grace hath vouch­safed un­to you. In this Day show­ers of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance are pour­ing down from the clouds of di­vine mer­cy. Well is it with them who judge His Cause with fair­ness, and woe be­tide the un­just.

Ev­ery man of in­sight will, in this day, read­ily ad­mit that the coun­sels which the Pen of this Wronged One hath re­vealed con­sti­tute the supreme an­imat­ing pow­er for the ad­vance­ment of the world and the ex­al­ta­tion of its peo­ples. Arise, O peo­ple, and, by the pow­er of God's might, re­solve to gain the vic­to­ry over your own selves, that hap­ly the whole earth may be freed and sanc­ti­fied from its servi­tude to the gods of its idle fan­cies--gods that have in­flict­ed such loss up­on, and are re­spon­si­ble for the mis­ery of their wretched wor­ship­pers. These idols form the ob­sta­cle that im­pedeth man in his ef­forts to ad­vance in the path of per­fec­tion. We cher­ish the hope that the Hand of di­vine pow­er may lend its as­sis­tance to mankind and de­liv­er it from its state of grievous abase­ment.

In one of the Tablets these words have been re­vealed: O peo­ple of God! Do not busy your­selves in your own con­cerns; let your thoughts be fixed up­on that which will re­ha­bil­itate the for­tunes of mankind and sanc­ti­fy the hearts and souls of men. This can best be achieved through pure and holy deeds, through a vir­tu­ous life and a good­ly be­haviour. Valiant acts will en­sure the tri­umph of this Cause, and a saint­ly char­ac­ter will re­in­force its pow­er. Cleave un­to righ­teous­ness, O peo­ple of Bahá! This, ver­ily, is the com­mand­ment which this Wronged One hath giv­en un­to you, and the first choice of His un­re­strained Will for ev­ery one of you.

O friends! It be­hoveth you to re­fresh and re­vive your souls through the gra­cious favours which in this Di­vine, this soul-​stir­ring Spring­time are be­ing show­ered up­on you. The Day-​Star of His great glo­ry hath shed its ra­di­ance up­on you, and the clouds of His lim­it­less grace have over­shad­owed you. How high the re­ward of him that hath not de­prived him­self of so great a boun­ty, nor failed to rec­og­nize the beau­ty of his Best-​Beloved in this, His new at­tire. Watch over your­selves, for the Evil One is ly­ing in wait, ready to en­trap you. Gird your­selves against his wicked de­vices, and, led by the light of the name of the All-​See­ing God, make your es­cape from the dark­ness that sur­roundeth you. Let your vi­sion be world-​em­brac­ing, rather than con­fined to your own self. The Evil One is he that hin­dereth the rise and ob­structeth the spir­itu­al progress of the chil­dren of men.

It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery man, in this Day, to hold fast un­to what­so­ev­er will pro­mote the in­ter­ests, and ex­alt the sta­tion, of all na­tions and just gov­ern­ments. Through each and ev­ery one of the vers­es which the Pen of the Most High hath re­vealed, the doors of love and uni­ty have been un­locked and flung open to the face of men. We have erewhile de­clared--and Our Word is the truth--: 'Con­sort with the fol­low­ers of all re­li­gions in a spir­it of friend­li­ness and fel­low­ship.' What­so­ev­er hath led the chil­dren of men to shun one an­oth­er, and hath caused dis­sen­sions and di­vi­sions amongst them, hath, through the rev­ela­tion of these words, been nul­li­fied and abol­ished. From the heav­en of God's Will, and for the pur­pose of en­nobling the world of be­ing and of el­evat­ing the minds and souls of men, hath been sent down that which is the most ef­fec­tive in­stru­ment for the ed­uca­tion of the whole hu­man race. The high­est essence and most per­fect ex­pres­sion of what­so­ev­er the peo­ples of old have ei­ther said or writ­ten hath, through this most po­tent Rev­ela­tion, been sent down from the heav­en of the Will of the All-​Pos­sess­ing, the Ev­er-​Abid­ing God. Of old it hath been re­vealed: 'Love of one's coun­try is an el­ement of the Faith of God.' The Tongue of Grandeur hath, how­ev­er, in the day of His man­ifes­ta­tion pro­claimed: 'It is not his to boast who loveth his coun­try, but it is his who loveth the world.' Through the pow­er re­leased by these ex­alt­ed words He hath lent a fresh im­pulse and set a new di­rec­tion to the birds of men's hearts, and hath oblit­er­at­ed ev­ery trace of re­stric­tion and lim­ita­tion from God's holy Book.

This Wronged One hath for­bid­den the peo­ple of God to en­gage in con­tention or con­flict and hath ex­hort­ed them to righ­teous deeds and praise­wor­thy char­ac­ter. In this day the hosts that can en­sure the vic­to­ry of the Cause are those of good­ly con­duct and saint­ly char­ac­ter. Blessed are they who firm­ly ad­here un­to them and woe be­tide such as turn away there­from.

O peo­ple of God! I ad­mon­ish you to ob­serve cour­tesy, for above all else it is the prince of virtues. Well is it with him who is il­lu­mined with the light of cour­tesy and is at­tired with the ves­ture of up­right­ness. Whoso is en­dued with cour­tesy hath in­deed at­tained a sub­lime sta­tion. It is hoped that this Wronged One and ev­ery­one else may be en­abled to ac­quire it, hold fast un­to it, ob­serve it, and fix our gaze up­on it. This is a bind­ing com­mand which hath streamed forth from the Pen of the Most Great Name.

This is the day when the gems of con­stan­cy that lie hid in the mine of men's in­ner selves should be made man­ifest. O peo­ple of Jus­tice! Be as bril­liant as the light and as splen­did as the fire that blazed in the Burn­ing Bush. The bright­ness of the fire of your love will no doubt fuse and uni­fy the con­tend­ing peo­ples and kin­dreds of the earth, whilst the fierce­ness of the flame of en­mi­ty and ha­tred can­not but re­sult in strife and ru­in. We be­seech God that He may shield His crea­tures from the evil de­signs of His en­emies. He ver­ily hath pow­er over all things.

All praise be to the one true God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--inas­much as He hath, through the Pen of the Most High, un­locked the doors of men's hearts. Ev­ery verse which this Pen hath re­vealed is a bright and shin­ing por­tal that dis­clos­eth the glo­ries of a saint­ly and pi­ous life, of pure and stain­less deeds. The sum­mons and the mes­sage which We gave were nev­er in­tend­ed to reach or to ben­efit one land or one peo­ple on­ly. Mankind in its en­tire­ty must firm­ly ad­here to what­so­ev­er hath been re­vealed and vouch­safed un­to it. Then and on­ly then will it at­tain un­to true lib­er­ty. The whole earth is il­lu­mi­nat­ed with the re­splen­dent glo­ry of God's Rev­ela­tion. In the year six­ty He Who her­ald­ed the light of Di­vine Guid­ance--may all cre­ation be a sac­ri­fice un­to Him--arose to an­nounce a fresh rev­ela­tion of the Di­vine Spir­it, and was fol­lowed, twen­ty years lat­er, by Him through Whose com­ing the world was made the re­cip­ient of this promised glo­ry, this won­drous favour. Be­hold how the gen­er­al­ity of mankind hath been en­dued with the ca­pac­ity to hear­ken un­to God's most ex­alt­ed Word--the Word up­on which must de­pend the gath­er­ing to­geth­er and spir­itu­al res­ur­rec­tion of all men.

Whilst in the Prison of Akká, We re­vealed in the Crim­son Book that which is con­ducive to the ad­vance­ment of mankind and to the re­con­struc­tion of the world. The ut­ter­ances set forth there­in by the Pen of the Lord of cre­ation in­clude the fol­low­ing which con­sti­tute the fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ples for the ad­min­is­tra­tion of the af­fairs of men:

First: It is in­cum­bent up­on the min­is­ters of the House of Jus­tice to pro­mote the Less­er Peace so that the peo­ple of the earth may be re­lieved from the bur­den of ex­or­bi­tant ex­pen­di­tures. This mat­ter is im­per­ative and ab­so­lute­ly es­sen­tial, inas­much as hos­til­ities and con­flict lie at the root of af­flic­tion and calami­ty.

Sec­ond: Lan­guages must be re­duced to one com­mon lan­guage to be taught in all the schools of the world.

Third: It be­hoveth man to ad­here tena­cious­ly un­to that which will pro­mote fel­low­ship, kind­li­ness and uni­ty.

Fourth: Ev­ery­one, whether man or wom­an, should hand over to a trust­ed per­son a por­tion of what he or she ear­neth through trade, agri­cul­ture or oth­er oc­cu­pa­tion, for the train­ing and ed­uca­tion of chil­dren, to be spent for this pur­pose with the knowl­edge of the Trustees of the House of Jus­tice.

Fifth: Spe­cial re­gard must be paid to agri­cul­ture. Al­though it hath been men­tioned in the fifth place, un­ques­tion­ably it pre­cedeth the oth­ers. Agri­cul­ture is high­ly de­vel­oped in for­eign lands, how­ev­er in Per­sia it hath so far been grievous­ly ne­glect­ed. It is hoped that His Majesty the Sháh--may God as­sist him by His grace--will turn his at­ten­tion to this vi­tal and im­por­tant mat­ter.

Were men to strict­ly ob­serve that which the Pen of the Most High hath re­vealed in the Crim­son Book, they could then well af­ford to dis­pense with the reg­ula­tions which pre­vail in the world. Cer­tain ex­hor­ta­tions have re­peat­ed­ly streamed forth from the Pen of the Most High that per­chance the man­ifes­ta­tions of pow­er and the dawn­ing-​places of might may, some­time, be en­abled to en­force them. In­deed, were sin­cere seek­ers to be found, ev­ery em­ana­tion of God's per­va­sive and ir­re­sistible Will would, for the sake of His love, be re­vealed. But where are to be found earnest seek­ers and in­quir­ing minds? Whith­er are gone the eq­ui­table and the fair-​mind­ed? At present no day pas­seth with­out the fire of a fresh tyran­ny blaz­ing fierce­ly, or the sword of a new ag­gres­sion be­ing un­sheathed. Gra­cious God! The great and the no­ble in Per­sia glo­ry in acts of such sav­agery that one is lost in amaze­ment at the tales there­of.

Day and night this Wronged One yield­eth thanks and praise un­to the Lord of men, for it is wit­nessed that the words of coun­sel and ex­hor­ta­tion We ut­tered have proved ef­fec­tive and that this peo­ple hath evinced such char­ac­ter and con­duct as are ac­cept­able in Our sight. This is af­firmed by virtue of the event which hath tru­ly cheered the eye of the world, and is none oth­er than the in­ter­ces­sion of the friends with the high au­thor­ities in favour of their en­emies. In­deed one's righ­teous deeds tes­ti­fy to the truth of one's words. We cher­ish the hope that men of piety may il­lu­mine the world through the ra­di­ant light of their con­duct, and We en­treat the Almighty--glo­ri­fied and ex­alt­ed is He--to grant that ev­ery­one may in this Day re­main stead­fast in His love and stand firm in His Cause. He is, in truth, the Pro­tec­tor of those who are whol­ly de­vot­ed to Him and ob­serve His pre­cepts.

O peo­ple of God! Count­less are the realms which Our Pen of Glo­ry hath re­vealed and man­ifold the eyes to which it hath im­part­ed true en­light­en­ment. Yet most of the peo­ple in Per­sia con­tin­ue to be de­prived of the ben­efits of prof­itable coun­sels and re­main sore­ly lack­ing in use­ful sci­ences and arts. For­mer­ly these sub­lime words were es­pe­cial­ly re­vealed by the Pen of Glo­ry in hon­our of one of the faith­ful, that per­chance those that have gone astray may em­brace the Truth and be­come ac­quaint­ed with the sub­tleties of the Law of God.

The un­be­liev­ers and the faith­less have set their minds on four things: first, the shed­ding of blood; sec­ond, the burn­ing of books; third, the shun­ning of the fol­low­ers of oth­er re­li­gions; fourth, the ex­ter­mi­na­tion of oth­er com­mu­ni­ties and groups. Now how­ev­er, through the strength­en­ing grace and po­ten­cy of the Word of God these four bar­ri­ers have been de­mol­ished, these clear in­junc­tions have been oblit­er­at­ed from the Tablet and bru­tal dis­po­si­tions have been trans­mut­ed in­to spir­itu­al at­tributes. Ex­alt­ed is His pur­pose; glo­ri­fied is His pow­er; mag­ni­fied is His do­min­ion! Now let us be­seech God--praised be His glo­ry--to gra­cious­ly guide aright the fol­low­ers of the Shí'ih sect and to purge them of un­seem­ly con­duct. From the lips of the mem­bers of this sect foul im­pre­ca­tions fall un­ceas­ing­ly, while they in­voke the word 'Mal'ún' (ac­cursed)--ut­tered with a gut­tural sound of the let­ter 'ayn--as their dai­ly rel­ish.

O God my God! Thou hear­est the sigh­ing of Him Who is Thy Light (Bahá), hear­ken­est un­to His lamen­ta­tions in the day­time and in the night sea­son and know­est that He de­sireth naught for Him­self but rather seeketh to sanc­ti­fy the souls of Thy ser­vants and to de­liv­er them from the fire with which they are be­set at all times. O Lord! The hands of Thy well-​favoured ser­vants are raised to­wards the heav­en of Thy boun­ty and those of Thy sin­cere lovers are lift­ed up to the sub­lime heights of Thy gen­eros­ity. Dis­ap­point them not, I en­treat Thee, in that which they seek from the ocean of Thy favour and from the heav­en of Thy grace and the day-​star of Thy boun­ty. Aid them, O Lord, to ac­quire such virtues as will ex­alt their sta­tions among the peo­ples of the world. Ver­ily Thou art the Pow­er­ful, the Mighty, the Most Gen­er­ous.

O peo­ple of God! Give ear un­to that which, if heed­ed, will en­sure the free­dom, well-​be­ing, tran­quil­li­ty, ex­al­ta­tion and ad­vance­ment of all men. Cer­tain laws and prin­ci­ples are nec­es­sary and in­dis­pens­able for Per­sia. How­ev­er, it is fit­ting that these mea­sures should be adopt­ed in con­for­mi­ty with the con­sid­ered views of His Majesty--may God aid him through His grace--and of the learned di­vines and of the high-​rank­ing rulers. Sub­ject to their ap­proval a place should be fixed where they would meet. There they should hold fast to the cord of con­sul­ta­tion and adopt and en­force that which is con­ducive to the se­cu­ri­ty, pros­per­ity, wealth and tran­quil­li­ty of the peo­ple. For were any mea­sure oth­er than this to be adopt­ed, it could not but re­sult in chaos and com­mo­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to the fun­da­men­tal laws which We have for­mer­ly re­vealed in the Kitáb-​i-​Aq­das and oth­er Tablets, all af­fairs are com­mit­ted to the care of just kings and pres­idents and of the Trustees of the House of Jus­tice. Hav­ing pon­dered on that which We have enun­ci­at­ed, ev­ery man of eq­ui­ty and dis­cern­ment will read­ily per­ceive, with his in­ner and out­er eyes, the splen­dours of the day-​star of jus­tice which ra­di­ate there­from.

The sys­tem of gov­ern­ment which the British peo­ple have adopt­ed in Lon­don ap­peareth to be good, for it is adorned with the light of both king­ship and of the con­sul­ta­tion of the peo­ple.

In for­mu­lat­ing the prin­ci­ples and laws a part hath been de­vot­ed to penal­ties which form an ef­fec­tive in­stru­ment for the se­cu­ri­ty and pro­tec­tion of men. How­ev­er, dread of the penal­ties maketh peo­ple de­sist on­ly out­ward­ly from com­mit­ting vile and con­temptible deeds, while that which guardeth and re­straineth man both out­ward­ly and in­ward­ly hath been and still is the fear of God. It is man's true pro­tec­tor and his spir­itu­al guardian. It be­hoveth him to cleave tena­cious­ly un­to that which will lead to the ap­pear­ance of this supreme boun­ty. Well is it with him who giveth ear un­to what­so­ev­er My Pen of Glo­ry hath pro­claimed and ob­serveth that where­un­to he is bid­den by the Or­dain­er, the An­cient of Days.

In­cline your hearts, O peo­ple of God, un­to the coun­sels of your true, your in­com­pa­ra­ble Friend. The Word of God may be likened un­to a sapling, whose roots have been im­plant­ed in the hearts of men. It is in­cum­bent up­on you to fos­ter its growth through the liv­ing wa­ters of wis­dom, of sanc­ti­fied and holy words, so that its root may be­come firm­ly fixed and its branch­es may spread out as high as the heav­ens and be­yond.

O ye that dwell on earth! The dis­tin­guish­ing fea­ture that mar­keth the pre-​em­inent char­ac­ter of this Supreme Rev­ela­tion con­sis­teth in that We have, on the one hand, blot­ted out from the pages of God's holy Book what­so­ev­er hath been the cause of strife, of mal­ice and mis­chief amongst the chil­dren of men, and have, on the oth­er, laid down the es­sen­tial pre­req­ui­sites of con­cord, of un­der­stand­ing, of com­plete and en­dur­ing uni­ty. Well is it with them that keep My statutes.

Time and again have We ad­mon­ished Our beloved ones to avoid, nay to flee from, any­thing what­so­ev­er from which the odour of mis­chief can be de­tect­ed. The world is in great tur­moil, and the minds of its peo­ple are in a state of ut­ter con­fu­sion. We en­treat the Almighty that He may gra­cious­ly il­lu­mi­nate them with the glo­ry of His Jus­tice, and en­able them to dis­cov­er that which will be prof­itable un­to them at all times and un­der all con­di­tions. He, ver­ily is the All-​Pos­sess­ing, the Most High.

We have ere this ut­tered these sub­lime words: Let them that bear al­le­giance to this Wronged One be even as a rain­ing cloud in mo­ments of char­ity and benev­olence and as a blaz­ing fire in re­strain­ing their base and ap­pet­itive na­tures.

Gra­cious God! A thing hath re­cent­ly hap­pened which caused great as­ton­ish­ment. It is re­port­ed that a cer­tain per­son(24) went to the seat of the im­pe­ri­al throne in Per­sia and suc­ceed­ed in win­ning the good graces of some of the no­bil­ity by his in­gra­ti­at­ing be­haviour. How piti­ful in­deed, how de­plorable! One won­dereth why those who have been the sym­bols of high­est glo­ry should now stoop to bound­less shame. What is be­come of their high re­solve? Whith­er is gone the sense of dig­ni­ty and hon­our? The sun of glo­ry and wis­dom hath un­ceas­ing­ly been shin­ing above the hori­zon of Per­sia, but nowa­days it hath sunk to such a low lev­el that cer­tain dig­ni­taries have al­lowed them­selves to be treat­ed as play­things in the hands of the fool­ish. The afore­said per­son hath writ­ten such things con­cern­ing this peo­ple in the Egyp­tian press and in the Beirut En­cy­clo­pe­dia that the well-​in­formed and the learned were as­ton­ished. He pro­ceed­ed then to Paris where he pub­lished a news­pa­per en­ti­tled Ur­vatu'l-​Vuthqá [The Sure Han­dle] and sent copies there­of to all parts of the world. He al­so sent a copy to the Prison of Akká, and by so do­ing he meant to show af­fec­tion and to make amends for his past ac­tions. In short, this Wronged One hath ob­served si­lence in re­gard to him. We en­treat God, the True One, to pro­tect him and to shed up­on him the light of jus­tice and fair­ness. It be­hoveth him to say:

O God my God! Thou seest me stand­ing be­fore the door of Thy for­give­ness and benev­olence, turn­ing my gaze to­ward the hori­zon of Thy boun­ti­ful favours and man­ifold bless­ings. I beg of Thee by Thy sweet ac­cents and by the shrill voice of Thy Pen, O Lord of all mankind, to gra­cious­ly aid Thy ser­vants as it be­fit­teth Thy days and be­seemeth the glo­ry of Thy man­ifes­ta­tion and Thy majesty. Ver­ily po­tent art Thou to do what­so­ev­er Thou willest. All they that dwell in the heav­ens and on the earth bear wit­ness to Thy pow­er and Thy might, to Thy glo­ry and Thy boun­teous­ness. Praise be to Thee, O Lord of the worlds and the Well-​Beloved of the heart of ev­ery man of un­der­stand­ing!

Thou be­hold­est, O my God, the essence of pover­ty seek­ing the ocean of Thy wealth and the sub­stance of in­iq­ui­ty yearn­ing for the wa­ters of Thy for­give­ness and Thy ten­der mer­cy. Grant Thou, O my God, that which be­seemeth Thy great glo­ry and be­fit­teth the lofti­ness of Thy bound­less grace. Thou art in truth the All-​Boun­ti­ful, the Lord of grace abound­ing, the Or­dain­er, the All-​Wise. No God is there but Thee, the Most Pow­er­ful, the All-​Com­pelling, the Om­nipo­tent.

O peo­ple of God! In this day ev­ery­one should fix his eyes up­on the hori­zon of these blessed words: 'Alone and un­aid­ed He doeth what­so­ev­er He pleaseth.' Whoso at­taineth this sta­tion hath ver­ily at­tained the light of the es­sen­tial uni­ty of God and is en­light­ened there­by, while all oth­ers are reck­oned in the Book of God among the fol­low­ers of idle fan­cy and vain imag­ina­tion. In­cline your ears to the Voice of this Wronged One and safe­guard the in­tegri­ty of your sta­tions. It is high­ly nec­es­sary and im­per­ative that ev­ery­one should ob­serve this mat­ter.

Un­veiled and un­con­cealed, this Wronged One hath, at all times, pro­claimed be­fore the face of all the peo­ples of the world that which will serve as the key for un­lock­ing the doors of sci­ences, of arts, of knowl­edge, of well-​be­ing, of pros­per­ity and wealth. Nei­ther have the wrongs in­flict­ed by the op­pres­sors suc­ceed­ed in si­lenc­ing the shrill voice of the Most Ex­alt­ed Pen, nor have the doubts of the per­verse or of the sedi­tious been able to hin­der Him from re­veal­ing the Most Sub­lime Word. I earnest­ly be­seech God that He may pro­tect and purge the peo­ple of Bahá from the idle fan­cies and cor­rupt imag­in­ings of the fol­low­ers of the for­mer Faith.

O peo­ple of God! Righ­teous men of learn­ing who ded­icate them­selves to the guid­ance of oth­ers and are freed and well guard­ed from the prompt­ings of a base and cov­etous na­ture are, in the sight of Him Who is the De­sire of the world, stars of the heav­en of true knowl­edge. It is es­sen­tial to treat them with def­er­ence. They are in­deed foun­tains of soft-​flow­ing wa­ter, stars that shine re­splen­dent, fruits of the blessed Tree, ex­po­nents of ce­les­tial pow­er, and oceans of heav­en­ly wis­dom. Hap­py is he that fol­loweth them. Ver­ily such a soul is num­bered in the Book of God, the Lord of the mighty Throne, among those with whom it shall be well.

The glo­ry which pro­ceedeth from God, the Lord of the Throne on High and of the earth be­low, rest up­on you, O peo­ple of Bahá, O ye the com­pan­ions of the Crim­son Ark, and up­on such as have in­clined their ears to your sweet voic­es and have ob­served that where­un­to they are bid­den in this mighty and won­drous Tablet.

ISHRÁQÁT (SPLEN­DOURS)

This is the Epis­tle of God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing

He is God, ex­alt­ed is He, the Lord of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance.

PRAISE be un­to God, in­com­pa­ra­ble in majesty, pow­er and beau­ty, peer­less in glo­ry, might and grandeur; too high is He for hu­man imag­ina­tions to com­pre­hend Him or for any peer or equal to be as­cribed un­to Him. He hath clear­ly set forth His straight Path in words and ut­ter­ances of high­est elo­quence. Ver­ily He is the All-​Pos­sess­ing, the Most Ex­alt­ed. When He pur­posed to call the new cre­ation in­to be­ing, He sent forth the Man­ifest and Lu­mi­nous Point from the hori­zon of His Will; it passed through ev­ery sign and man­ifest­ed it­self in ev­ery form un­til it reached the zenith, as bid­den by God, the Lord of all men.

This Point is the fo­cal cen­tre of the cir­cle of Names and mar­keth the cul­mi­na­tion of the man­ifes­ta­tions of Let­ters in the world of cre­ation. Through it have ap­peared in­di­ca­tions of the im­pen­etra­ble Mys­tery, the adorned Sym­bol, He Who standeth re­vealed in the Most Great Name--a Name which is record­ed in the lu­mi­nous Tablet and is in­scribed in the holy, the blessed, the snow-​white Scroll. And when the Point was joined to the sec­ond Let­ter(25) which ap­peareth in the be­gin­ning of the Math­ání,(26) it tra­versed the heav­ens of ex­po­si­tion and ut­ter­ance. Then the eter­nal Light of God shed its ra­di­ance, flared up in the mid­most heart of the fir­ma­ment of tes­ti­mo­ny and pro­duced two Lu­mi­nar­ies. Glo­ri­fied be the Mer­ci­ful One, un­to Whom no al­lu­sion can be made, Whom no ex­pres­sion can de­fine, nor any as­ser­tion re­veal, nor any ev­idence de­scribe. He is in truth the Or­dain­er, the All-​Boun­ti­ful, both in the be­gin­ning and in the end. And He pro­vid­ed for them pro­tec­tors and de­fend­ers from among the hosts of pow­er and might. Ver­ily, He is the Help in Per­il, the Mighty, the Un­con­strained.

The pream­ble of this Epis­tle is be­ing re­vealed twice, even as was the Math­ání(27)

Praise be un­to God Who hath man­ifest­ed the Point, hath un­fold­ed there­from the knowl­edge of all things, whether of the past or of the fu­ture--a Point He hath cho­sen to be the Her­ald of His Name and the Harbinger of His Great Rev­ela­tion which hath caused the limbs of all mankind to quake and the splen­dour of His light to shine forth above the hori­zon of the world. Ver­ily, this is the Point which God hath or­dained to be an ocean of light for the sin­cere among His ser­vants and a flame of fire to the froward amidst His crea­tures and the im­pi­ous among His peo­ple--they who bartered away the gift of God for un­be­lief, and the ce­les­tial food for hypocrisy, and led their as­so­ciates to a wretched abode. These are the peo­ple who have man­ifest­ed sedi­tion through­out the world and have vi­olat­ed His Covenant on the Day when the im­mor­tal Be­ing mount­ed His throne and the Crier raised His Voice from the haven of se­cu­ri­ty and peace in the holy Vale.

O fol­low­ers of the Bayán! Fear ye the All-​Mer­ci­ful. This is the One Who hath been glo­ri­fied by Muham­mad, the Apos­tle of God, and be­fore Him by the Spir­it(28) and yet be­fore Him by the One Who dis­coursed with God.(29) This is the Point of the Bayán call­ing aloud be­fore the Throne, say­ing: 'By the righ­teous­ness of God, ye have been cre­at­ed to glo­ri­fy this Most Great An­nounce­ment, this Per­fect Way which lay hid with­in the souls of the Prophets, which was trea­sured in the hearts of the cho­sen ones of God and was writ­ten down by the glo­ri­ous Pen of your Lord, the Pos­ses­sor of Names.'

Say: Die in your wrath, O ma­li­cious ones! Ver­ily He Whose knowl­edge noth­ing es­capeth hath ap­peared. He Who hath caused the coun­te­nance of di­vine knowl­edge to be wreathed in smiles is come. Through Him the king­dom of ut­ter­ance is em­bel­lished, ev­ery re­cep­tive soul hath set his face to­wards the Lord of Rev­ela­tions, ev­ery­one rest­ing on his knees hath stood up, and ev­ery in­do­lent one hath rushed forth to at­tain the Sinai of as­sur­ance. This is the Day that God hath or­dained to be a bless­ing un­to the righ­teous, a ret­ri­bu­tion for the wicked, a boun­ty for the faith­ful and a fury of His wrath for the faith­less and the froward. Ver­ily He hath been made man­ifest, in­vest­ed by God with in­vin­ci­ble sovereign­ty. He hath re­vealed that where­with naught on the earth or in the heav­ens can com­pare.

Fear ye the All-​Mer­ci­ful, O peo­ple of the Bayán, and com­mit not that which the fol­low­ers of the Qur'án have com­mit­ted--they who in the day­time and in the night sea­son pro­fessed be­lief in the Faith of God, yet when the Lord of all men did ap­pear, turned aside from Him and pro­nounced so cru­el a sen­tence against Him that, on the Day of Re­turn, the Moth­er Book sore­ly be­wailed His plight. Call ye to mind and pon­der up­on their deeds and words, their sta­tions and mer­its and the things they brought to pass when He Who con­versed on Sinai un­loosed His tongue, when there was a blast on the Trum­pet, where­upon all that are in heav­en and on earth swooned away ex­cept such as are reck­oned among the let­ters of af­fir­ma­tion.

O peo­ple of the Bayán! Aban­don your idle fan­cies and vain imag­in­ings, then with the eye of fair­ness look at the Dayspring of His Rev­ela­tion and con­sid­er the things He hath man­ifest­ed, the words He hath di­vine­ly re­vealed and the suf­fer­ings that have be­fall­en Him at the hands of His en­emies. He is the One Who hath will­ing­ly ac­cept­ed ev­ery man­ner of tribu­la­tion for the procla­ma­tion of His Cause and the ex­al­ta­tion of His Word. At one time He suf­fered im­pris­on­ment in the land of Tá (Tihrán), at an­oth­er in the land of Mím (Mázin­darán), then once again in the for­mer land, for the sake of the Cause of God, the Mak­er of the heav­ens. In His love for the Cause of God, the Almighty, the All-​Boun­ti­ful, He was sub­ject­ed there to chains and fet­ters.

O peo­ple of the Bayán! Have ye for­got­ten My ex­hor­ta­tions, which My Pen hath re­vealed and My tongue hath ut­tered? Have ye bartered away My cer­ti­tude in ex­change for your idle fan­cies and My Way for your self­ish de­sires? Have ye cast away the pre­cepts of God and His re­mem­brance and have ye for­sak­en His laws and or­di­nances? Fear ye God and aban­don vain imag­in­ings to the beget­ters there­of and leave su­per­sti­tions to the de­vis­ers there­of and mis­giv­ings to the breed­ers there­of. Ad­vance ye then with ra­di­ant faces and stain­less hearts to­wards the hori­zon above which the Day-​Star of cer­ti­tude shineth re­splen­dent at the bid­ding of God, the Lord of Rev­ela­tions.

Praise be un­to God Who hath made the Most Great In­fal­li­bil­ity the shield for the tem­ple of His Cause in the realm of cre­ation, and hath as­signed un­to no one a share of this lofty and sub­lime sta­tion--a sta­tion which is a ves­ture which the fin­gers of tran­scen­dent pow­er have wo­ven for His au­gust Self. It be­fit­teth no one ex­cept Him Who is seat­ed up­on the mighty throne of 'He doeth what He pleaseth'. Whoso ac­cepteth and rec­og­nizeth that which is writ­ten down at this mo­ment by the Pen of Glo­ry is in­deed reck­oned in the Book of God, the Lord of the be­gin­ning and the end, among the ex­po­nents of di­vine uni­ty, they that up­hold the con­cept of the one­ness of God.

When the stream of words reached this stage, the sweet savours of true knowl­edge were shed abroad and the day-​star of di­vine uni­ty shone forth above the hori­zon of His holy ut­ter­ance. Blessed is he whom His Call hath at­tract­ed to the sum­mit of glo­ry, who hath drawn nigh to the ul­ti­mate Pur­pose, and who hath rec­og­nized through the shrill voice of My Pen of Glo­ry that which the Lord of this world and of the next hath willed. Whoso faileth to quaff the choice wine which We have un­sealed through the po­ten­cy of Our Name, the All-​Com­pelling, shall be un­able to dis­cern the splen­dours of the light of di­vine uni­ty or to grasp the es­sen­tial pur­pose un­der­ly­ing the Scrip­tures of God, the Lord of heav­en and earth, the sovereign Ruler of this world and of the world to come. Such a man shall be ac­count­ed among the faith­less in the Book of God, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed.

O thou hon­oured en­quir­er!(30) We bear wit­ness that thou didst firm­ly ad­here un­to seem­ly pa­tience dur­ing the days when the Pen was held back from move­ment and the Tongue hes­itat­ed to set forth an ex­pla­na­tion re­gard­ing the won­drous sign, the Most Great In­fal­li­bil­ity. Thou hast asked this Wronged One to re­move for thee its veils and cov­er­ings, to elu­ci­date its mys­tery and char­ac­ter, its state and po­si­tion, its ex­cel­lence, sub­lim­ity and ex­al­ta­tion. By the life of God! Were We to un­veil the pearls of tes­ti­mo­ny which lie hid with­in the shells of the ocean of knowl­edge and as­sur­ance or to let the beau­ties of di­vine mys­tery which are hid­den with­in the cham­bers of ut­ter­ance in the Par­adise of true un­der­stand­ing, step out of their habi­ta­tion, then from ev­ery di­rec­tion vi­olent com­mo­tion would arise among the lead­ers of re­li­gion and thou wouldst wit­ness the peo­ple of God held fast in the teeth of such wolves as have de­nied God both in the be­gin­ning and in the end. There­fore We re­strained the Pen for a con­sid­er­able lapse of time in ac­cor­dance with di­vine wis­dom and for the sake of pro­tect­ing the faith­ful from those who have bartered away heav­en­ly bless­ings for dis­be­lief and have cho­sen for their peo­ple the abode of perdi­tion.(31)

O thou seek­er who art gift­ed with keen in­sight. I swear by Him Who at­tract­ed the Con­course on High through the po­ten­cy of His most sub­lime Word! Ver­ily, the birds abid­ing with­in the do­mains of My King­dom and the doves dwelling in the rose-​gar­den of My wis­dom ut­ter such melodies and war­blings as are in­scrutable to all but God, the Lord of the king­doms of earth and heav­en; and were these melodies to be re­vealed even to an ex­tent small­er than a nee­dle's eye, the peo­ple of tyran­ny would ut­ter such calum­nies as none among for­mer gen­er­ations hath ev­er ut­tered, and would com­mit such deeds as no one in past ages and cen­turies hath ev­er com­mit­ted. They have re­ject­ed the boun­ty of God and His proofs and have re­pu­di­at­ed the tes­ti­mo­ny of God and His signs. They have gone astray and have caused the peo­ple to go astray, yet per­ceive it not. They wor­ship vain imag­in­ings but know it not. They have tak­en idle fan­cies for their lords and have ne­glect­ed God, yet un­der­stand not. They have aban­doned the most great Ocean and are has­ten­ing to­wards the pool, but com­pre­hend not. They fol­low their own idle fan­cies while turn­ing aside from God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing.

Say, by the righ­teous­ness of God! The All-​Mer­ci­ful is come in­vest­ed with pow­er and sovereign­ty. Through His pow­er the foun­da­tions of re­li­gions have quaked and the Nightin­gale of Ut­ter­ance hath war­bled its melody up­on the high­est branch of true un­der­stand­ing. Ver­ily, He Who was hid­den in the knowl­edge of God and is men­tioned in the Holy Scrip­tures hath ap­peared. Say, this is the Day when the Speak­er on Sinai hath mount­ed the throne of Rev­ela­tion and the peo­ple have stood be­fore the Lord of the worlds. This is the Day where­in the earth hath told out her tid­ings and hath laid bare her trea­sures; when the oceans have brought forth their pearls and the di­vine Lote-​Tree its fruit; when the Sun hath shed its ra­di­ance and the Moons have dif­fused their lights, and the Heav­ens have re­vealed their stars, and the Hour its signs, and the Res­ur­rec­tion its dread­ful majesty; when the pens have un­loosed their out­pour­ings and the spir­its have laid bare their mys­ter­ies. Blessed is the man who rec­og­nizeth Him and at­taineth His pres­ence, and woe be­tide such as de­ny Him and turn aside from Him. I be­seech God to aid His ser­vants to re­turn un­to Him. Ver­ily He is the Par­don­er, the For­giv­ing, the Mer­ci­ful.

O thou who hast set thy face to­wards the Realm on High and hast quaffed My sealed wine from the hand of boun­teous­ness! Know thou that the term 'In­fal­li­bil­ity' hath nu­mer­ous mean­ings and divers sta­tions. In one sense it is ap­pli­ca­ble to the One Whom God hath made im­mune from er­ror. Sim­ilar­ly it is ap­plied to ev­ery soul whom God hath guard­ed against sin, trans­gres­sion, re­bel­lion, impi­ety, dis­be­lief and the like. How­ev­er, the Most Great In­fal­li­bil­ity is con­fined to the One Whose sta­tion is im­mea­sur­ably ex­alt­ed be­yond or­di­nances or pro­hi­bi­tions and is sanc­ti­fied from er­rors and omis­sions. In­deed He is a Light which is not fol­lowed by dark­ness and a Truth not over­tak­en by er­ror. Were He to pro­nounce wa­ter to be wine or heav­en to be earth or light to be fire, He speaketh the truth and no doubt would there be about it; and un­to no one is giv­en the right to ques­tion His au­thor­ity or to say why or where­fore. Whoso­ev­er raiseth ob­jec­tions will be num­bered with the froward in the Book of God, the Lord of the worlds. 'Ver­ily He shall not be asked of His do­ings but all oth­ers shall be asked of their do­ings.'(32) He is come from the in­vis­ible heav­en, bear­ing the ban­ner 'He doeth what­so­ev­er He wil­leth' and is ac­com­pa­nied by hosts of pow­er and au­thor­ity while it is the du­ty of all be­sides Him to strict­ly ob­serve what­ev­er laws and or­di­nances have been en­joined up­on them, and should any­one de­vi­ate there­from, even to the ex­tent of a hair's breadth, his work would be brought to naught.

Con­sid­er thou and call to mind the time when Muham­mad ap­peared. He said, and His word is the truth: 'Pil­grim­age to the House(33) is a ser­vice due to God.'(34) And like­wise are the dai­ly prayer, fast­ing, and the laws which shone forth above the hori­zon of the Book of God, the Lord of the World and the true Ed­uca­tor of the peo­ples and kin­dreds of the earth. It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to obey Him in what­so­ev­er God hath or­dained; and whoso­ev­er de­ni­eth Him hath dis­be­lieved in God, in His vers­es, in His Mes­sen­gers and in His Books. Were He to pro­nounce right to be wrong or de­nial to be be­lief, He speaketh the truth as bid­den by God. This is a sta­tion where­in sins or tres­pass­es nei­ther ex­ist nor are men­tioned. Con­sid­er thou the blessed, the di­vine­ly-​re­vealed verse in which pil­grim­age to the House is en­joined up­on ev­ery­one. It de­volved up­on those in­vest­ed with au­thor­ity af­ter Him(35) to ob­serve what­ev­er had been pre­scribed un­to them in the Book. Un­to no one is giv­en the right to de­vi­ate from the laws and or­di­nances of God. Whoso de­vi­ateth there­from is reck­oned with the tres­passers in the Book of God, the Lord of the Mighty Throne.

O thou who hast fixed thy gaze up­on the Dawn­ing-​Place of the Cause of God! Know thou for a cer­tain­ty that the Will of God is not lim­it­ed by the stan­dards of the peo­ple, and God doth not tread in their ways. Rather is it in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to firm­ly ad­here to God's straight Path. Were He to pro­nounce the right to be the left or the south to be the north, He speaketh the truth and there is no doubt of it. Ver­ily He is to be praised in His acts and to be obeyed in His be­hests. He hath no as­so­ciate in His judge­ment nor any helper in His sovereign­ty. He doeth what­so­ev­er He wil­leth and or­daineth what­so­ev­er He pleaseth. Know thou more­over that all else be­sides Him have been cre­at­ed through the po­ten­cy of a word from His pres­ence, while of them­selves they have no mo­tion nor still­ness, ex­cept at His bid­ding and by His leave.

O thou who soarest in the at­mo­sphere of love and fel­low­ship and hast fixed thy gaze up­on the light of the coun­te­nance of thy Lord, the King of cre­ation! Ren­der thanks un­to God, inas­much as He hath un­rav­elled for thee that which was hid­den and en­shrined in His knowl­edge so that ev­ery­one may be­come aware that with­in His realm of supreme in­fal­li­bil­ity He hath not tak­en a part­ner nor a coun­sel­lor un­to Him­self. He is in truth the Dayspring of di­vine pre­cepts and com­mand­ments and the Foun­tain­head of knowl­edge and wis­dom, while all else be­sides Him are but His sub­jects and un­der His rule, and He is the supreme Ruler, the Or­dain­er, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed.

As to thy­self, when­ev­er thou art en­rap­tured by the vi­tal­iz­ing breaths of the re­vealed vers­es and art car­ried away by the pure, life-​giv­ing wa­ter prof­fered by the hand of the boun­ty of thy Lord, the sovereign Ruler of the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion, lift up thy voice and say:

O my God! O my God! I yield Thee thanks that Thou hast di­rect­ed me to­wards Thy­self, hast guid­ed me un­to Thy hori­zon, hast clear­ly set forth for me Thy Path, hast re­vealed to me Thy tes­ti­mo­ny and en­abled me to set my face to­wards Thee, while most of the doc­tors and di­vines among Thy ser­vants to­geth­er with such as fol­low them have, with­out the least proof or ev­idence from Thee, turned away from Thee. Bless­ing be un­to Thee, O Lord of Names, and glo­ry be un­to Thee, O Cre­ator of the heav­ens, inas­much as Thou hast, through the pow­er of Thy Name, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing, giv­en me to drink of Thy sealed wine, hast caused me to draw nigh un­to Thee and hast en­abled me to rec­og­nize the Dayspring of Thine ut­ter­ance, the Man­ifes­ta­tion of Thy signs, the Foun­tain­head of Thy laws and com­mand­ments and the Source of Thy wis­dom and be­stowals. Blessed is the land that hath been en­no­bled by Thy foot­steps, where­in the throne of Thy sovereign­ty is es­tab­lished and the fra­grance of Thy rai­ment is dif­fused. By Thy glo­ry and majesty, by Thy might and pow­er, I de­sire not my sight save to be­hold Thy beau­ty, nor my hear­ing save to hear­ken to Thy call and Thy vers­es.

O my God! O my God! De­bar not the eyes from that for which Thou hast cre­at­ed them, nor the faces from turn­ing to Thy hori­zon, or from pay­ing homage at the por­tals of Thy majesty, or from ap­pear­ing in the pres­ence of Thy throne, or from bow­ing down be­fore the splen­dours of the Day-​Star of Thy boun­ty.

I am the one, O Lord, whose heart and soul, whose limbs, whose in­ner and out­er tongue tes­ti­fy to Thy uni­ty and Thy one­ness, and bear wit­ness that Thou art God and that there is no God but Thee. Thou didst bring mankind in­to be­ing to know Thee and to serve Thy Cause, that their sta­tion might there­by be el­evat­ed up­on Thine earth and their souls be up­lift­ed by virtue of the things Thou hast re­vealed in Thy Scrip­tures, Thy Books and Thy Tablets. Yet no soon­er didst Thou man­ifest Thy­self and re­veal Thy signs than they turned away from Thee and re­pu­di­at­ed Thee and re­ject­ed that which Thou didst un­veil be­fore their eyes through the po­ten­cy of Thy might and Thy pow­er. They rose up to in­flict harm up­on Thee, to ex­tin­guish Thy light and to put out the flame that blazeth in Thy Burn­ing Bush. Their in­iq­ui­ty waxed so grievous that they con­spired to shed Thy blood and to vi­olate Thy hon­our. And like­wise act­ed he(36) whom Thou hadst nur­tured with the hand of Thy lov­ing-​kind­ness, hadst pro­tect­ed from the mis­chief of the re­bel­lious among Thy crea­tures and the froward amidst Thy ser­vants, and whom Thou hadst set the task of writ­ing Thy holy vers­es be­fore Thy throne.

Alas! Alas! for the things he per­pe­trat­ed in Thy days to such an ex­tent that he vi­olat­ed Thy Covenant and Thy Tes­ta­ment, re­ject­ed Thy holy Writ, rose up in re­bel­lion and com­mit­ted that which caused the denizens of Thy King­dom to lament. Then no soon­er had he found his hopes shat­tered and had per­ceived the odour of ut­ter fail­ure than he raised his voice and gave tongue to that which caused Thy cho­sen ones, who are nigh un­to Thee, and the in­mates of the pavil­ion of glo­ry, to be lost in be­wil­der­ment.

Thou seest me, O my God, writhing in an­guish up­on the dust, like un­to a fish. De­liv­er me, have mer­cy up­on me, O Thou Whose aid is in­voked by all men, O Thou with­in Whose grasp lie the reins of pow­er over all men and wom­en. When­ev­er I pon­der my grievous short­com­ings and my great tres­pass­es, de­spair as­saileth me from ev­ery di­rec­tion, and when­ev­er I pause to med­itate up­on the ocean of Thy boun­teous­ness and the heav­en of Thy grace and the day-​star of Thy ten­der com­pas­sion, I in­hale the fra­grance of hope dif­fused from right and left, from north and south, as if ev­ery cre­at­ed thing im­parteth un­to me the joy­ous tid­ings that the clouds of the heav­en of Thy mer­cy will pour down their rain up­on me. By Thy might, O Thou Who art the Main­stay of the sin­cere ones and the De­sire of them that en­joy near ac­cess un­to Thee! Thy man­ifold favours and bless­ings and the rev­ela­tions of Thy grace and lov­ing-​kind­ness have tru­ly em­bold­ened me. How, oth­er­wise, can ut­ter noth­ing­ness mag­ni­fy the Name of Him Who hath, by a word, brought cre­ation in­to be­ing, and how can an evanes­cent crea­ture ex­tol Him Who hath demon­strat­ed that no de­scrip­tion can ev­er ex­press Him and no word of praise mag­ni­fy His glo­ry? He hath from ev­er­last­ing been im­mea­sur­ably ex­alt­ed above the un­der­stand­ing of His crea­tures and sanc­ti­fied from the con­cep­tions of His ser­vants.

O Lord! Thou be­hold­est this life­less one be­fore Thy face; suf­fer him, through Thy gen­eros­ity and boun­ti­ful favour, not to be de­prived of the chal­ice of im­mor­tal life. And Thou seest this af­flict­ed one stand­ing be­fore Thy throne; turn him not away from the ocean of Thy heal­ing. I en­treat Thee to en­able me at all times and un­der all con­di­tions to re­mem­ber Thee, to mag­ni­fy Thy Name and to serve Thy Cause, though I am well aware that what­ev­er pro­ceedeth from a ser­vant can­not tran­scend the lim­ita­tions of his soul, nor be­seem Thy Lord­ship, nor be wor­thy of the court of Thy glo­ry and Thy majesty.

Thy might beareth me wit­ness! Were it not to cel­ebrate Thy praise, my tongue would be of no use to me, and were it not for the sake of ren­der­ing ser­vice to Thee, my ex­is­tence would avail me not. But for the plea­sure of be­hold­ing the splen­dours of Thy realm of glo­ry, why should I cher­ish sight? And but for the joy of giv­ing ear to Thy most sweet voice, of what use is hear­ing?

Alas! Alas! I know not, O my God, my Main­stay, my heart's De­sire, whether Thou hast or­dained for me that which shall bring so­lace to mine eyes, glad­den my bo­som and re­joice my heart, or whether Thine ir­re­vo­ca­ble de­cree, O King of eter­ni­ty and the sovereign Lord of all na­tions, will de­bar me from pre­sent­ing my­self be­fore Thy throne. I swear by Thy glo­ry and majesty and by Thy do­min­ion and pow­er, the dark­ness of my re­mote­ness from Thee hath de­stroyed me. What hath be­come of the light of Thy near­ness, O De­sire of ev­ery un­der­stand­ing heart? The tor­ment­ing agony of sep­ara­tion from Thee hath con­sumed me. Where is the ef­ful­gent light of Thy re­union, O Well-​Beloved of such as are whol­ly de­vot­ed to Thee?

Thou seest, O my God, what hath be­fall­en me in Thy Path at the hand of those who have de­nied Thy Truth, have vi­olat­ed Thy Covenant, cav­illed at Thy signs, re­ject­ed the bless­ings Thou didst vouch­safe, dis­be­lieved the vers­es Thou didst send down and have re­fused to ac­knowl­edge the tes­ti­mo­ny Thou didst ful­fil.

O Lord! The tongue of my tongue and the heart of my heart and the spir­it of my spir­it and my out­ward and in­most be­ings bear wit­ness to Thy uni­ty and Thy one­ness, Thy pow­er and Thine om­nipo­tence, Thy grandeur and Thy sovereign­ty, and at­test Thy glo­ry, lofti­ness and au­thor­ity. I tes­ti­fy that Thou art God and that there is none oth­er God be­sides Thee. From ev­er­last­ing Thou hast been a trea­sure hid­den from the sight and minds of men and shalt con­tin­ue to re­main the same for ev­er and ev­er. The pow­ers of earth can nev­er frus­trate Thee, nor can the might of the na­tions alarm Thee. Thou art the One Who hath un­locked the door of knowl­edge be­fore the faces of Thy ser­vants that they may rec­og­nize Him Who is the Day-​Star of Thy Rev­ela­tion, the Dawn­ing-​Place of Thy signs, the Heav­en of Thy man­ifes­ta­tion and the Sun of Thy di­vine beau­ty. In Thy holy Books, in Thy Scrip­tures and Thy Scrolls Thou hast promised all the peo­ples of the world that Thou Thy­self shalt ap­pear and shalt re­move the veils of glo­ry from Thy face, even as Thou didst an­nounce in Thy words un­to Thy Friend(37) through Whom the Day-​Star of Rev­ela­tion shone bright­ly above the hori­zon of Hi­jáz, and the dawn­ing light of di­vine Truth shed its ra­di­ance among all men, pro­claim­ing: 'The Day when mankind shall stand be­fore the Lord of the worlds.'(38) And be­fore Muham­mad Thou didst im­part this glad-​tid­ing un­to Him Who con­versed with Thee,(39) say­ing: 'Bring forth thy peo­ple from the dark­ness in­to the light and re­mind them of the days of God.'(40) More­over Thou didst pro­claim this truth un­to the Spir­it(41) and un­to Thy Prophets and Thy Mes­sen­gers, whether of the re­mote or more re­cent past. If all that which Thou hast sent down in glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of this Most Great Re­mem­brance, this Great An­nounce­ment, were to stream forth from the well­spring of Thy most au­gust Pen, the in­mates of the cities of knowl­edge and un­der­stand­ing would be dumb­found­ed, ex­cept such as Thou wouldst de­liv­er through the po­ten­cy of Thy might and wouldst pro­tect as a to­ken of Thy boun­ti­ful favour and Thy grace. I bear wit­ness that Thou hast in truth ful­filled Thy pledge and hast made man­ifest the One Whose ad­vent was fore­told by Thy Prophets, Thy cho­sen ones and by them that serve Thee. He hath come from the heav­en of glo­ry and pow­er, bear­ing the ban­ners of Thy signs and the stan­dards of Thy tes­ti­monies. Through the po­ten­cy of Thine in­domitable pow­er and strength, He stood up be­fore the faces of all men and sum­moned all mankind to the sum­mit of tran­scen­dent glo­ry and un­to the all-​high­est Hori­zon, in such wise that nei­ther the op­pres­sion of the ec­cle­si­as­tics nor the on­slaught of the rulers was able to de­ter Him. He arose with in­flex­ible re­solve and, un­loos­ing His tongue, pro­claimed in ring­ing tones: 'He Who is the All-​Boun­ti­ful is come, rid­ing aloft on the clouds. Ad­vance, O peo­ple of the earth, with shin­ing faces and ra­di­ant hearts!'

Great in­deed is the blessed­ness of him who at­taineth Thy pres­ence, drin­keth the wine of re­union prof­fered by the hand of Thy boun­teous­ness, in­haleth the fra­grance of Thy signs, un­looseth his tongue in cel­ebrat­ing Thy praise, soareth high in Thy heav­ens, is car­ried away by the sweet­ness of Thy Voice, gaineth ad­mit­tance in­to the most ex­alt­ed Par­adise and at­taineth the sta­tion of rev­ela­tion and vi­sion be­fore the throne of Thy majesty.

I beg of Thee by the Most Great In­fal­li­bil­ity which Thou hast cho­sen to be the dayspring of Thy Rev­ela­tion, and by Thy most sub­lime Word through whose po­ten­cy Thou didst call the cre­ation in­to be­ing and didst re­veal Thy Cause, and by this Name which hath caused all oth­er names to groan aloud and the limbs of the sages to quake, I beg of Thee to make me de­tached from all else save Thee, in such wise that I may move not but in con­for­mi­ty with the good-​plea­sure of Thy Will, and speak not ex­cept at the bid­ding of Thy Pur­pose, and hear naught save the words of Thy praise and Thy glo­ri­fi­ca­tion.

I mag­ni­fy Thy Name, O my God, and of­fer thanks­giv­ing un­to Thee, O my De­sire, inas­much as Thou hast en­abled me to clear­ly per­ceive Thy straight Path, hast un­veiled Thy Great An­nounce­ment be­fore mine eyes and hast aid­ed me to set my face to­wards the Dayspring of Thy Rev­ela­tion and the Foun­tain­head of Thy Cause, whilst Thy ser­vants and Thy peo­ple turned away from Thee. I en­treat Thee, O Lord of the King­dom of eter­ni­ty, by the shrill voice of the Pen of Glo­ry, and by the Burn­ing Fire which cal­leth aloud from the ver­dant Tree, and by the Ark which Thou hast spe­cial­ly cho­sen for the peo­ple of Bahá, to grant that I may re­main stead­fast in my love for Thee, be well pleased with what­so­ev­er Thou hast pre­scribed for me in Thy Book and may stand firm in Thy ser­vice and in the ser­vice of Thy loved ones. Gra­cious­ly as­sist then Thy ser­vants, O my God, to do that which will serve to ex­alt Thy Cause and will en­able them to ob­serve what­so­ev­er Thou hast re­vealed in Thy Book.

Ver­ily Thou art the Lord of Strength, Thou art po­tent to or­dain what­so­ev­er Thou willest and with­in Thy grasp Thou hold­est the reins of all cre­at­ed things. No God is there but Thee, the All-​Pow­er­ful, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

O Jalíl! We have un­veiled to thine eyes the sea and the waves there­of, the sun and the ra­di­ance there­of, the heav­ens and the stars there­of, the shells and the pearls there­of. Ren­der thou thanks un­to God for so great a boun­ty, so gra­cious a favour that hath per­vad­ed the whole world.

O thou who hast set thy face to­wards the splen­dours 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.' And they say: '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 Most High, the Most Glo­ri­ous!' '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.' They say: 'Have the stars fall­en?' Say: 'Yea, when He Who is the Self-​Sub­sist­ing dwelt in the Land of Mys­tery.(42) 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 splen­dours 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 who re­ject the truth have said: 'When were the heav­ens cleft asun­der?' Say: 'While ye lay in the graves of way­ward­ness and er­ror.' Among the faith­less 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, heard 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, and We have sent them un­to thee, that thou mayest be ac­quaint­ed with what their ly­ing tongues have spo­ken, when God 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 foun­tain­head 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. More­over We be­seech Him to gra­cious­ly en­able those who sur­round Me to ob­serve that which My Pen of Glo­ry hath en­joined up­on them.

O Jalíl! Up­on thee be My glo­ry and My lov­ing prov­idence. Ver­ily We have en­joined the peo­ple to do what is meet and seem­ly and yet they have com­mit­ted such things as have caused My heart and My Pen to lament. In­cline thine ear to that which is sent down from the heav­en of My Will and the realm of My good-​plea­sure. I sor­row not for My cap­tiv­ity, nor for the things that have be­fall­en Me at the hand of Mine en­emies. Nay, My sor­rows are oc­ca­sioned by those who claim to be re­lat­ed to Me and yet com­mit that which causeth the voice of My lamen­ta­tions to be lift­ed up and My tears to flow. We have ex­hort­ed them at length in var­ious Tablets and be­seech God to gra­cious­ly as­sist them, to en­able them to draw nigh un­to Him and to con­firm them in that which would bring peace to the hearts and tran­quil­li­ty to the souls and would stay their hands from what­so­ev­er ill-​be­seemeth His days.

Say, O My loved ones in My lands! Give ye ear un­to the coun­sels of Him Who ad­mon­isheth you for the sake of God. He hath in truth cre­at­ed you, hath re­vealed be­fore your eyes that which ex­al­teth you and pro­moteth your in­ter­ests. He hath made known un­to you His straight Path and hath ac­quaint­ed you with His Great An­nounce­ment.

O Jalíl! 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.

The Pen of the Most High tur­neth from the elo­quent lan­guage(43) to the lu­mi­nous one(44) that thou, O Jalíl, mayest ap­pre­ci­ate the ten­der mer­cy of thy Lord, the In­com­pa­ra­ble One and mayest be of them that are tru­ly grate­ful.

O thou who hast fixed thy gaze up­on the all-​glo­ri­ous Hori­zon! The Call is raised but hear­ing ears are num­bered, nay non-​ex­is­tent. This Wronged One find­eth him­self in the maw of the ser­pent, yet He faileth not to make men­tion of the loved ones of God. So grievous have been Our suf­fer­ings in these days that the Con­course on High are moved to tears and to lamen­ta­tion. Nei­ther the ad­ver­si­ties of the world nor the harm in­flict­ed by its na­tions could de­ter Him Who is the King of Eter­ni­ty from voic­ing His sum­mons or frus­trate His pur­pose. When those who had for years been hid­ing be­hind the veils per­ceived that the hori­zon of the Cause was re­splen­dent and that the Word of God was all-​per­va­sive, they rushed forth and with swords of mal­ice in­flict­ed such harm as no pen can por­tray nor any tongue de­scribe.

They that judge with fair­ness tes­ti­fy that since the ear­ly days of the Cause this Wronged One hath arisen, un­veiled and re­splen­dent, be­fore the faces of kings and com­mon­ers, be­fore the rulers and the di­vines, and hath, in ring­ing tones, sum­moned all men un­to the straight Path. He hath had no helper save His Pen, nor any suc­cour­er oth­er than Him­self.

Those who are ig­no­rant or heed­less of the mo­ti­vat­ing pur­pose of the Cause of God have re­belled against Him. Such men are the fore­boders of evil, whom God hath men­tioned in His Book and Tablets and against whose in­flu­ence, clam­our and de­cep­tion He hath warned His peo­ple. Well is it with those who, in the face of the re­mem­brance of the Lord of Eter­ni­ty, re­gard the peo­ples of the world as ut­ter noth­ing­ness, as a thing for­got­ten, and hold fast to the firm han­dle of God in such wise that nei­ther doubts nor in­sin­ua­tions, nor swords, nor can­non could hold them back or de­prive them of His pres­ence. Blessed are the stead­fast; blessed are they that stand firm in His Faith.

In re­sponse to thy re­quest the Pen of Glo­ry hath gra­cious­ly de­scribed the sta­tions and grades of the Most Great In­fal­li­bil­ity. The pur­pose is that all should know of a cer­tain­ty that the Seal of the Prophets(45)--may the souls of all else but Him be of­fered up for His sake--is with­out like­ness, peer or part­ner in His Own sta­tion. The Holy Ones(46)--may the bless­ings of God be up­on them--were cre­at­ed through the po­ten­cy of His Word, and af­ter Him they were the most learned and the most dis­tin­guished among the peo­ple and abide in the ut­most sta­tion of servi­tude. The di­vine Essence, sanc­ti­fied from ev­ery com­par­ison and like­ness, is es­tab­lished in the Prophet, and God's in­most Re­al­ity, ex­alt­ed above any peer or part­ner, is man­ifest in Him. This is the sta­tion of true uni­ty and of ver­ita­ble sin­gle­ness. The fol­low­ers of the pre­vi­ous Dis­pen­sa­tion grievous­ly failed to ac­quire an ad­equate un­der­stand­ing of this sta­tion. The Pri­mal Point(47)--may the life of all else but Him be of­fered up for His sake--saith: 'If the Seal of the Prophets had not ut­tered the word “Suc­ces­sor­ship”, such a sta­tion would not have been cre­at­ed.'

The peo­ple afore­time joined part­ners with God, though they pro­fessed be­lief in His uni­ty; and al­though they were the most ig­no­rant amongst men, they con­sid­ered them­selves the most ac­com­plished. But, as a to­ken of di­vine ret­ri­bu­tion up­on those heed­less ones, their er­ro­neous be­liefs and pur­suits have, in this Day of Judge­ment, been made clear and ev­ident to ev­ery man of dis­cern­ment and un­der­stand­ing.

Be­seech thou God, the True One, that He may gra­cious­ly shield the fol­low­ers of this Rev­ela­tion from the idle fan­cies and cor­rupt imag­in­ings of such as be­long to the for­mer Faith, and may not de­prive them of the ef­ful­gent splen­dours of the day-​star of true uni­ty.

O Jalíl! He Whom the world hath wronged now pro­claimeth: The light of Jus­tice is dimmed, and the sun of Eq­ui­ty veiled from sight. The rob­ber oc­cu­pi­eth the seat of the pro­tec­tor and guard, and the po­si­tion of the faith­ful is seized by the traitor. A year ago an op­pres­sor ruled over this city, and at ev­ery in­stant caused fresh harm. By the righ­teous­ness of the Lord! He wrought that which cast ter­ror in­to the hearts of men. But to the Pen of Glo­ry the tyran­ny of the world hath nev­er been nor will it ev­er be a hin­drance. In the abun­dance of Our grace and lov­ing-​kind­ness We have re­vealed spe­cial­ly for the rulers and min­is­ters of the world that which is con­ducive to safe­ty and pro­tec­tion, tran­quil­li­ty and peace; hap­ly the chil­dren of men may rest se­cure from the evils of op­pres­sion. He, ver­ily, is the Pro­tec­tor, the Helper, the Giv­er of vic­to­ry. It is in­cum­bent up­on the men of God's House of Jus­tice to fix their gaze by day and by night up­on that which hath shone forth from the Pen of Glo­ry for the train­ing of peo­ples, the up­build­ing of na­tions, the pro­tec­tion of man and the safe­guard­ing of his hon­our.

The first Ishráq

When the Day-​Star of Wis­dom rose above the hori­zon of God's Holy Dis­pen­sa­tion it voiced this all-​glo­ri­ous ut­ter­ance: They that are pos­sessed of wealth and in­vest­ed with au­thor­ity and pow­er must show the pro­found­est re­gard for re­li­gion. In truth, re­li­gion is a ra­di­ant light and an im­preg­nable stronghold for the pro­tec­tion and wel­fare of the peo­ples of the world, for the fear of God im­pel­leth man to hold fast to that which is good, and shun all evil. Should the lamp of re­li­gion be ob­scured, chaos and con­fu­sion will en­sue, and the lights of fair­ness and jus­tice, of tran­quil­li­ty and peace cease to shine. Un­to this will bear wit­ness ev­ery man of true un­der­stand­ing.

The sec­ond Ishráq

We have en­joined up­on all mankind to es­tab­lish the Most Great Peace--the surest of all means for the pro­tec­tion of hu­man­ity. The sovereigns of the world should, with one ac­cord, hold fast there­un­to, for this is the supreme in­stru­ment that can en­sure the se­cu­ri­ty and wel­fare of all peo­ples and na­tions. They, ver­ily, are the man­ifes­ta­tions of the pow­er of God and the daysprings of His au­thor­ity. We be­seech the Almighty that He may gra­cious­ly as­sist them in that which is con­ducive to the well-​be­ing of their sub­jects. A full ex­pla­na­tion re­gard­ing this mat­ter hath been pre­vi­ous­ly set forth by the Pen of Glo­ry; well is it with them that act ac­cord­ing­ly.

The third Ishráq

It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to ob­serve God's holy com­mand­ments, inas­much as they are the well­spring of life un­to the world. The heav­en of di­vine wis­dom is il­lu­mined with the two lu­mi­nar­ies of con­sul­ta­tion and com­pas­sion and the canopy of world or­der is up­raised up­on the two pil­lars of re­ward and pun­ish­ment.

The fourth Ishráq

In this Rev­ela­tion the hosts that 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.

The fifth Ishráq

Gov­ern­ments should ful­ly ac­quaint them­selves with the con­di­tions of those they gov­ern, and con­fer up­on them po­si­tions ac­cord­ing to desert and mer­it. It is en­joined up­on ev­ery ruler and sovereign to con­sid­er this mat­ter with the ut­most care that the traitor may not usurp the po­si­tion of the faith­ful, nor the de­spoil­er rule in the place of the trust­wor­thy. Among the of­fi­cials who in the past have gov­erned in this Most Great Prison some, praise be to God, were adorned with jus­tice, but as to oth­ers, We take refuge with God. We be­seech the One true God to guide them one and all, that hap­ly they may not be de­prived of the fruit of faith and trust­wor­thi­ness, nor be with­held from the light of eq­ui­ty and jus­tice.

The sixth Ishráq is union and con­cord amongst the chil­dren of men. From the be­gin­ning of time the light of uni­ty hath shed its di­vine ra­di­ance up­on the world, and the great­est means for the pro­mo­tion of that uni­ty is for the peo­ples of the world to un­der­stand one an­oth­er's writ­ing and speech. In for­mer Epis­tles We have en­joined up­on the Trustees of the House of Jus­tice ei­ther to choose one lan­guage from among those now ex­ist­ing or to adopt a new one, and in like man­ner to se­lect a com­mon script, both of which should be taught in all the schools of the world. Thus will the earth be re­gard­ed as one coun­try and one home. The most glo­ri­ous fruit of the tree of knowl­edge is this ex­alt­ed word: Of one tree are all ye the fruit, and of one bough the leaves. Let not man glo­ry in this that he loveth his coun­try, let him rather glo­ry in this that he loveth his kind. Con­cern­ing this We have pre­vi­ous­ly re­vealed that which is the means of the re­con­struc­tion of the world and the uni­ty of na­tions. Blessed are they that at­tain there­un­to. Blessed are they that act ac­cord­ing­ly.

The sev­enth Ishráq

The Pen of Glo­ry coun­sel­leth ev­ery­one re­gard­ing the in­struc­tion and ed­uca­tion of chil­dren. Be­hold that which the Will of God hath re­vealed up­on Our ar­rival in the Prison City and record­ed in the Most Holy Book.(48) Un­to ev­ery fa­ther hath been en­joined the in­struc­tion of his son and daugh­ter in the art of read­ing and writ­ing and in all that hath been laid down in the Holy Tablet. He that put­teth away that which is com­mand­ed un­to him, the Trustees are then to take from him that which is re­quired for their in­struc­tion, if he be wealthy, and if not the mat­ter de­vol­veth up­on the House of Jus­tice. Ver­ily, have We made it a shel­ter for the poor and needy. He that bringeth up his son or the son of an­oth­er, it is as though he hath brought up a son of Mine; up­on him rest My Glo­ry, My Lov­ing-​Kind­ness, My Mer­cy, that have com­passed the world.

The eighth Ishráq

This pas­sage, now writ­ten by the Pen of Glo­ry, is ac­count­ed as part of the Most Holy Book: The men of God's House of Jus­tice have been charged with the af­fairs of the peo­ple. They, in truth, are the Trustees of God among His ser­vants and the daysprings of au­thor­ity in His coun­tries.

O peo­ple of God! That which traineth the world is Jus­tice, for it is up­held by two pil­lars, re­ward and pun­ish­ment. These two pil­lars are the sources of life to the world. Inas­much as for each day there is a new prob­lem and for ev­ery prob­lem an ex­pe­di­ent so­lu­tion, such af­fairs should be re­ferred to the House of Jus­tice that the mem­bers there­of may act ac­cord­ing to the needs and re­quire­ments of the time. They that, for the sake of God, arise to serve His Cause, are the re­cip­ients of di­vine in­spi­ra­tion from the un­seen King­dom. It is in­cum­bent up­on all to be obe­di­ent un­to them. All mat­ters of State should be re­ferred to the House of Jus­tice, but acts of wor­ship must be ob­served ac­cord­ing to that which God hath re­vealed in His Book.

O peo­ple of Bahá! Ye are the dawn­ing-​places of the love of God and the daysprings of His lov­ing-​kind­ness. De­file not your tongues with the curs­ing and re­vil­ing of any soul, and guard your eyes against that which is not seem­ly. Set forth that which ye pos­sess. If it be favourably re­ceived, your end is at­tained; if not, to protest is vain. Leave that soul to him­self and turn un­to the Lord, the Pro­tec­tor, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. Be not the cause of grief, much less of dis­cord and strife. The hope is cher­ished that ye may ob­tain true ed­uca­tion in the shel­ter of the tree of His ten­der mer­cies and act in ac­cor­dance with that which God de­sireth. Ye are all the leaves of one tree and the drops of one ocean.

The ninth Ishráq

The pur­pose of re­li­gion as re­vealed from the heav­en of God's holy Will is to es­tab­lish uni­ty and con­cord amongst the peo­ples of the world; make it not the cause of dis­sen­sion and strife. The re­li­gion of God and His di­vine law are the most po­tent in­stru­ments and the surest of all means for the dawn­ing of the light of uni­ty amongst men. The progress of the world, the de­vel­op­ment of na­tions, the tran­quil­li­ty of peo­ples, and the peace of all who dwell on earth are among the prin­ci­ples and or­di­nances of God. Re­li­gion be­stoweth up­on man the most pre­cious of all gifts, of­fer­eth the cup of pros­per­ity, im­parteth eter­nal life, and show­ereth im­per­ish­able ben­efits up­on mankind. It be­hoveth the chiefs and rulers of the world, and in par­tic­ular the Trustees of God's House of Jus­tice, to en­deav­our to the ut­most of their pow­er to safe­guard its po­si­tion, pro­mote its in­ter­ests and ex­alt its sta­tion in the eyes of the world. In like man­ner it is in­cum­bent up­on them to en­quire in­to the con­di­tions of their sub­jects and to ac­quaint them­selves with the af­fairs and ac­tiv­ities of the divers com­mu­ni­ties in their do­min­ions. We call up­on the man­ifes­ta­tions of the pow­er of God--the sovereigns and rulers on earth--to be­stir them­selves and do all in their pow­er that hap­ly they may ban­ish dis­cord from this world and il­lu­mine it with the light of con­cord.

It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to firm­ly ad­here to and ob­serve that which hath streamed forth from Our Most Ex­alt­ed Pen. God, the True One, beareth Me wit­ness, and ev­ery atom in ex­is­tence is moved to tes­ti­fy that such means as lead to the el­eva­tion, the ad­vance­ment, the ed­uca­tion, the pro­tec­tion and the re­gen­er­ation of the peo­ples of the earth have been clear­ly set forth by Us and are re­vealed in the Holy Books and Tablets by the Pen of Glo­ry.

We en­treat God to gra­cious­ly aid His ser­vants. What this Wronged One doth ex­pect from ev­ery­one is jus­tice and fair­ness. Let no one be con­tent with mere hear­ing; rather doth it be­hove ev­ery­one to pon­der that which this Wronged One hath re­vealed. I swear by the Day-​Star of ut­ter­ance, shin­ing above the hori­zon of the King­dom of the All-​Mer­ci­ful, had there been any ex­pounder or speak­er dis­cernible, We would not have made Our­self the ob­ject of the cen­sure, ridicule and slan­der of the peo­ple.

Up­on Our ar­rival in 'Iráq We found the Cause of God sunk in deep ap­athy and the breeze of di­vine rev­ela­tion stilled. Most of the be­liev­ers were faint and dispir­it­ed, nay ut­ter­ly lost and dead. Hence there was a sec­ond blast on the Trum­pet, where­upon the Tongue of Grandeur ut­tered these blessed words: 'We have sound­ed the Trum­pet for the sec­ond time.' Thus the whole world was quick­ened through the vi­tal­iz­ing breaths of di­vine rev­ela­tion and in­spi­ra­tion.

Cer­tain souls have now sal­lied forth from be­hind the veils, in­tent on in­flict­ing harm up­on this Wronged One. They have hin­dered and de­nied the out­pour­ing of this price­less boun­ty.

O ye that judge with fair­ness! If this Cause is to be de­nied then what oth­er cause in this world can be vin­di­cat­ed or deemed wor­thy of ac­cep­tance?

Such as have turned away from the Cause of God are dili­gent­ly seek­ing to col­lect the Holy Writ­ings of this Rev­ela­tion; and they have al­ready, through ges­tures of friend­ship, man­aged to se­cure cer­tain of these Writ­ings from those who held them in their pos­ses­sion. More­over, when they meet the fol­low­ers of any re­li­gion, they hold them­selves out as be­liev­ers there­in. Say, die ye in your wrath! Ver­ily He hath ap­peared with so great an au­thor­ity that no man of vi­sion, of hear­ing, of in­sight, of jus­tice or of eq­ui­ty can ev­er de­ny Him. Un­to this beareth wit­ness in this re­splen­dent Hour the Pen of Him Who is the An­cient of Days.

O Jalíl! Up­on thee be My glo­ry. We ex­hort the loved ones of God to per­form good deeds that per­chance they may be gra­cious­ly as­sist­ed and may hold fast to that which hath been sent down from the heav­en of His Rev­ela­tion. The ben­efits aris­ing from this di­vine ut­ter­ance shall fall up­on such as ob­serve His pre­cepts. We be­seech God to en­able them to do that which is pleas­ing and ac­cept­able un­to Him, to grant that they may deal eq­ui­tably and may ob­serve jus­tice in this all-​com­pelling Cause, to ac­quaint them with His Holy Writ­ings and to di­rect their steps to­wards His straight Path.

Our Ex­alt­ed Her­ald--may the life of all else be­sides Him be of­fered up for His sake--hath re­vealed cer­tain laws. How­ev­er, in the realm of His Rev­ela­tion these laws were made sub­ject to Our sanc­tion, hence this Wronged One hath put some of them in­to ef­fect by em­body­ing them in the Kitáb-​i-​Aq­das in dif­fer­ent words. Oth­ers We set aside. He hold­eth in His hand the au­thor­ity. He doeth what He wil­leth and He or­daineth what­so­ev­er He pleaseth. He is the Almighty, the All-​Praised. There are al­so or­di­nances new­ly re­vealed. Blessed are they that at­tain. Blessed are they that ob­serve His pre­cepts.

The peo­ple of God should make the ut­most en­deav­our that per­chance the fire of ha­tred and mal­ice which smoul­dereth in the breasts of kin­dreds and peo­ples may, through the liv­ing wa­ters of ut­ter­ance and the ex­hor­ta­tions of Him Who is the De­sire of the world, be quenched and the trees of hu­man ex­is­tence may be adorned with won­drous and ex­cel­lent fruit. He is, in truth, the Ad­mon­ish­er, the Com­pas­sion­ate, the All-​Boun­ti­ful.

May the bright­ness of His glo­ry shin­ing above the hori­zon of boun­ty rest up­on you, O peo­ple of Bahá, up­on ev­ery one who standeth firm and stead­fast and up­on those that are well ground­ed in the Faith and are en­dued with true un­der­stand­ing.

As to thy ques­tion con­cern­ing in­ter­est and prof­it on gold and sil­ver: Some years ago the fol­low­ing pas­sage was re­vealed from the heav­en of the All-​Mer­ci­ful in hon­our of the one who beareth the name of God, en­ti­tled Za­ynu'l-​Muqarrabín(49)--up­on him be the glo­ry of the Most Glo­ri­ous. He--ex­alt­ed be His Word--saith: Many peo­ple stand in need of this. Be­cause if there were no prospect for gain­ing in­ter­est, the af­fairs of men would suf­fer col­lapse or dis­lo­ca­tion. One can sel­dom find a per­son who would man­ifest such con­sid­er­ation to­wards his fel­low-​man, his coun­try­man or to­wards his own broth­er and would show such ten­der so­lic­itude for him as to be well-​dis­posed to grant him a loan on benev­olent terms.(50) There­fore as a to­ken of favour to­wards men We have pre­scribed that in­ter­est on mon­ey should be treat­ed like oth­er busi­ness trans­ac­tions that are cur­rent amongst men. Thus, now that this lu­cid com­mand­ment hath de­scend­ed from the heav­en of the Will of God, it is law­ful and prop­er to charge in­ter­est on mon­ey, that the peo­ple of the world may, in a spir­it of ami­ty and fel­low­ship and with joy and glad­ness, de­vot­ed­ly en­gage them­selves in mag­ni­fy­ing the Name of Him Who is the Well-​Beloved of all mankind. Ver­ily He or­daineth ac­cord­ing to His Own choos­ing. He hath now made in­ter­est on mon­ey law­ful, even as He had made it un­law­ful in the past. With­in His grasp He hold­eth the king­dom of au­thor­ity. He doeth and or­daineth. He is in truth the Or­dain­er, the All-​Know­ing.

Ren­der thou thanks un­to thy Lord, O Za­ynu'l-​Muqarrabín, for this man­ifest boun­ty.

Many ec­cle­si­as­tics in Per­sia have, through in­nu­mer­able de­signs and de­vices, been feed­ing on il­lic­it gains ob­tained by usury. They have con­trived ways to give its out­ward form a fair sem­blance of law­ful­ness. They make a play­thing of the laws and or­di­nances of God, but they un­der­stand not.

How­ev­er, this is a mat­ter that should be prac­tised with mod­er­ation and fair­ness. Our Pen of Glo­ry hath, as a to­ken of wis­dom and for the con­ve­nience of the peo­ple, de­sist­ed from lay­ing down its lim­it. Nev­er­the­less We ex­hort the loved ones of God to ob­serve jus­tice and fair­ness, and to do that which would prompt the friends of God to evince ten­der mer­cy and com­pas­sion to­wards each oth­er. He is in truth the Coun­sel­lor, the Com­pas­sion­ate, the All-​Boun­ti­ful. God grant that all men may be gra­cious­ly aid­ed to ob­serve that which the Tongue of the One true God hath ut­tered. And if they put in­to prac­tice what We have set forth, God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--will as­sured­ly dou­ble their por­tion through the heav­en of His boun­ty. Ver­ily He is the Gen­er­ous, the For­giv­ing, the Com­pas­sion­ate. Praise be un­to God, the Most Ex­alt­ed, the Most Great.

Nev­er­the­less the con­duct of these af­fairs hath been en­trust­ed to the men of the House of Jus­tice that they may en­force them ac­cord­ing to the ex­igen­cies of the time and the dic­tates of wis­dom.

Once again We ex­hort all be­liev­ers to ob­serve jus­tice and fair­ness and to show forth love and con­tent­ment. They are in­deed the peo­ple of Bahá, the com­pan­ions of the Crim­son Ark. Up­on them be the peace of God, the Lord of all Names, the Cre­ator of the heav­ens.

LAWH-​I-​HIK­MAT (TABLET OF WIS­DOM)

_This Tablet was ad­dressed to Áqá Muham­mad, a dis­tin­guished be­liev­er from the town of Qá'in, who was sur­named Nabíl-​i-​Ak­bar (see Memo­ri­als of the Faith­ful pages 1-5). An­oth­er dis­tin­guished be­liev­er of Qá'in, Mul­lá Muham­mad-'Alí, was known as Nabíl-​i-​Qá'iní (see Memo­ri­als of the Faith­ful pages 49-54). In the ab­jad no­ta­tion the name 'Muham­mad' has the same nu­mer­ical val­ue as 'Nabíl'._

THIS is an Epis­tle which the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath sent down from the King­dom of Ut­ter­ance. It is tru­ly a breath of life un­to those who dwell in the realm of cre­ation. Glo­ri­fied be the Lord of all worlds! In this Epis­tle men­tion is made of him who mag­ni­fi­eth the Name of God, his Lord, and who is named Nabíl in a weighty Tablet.

O Muham­mad! Hear­ken un­to the Voice pro­ceed­ing out of the Realm of Glo­ry, call­ing aloud from the ce­les­tial Tree which hath risen above the land of Za'farán(51): Ver­ily, no God is there but Me, the Om­ni­scient, the Wise. Be thou as the breezes of the All-​Mer­ci­ful for the trees of the realm of ex­is­tence and fos­ter their growth through the po­ten­cy of the Name of thy Lord, the Just, the All-​In­formed. We de­sire to ac­quaint thee with that which will serve as a re­minder un­to the peo­ple, that they may put away the things cur­rent amongst them and set their faces to­wards God, the Lord of the sin­cere.

We ex­hort mankind in these days when the coun­te­nance of Jus­tice is soiled with dust, when the flames of un­be­lief are burn­ing high and the robe of wis­dom rent asun­der, when tran­quil­li­ty and faith­ful­ness have ebbed away and tri­als and tribu­la­tions have waxed se­vere, when covenants are bro­ken and ties are sev­ered, when no man knoweth how to dis­cern light and dark­ness or to dis­tin­guish guid­ance from er­ror.

O peo­ples of the world! For­sake all evil, hold fast that which is good. Strive to be shin­ing ex­am­ples un­to all mankind, and true re­minders of the virtues of God amidst men. He that riseth to serve My Cause should man­ifest My wis­dom, and bend ev­ery ef­fort to ban­ish ig­no­rance from the earth. Be unit­ed in coun­sel, be one in thought. Let each morn be bet­ter than its eve and each mor­row rich­er than its yes­ter­day. Man's mer­it li­eth in ser­vice and virtue and not in the pageantry of wealth and rich­es. Take heed that your words be purged from idle fan­cies and world­ly de­sires and your deeds be cleansed from crafti­ness and sus­pi­cion. Dis­si­pate not the wealth of your pre­cious lives in the pur­suit of evil and cor­rupt af­fec­tion, nor let your en­deav­ours be spent in pro­mot­ing your per­son­al in­ter­est. Be gen­er­ous in your days of plen­ty, and be pa­tient in the hour of loss. Ad­ver­si­ty is fol­lowed by suc­cess and re­joic­ings fol­low woe. Guard against idle­ness and sloth, and cling un­to that which prof­iteth mankind, whether young or old, whether high or low. Be­ware lest ye sow tares of dis­sen­sion among men or plant thorns of doubt in pure and ra­di­ant hearts.

O ye beloved of the Lord! Com­mit not that which de­fileth the limpid stream of love or de­stroyeth the sweet fra­grance of friend­ship. By the righ­teous­ness of the Lord! Ye were cre­at­ed to show love one to an­oth­er and not per­ver­si­ty and ran­cour. Take pride not in love for your­selves but in love for your fel­low-​crea­tures. Glo­ry not in love for your coun­try, but in love for all mankind. Let your eye be chaste, your hand faith­ful, your tongue truth­ful and your heart en­light­ened. Abase not the sta­tion of the learned in Bahá and be­lit­tle not the rank of such rulers as ad­min­is­ter jus­tice amidst you. Set your re­liance on the army of jus­tice, put on the ar­mour of wis­dom, let your adorn­ing be for­give­ness and mer­cy and that which cheereth the hearts of the well-​favoured of God.

By My life! Thy grievances have plunged Me in­to sor­row. Re­gard not the chil­dren of the world and all their do­ings but fix thy gaze up­on God and His nev­er-​end­ing do­min­ion. Ver­ily, He cal­leth to thy re­mem­brance that which is the source of de­light for all mankind. Drink thou the life-​giv­ing wa­ter of bliss­ful joy from the chal­ice of ut­ter­ance prof­fered by the Foun­tain­head of di­vine Rev­ela­tion--He Who hath made men­tion of thee in this mighty stronghold. En­deav­our to the ut­most of thy pow­ers to es­tab­lish the word of truth with elo­quence and wis­dom and to dis­pel false­hood from the face of the earth. Thus di­recteth thee the Dayspring of di­vine knowl­edge from this lu­mi­nous hori­zon.

O thou who speak­est in My Name! Con­sid­er the peo­ple and the things they have wrought in My days. We re­vealed un­to one of the rulers that which over­pow­ereth all the dwellers of the earth, and re­quest­ed him to bring Us face to face with the learned men of this age, that We might set forth for him the tes­ti­mo­ny of God, His proofs, His glo­ry and His majesty; and naught did We in­tend there­by but the high­est good. How­ev­er, he com­mit­ted that which hath caused the in­mates of the cities of jus­tice and eq­ui­ty to lament. Thus hath judge­ment been giv­en be­tween Me and him. Ver­ily thy Lord is the Or­dain­er, the All-​In­formed. In such cir­cum­stances as thou seest, how can the Ce­les­tial Bird soar in­to the at­mo­sphere of di­vine mys­ter­ies when its wings have been bat­tered with the stones of idle fan­cy and bit­ter ha­tred, and it is cast in­to a prison built of un­yield­ing stone? By the righ­teous­ness of God! The peo­ple have per­pe­trat­ed a grievous in­jus­tice.

As re­gards thine as­ser­tions about the be­gin­ning of cre­ation, this is a mat­ter on which con­cep­tions vary by rea­son of the di­ver­gences in men's thoughts and opin­ions. Wert thou to as­sert that it hath ev­er ex­ist­ed and shall con­tin­ue to ex­ist, it would be true; or wert thou to af­firm the same con­cept as is men­tioned in the sa­cred Scrip­tures, no doubt would there be about it, for it hath been re­vealed by God, the Lord of the worlds. In­deed He was a hid­den trea­sure. This is a sta­tion that can nev­er be de­scribed nor even al­lud­ed to. And in the sta­tion of 'I did wish to make My­self known', God was, and His cre­ation had ev­er ex­ist­ed be­neath His shel­ter from the be­gin­ning that hath no be­gin­ning, apart from its be­ing pre­ced­ed by a First­ness which can­not be re­gard­ed as first­ness and orig­inat­ed by a Cause in­scrutable even un­to all men of learn­ing.

That which hath been in ex­is­tence had ex­ist­ed be­fore, but not in the form thou seest to­day. The world of ex­is­tence came in­to be­ing through the heat gen­er­at­ed from the in­ter­ac­tion be­tween the ac­tive force and that which is its re­cip­ient. These two are the same, yet they are dif­fer­ent. Thus doth the Great An­nounce­ment in­form thee about this glo­ri­ous struc­ture. Such as com­mu­ni­cate the gen­er­at­ing in­flu­ence and such as re­ceive its im­pact are in­deed cre­at­ed through the ir­re­sistible Word of God which is the Cause of the en­tire cre­ation, while all else be­sides His Word are but the crea­tures and the ef­fects there­of. Ver­ily thy Lord is the Ex­pounder, the All-​Wise.

Know thou, more­over, that the Word of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--is high­er and far su­pe­ri­or to that which the sens­es can per­ceive, for it is sanc­ti­fied from any prop­er­ty or sub­stance. It tran­scen­deth the lim­ita­tions of known el­ements and is ex­alt­ed above all the es­sen­tial and rec­og­nized sub­stances. It be­came man­ifest with­out any syl­la­ble or sound and is none but the Com­mand of God which per­vadeth all cre­at­ed things. It hath nev­er been with­held from the world of be­ing. It is God's all-​per­va­sive grace, from which all grace doth em­anate. It is an en­ti­ty far re­moved above all that hath been and shall be.

We are loath to en­large on this sub­ject, inas­much as the un­be­liev­ers have in­clined their ears to­wards Us in or­der to hear that which might en­able them to cav­il against God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. And since they are un­able to at­tain to mys­ter­ies of knowl­edge and wis­dom from what hath been un­rav­elled by the Source of di­vine splen­dour, they rise in protest and burst in­to clam­our. But it is true to say that they ob­ject to that which they com­pre­hend, not to the ex­po­si­tions giv­en by the Ex­pounder, nor the truths im­part­ed by the One true God, the Know­er of things un­seen. Their ob­jec­tions, one and all, turn up­on them­selves, and I swear by thy life that they are de­void of un­der­stand­ing.

Ev­ery thing must needs have an ori­gin and ev­ery build­ing a builder. Ver­ily, the Word of God is the Cause which hath pre­ced­ed the con­tin­gent world--a world which is adorned with the splen­dours of the An­cient of Days, yet is be­ing re­newed and re­gen­er­at­ed at all times. Im­mea­sur­ably ex­alt­ed is the God of Wis­dom Who hath raised this sub­lime struc­ture.

Look at the world and pon­der a while up­on it. It un­veileth the book of its own self be­fore thine eyes and re­vealeth that which the Pen of thy Lord, the Fash­ioner, the All-​In­formed, hath in­scribed there­in. It will ac­quaint thee with that which is with­in it and up­on it and will give thee such clear ex­pla­na­tions as to make thee in­de­pen­dent of ev­ery elo­quent ex­pounder.

Say: Na­ture in its essence is the em­bod­iment of My Name, the Mak­er, the Cre­ator. Its man­ifes­ta­tions are di­ver­si­fied by vary­ing caus­es, and in this di­ver­si­ty there are signs for men of dis­cern­ment. Na­ture is God's Will and is its ex­pres­sion in and through the con­tin­gent world. It is a dis­pen­sa­tion of Prov­idence or­dained by the Or­dain­er, the All-​Wise. Were any­one to af­firm that it is the Will of God as man­ifest­ed in the world of be­ing, no one should ques­tion this as­ser­tion. It is en­dowed with a pow­er whose re­al­ity men of learn­ing fail to grasp. In­deed a man of in­sight can per­ceive naught there­in save the ef­ful­gent splen­dour of Our Name, the Cre­ator. Say: This is an ex­is­tence which knoweth no de­cay, and Na­ture it­self is lost in be­wil­der­ment be­fore its rev­ela­tions, its com­pelling ev­idences and its ef­ful­gent glo­ry which have en­com­passed the uni­verse.

It ill be­seemeth thee to turn thy gaze un­to for­mer or more re­cent times. Make thou men­tion of this Day and mag­ni­fy that which hath ap­peared there­in. It will in truth suf­fice all mankind. In­deed ex­po­si­tions and dis­cours­es in ex­pla­na­tion of such things cause the spir­its to be chilled. It be­hoveth thee to speak forth in such wise as to set the hearts of true be­liev­ers ablaze and cause their bod­ies to soar.

Whoso firm­ly be­lieveth to­day in the re­birth of man and is ful­ly con­scious that God, the Most Ex­alt­ed, wield­eth supreme as­cen­dan­cy and ab­so­lute au­thor­ity over this new cre­ation, ver­ily such a man is reck­oned with them that are en­dued with in­sight in this most great Rev­ela­tion. Un­to this beareth wit­ness ev­ery dis­cern­ing be­liev­er.

Walk thou high above the world of be­ing through the pow­er of the Most Great Name, that thou mayest be­come aware of the im­memo­ri­al mys­ter­ies and be ac­quaint­ed with that where­with no one is ac­quaint­ed. Ver­ily, thy Lord is the Helper, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed. Be thou as a throb­bing artery, pul­sat­ing in the body of the en­tire cre­ation, that through the heat gen­er­at­ed by this mo­tion there may ap­pear that which will quick­en the hearts of those who hes­itate.

At the time when We were hid­den be­hind count­less veils of light thou didst com­mune with Me and didst wit­ness the lu­mi­nar­ies of the heav­en of My wis­dom and the bil­lows of the ocean of Mine ut­ter­ance. Ver­ily thy Lord is the Truth­ful, the Faith­ful. Great in­deed is the blessed­ness of him who hath at­tained the lib­er­al ef­fu­sions of this ocean in the days of his Lord, the Most Boun­ti­ful, the All-​Wise.

Dur­ing Our so­journ in 'Iráq when We were at the house of one named Ma­jíd, We set forth clear­ly for thee the mys­ter­ies of cre­ation and the ori­gin, the cul­mi­na­tion and the cause there­of. How­ev­er since Our de­par­ture We have lim­it­ed Our­self to this af­fir­ma­tion: 'Ver­ily, no God is there but Me, the Ev­er-​For­giv­ing, the Boun­ti­ful.'

Teach thou the Cause of God with an ut­ter­ance which will cause the bush­es to be enkin­dled, and the call 'Ver­ily, there is no God but Me, the Almighty, the Un­con­strained' to be raised there­from. Say: Hu­man ut­ter­ance is an essence which as­pireth to ex­ert its in­flu­ence and needeth mod­er­ation. As to its in­flu­ence, this is con­di­tion­al up­on re­fine­ment which in turn is de­pen­dent up­on hearts which are de­tached and pure. As to its mod­er­ation, this hath to be com­bined with tact and wis­dom as pre­scribed in the Holy Scrip­tures and Tablets. Med­itate up­on that which hath streamed forth from the heav­en of the Will of thy Lord, He Who is the Source of all grace, that thou mayest grasp the in­tend­ed mean­ing which is en­shrined in the sa­cred depths of the Holy Writ­ings.

Those who have re­ject­ed God and firm­ly cling to Na­ture as it is in it­self are, ver­ily, bereft of knowl­edge and wis­dom. They are tru­ly of them that are far astray. They have failed to at­tain the lofty sum­mit and have fall­en short of the ul­ti­mate pur­pose; there­fore their eyes were shut and their thoughts dif­fered, while the lead­ers among them have be­lieved in God and in His in­vin­ci­ble sovereign­ty. Un­to this beareth wit­ness thy Lord, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing.

When the eyes of the peo­ple of the East were cap­ti­vat­ed by the arts and won­ders of the West, they roved dis­traught in the wilder­ness of ma­te­ri­al caus­es, obliv­ious of the One Who is the Caus­er of Caus­es, and the Sus­tain­er there­of, while such men as were the source and the well­spring of Wis­dom nev­er de­nied the mov­ing Im­pulse be­hind these caus­es, nor the Cre­ator or the Ori­gin there­of. Thy Lord knoweth, yet most of the peo­ple know not.

Now We have, for the sake of God, the Lord of Names, set Our­self the task of men­tion­ing in this Tablet some ac­counts of the sages,(52) that the eyes of the peo­ple may be opened there­by and that they may be­come ful­ly as­sured that He is in truth the Mak­er, the Om­nipo­tent, the Cre­ator, the Orig­ina­tor, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

Al­though it is rec­og­nized that the con­tem­po­rary men of learn­ing are high­ly qual­ified in phi­los­ophy, arts and crafts, yet were any­one to ob­serve with a dis­crim­inat­ing eye he would read­ily com­pre­hend that most of this knowl­edge hath been ac­quired from the sages of the past, for it is they who have laid the foun­da­tion of phi­los­ophy, reared its struc­ture and re­in­forced its pil­lars. Thus doth thy Lord, the An­cient of Days, in­form thee. The sages afore­time ac­quired their knowl­edge from the Prophets, inas­much as the lat­ter were the Ex­po­nents of di­vine phi­los­ophy and the Re­veal­ers of heav­en­ly mys­ter­ies. Men quaffed the crys­tal, liv­ing wa­ters of Their ut­ter­ance, while oth­ers sat­is­fied them­selves with the dregs. Ev­ery­one re­ceiveth a por­tion ac­cord­ing to his mea­sure. Ver­ily He is the Eq­ui­table, the Wise.

Empe­do­cles, who dis­tin­guished him­self in phi­los­ophy, was a con­tem­po­rary of David, while Pythago­ras lived in the days of Solomon, son of David, and ac­quired Wis­dom from the trea­sury of prophet­hood. It is he who claimed to have heard the whis­per­ing sound of the heav­ens and to have at­tained the sta­tion of the an­gels. In truth thy Lord will clear­ly set forth all things, if He pleaseth. Ver­ily, He is the Wise, the All-​Per­vad­ing.

The essence and the fun­da­men­tals of phi­los­ophy have em­anat­ed from the Prophets. That the peo­ple dif­fer con­cern­ing the in­ner mean­ings and mys­ter­ies there­of is to be at­tribut­ed to the di­ver­gence of their views and minds. We would fain re­count to thee the fol­low­ing: One of the Prophets once was com­mu­ni­cat­ing to his peo­ple that with which the Om­nipo­tent Lord had in­spired Him. Tru­ly, thy Lord is the In­spir­er, the Gra­cious, the Ex­alt­ed. When the foun­tain of wis­dom and elo­quence gushed forth from the well­spring of His ut­ter­ance and the wine of di­vine knowl­edge ine­bri­at­ed those who had sought His thresh­old, He ex­claimed: 'Lo! All are filled with the Spir­it.' From among the peo­ple there was he who held fast un­to this state­ment and, ac­tu­at­ed by his own fan­cies, con­ceived the idea that the spir­it lit­er­al­ly pen­etrateth or en­tereth in­to the body, and through lengthy ex­po­si­tions he ad­vanced proofs to vin­di­cate this con­cept; and groups of peo­ple fol­lowed in his foot­steps. To men­tion their names at this point, or to give thee a de­tailed ac­count there­of, would lead to pro­lix­ity, and would de­part from the main theme. Ver­ily, thy Lord is the All-​Wise, the All-​Know­ing. There was al­so he who par­took of the choice wine whose seal had been re­moved by the Key of the Tongue of Him Who is the Re­veal­er of the Vers­es of thy Lord, the Gra­cious, the Most Gen­er­ous.

Ver­ily, the philoso­phers have not de­nied the An­cient of Days. Most of them passed away de­plor­ing their fail­ure to fath­om His mys­tery, even as some of them have tes­ti­fied. Ver­ily, thy Lord is the Ad­vis­er, the All-​In­formed.

Con­sid­er Hip­pocrates, the physi­cian. He was one of the em­inent philoso­phers who be­lieved in God and ac­knowl­edged His sovereign­ty. Af­ter him came Socrates who was in­deed wise, ac­com­plished and righ­teous. He prac­tised self-​de­nial, re­pressed his ap­petites for self­ish de­sires and turned away from ma­te­ri­al plea­sures. He with­drew to the moun­tains where he dwelt in a cave. He dis­suad­ed men from wor­ship­ping idols and taught them the way of God, the Lord of Mer­cy, un­til the ig­no­rant rose up against him. They ar­rest­ed him and put him to death in prison. Thus re­lateth to thee this swift-​mov­ing Pen. What a pen­etrat­ing vi­sion in­to phi­los­ophy this em­inent man had! He is the most dis­tin­guished of all philoso­phers and was high­ly versed in wis­dom. We tes­ti­fy that he is one of the heroes in this field and an out­stand­ing cham­pi­on ded­icat­ed un­to it. He had a pro­found knowl­edge of such sci­ences as were cur­rent amongst men as well as of those which were veiled from their minds. Me­thinks he drank one draught when the Most Great Ocean over­flowed with gleam­ing and life-​giv­ing wa­ters. He it is who per­ceived a unique, a tem­pered, and a per­va­sive na­ture in things, bear­ing the clos­est like­ness to the hu­man spir­it, and he dis­cov­ered this na­ture to be dis­tinct from the sub­stance of things in their re­fined form. He hath a spe­cial pro­nounce­ment on this weighty theme. Wert thou to ask from the world­ly wise of this gen­er­ation about this ex­po­si­tion, thou wouldst wit­ness their in­ca­pac­ity to grasp it. Ver­ily, thy Lord speaketh the truth but most peo­ple com­pre­hend not.

Af­ter Socrates came the di­vine Pla­to who was a pupil of the for­mer and oc­cu­pied the chair of phi­los­ophy as his suc­ces­sor. He ac­knowl­edged his be­lief in God and in His signs which per­vade all that hath been and shall be. Then came Aris­to­tle, the well-​known man of knowl­edge. He it is who dis­cov­ered the pow­er of gaseous mat­ter. These men who stand out as lead­ers of the peo­ple and are pre-​em­inent among them, one and all ac­knowl­edged their be­lief in the im­mor­tal Be­ing Who hold­eth in His grasp the reins of all sci­ences.

I will al­so men­tion for thee the in­vo­ca­tion voiced by Báli­nus who was fa­mil­iar with the the­ories put for­ward by the Fa­ther of Phi­los­ophy re­gard­ing the mys­ter­ies of cre­ation as giv­en in his chryso­lite tablets, that ev­ery­one may be ful­ly as­sured of the things We have elu­ci­dat­ed for thee in this man­ifest Tablet, which, if pressed with the hand of fair­ness and knowl­edge, will yield the spir­it of life for the quick­en­ing of all cre­at­ed things. Great is the blessed­ness of him who swim­meth in this ocean and cel­ebrateth the praise of his Lord, the Gra­cious, the Best-​Beloved. In­deed the breezes of di­vine rev­ela­tion are dif­fused from the vers­es of thy Lord in such wise that no one can dis­pute its truth, ex­cept those who are bereft of hear­ing, of vi­sion, of un­der­stand­ing and of ev­ery hu­man fac­ul­ty. Ver­ily thy Lord beareth wit­ness un­to this, yet the peo­ple un­der­stand not.

This man hath said: 'I am Báli­nus, the wise one, the per­former of won­ders, the pro­duc­er of tal­is­mans.' He sur­passed ev­ery­one else in the dif­fu­sion of arts and sci­ences and soared un­to the lofti­est heights of hu­mil­ity and sup­pli­ca­tion. Give ear un­to that which he hath said, en­treat­ing the All-​Pos­sess­ing, the Most Ex­alt­ed: 'I stand in the pres­ence of my Lord, ex­tolling His gifts and boun­ties and prais­ing Him with that where­with He praiseth His Own Self, that I may be­come a source of bless­ing and guid­ance un­to such men as ac­knowl­edge my words.' And fur­ther he saith: 'O Lord! Thou art God and no God is there but Thee. Thou art the Cre­ator and no cre­ator is there ex­cept Thee. As­sist me by Thy grace and strength­en me. My heart is seized with alarm, my limbs trem­ble, I have lost my rea­son and my mind hath failed me. Be­stow up­on me strength and en­able my tongue to speak forth with wis­dom.' And still fur­ther he saith: 'Thou art in truth the Know­ing, the Wise, the Pow­er­ful, the Com­pas­sion­ate.' It was this man of wis­dom who be­came in­formed of the mys­ter­ies of cre­ation and dis­cerned the sub­tleties which lie en­shrined in the Her­met­ic writ­ings.(53)

We have no wish to men­tion any­thing fur­ther but We shall ut­ter that which the Spir­it hath in­stilled in­to My heart. In truth there is no God but Him, the Know­ing, the Mighty, the Help in Per­il, the Most Ex­cel­lent, the All-​Praised. By My life! In this Day the ce­les­tial Tree is loath to pro­claim aught else to the world but this af­fir­ma­tion: 'Ver­ily, there is none oth­er God but Me, the Peer­less, the All-​In­formed.'

Had it not been for the love I cher­ish for thee, I would not have ut­tered a sin­gle word of what hath been men­tioned. Ap­pre­ci­ate the val­ue of this sta­tion and pre­serve it as thou wouldst thine eye and be of them that are tru­ly thank­ful.

Thou know­est full well that We pe­rused not the books which men pos­sess and We ac­quired not the learn­ing cur­rent amongst them, and yet when­ev­er We de­sire to quote the say­ings of the learned and of the wise,(54) present­ly there will ap­pear be­fore the face of thy Lord in the form of a tablet all that which hath ap­peared in the world and is re­vealed in the Holy Books and Scrip­tures. Thus do We set down in writ­ing that which the eye per­ceiveth. Ver­ily His knowl­edge en­com­pas­seth the earth and the heav­ens.

This is a Tablet where­in the Pen of the Un­seen hath in­scribed the knowl­edge of all that hath been and shall be--a knowl­edge that none oth­er but My won­drous Tongue can in­ter­pret. In­deed My heart as it is in it­self hath been purged by God from the con­cepts of the learned and is sanc­ti­fied from the ut­ter­ances of the wise. In truth naught doth it mir­ror forth but the rev­ela­tions of God. Un­to this beareth wit­ness the Tongue of Grandeur in this per­spic­uous Book.

Say, O peo­ple of the earth! Be­ware lest any ref­er­ence to wis­dom de­bar you from its Source or with­hold you from the Dawn­ing-​Place there­of. Fix your hearts up­on your Lord, the Ed­uca­tor, the All-​Wise.

For ev­ery land We have pre­scribed a por­tion, for ev­ery oc­ca­sion an al­lot­ted share, for ev­ery pro­nounce­ment an ap­point­ed time and for ev­ery sit­ua­tion an apt re­mark. Con­sid­er Greece. We made it a Seat of Wis­dom for a pro­longed pe­ri­od. How­ev­er, when the ap­point­ed hour struck, its throne was sub­vert­ed, its tongue ceased to speak, its light grew dim and its ban­ner was hauled down. Thus do We be­stow and with­draw. Ver­ily thy Lord is He Who giveth and di­vesteth, the Mighty, the Pow­er­ful.

In ev­ery land We have set up a lu­mi­nary of knowl­edge, and when the time fore­or­dained is at hand, it will shine re­splen­dent above its hori­zon, as de­creed by God, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise. If it be Our Will We are ful­ly ca­pa­ble of de­scrib­ing for thee what­ev­er ex­is­teth in ev­ery land or hath come to pass there­in. In­deed the knowl­edge of thy Lord per­vadeth the heav­ens and the earth.

Know thou, more­over, that the peo­ple afore­time have pro­duced things which the con­tem­po­rary men of knowl­edge have been un­able to pro­duce. We re­call un­to thee Murtús who was one of the learned. He in­vent­ed an ap­pa­ra­tus which trans­mit­ted sound over a dis­tance of six­ty miles. Oth­ers be­sides him have al­so dis­cov­ered things which no one in this age hath be­held. Ver­ily thy Lord re­vealeth in ev­ery epoch what­so­ev­er He pleaseth as a to­ken of wis­dom on His part. He is in truth the supreme Or­dain­er, the All-​Wise.

A true philoso­pher would nev­er de­ny God nor His ev­idences, rather would he ac­knowl­edge His glo­ry and over­pow­er­ing majesty which over­shad­ow all cre­at­ed things. Ver­ily We love those men of knowl­edge who have brought to light such things as pro­mote the best in­ter­ests of hu­man­ity, and We aid­ed them through the po­ten­cy of Our be­hest, for well are We able to achieve Our pur­pose.

Be­ware, O My loved ones, lest ye de­spise the mer­its of My learned ser­vants whom God hath gra­cious­ly cho­sen to be the ex­po­nents of His Name 'the Fash­ioner' amidst mankind. Ex­ert your ut­most en­deav­our that ye may de­vel­op such crafts and un­der­tak­ings that ev­ery­one, whether young or old, may ben­efit there­from. We are quit of those ig­no­rant ones who fond­ly imag­ine that Wis­dom is to give vent to one's idle imag­in­ings and to re­pu­di­ate God, the Lord of all men; even as We hear some of the heed­less voic­ing such as­ser­tions to­day.

Say: The be­gin­ning of Wis­dom and the ori­gin there­of is to ac­knowl­edge what­so­ev­er God hath clear­ly set forth, for through its po­ten­cy the foun­da­tion of states­man­ship, which is a shield for the preser­va­tion of the body of mankind, hath been firm­ly es­tab­lished. Pon­der a while that ye may per­ceive what My most ex­alt­ed Pen hath pro­claimed in this won­drous Tablet. Say, ev­ery mat­ter re­lat­ed to state af­fairs which ye raise for dis­cus­sion falls un­der the shad­ow of one of the words sent down from the heav­en of His glo­ri­ous and ex­alt­ed ut­ter­ance. Thus have We re­count­ed un­to thee that which will ex­hil­arate thy heart, will bring so­lace to thine eyes and will en­able thee to arise for the pro­mo­tion of His Cause amidst all peo­ples.

O My Nabíl! Let noth­ing grieve thee, rather re­joice with ex­ceed­ing glad­ness inas­much as I have men­tioned thy name, have turned My heart and My face to­wards thee and have con­versed with thee through this ir­refutable and weighty ex­po­si­tion. Pon­der in thy heart up­on the tribu­la­tions I have sus­tained, the im­pris­on­ment and the cap­tiv­ity I have en­dured, the suf­fer­ings that have be­fall­en Me and the ac­cu­sa­tions that the peo­ple have lev­elled against Me. Be­hold, they are tru­ly wrapped in a grievous veil.

When the dis­course reached this stage, the dawn of di­vine mys­ter­ies ap­peared and the light of ut­ter­ance was quenched. May His glo­ry rest up­on the peo­ple of wis­dom as bid­den by One Who is the Almighty, the All-​Praised.

Say: Mag­ni­fied be Thy Name, O Lord my God! I be­seech Thee by Thy Name through which the splen­dour of the light of wis­dom shone re­splen­dent when the heav­ens of di­vine ut­ter­ance were set in mo­tion amidst mankind, to gra­cious­ly aid me by Thy heav­en­ly con­fir­ma­tions and en­able me to ex­tol Thy Name amongst Thy ser­vants.

O Lord! Un­to Thee have I turned my face, de­tached from all save Thee and hold­ing fast to the hem of the robe of Thy man­ifold bless­ings. Un­loose my tongue there­fore to pro­claim that which will cap­ti­vate the minds of men and will re­joice their souls and spir­its. Strength­en me then in Thy Cause in such wise that I may not be hin­dered by the as­cen­dan­cy of the op­pres­sors among Thy crea­tures nor with­held by the on­slaught of the dis­be­liev­ers amidst those who dwell in Thy realm. Make me as a lamp shin­ing through­out Thy lands that those in whose hearts the light of Thy knowl­edge gloweth and the yearn­ing for Thy love lin­gereth may be guid­ed by its ra­di­ance.

Ver­ily, po­tent art Thou to do what­so­ev­er Thou willest, and in Thy grasp Thou hold­est the king­dom of cre­ation. There is none oth­er God but Thee, the Almighty, the All-​Wise.

ASL-​I-​KUL­LU'L-​KHAYR (WORDS OF WIS­DOM)

In the Name of God, the Ex­alt­ed, the Most High

THE source of all good is trust in God, sub­mis­sion un­to His com­mand, and con­tent­ment with His holy will and plea­sure.

The essence of wis­dom is the fear of God, the dread of His scourge and pun­ish­ment, and the ap­pre­hen­sion of His jus­tice and de­cree.

The essence of re­li­gion is to tes­ti­fy un­to that which the Lord hath re­vealed, and fol­low that which He hath or­dained in His mighty Book.

The source of all glo­ry is ac­cep­tance of what­so­ev­er the Lord hath be­stowed, and con­tent­ment with that which God hath or­dained.

The essence of love is for man to turn his heart to the Beloved One, and sev­er him­self from all else but Him, and de­sire naught save that which is the de­sire of his Lord.

True re­mem­brance is to make men­tion of the Lord, the All-​Praised, and for­get aught else be­side Him.

True re­liance is for the ser­vant to pur­sue his pro­fes­sion and call­ing in this world, to hold fast un­to the Lord, to seek naught but His grace, inas­much as in His Hands is the des­tiny of all His ser­vants.

The essence of de­tach­ment is for man to turn his face to­wards the courts of the Lord, to en­ter His Pres­ence, be­hold His Coun­te­nance, and stand as wit­ness be­fore Him.

The essence of un­der­stand­ing is to tes­ti­fy to one's pover­ty, and sub­mit to the Will of the Lord, the Sovereign, the Gra­cious, the All-​Pow­er­ful.

The source of courage and pow­er is the pro­mo­tion of the Word of God, and stead­fast­ness in His Love.

The essence of char­ity is for the ser­vant to re­count the bless­ings of his Lord, and to ren­der thanks un­to Him at all times and un­der all con­di­tions.

The essence of faith is few­ness of words and abun­dance of deeds; he whose words ex­ceed his deeds, know ver­ily his death is bet­ter than his life.

The essence of true safe­ty is to ob­serve si­lence, to look at the end of things and to re­nounce the world.

The be­gin­ning of mag­na­nim­ity is when man ex­pen­deth his wealth on him­self, on his fam­ily and on the poor among his brethren in his Faith.

The essence of wealth is love for Me; whoso loveth Me is the pos­ses­sor of all things, and he that loveth Me not is in­deed of the poor and needy. This is that which the Fin­ger of Glo­ry and Splen­dour hath re­vealed.

The source of all evil is for man to turn away from his Lord and set his heart on things un­god­ly.

The most burn­ing fire is to ques­tion the signs of God, to dis­pute idly that which He hath re­vealed, to de­ny Him and car­ry one's self proud­ly be­fore Him.

The source of all learn­ing is the knowl­edge of God, ex­alt­ed be His Glo­ry, and this can­not be at­tained save through the knowl­edge of His Di­vine Man­ifes­ta­tion.

The essence of abase­ment is to pass out from un­der the shad­ow of the Mer­ci­ful and seek the shel­ter of the Evil One.

The source of er­ror is to dis­be­lieve in the One true God, re­ly up­on aught else but Him, and flee from His De­cree.

True loss is for him whose days have been spent in ut­ter ig­no­rance of his self.

The essence of all that We have re­vealed for thee is Jus­tice, is for man to free him­self from idle fan­cy and im­ita­tion, dis­cern with the eye of one­ness His glo­ri­ous hand­iwork, and look in­to all things with a search­ing eye.

Thus have We in­struct­ed thee, man­ifest­ed un­to thee Words of Wis­dom, that thou mayest be thank­ful un­to the Lord, thy God, and glo­ry there­in amidst all peo­ples.

LAWH-​I-​MAQSÚD (TABLET OF MAQSÚD)

_Out of re­spect, the Bahá'ís, rather than ad­dress­ing Bahá'u'lláh di­rect­ly, would write to His amanu­en­sis, Mírzá Áqá Ján, sur­named 'Ser­vant of God' and 'Ser­vant-​in-​At­ten­dance'. The re­ply would be in the form of a let­ter from Mírzá Áqá Ján quot­ing words of Bahá'u'lláh, but would, in fact, be dic­tat­ed in its en­tire­ty by Bahá'u'lláh. Thus all parts of the Tablet, even those which os­ten­si­bly are the words of Mírzá Áqá Ján him­self, are Sa­cred Scrip­ture re­vealed by Bahá'u'lláh. The Tablet of Maqsúd is in this form. It was ad­dressed to Mírzá Maqsúd, one of the ear­ly be­liev­ers liv­ing at that time in Dam­as­cus and Jerusalem._

He is God, ex­alt­ed is He, the Lord of Majesty and Pow­er

A PRAISE which is ex­alt­ed above ev­ery men­tion or de­scrip­tion be­seemeth the Adored One, the Pos­ses­sor of all things vis­ible and in­vis­ible, Who hath en­abled the Pri­mal Point to re­veal count­less Books and Epis­tles and Who, through the po­ten­cy of His sub­lime Word, hath called in­to be­ing the en­tire cre­ation, whether of the for­mer or more re­cent gen­er­ations. More­over He hath in ev­ery age and cy­cle, in con­for­mi­ty with His tran­scen­dent wis­dom, sent forth a di­vine Mes­sen­ger to re­vive the dispir­it­ed and de­spon­dent souls with the liv­ing wa­ters of His ut­ter­ance, One Who is in­deed the Ex­pounder, the true In­ter­preter, inas­much as man is un­able to com­pre­hend that which hath streamed forth from the Pen of Glo­ry and is record­ed in His heav­en­ly Books. Men at all times and un­der all con­di­tions stand in need of one to ex­hort them, guide them and to in­struct and teach them. There­fore He hath sent forth His Mes­sen­gers, His Prophets and cho­sen ones that they might ac­quaint the peo­ple with the di­vine pur­pose un­der­ly­ing the rev­ela­tion of Books and the rais­ing up of Mes­sen­gers, and that ev­ery­one may be­come aware of the trust of God which is la­tent in the re­al­ity of ev­ery soul.

Man is the supreme Tal­is­man. Lack of a prop­er ed­uca­tion hath, how­ev­er, de­prived him of that which he doth in­her­ent­ly pos­sess. Through a word pro­ceed­ing out of the mouth of God he was called in­to be­ing; by one word more he was guid­ed to rec­og­nize the Source of his ed­uca­tion; by yet an­oth­er word his sta­tion and des­tiny were safe­guard­ed. The Great Be­ing saith: Re­gard man as a mine rich in gems of in­es­timable val­ue. Ed­uca­tion can, alone, cause it to re­veal its trea­sures, and en­able mankind to ben­efit there­from. If any man were to med­itate on that which the Scrip­tures, sent down from the heav­en of God's holy Will, have re­vealed, he would read­ily rec­og­nize that their pur­pose is that all men shall be re­gard­ed as one soul, so that the seal bear­ing the words 'The King­dom shall be God's' may be stamped on ev­ery heart, and the light of Di­vine boun­ty, of grace, and mer­cy may en­vel­op all mankind. The One true God, ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry, hath wished noth­ing for Him­self. The al­le­giance of mankind prof­iteth Him not, nei­ther doth its per­ver­si­ty harm Him. The Bird of the Realm of Ut­ter­ance voiceth con­tin­ual­ly this call: 'All things have I willed for thee, and thee, too, for thine own sake.' If the learned and world­ly-​wise men of this age were to al­low mankind to in­hale the fra­grance of fel­low­ship and love, ev­ery un­der­stand­ing heart would ap­pre­hend the mean­ing of true lib­er­ty, and dis­cov­er the se­cret of undis­turbed peace and ab­so­lute com­po­sure. Were the earth to at­tain this sta­tion and be il­lu­mined with its light it could then be tru­ly said of it: 'Thou shall see in it no hol­lows or ris­ing hills.'(55)

Bless­ing and peace be up­on Him(56) through Whose ad­vent Bathá(57) is wreathed in smiles, and the sweet savours of Whose rai­ment have shed fra­grance up­on all mankind--He Who came to pro­tect men from that which would harm them in the world be­low. Ex­alt­ed, im­mense­ly ex­alt­ed is His sta­tion above the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of all be­ings and sanc­ti­fied from the praise of the en­tire cre­ation. Through His ad­vent the taber­na­cle of sta­bil­ity and or­der was raised through­out the world and the en­sign of knowl­edge hoist­ed among the na­tions. May bless­ings rest al­so up­on His kin­dred and His com­pan­ions through whom the stan­dard of the uni­ty of God and of His sin­gle­ness was up­lift­ed and the ban­ners of ce­les­tial tri­umph were un­furled. Through them the re­li­gion of God was firm­ly es­tab­lished among His crea­tures and His Name mag­ni­fied amidst His ser­vants. I en­treat Him--ex­alt­ed is He--to shield His Faith from the mis­chief of His en­emies who tore away the veils, rent them asun­der and fi­nal­ly caused the ban­ner of Is­lám to be re­versed amongst all peo­ples.

Thy let­ter from which the fra­grance of re­union was in­haled hath been re­ceived. Praised be God that fol­low­ing the firm de­cree of sep­ara­tion, the breeze of near­ness and com­mu­nion hath been stirred and the soil of the heart is re­freshed with the wa­ters of joy and glad­ness. We of­fer thanks­giv­ing un­to God in all cir­cum­stances and cher­ish the hope that He--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--may through His gra­cious prov­idence guide all who dwell on earth to­wards that which is ac­cept­able and pleas­ing un­to Him.

Be­hold the dis­tur­bances which, for many a long year, have af­flict­ed the earth, and the per­tur­ba­tion that hath seized its peo­ples. It hath ei­ther been rav­aged by war, or tor­ment­ed by sud­den and un­fore­seen calami­ties. Though the world is en­com­passed with mis­ery and dis­tress, yet no man hath paused to re­flect what the cause or source of that may be. When­ev­er the True Coun­sel­lor ut­tered a word in ad­mon­ish­ment, lo, they all de­nounced Him as a mover of mis­chief and re­ject­ed His claim. How be­wil­der­ing, how con­fus­ing is such be­haviour! No two men can be found who may be said to be out­ward­ly and in­ward­ly unit­ed. The ev­idences of dis­cord and mal­ice are ap­par­ent ev­ery­where, though all were made for har­mo­ny and union. The Great Be­ing saith: O well-​beloved ones! The taber­na­cle of uni­ty hath been raised; re­gard ye not one an­oth­er as strangers. Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. We cher­ish the hope that the light of jus­tice may shine up­on the world and sanc­ti­fy it from tyran­ny. If the rulers and kings of the earth, the sym­bols of the pow­er of God, ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry, arise and re­solve to ded­icate them­selves to what­ev­er will pro­mote the high­est in­ter­ests of the whole of hu­man­ity, the reign of jus­tice will as­sured­ly be es­tab­lished amongst the chil­dren of men, and the ef­ful­gence of its light will en­vel­op the whole earth. The Great Be­ing saith: The struc­ture of world sta­bil­ity and or­der hath been reared up­on, and will con­tin­ue to be sus­tained by, the twin pil­lars of re­ward and pun­ish­ment. And in an­oth­er con­nec­tion He hath ut­tered the fol­low­ing in the elo­quent tongue:(58) Jus­tice hath a mighty force at its com­mand. It is none oth­er than re­ward and pun­ish­ment for the deeds of men. By the pow­er of this force the taber­na­cle of or­der is es­tab­lished through­out the world, caus­ing the wicked to re­strain their na­tures for fear of pun­ish­ment.

In an­oth­er pas­sage He hath writ­ten: Take heed, O con­course of the rulers of the world! There is no force on earth that can equal in its con­quer­ing pow­er the force of jus­tice and wis­dom. I, ver­ily, af­firm that there is not, and hath nev­er been, a host more mighty than that of jus­tice and wis­dom. Blessed is the king who marcheth with the en­sign of wis­dom un­furled be­fore him, and the bat­tal­ions of jus­tice massed in his rear. He ver­ily is the or­na­ment that ador­neth the brow of peace and the coun­te­nance of se­cu­ri­ty. There can be no doubt what­ev­er that if the day-​star of jus­tice, which the clouds of tyran­ny have ob­scured, were to shed its light up­on men, the face of the earth would be com­plete­ly trans­formed.

The Great Be­ing, wish­ing to re­veal the pre­req­ui­sites of the peace and tran­quil­li­ty of the world and the ad­vance­ment of its peo­ples, hath writ­ten: The time must come when the im­per­ative ne­ces­si­ty for the hold­ing of a vast, an all-​em­brac­ing as­sem­blage of men will be uni­ver­sal­ly re­al­ized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs at­tend it, and, par­tic­ipat­ing in its de­lib­er­ations, must con­sid­er such ways and means as will lay the foun­da­tions of the world's Great Peace amongst men. Such a peace de­man­deth that the Great Pow­ers should re­solve, for the sake of the tran­quil­li­ty of the peo­ples of the earth, to be ful­ly rec­on­ciled among them­selves. Should any king take up arms against an­oth­er, all should unit­ed­ly arise and pre­vent him. If this be done, the na­tions of the world will no longer re­quire any ar­ma­ments, ex­cept for the pur­pose of pre­serv­ing the se­cu­ri­ty of their realms and of main­tain­ing in­ter­nal or­der with­in their ter­ri­to­ries. This will en­sure the peace and com­po­sure of ev­ery peo­ple, gov­ern­ment and na­tion. We fain would hope that the kings and rulers of the earth, the mir­rors of the gra­cious and almighty name of God, may at­tain un­to this sta­tion, and shield mankind from the on­slaught of tyran­ny.

Like­wise He saith: Among the things which are con­ducive to uni­ty and con­cord and will cause the whole earth to be re­gard­ed as one coun­try is that the divers lan­guages be re­duced to one lan­guage and in like man­ner the scripts used in the world be con­fined to a sin­gle script. It is in­cum­bent up­on all na­tions to ap­point some men of un­der­stand­ing and eru­di­tion to con­vene a gath­er­ing and through joint con­sul­ta­tion choose one lan­guage from among the var­ied ex­ist­ing lan­guages, or cre­ate a new one, to be taught to the chil­dren in all the schools of the world.

The day is ap­proach­ing when all the peo­ples of the world will have adopt­ed one uni­ver­sal lan­guage and one com­mon script. When this is achieved, to what­so­ev­er city a man may jour­ney, it shall be as if he were en­ter­ing his own home. These things are oblig­atory and ab­so­lute­ly es­sen­tial. It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery man of in­sight and un­der­stand­ing to strive to trans­late that which hath been writ­ten in­to re­al­ity and ac­tion.

In these days the taber­na­cle of jus­tice hath fall­en in­to the clutch­es of tyran­ny and op­pres­sion. Be­seech ye the One true God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--not to de­prive mankind of the ocean of true un­der­stand­ing, for were men but to take heed they would read­ily ap­pre­ci­ate that what­ev­er hath streamed from and is set down by the Pen of Glo­ry is even as the sun for the whole world and that there­in lie the wel­fare, se­cu­ri­ty and true in­ter­ests of all men; oth­er­wise the earth will be tor­ment­ed by a fresh calami­ty ev­ery day and un­prece­dent­ed com­mo­tions will break out. God grant that the peo­ple of the world may be gra­cious­ly aid­ed to pre­serve the light of His lov­ing coun­sels with­in the globe of wis­dom. We cher­ish the hope that ev­ery­one may be adorned with the ves­ture of true wis­dom, the ba­sis of the gov­ern­ment of the world.

The Great Be­ing saith: The heav­en of states­man­ship is made lu­mi­nous and re­splen­dent by the bright­ness of the light of these blessed words which hath dawned from the dayspring of the Will of God: It be­hoveth ev­ery ruler to weigh his own be­ing ev­ery day in the bal­ance of eq­ui­ty and jus­tice and then to judge be­tween men and coun­sel them to do that which would di­rect their steps un­to the path of wis­dom and un­der­stand­ing. This is the cor­ner­stone of states­man­ship and the essence there­of. From these words ev­ery en­light­ened man of wis­dom will read­ily per­ceive that which will fos­ter such aims as the wel­fare, se­cu­ri­ty and pro­tec­tion of mankind and the safe­ty of hu­man lives. Were men of in­sight to quaff their fill from the ocean of in­ner mean­ings which lie en­shrined in these words and be­come ac­quaint­ed there­with, they would bear wit­ness to the sub­lim­ity and the ex­cel­lence of this ut­ter­ance. If this low­ly one were to set forth that which he per­ceiveth, all would tes­ti­fy un­to God's con­sum­mate wis­dom. The se­crets of states­man­ship and that of which the peo­ple are in need lie en­fold­ed with­in these words. This low­ly ser­vant earnest­ly en­treateth the One true God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--to il­lu­mine the eyes of the peo­ple of the world with the splen­dour of the light of wis­dom that they, one and all, may rec­og­nize that which is in­dis­pens­able in this day.

That one in­deed is a man who, to­day, ded­icateth him­self to the ser­vice of the en­tire hu­man race. The Great Be­ing saith: Blessed and hap­py is he that ariseth to pro­mote the best in­ter­ests of the peo­ples and kin­dreds of the earth. In an­oth­er pas­sage He hath pro­claimed: It is not for him to pride him­self who loveth his own coun­try, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one coun­try, and mankind its cit­izens.

Such ex­hor­ta­tions to union and con­cord as are in­scribed in the Books of the Prophets by the Pen of the Most High bear ref­er­ence un­to spe­cif­ic mat­ters; not a union that would lead to dis­uni­ty or a con­cord which would cre­ate dis­cord. This is the sta­tion where mea­sures are set un­to ev­ery­thing, a sta­tion where ev­ery de­serv­ing soul shall be giv­en his due. Well is it with them that ap­pre­ci­ate the mean­ing and grasp the in­tent of these words, and woe be­tide the heed­less. Un­to this all the ev­idences of na­ture, in their very essences, bear am­ple tes­ti­mo­ny. Ev­ery dis­cern­ing man of wis­dom is well ac­quaint­ed with that which We have men­tioned, but not those who have strayed far from the liv­ing foun­tain of fairmind­ed­ness and are rov­ing dis­traught in the wilder­ness of ig­no­rance and blind fa­nati­cism.

The Great Be­ing saith: O ye chil­dren of men! The fun­da­men­tal pur­pose an­imat­ing the Faith of God and His Re­li­gion is to safe­guard the in­ter­ests and pro­mote the uni­ty of the hu­man race, and to fos­ter the spir­it of love and fel­low­ship amongst men. Suf­fer it not to be­come a source of dis­sen­sion and dis­cord, of hate and en­mi­ty. This is the straight Path, the fixed and im­mov­able foun­da­tion. What­so­ev­er is raised on this foun­da­tion, the changes and chances of the world can nev­er im­pair its strength, nor will the rev­olu­tion of count­less cen­turies un­der­mine its struc­ture. Our hope is that the world's re­li­gious lead­ers and the rulers there­of will unit­ed­ly arise for the ref­or­ma­tion of this age and the re­ha­bil­ita­tion of its for­tunes. Let them, af­ter med­itat­ing on its needs, take coun­sel to­geth­er and, through anx­ious and full de­lib­er­ation, ad­min­is­ter to a dis­eased and sore­ly-​af­flict­ed world the rem­edy it re­quireth.

The Great Be­ing saith: The heav­en of di­vine wis­dom is il­lu­mined with the two lu­mi­nar­ies of con­sul­ta­tion and com­pas­sion. Take ye coun­sel to­geth­er in all mat­ters, inas­much as con­sul­ta­tion is the lamp of guid­ance which lead­eth the way, and is the be­stow­er of un­der­stand­ing.

At the out­set of ev­ery en­deav­our, it is in­cum­bent to look to the end of it. Of all the arts and sci­ences, set the chil­dren to study­ing those which will re­sult in ad­van­tage to man, will en­sure his progress and el­evate his rank. Thus the noi­some odours of law­less­ness will be dis­pelled, and thus through the high en­deav­ours of the na­tion's lead­ers, all will live cra­dled, se­cure and in peace.

The Great Be­ing saith: The learned of the day must di­rect the peo­ple to ac­quire those branch­es of knowl­edge which are of use, that both the learned them­selves and the gen­er­al­ity of mankind may de­rive ben­efits there­from. Such aca­dem­ic pur­suits as be­gin and end in words alone have nev­er been and will nev­er be of any worth. The ma­jor­ity of Per­sia's learned doc­tors de­vote all their lives to the study of a phi­los­ophy the ul­ti­mate yield of which is noth­ing but words.

It is in­cum­bent up­on them who are in au­thor­ity to ex­er­cise mod­er­ation in all things. What­so­ev­er pas­seth be­yond the lim­its of mod­er­ation will cease to ex­ert a ben­efi­cial in­flu­ence. Con­sid­er for in­stance such things as lib­er­ty, civ­iliza­tion and the like. How­ev­er much men of un­der­stand­ing may favourably re­gard them, they will, if car­ried to ex­cess, ex­er­cise a per­ni­cious in­flu­ence up­on men.

If this point were to be ex­pound­ed an elab­orate ex­pla­na­tion would be re­quired which, it is feared, might be­come te­dious. It is the ar­dent hope of this low­ly one that God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--may grant all men that which is good. For he who is en­dowed there­with is the pos­ses­sor of all things. The Great Be­ing saith: The Tongue of Wis­dom pro­claimeth: He that hath Me not is bereft of all things. Turn ye away from all that is on earth and seek none else but Me. I am the Sun of Wis­dom and the Ocean of Knowl­edge. I cheer the faint and re­vive the dead. I am the guid­ing Light that il­lu­mineth the way. I am the roy­al Fal­con on the arm of the Almighty. I un­fold the droop­ing wings of ev­ery bro­ken bird and start it on its flight.

And like­wise He saith: The heav­en of true un­der­stand­ing shineth re­splen­dent with the light of two lu­mi­nar­ies: tol­er­ance and righ­teous­ness.

O my friend! Vast oceans lie en­shrined with­in this brief say­ing. Blessed are they who ap­pre­ci­ate its val­ue, drink deep there­from and grasp its mean­ing, and woe be­tide the heed­less. This low­ly one en­treateth the peo­ple of the world to ob­serve fair­ness, that their ten­der, their del­icate and pre­cious hear­ing which hath been cre­at­ed to hear­ken un­to the words of wis­dom may be freed from im­ped­iments and from such al­lu­sions, idle fan­cies or vain imag­in­ings as 'can­not fat­ten nor ap­pease the hunger', so that the true Coun­sel­lor may be gra­cious­ly in­clined to set forth that which is the source of bless­ing for mankind and of the high­est good for all na­tions.

At present the light of rec­on­cil­ia­tion is dimmed in most coun­tries and its ra­di­ance ex­tin­guished while the fire of strife and dis­or­der hath been kin­dled and is blaz­ing fierce­ly. Two great pow­ers who re­gard them­selves as the founders and lead­ers of civ­iliza­tion and the framers of con­sti­tu­tions have risen up against the fol­low­ers of the Faith as­so­ci­at­ed with Him Who con­versed with God.(59) Be ye warned, O men of un­der­stand­ing. It ill be­seemeth the sta­tion of man to com­mit tyran­ny; rather it be­hoveth him to ob­serve eq­ui­ty and be at­tired with the rai­ment of jus­tice un­der all con­di­tions. Be­seech ye the One true God that He may, through the pow­er of the hand of lov­ing-​kind­ness and spir­itu­al ed­uca­tion, purge and pu­ri­fy cer­tain souls from the de­file­ment of evil pas­sions and cor­rupt de­sires, that they may arise and un­loose their tongues for the sake of God, that per­chance the ev­idences of in­jus­tice may be blot­ted out and the splen­dour of the light of jus­tice may shed its ra­di­ance up­on the whole world. The peo­ple are ig­no­rant, and they stand in need of those who will ex­pound the truth.

The Great Be­ing saith: The man of con­sum­mate learn­ing and the sage en­dowed with pen­etrat­ing wis­dom are the two eyes to the body of mankind. God will­ing, the earth shall nev­er be de­prived of these two great­est gifts. That which hath been set forth and will be re­vealed in the fu­ture is but a to­ken of this Ser­vant's ar­dent de­sire to ded­icate Him­self to the ser­vice of all the kin­dreds of the earth.

O my friend! In all cir­cum­stances one should seize up­on ev­ery means which will pro­mote se­cu­ri­ty and tran­quil­li­ty among the peo­ples of the world. The Great Be­ing saith: In this glo­ri­ous Day what­ev­er will purge you from cor­rup­tion and will lead you to­wards peace and com­po­sure, is in­deed the Straight Path.

Please God, the peo­ples of the world may be led, as the re­sult of the high en­deav­ours ex­ert­ed by their rulers and the wise and learned amongst men, to rec­og­nize their best in­ter­ests. How long will hu­man­ity per­sist in its way­ward­ness? How long will in­jus­tice con­tin­ue? How long is chaos and con­fu­sion to reign amongst men? How long will dis­cord ag­itate the face of so­ci­ety?

This hum­ble ser­vant is filled with won­der, inas­much as all men are en­dowed with the ca­pac­ity to see and hear, yet we find them de­prived of the priv­ilege of us­ing these fac­ul­ties. This ser­vant hath been prompt­ed to pen these lines by virtue of the ten­der love he cher­isheth for thee. The winds of de­spair are, alas, blow­ing from ev­ery di­rec­tion, and the strife that di­videth and af­flicteth the hu­man race is dai­ly in­creas­ing. The signs of im­pend­ing con­vul­sions and chaos can now be dis­cerned, inas­much as the pre­vail­ing or­der ap­peareth to be lamentably de­fec­tive. I be­seech God, ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry, that He may gra­cious­ly awak­en the peo­ples of the earth, may grant that the end of their con­duct may be prof­itable un­to them, and aid them to ac­com­plish that which be­seemeth their sta­tion.

Were man to ap­pre­ci­ate the great­ness of his sta­tion and the lofti­ness of his des­tiny he would man­ifest naught save good­ly char­ac­ter, pure deeds, and a seem­ly and praise­wor­thy con­duct. If the learned and wise men of good­will were to im­part guid­ance un­to the peo­ple, the whole earth would be re­gard­ed as one coun­try. Ver­ily this is the un­doubt­ed truth. This ser­vant ap­pealeth to ev­ery dili­gent and en­ter­pris­ing soul to ex­ert his ut­most en­deav­our and arise to re­ha­bil­itate the con­di­tions in all re­gions and to quick­en the dead with the liv­ing wa­ters of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance, by virtue of the love he cher­isheth for God, the One, the Peer­less, the Almighty, the Benef­icent.

No man of wis­dom can demon­strate his knowl­edge save by means of words. This showeth the sig­nif­icance of the Word as is af­firmed in all the Scrip­tures, whether of for­mer times or more re­cent­ly. For it is through its po­ten­cy and an­imat­ing spir­it that the peo­ple of the world have at­tained so em­inent a po­si­tion. More­over words and ut­ter­ances should be both im­pres­sive and pen­etrat­ing. How­ev­er, no word will be in­fused with these two qual­ities un­less it be ut­tered whol­ly for the sake of God and with due re­gard un­to the ex­igen­cies of the oc­ca­sion and the peo­ple.

The Great Be­ing saith: Hu­man ut­ter­ance is an essence which as­pireth to ex­ert its in­flu­ence and needeth mod­er­ation. As to its in­flu­ence, this is con­di­tion­al up­on re­fine­ment which in turn is de­pen­dent up­on hearts which are de­tached and pure. As to its mod­er­ation, this hath to be com­bined with tact and wis­dom as pre­scribed in the Holy Scrip­tures and Tablets.

Ev­ery word is en­dowed with a spir­it, there­fore the speak­er or ex­pounder should care­ful­ly de­liv­er his words at the ap­pro­pri­ate time and place, for the im­pres­sion which each word maketh is clear­ly ev­ident and per­cep­ti­ble. The Great Be­ing saith: One word may be likened un­to fire, an­oth­er un­to light, and the in­flu­ence which both ex­ert is man­ifest in the world. There­fore an en­light­ened man of wis­dom should pri­mar­ily speak with words as mild as milk, that the chil­dren of men may be nur­tured and ed­ified there­by and may at­tain the ul­ti­mate goal of hu­man ex­is­tence which is the sta­tion of true un­der­stand­ing and no­bil­ity. And like­wise He saith: One word is like un­to spring­time caus­ing the ten­der saplings of the rose-​gar­den of knowl­edge to be­come ver­dant and flour­ish­ing, while an­oth­er word is even as a dead­ly poi­son. It be­hoveth a pru­dent man of wis­dom to speak with ut­most le­nien­cy and for­bear­ance so that the sweet­ness of his words may in­duce ev­ery­one to at­tain that which be­fit­teth man's sta­tion.

O friend of mine! The Word of God is the king of words and its per­va­sive in­flu­ence is in­cal­cu­la­ble. It hath ev­er dom­inat­ed and will con­tin­ue to dom­inate the realm of be­ing. The Great Be­ing saith: The Word is the mas­ter key for the whole world, inas­much as through its po­ten­cy the doors of the hearts of men, which in re­al­ity are the doors of heav­en, are un­locked. No soon­er had but a glim­mer of its ef­ful­gent splen­dour shone forth up­on the mir­ror of love than the blessed word 'I am the Best-​Beloved' was re­flect­ed there­in. It is an ocean in­ex­haustible in rich­es, com­pre­hend­ing all things. Ev­ery thing which can be per­ceived is but an em­ana­tion there­from. High, im­mea­sur­ably high is this sub­lime sta­tion, in whose shad­ow moveth the essence of lofti­ness and splen­dour, wrapt in praise and ado­ra­tion.

Me­thinks peo­ple's sense of taste hath, alas, been sore­ly af­fect­ed by the fever of neg­li­gence and fol­ly, for they are found to be whol­ly un­con­scious and de­prived of the sweet­ness of His ut­ter­ance. How re­gret­table in­deed that man should de­bar him­self from the fruits of the tree of wis­dom while his days and hours pass swift­ly away. Please God, the hand of di­vine pow­er may safe­guard all mankind and di­rect their steps to­wards the hori­zon of true un­der­stand­ing.

Ver­ily our Lord of Mer­cy is the Helper, the Know­ing, the Wise.

I would like to add that thy sec­ond let­ter which had been sent from Jerusalem hath been re­ceived and that which thou hadst writ­ten and set forth there­in was pe­rused and read in His pres­ence. He bade me write as fol­lows:

O Maqsúd! We have heard thy voice and per­ceived the sigh­ing and lamen­ta­tion thou didst raise in thy long­ing and ea­ger­ness. Praised be God! The sweet savours of love could be in­haled from ev­ery word there­of. Please God, this boun­ty may last for ev­er. The Ser­vant-​in-​At­ten­dance re­cit­ed the vers­es thou hast com­posed. Thy name is of­ten men­tioned in the pres­ence of this Wronged One and the glances of Our lov­ing-​kind­ness and com­pas­sion are di­rect­ed to­wards thee.

Great is the sta­tion of man. Great must al­so be his en­deav­ours for the re­ha­bil­ita­tion of the world and the well-​be­ing of na­tions. I be­seech the One true God to gra­cious­ly con­firm thee in that which be­seemeth man's sta­tion.

Be thou guid­ed by wis­dom un­der all con­di­tions, inas­much as per­sons who har­bour evil mo­tives have been and are still dili­gent­ly en­gaged in in­trigu­ing. Gra­cious God! Un­to that im­mea­sur­ably ex­alt­ed Be­ing Who seeketh naught but to fos­ter the spir­it of love and fel­low­ship amongst men, and to re­vive the world and en­no­ble its life, they have im­put­ed such charges as the tongue and the pen are ashamed to re­count.

We have re­mem­bered thee and make men­tion of thee now. We en­treat Him--ex­alt­ed is His glo­ry--to pro­tect thee with the hands of might and pow­er and en­able thee to rec­og­nize that which will serve thy best in­ter­ests both in this world and in the next. He is the Lord of Mankind, the Pos­ses­sor of the Throne on High and of the world be­low. No God is there be­sides Him, the Om­nipo­tent, the Pow­er­ful. God grant that this Wronged One may ob­serve fi­deli­ty. He hath not for­got­ten nor will He ev­er for­get thee.

Thou hast men­tioned thine in­ten­tion to stay in Dam­as­cus un­til spring, then to pro­ceed to Mo­sul, should the means be forth­com­ing. This low­ly ser­vant en­treateth God--ex­alt­ed is His glo­ry--to pro­vide such means as is deemed ex­pe­di­ent, and to aid thee. He is Po­tent and Pow­er­ful.

Al­though all the in­hab­itants of this re­gion have been treat­ed with the ut­most kind­ness, yet no ev­idence of fel­low­ship can be dis­cerned from them. Thou shouldst ob­serve much tact and wis­dom, for they seek at all times to cav­il at and de­ny the Cause. May the One true God grant them eq­ui­ty.

Con­cern­ing thine own af­fairs, if thou wouldst con­tent thy­self with what­ev­er might come to pass it would be praise­wor­thy. To en­gage in some pro­fes­sion is high­ly com­mend­able, for when oc­cu­pied with work one is less like­ly to dwell on the un­pleas­ant as­pects of life. God will­ing thou mayest ex­pe­ri­ence joy and ra­di­ance, glad­ness and ex­ul­ta­tion in any city or land where thou mayest hap­pen to so­journ. This low­ly ser­vant will nev­er for­get that dis­tin­guished and kind friend. He hath re­mem­bered and will con­tin­ue to re­mem­ber thee. The de­cree li­eth with God, the Lord of all worlds. I fain would hope He may vouch­safe di­vine as­sis­tance and grant con­fir­ma­tion in that which is pleas­ing and ac­cept­able un­to Him.

Ev­ery word of thy po­et­ry is in­deed like un­to a mir­ror in which the ev­idences of the de­vo­tion and love thou cher­ish­est for God and His cho­sen ones are re­flect­ed. Well is it with thee who hast quaffed the choice wine of ut­ter­ance and par­tak­en of the soft flow­ing stream of true knowl­edge. Hap­py is he who hath drunk his fill and at­tained un­to Him and woe be­tide the heed­less. Its pe­rusal hath tru­ly proved high­ly im­pres­sive, for it was in­dica­tive of both the light of re­union and the fire of sep­ara­tion.

Far be it from us to de­spair at any time of the in­cal­cu­la­ble favours of God, for if it were His wish He could cause a mere atom to be trans­formed in­to a sun and a sin­gle drop in­to an ocean. He un­lock­eth thou­sands of doors, while man is in­ca­pable of con­ceiv­ing even a sin­gle one.

So heed­less is this ser­vant that with words such as these he seeketh to vin­di­cate the supreme pow­er of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry. I im­plore par­don of God, the Most Great, for these as­ser­tions and af­firm that this ser­vant at all times rec­og­nizeth his grievous tres­pass­es and mis­deeds. He en­treateth re­mis­sion of his sins from the ocean of the for­give­ness of his Lord, the Most Ex­alt­ed, and beggeth for that which will make him whol­ly de­vot­ed to God and en­able him to ut­ter His praise, turn him­self to­ward Him and to put his whole trust in Him. Ver­ily He is the Po­tent, the For­giv­ing, the Mer­ci­ful. Praised be God, the Almighty, the All-​Know­ing.

This low­ly one hath read the de­scrip­tions of the di­alogue with the trav­eller which thou hast re­count­ed in thy let­ter to my Lord, may my life be of­fered up for His sake. The ex­pla­na­tions which were set forth awak­en the peo­ple from the slum­ber of heed­less­ness. In­deed the ac­tions of man him­self breed a pro­fu­sion of sa­tan­ic pow­er. For were men to abide by and ob­serve the di­vine teach­ings, ev­ery trace of evil would be ban­ished from the face of the earth. How­ev­er, the widespread dif­fer­ences that ex­ist among mankind and the preva­lence of sedi­tion, con­tention, con­flict and the like are the pri­ma­ry fac­tors which pro­voke the ap­pear­ance of the sa­tan­ic spir­it. Yet the Holy Spir­it hath ev­er shunned such mat­ters. A world in which naught can be per­ceived save strife, quar­rels and cor­rup­tion is bound to be­come the seat of the throne, the very metropo­lis, of Sa­tan.

How vast the num­ber of the loved and cho­sen ones of God who have lament­ed and moaned by day and by night that hap­ly a sweet and fra­grant breeze might blow from the court of His good-​plea­sure and dis­pel al­to­geth­er the loath­some and foul-​smelling odours from the world. How­ev­er, this ul­ti­mate goal could not be at­tained, and men were de­prived there­of by virtue of their evil deeds, which brought up­on them the ret­ri­bu­tion of God, in ac­cor­dance with the ba­sic prin­ci­ples of His di­vine rule. Ours is the du­ty to re­main pa­tient in these cir­cum­stances un­til re­lief be forth­com­ing from God, the For­giv­ing, the Boun­ti­ful.

Mag­ni­fied be Thy Name, O Lord of all be­ings and De­sire of all cre­at­ed things! I be­seech Thee, by the Word which hath caused the Burn­ing Bush to lift up its Voice and the Rock to cry out, where­by the well-​favoured have has­tened to at­tain the court of Thy pres­ence and the pure in heart the dayspring of the light of Thy coun­te­nance, and by the sigh­ing of Thy true lovers in their sep­ara­tion from Thy cho­sen ones and by the lamen­ta­tion of them that long to be­hold Thy face be­fore the dawn­ing splen­dour of the light of Thy Rev­ela­tion, to gra­cious­ly en­able Thy ser­vants to rec­og­nize what Thou hast or­dained for them by Thy boun­ty and Thy grace. Pre­scribe for them then through Thy Pen of Glo­ry that which will di­rect their steps to the ocean of Thy gen­eros­ity and will lead them un­to the liv­ing wa­ters of Thy heav­en­ly re­union.

O Lord! Look not at the things they have wrought, rather look un­to the lofti­ness of Thy ce­les­tial boun­ty which hath pre­ced­ed all cre­at­ed things, vis­ible and in­vis­ible. O Lord! Il­lu­mine their hearts with the ef­ful­gent light of Thy knowl­edge and bright­en their eyes with the shin­ing splen­dour of the day-​star of Thy favours.

I en­treat Thee, O Lord of Names and Cre­ator of the heav­ens, by the blood spilt in Thy Path, and by the heads car­ried aloft on spears for the sake of Thy love, and by the souls that have melt­ed in their sep­ara­tion from Thy loved ones, and by the hearts bro­ken for the ex­al­ta­tion of Thy Word, to grant that the dwellers of Thy realm may unite to­geth­er in their al­le­giance to Thine in­com­pa­ra­ble Word so that they may all ac­knowl­edge Thy uni­ty and Thy one­ness. There is no God but Thee, the Om­nipo­tent, the Most Ex­alt­ed, the Know­ing, the Wise.

I fain would hope that He Who is the All-​Suf­fic­ing, the In­ac­ces­si­ble, may heed the so­lic­ita­tion of this low­ly ser­vant, may at­tire the peo­ple of the world with the rai­ment of good­ly deeds and purge them from evil in­cli­na­tions. He is the Mighty, the Pow­er­ful, the All-​Wise, the All-​Per­ceiv­ing. He heareth and seeth; He is the All-​Hear­ing, the All-​See­ing.

SÚRIY-​I-​VAFÁ(60) (TABLET TO VAFÁ)

He is the All-​Know­ing

O VAFÁ! Ren­der thanks un­to thy Lord for hav­ing aid­ed thee to em­brace His Cause, en­abled thee to rec­og­nize the Man­ifes­ta­tion of His Own Self and raised thee up to mag­ni­fy Him Who is the Most Great Re­mem­brance in this glo­ri­ous An­nounce­ment.

Blessed art thou O Vafá, inas­much as thou hast been faith­ful to the Covenant of God and His Tes­ta­ment at a time when all men have vi­olat­ed it and have re­pu­di­at­ed the One in Whom they had be­lieved, and this notwith­stand­ing that He hath ap­peared in­vest­ed with ev­ery tes­ti­mo­ny, and hath dawned from the hori­zon of Rev­ela­tion clothed with un­doubt­ed sovereign­ty.

It be­hoveth thee, how­ev­er, to ex­ert thine ut­most to at­tain the very essence of fi­deli­ty. This im­pli­eth to be well as­sured in thy heart and to tes­ti­fy with thy tongue to that where­un­to God hath tes­ti­fied for His Own ex­alt­ed Self, pro­claim­ing: 'Ver­ily, self-​sub­sist­ing am I with­in the Realm of Glo­ry.' Whoso is en­abled in these days to solemn­ly af­firm this truth, hath at­tained un­to all good, and the heav­en­ly Spir­it shall de­scend up­on him in the day­time and in the night sea­son, shall gra­cious­ly as­sist him to glo­ri­fy the Name of his Lord and suf­fer him to un­loose his tongue and up­hold with his words the Cause of his Lord, the Mer­ci­ful, the Com­pas­sion­ate. And none can ev­er achieve this ex­cept he who hath purged his heart from what­so­ev­er is cre­at­ed be­tween heav­en and earth, and hath en­tire­ly de­tached him­self from all but God, the sovereign Lord, the Almighty, the Gra­cious.

Arise thou to serve the Cause and say: I swear by the righ­teous­ness of God! Ver­ily this is the Pri­mal Point, ar­rayed in His new at­tire and man­ifest­ed in His glo­ri­ous Name. He at present be­hold­eth ev­ery­thing from this Hori­zon. In­deed He is supreme over all things. Amongst the Con­course on High He is known as the Most Great An­nounce­ment and in the Realms of Eter­ni­ty as the An­cient Beau­ty, and be­fore the Throne by this Name(61) which hath caused the foot­steps of them that are en­dued with un­der­stand­ing to slip.

Say, I swear by God! In this Rev­ela­tion even be­fore a sin­gle verse was sent down from the realm of ho­li­ness and sub­lim­ity, the supreme tes­ti­mo­ny of God had been ful­filled for all the in­mates of heav­en and the dwellers on earth; more­over, We have re­vealed the equiv­alent of what­so­ev­er was sent down in the Dis­pen­sa­tion of the Bayán. Fear ye God and suf­fer not your deeds to be ren­dered vain and be not of them that are sunk in heed­less­ness. Open your eyes that ye may be­hold the An­cient Beau­ty from this shin­ing and lu­mi­nous sta­tion.

Say, God is my wit­ness! The Promised One Him­self hath come down from heav­en, seat­ed up­on the crim­son cloud with the hosts of rev­ela­tion on His right, and the an­gels of in­spi­ra­tion on His left, and the De­cree hath been ful­filled at the be­hest of God, the Om­nipo­tent, the Almighty. There­upon the foot­steps of ev­ery­one have slipped ex­cept such as God hath pro­tect­ed through His ten­der mer­cy and num­bered with those who have rec­og­nized Him through His Own Self and de­tached them­selves from all that per­taineth to the world.

Hear­ken thou un­to the Words of thy Lord and pu­ri­fy thy heart from ev­ery il­lu­sion so that the ef­ful­gent light of the re­mem­brance of thy Lord may shed its ra­di­ance up­on it, and it may at­tain the sta­tion of cer­ti­tude.

Know thou more­over that thy let­ter reached Our pres­ence and We per­ceived and pe­rused its con­tents. We not­ed the ques­tions thou hast asked and will read­ily an­swer thee. It be­hoveth ev­ery­one in this Day to ask God that which he de­sireth, and thy Lord will heed his pe­ti­tion with won­drous and un­de­ni­able vers­es.

Thou hast asked re­gard­ing the sub­ject of the re­turn. Know thou that the end is like un­to the be­gin­ning. Even as thou dost con­sid­er the be­gin­ning, sim­ilar­ly shouldst thou con­sid­er the end, and be of them that tru­ly per­ceive. Nay, rather con­sid­er the be­gin­ning as the end it­self, and so con­verse­ly, that thou mayest ac­quire a clear per­cep­tion. Know thou more­over that ev­ery cre­at­ed thing is con­tin­ual­ly brought forth and re­turned at the bid­ding of thy Lord, the God of pow­er and might.

As to the Re­turn, as God hath pur­posed in His sa­cred and ex­alt­ed Tablets where­in He hath made this theme known un­to His ser­vants; by this is meant the re­turn of all cre­at­ed things in the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion, and this is in­deed the essence of the Re­turn as thou hast wit­nessed in God's own days and thou art of them that tes­ti­fy to this truth.

Ver­ily God is ful­ly ca­pa­ble of caus­ing all names to ap­pear in one name, and all souls in one soul. Sure­ly pow­er­ful and mighty is He. And this Re­turn is re­al­ized at His be­hest in what­ev­er form He wil­leth. In­deed He is the One Who doeth and or­daineth all things. More­over, thou shouldst not per­ceive the ful­fil­ment of the Re­turn and the Res­ur­rec­tion save in the Word of thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-​Know­ing. For in­stance, were He to take a hand­ful of earth and de­clare it to be the One Whom ye have been fol­low­ing in the past, it would un­doubt­ed­ly be just and true, even as His re­al Per­son, and to none is giv­en the right to ques­tion His au­thor­ity. He doeth what He wil­leth and or­daineth what­so­ev­er He pleaseth. More­over, in this sta­tion take thou heed not to turn thy gaze un­to lim­ita­tions and al­lu­sions, but rather un­to that where­by the Rev­ela­tion it­self hath been ful­filled and be of them that are dis­cern­ing. Thus do We ex­plain for thee in a lu­cid and ex­plic­it lan­guage that thou mayest com­pre­hend that which thou didst seek from thine an­cient Lord.

Con­sid­er thou the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion. Were God to pro­nounce the lowli­est of crea­tures among the faith­ful to be the First One to be­lieve in the Bayán, thou shouldst have no mis­giv­ings about it and must be of them that tru­ly be­lieve. In this sta­tion look not up­on hu­man lim­ita­tions and names but rather up­on that where­by the rank of the First One to be­lieve is vin­di­cat­ed, which is faith in God, and recog­ni­tion of His Be­ing and as­sur­ance in the ful­fil­ment of His ir­re­sistible and bind­ing com­mand.

Con­sid­er thou the Rev­ela­tion of the Point of the Bayán--ex­alt­ed is His glo­ry. He pro­nounced the First One(62) to be­lieve in Him to be Muham­mad, the Mes­sen­ger of God. Doth it be­seem a man to dis­pute with Him by say­ing that this man is from Per­sia, the Oth­er from Ara­bia, or this one was called Husayn while the Oth­er bore the name of Muham­mad? Nay, I swear by God's holy Be­ing, the Ex­alt­ed, the Most Great. Sure­ly no man of in­tel­li­gence and in­sight would ev­er pay at­ten­tion un­to lim­ita­tions or names, but rather un­to that with which Muham­mad was in­vest­ed, which was none oth­er than the Cause of God. Such a man of in­sight would like­wise con­sid­er Husayn and the po­si­tion he oc­cu­pied in the Cause of God, the Om­nipo­tent, the Ex­alt­ed, the Know­ing, the Wise. And since the First One to be­lieve in God in the Dis­pen­sa­tion of the Bayán was in­vest­ed with com­mand sim­ilar to that with which Muham­mad, the Mes­sen­ger of God, was in­vest­ed, there­fore the Báb pro­nounced him to be the lat­ter, name­ly His re­turn and res­ur­rec­tion. This sta­tion is sanc­ti­fied from ev­ery lim­ita­tion or name, and naught can be seen there­in but God, the One, the Peer­less, the All-​Know­ing.

Know thou more­over that in the Day of Rev­ela­tion were He to pro­nounce one of the leaves to be the man­ifes­ta­tion of all His ex­cel­lent ti­tles, un­to no one is giv­en the right to ut­ter why or where­fore, and should one do so he would be re­gard­ed as a dis­be­liev­er in God and be num­bered with such as have re­pu­di­at­ed His Truth.

Be­ware, be­ware lest thou be­have like un­to the peo­ple of the Bayán. For in­deed they erred grievous­ly, mis­guid­ed the peo­ple, ig­nored the Covenant of God and His Tes­ta­ment and joined part­ners with Him, the One, the In­com­pa­ra­ble, the All-​Know­ing. Ver­ily they failed to rec­og­nize the Point of the Bayán, for had they rec­og­nized Him they would not have re­ject­ed His man­ifes­ta­tion in this lu­mi­nous and re­splen­dent Be­ing. And since they fixed their eyes on names, there­fore when He re­placed His Name 'the Most Ex­alt­ed' by 'the Most Glo­ri­ous' their eyes were dimmed. They have failed to rec­og­nize Him in these days and are reck­oned with those that per­ish. In­deed, had they known Him through His own Self or by virtue of that which He hath re­vealed, they would not have re­pu­di­at­ed Him when He ap­peared in this glo­ri­ous and in­com­pa­ra­ble Name, which God hath or­dained to be the Sword of His Rev­ela­tion be­tween heav­en and earth, and through which truth is sep­arat­ed from er­ror, even from now un­til the Day when mankind shall stand be­fore the Lord of the worlds.

Know thou more­over that in the Day of His Man­ifes­ta­tion all things be­sides God shall be brought forth and placed equal­ly, ir­re­spec­tive of their rank be­ing high or low. The Day of Re­turn is in­scrutable un­to all men un­til af­ter the di­vine Rev­ela­tion hath been ful­filled. He is in truth the One Who or­daineth what­so­ev­er He wil­leth. When the Word of God is re­vealed un­to all cre­at­ed things whoso then giveth ear and heedeth the Call is, in­deed, reck­oned among the most dis­tin­guished souls, though he be a car­ri­er of ash­es. And he who tur­neth away is ac­count­ed as the lowli­est of His ser­vants, though he be a ruler amongst men and the pos­ses­sor of all the books that are in the heav­ens and on earth.

It be­hoveth thee to look with di­vine in­sight up­on the things We have re­vealed and sent un­to thee and not to­wards the peo­ple and that which is cur­rent amongst them. They are in this day like un­to a blind man who, while mov­ing in the sun­shine, de­man­deth: Where is the sun? Is it shin­ing? He would de­ny and dis­pute the truth, and would not be of them that per­ceive. Nev­er shall he be able to dis­cern the sun or to un­der­stand that which hath in­ter­vened be­tween him and it. He would ob­ject with­in him­self, voice protests, and would be among the re­bel­lious. Such is the state of this peo­ple. Leave them un­to them­selves, say­ing: Un­to you be that which ye de­sire and un­to us that which we de­sire. Wretched in­deed is the plight of the un­god­ly.

Know thou more­over that the for­mer Man­ifes­ta­tion af­firmed that the re­turn and ris­ing of the spir­its would oc­cur on the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion, while in truth there is a re­turn and res­ur­rec­tion for ev­ery cre­at­ed thing. How­ev­er We do not wish to men­tion aught that is not set forth in the Bayán, lest per­chance the peo­ple of mal­ice raise a great out­cry. O would that that which in­ter­veneth be­tween the chil­dren of men and their Cre­ator were dis­pelled that they might be en­abled to be­hold God's in­vin­ci­ble sovereign­ty and do­min­ion, quaff from the well­spring of His heav­en­ly streams, be sprin­kled with the out­pour­ings of the ocean of true un­der­stand­ing and be purged from the de­file­ments of the un­god­ly and the sus­pi­cious.

As to thy ques­tion con­cern­ing the worlds of God. Know thou of a truth that the worlds of God are count­less in their num­ber, and in­fi­nite in their range. None can reck­on or com­pre­hend them ex­cept God, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise. Con­sid­er thy state when asleep. Ver­ily, I say, this phe­nomenon is the most mys­te­ri­ous of the signs of God amongst men, were they to pon­der it in their hearts. Be­hold how the thing which thou hast seen in thy dream is, af­ter a con­sid­er­able lapse of time, ful­ly re­al­ized. Had the world in which thou didst find thy­self in thy dream been iden­ti­cal with the world in which thou livest, it would have been nec­es­sary for the event oc­cur­ring in that dream to have tran­spired in this world at the very mo­ment of its oc­cur­rence. Were it so, you your­self would have borne wit­ness un­to it. This be­ing not the case, how­ev­er, it must nec­es­sar­ily fol­low that the world in which thou livest is dif­fer­ent and apart from that which thou hast ex­pe­ri­enced in thy dream. This lat­ter world hath nei­ther be­gin­ning nor end. It would be true if thou wert to con­tend that this same world is, as de­creed by the All-​Glo­ri­ous and Almighty God, with­in thy prop­er self and is wrapped up with­in thee. It would equal­ly be true to main­tain that thy spir­it, hav­ing tran­scend­ed the lim­ita­tions of sleep and hav­ing stripped it­self of all earth­ly at­tach­ment, hath, by the act of God, been made to tra­verse a realm which li­eth hid­den in the in­ner­most re­al­ity of this world. Ver­ily I say, the cre­ation of God em­braceth worlds be­sides this world, and crea­tures apart from these crea­tures. In each of these worlds He hath or­dained things which none can search ex­cept Him­self, the All-​Search­ing, the All-​Wise. Do thou med­itate on that which We have re­vealed un­to thee, that thou mayest dis­cov­er the pur­pose of God, thy Lord, and the Lord of all worlds. In these words the mys­ter­ies of Di­vine Wis­dom have been trea­sured. We have re­frained from dwelling up­on this theme ow­ing to the sor­row that hath en­com­passed Us from the ac­tions of them that have been cre­at­ed through Our words, if ye be of them that will hear­ken un­to Our Voice.

Where is the one who can help Me and shield Me from the swords of these faith­less souls? Where is the man of in­sight who will be­hold the Words of God with his own eyes and rid him­self of the opin­ions and no­tions of the peo­ples of the earth?

O ser­vant! Warn thou the ser­vants of God not to re­ject that which they do not com­pre­hend. Say, im­plore God to open to your hearts the por­tals of true un­der­stand­ing that ye may be ap­prised of that of which no one is ap­prised. Ver­ily, He is the Giv­er, the For­giv­ing, the Com­pas­sion­ate.

Thou hast more­over asked Me con­cern­ing the or­di­nances of God. Know thou of a truth that what­so­ev­er hath been pre­scribed in the Book is in­deed the truth, no doubt is there about it, and it is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to ob­serve that which hath been sent down by Him Who is the Re­veal­er, the All-​Know­ing. Were a man to put them away de­spite his be­ing aware there­of, God would tru­ly be clear of such a one and We too would be clear of him, inas­much as His or­di­nances con­sti­tute the fruits of the di­vine Tree and none oth­er than the heed­less and the way­ward will de­vi­ate there­from.

As to Par­adise: It is a re­al­ity and there can be no doubt about it, and now in this world it is re­al­ized through love of Me and My good-​plea­sure. Whoso­ev­er at­taineth un­to it God will aid him in this world be­low, and af­ter death He will en­able him to gain ad­mit­tance in­to Par­adise whose vast­ness is as that of heav­en and earth. There­in the Maids of glo­ry and ho­li­ness will wait up­on him in the day­time and in the night sea­son, while the day-​star of the un­fad­ing beau­ty of his Lord will at all times shed its ra­di­ance up­on him and he will shine so bright­ly that no one shall bear to gaze at him. Such is the dis­pen­sa­tion of Prov­idence, yet the peo­ple are shut out by a grievous veil. Like­wise ap­pre­hend thou the na­ture of hell-​fire and be of them that tru­ly be­lieve. For ev­ery act per­formed there shall be a rec­om­pense ac­cord­ing to the es­ti­mate of God, and un­to this the very or­di­nances and pro­hi­bi­tions pre­scribed by the Almighty am­ply bear wit­ness. For sure­ly if deeds were not re­ward­ed and yield­ed no fruit, then the Cause of God--ex­alt­ed is He--would prove fu­tile. Im­mea­sur­ably high is He ex­alt­ed above such blas­phemies! How­ev­er, un­to them that are rid of all at­tach­ments a deed is, ver­ily, its own re­ward. Were We to en­large up­on this theme nu­mer­ous Tablets would need to be writ­ten.

I swear by the righ­teous­ness of the One true God! The Pen is un­able to move by rea­son of that which hath be­fall­en its Lord, and it weep­eth sore, and so do I weep, and like­wise weep­eth the eye of Him Who is the Essence of Grandeur be­hind the Taber­na­cle of Names while seat­ed on the Throne of His glo­ri­ous Name.

Purge thou thy heart that We may cause foun­tains of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance to gush out there­from, thus en­abling thee to raise thy voice among all mankind. Un­loose thy tongue and pro­claim the truth for the sake of the re­mem­brance of thy mer­ci­ful Lord. Be not afraid of any­one, place thy whole trust in God, the Almighty, the All-​Know­ing. Say, O peo­ple, ful­fil what­ev­er ye un­der­stand of the Per­sian Bayán and what­ev­er ye un­der­stand not ask this unerring Re­mem­brance that He may set forth clear­ly that which God hath in­tend­ed in His Book, for in truth He knoweth that which is en­shrined in the Bayán by virtue of the Will of Him Who is the Om­nipo­tent, the Pow­er­ful.

Thou hast en­quired about the warn­ing We gave to the peo­ple at the time of Our de­par­ture from 'Iráq to the ef­fect that when the Sun dis­ap­peareth from sight, birds of dark­ness will be in mo­tion and the stan­dards of Samírí(63) will be reared high. I swear by God! Those birds have stirred in these days and Samírí hath raised his clam­our. Well is it with him who rec­og­nizeth and is num­bered with men of un­der­stand­ing. We have al­so warned them against the ap­pear­ance of the calf. God is My wit­ness! All Our warn­ings have come to pass, as in­deed, they are bound to, inas­much as they have is­sued from the fin­gers of glo­ry and might. Be­seech thou God to pro­tect thee from the mis­chief of these men and to pu­ri­fy thee from the in­sin­ua­tions of the froward. Strength­en thy loins then for the pro­mo­tion of the Cause and pay no at­ten­tion un­to the words ut­tered by the peo­ple of the Bayán, for they are tru­ly in­ca­pable of un­der­stand­ing and have failed to com­pre­hend the essence of the Cause as is re­vealed in this au­gust, this Most Great An­nounce­ment. Thus have We in­spired thee, and in­fused in­to thy heart that which will make thee in­de­pen­dent of the al­lu­sions of mankind.

The glo­ry of God be up­on thee and up­on them that give ear un­to the words thou dost ut­ter for the love of God, thy Lord, and re­main stead­fast in His Cause. All praise be un­to God, the Lord of the worlds.

LAWH-​I-​SÍYYID-​I-​MI­HDÍY-​I-​DAHÁJÍ (TABLET TO SIYYID MI­HDÍY-​I-​DAHÁJÍ)

He is the Most Holy, the Most Great, the Most Ex­alt­ed, the Most High

O MY Name!(64) Yield thou praise un­to God for hav­ing gra­cious­ly cho­sen thee to be a show­er of boun­ty for that which We have sown in the pure and blessed soil and en­abled thee to serve as a spring­time of ten­der mer­cy for the won­drous and sub­lime trees We have plant­ed. In­deed so great is this favour that of all cre­at­ed things in the world of ex­is­tence, none can ev­er hope to ri­val it. We have more­over giv­en thee to drink the choice wine of ut­ter­ance from the chal­ice of the heav­en­ly be­stowals of thy mer­ci­ful Lord, which is none oth­er than this Tongue of ho­li­ness--a Tongue that, as soon as it was un­loosed, quick­ened the en­tire cre­ation, set in mo­tion all be­ings and caused the Nightin­gale to pour forth its melodies. This is the Foun­tain of liv­ing wa­ter for all that dwell in the realm of be­ing.

Of­ten­times have We waft­ed up­on thee the sweet savours of the All-​Mer­ci­ful from this Branch which moveth over the Tablet of thy Lord, the Mighty, the Un­con­strained. By the righ­teous­ness of the One true God! Were all cre­at­ed things, vis­ible and in­vis­ible, to di­rect them­selves to­wards Him, thou wouldst find them wing­ing their flight un­to the Supreme Goal, the Spot where­in the di­vine Lote-​Tree ex­claimeth: Ver­ily, no God is there but Me, the Almighty, the All-​Boun­ti­ful.

Great is thy blessed­ness, inas­much as thou hast been jour­ney­ing through­out the lands of God, and been the em­bod­iment of joy and as­sur­ance for the peo­ple of Bahá who have re­nounced all else but Him, and set their hearts to­wards this Court which hath shed its ra­di­ance up­on all realms, and sprin­kled them with the surg­ing wa­ters of this Ocean where­with thou thy­self hast been sprin­kled--an Ocean which hath en­com­passed all cre­at­ed things.

In­deed thou didst grasp the sig­nif­icance of ren­der­ing as­sis­tance un­to God and didst arise to achieve this through the pow­er of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance. Say: To as­sist Me is to teach My Cause. This is a theme with which whole Tablets are laden. This is the change­less com­mand­ment of God, eter­nal in the past, eter­nal in the fu­ture. Com­pre­hend this, O ye men of in­sight. They that have passed be­yond the bounds of wis­dom fail to un­der­stand the mean­ing of as­sist­ing God as set forth in the Book. Say: Fear ye God and sow not the seeds of dis­sen­sion amongst men. Ob­serve ye that which hath been en­joined up­on you by your Lord, the Almighty, the All-​Know­ing. He knoweth the re­al­ity of vic­to­ry and hath taught it to you with an ut­ter­ance that the vain imag­in­ings of them that rove dis­traught in the wilder­ness of doubt can nev­er cor­rupt.

O My Name! Suf­fer all cre­at­ed things to quaff once again from this chal­ice which hath caused the seas to rise. Kin­dle then in the hearts the blaz­ing fire which this crim­son Tree hath ig­nit­ed, that they may arise to ex­tol and mag­ni­fy His Name amidst the ad­her­ents of all Faiths.

Nu­mer­ous let­ters from thee have been pre­sent­ed be­fore Our Throne. We have pe­rused them as a to­ken of grace on Our part, and for each name thou didst men­tion there­in We have re­vealed that which will stir the minds of men and will cause the spir­its to soar. More­over We have re­peat­ed­ly en­abled thee to hear­ken un­to the war­blings of the birds of heav­en and to in­cline thine ear to the songs of the nightin­gales pour­ing forth their melodies up­on the branch­es. Thus was the Pen of God set in mo­tion in thy re­mem­brance that thou might­est ad­mon­ish men through the pow­er of this ut­ter­ance which is di­vine­ly or­dained to be the re­veal­er of the signs of His glo­ry.

Blessed is the spot where­in the an­them of His praise is raised, and blessed the ear that hear­keneth un­to that which hath been sent down from the heav­en of the lov­ing-​kind­ness of thy Lord, the All-​Mer­ci­ful.

Ex­hort thou the ser­vants of God un­to that where­un­to We have ex­hort­ed thee that they may ab­stain from what­so­ev­er is for­bid­den them in the Moth­er Book. Those who per­pe­trate deeds that would cre­ate tur­moil among the peo­ple have in­deed strayed far from help­ing God and His Cause and are num­bered with the mis­chief-​mak­ers in the Tablet which God hath des­ig­nat­ed to be the dawn­ing-​place of all Tablets.

Say: If it be Our plea­sure We shall ren­der the Cause vic­to­ri­ous through the pow­er of a sin­gle word from Our pres­ence. He is in truth the Om­nipo­tent, the All-​Com­pelling. Should it be God's in­ten­tion, there would ap­pear out of the forests of ce­les­tial might the li­on of in­domitable strength whose roar­ing is like un­to the peals of thun­der re­ver­ber­at­ing in the moun­tains. How­ev­er, since Our lov­ing prov­idence sur­pas­seth all things, We have or­dained that com­plete vic­to­ry should be achieved through speech and ut­ter­ance, that Our ser­vants through­out the earth may there­by be­come the re­cip­ients of di­vine good. This is but a to­ken of God's boun­ty vouch­safed un­to them. Ver­ily thy Lord is the All-​Suf­fic­ing, the Most Ex­alt­ed.

Say: Fear ye God and com­mit not such deeds as would cause My loved ones on earth to lament. Thus bid­deth you this Pen which hath set the Pen of Glo­ry in mo­tion with­in the are­na of wis­dom and true un­der­stand­ing.

Con­vey My greet­ings un­to those whose faces mir­ror forth the ra­di­ance of Bahá, then men­tion to them this ut­ter­ance which cheereth the eyes of the righ­teous. The glo­ry of God rest up­on thee and up­on such as have firm­ly clung to the Cord of God, the Re­veal­er of vers­es....

Re­strain thou the in­hab­itants of those re­gions from provoca­tive acts, from strife, dis­sen­sion or aught else that would cre­ate trou­ble. That which is praise­wor­thy in these days is the pro­mo­tion of the Cause. For in­stance if those peo­ple who pur­sue cer­tain aims were to ded­icate them­selves to the teach­ing of the Cause, all the dwellers of those re­gions would, ere long, be in­vest­ed with the man­tle of faith.

Should any­one per­ceive the sweet­ness of the fol­low­ing pas­sage in the Tablet re­vealed in hon­our of Nabíl of Qá'in,(65) he would read­ily com­pre­hend the sig­nif­icance of as­sis­tance: Hu­man ut­ter­ance is an essence which as­pireth to ex­ert its in­flu­ence and needeth mod­er­ation. As to its in­flu­ence, this is con­di­tion­al up­on re­fine­ment, which in turn is de­pen­dent up­on hearts which are de­tached and pure. As to its mod­er­ation, this hath to be com­bined with tact and wis­dom as pre­scribed in the Holy Scrip­tures and Tablets.

O My Name! Ut­ter­ance must needs pos­sess pen­etrat­ing pow­er. For if bereft of this qual­ity it would fail to ex­ert in­flu­ence. And this pen­etrat­ing in­flu­ence de­pen­deth on the spir­it be­ing pure and the heart stain­less. Like­wise it needeth mod­er­ation, with­out which the hear­er would be un­able to bear it, rather he would man­ifest op­po­si­tion from the very out­set. And mod­er­ation will be ob­tained by blend­ing ut­ter­ance with the to­kens of di­vine wis­dom which are record­ed in the sa­cred Books and Tablets. Thus when the essence of one's ut­ter­ance is en­dowed with these two req­ui­sites it will prove high­ly ef­fec­tive and will be the prime fac­tor in trans­form­ing the souls of men. This is the sta­tion of supreme vic­to­ry and ce­les­tial do­min­ion. Whoso at­taineth there­to is in­vest­ed with the pow­er to teach the Cause of God and to pre­vail over the hearts and minds of men.

O My Name! The Day-​Star of ut­ter­ance, shin­ing re­splen­dent from the dayspring of di­vine Rev­ela­tion, hath so il­lu­mined the Scrolls and Tablets that the king­dom of ut­ter­ance and the ex­alt­ed do­min­ion of un­der­stand­ing vi­brate with joy and ec­sta­sy and shine forth with the splen­dour of His light, yet the gen­er­al­ity of mankind com­pre­hend not.

The rea­son why the sub­ject of aid and as­sis­tance hath time and again streamed and will con­tin­ue to stream from the Pen of Prov­idence is to warn the friends of God lest they en­gage in ac­tiv­ities that would give rise to strife and tur­moil. It is in­cum­bent up­on them, one and all, to dili­gent­ly seek ways to help the Cause of God in such man­ner as We have ex­plained. This is but a to­ken of His grace es­pe­cial­ly con­ferred up­on His loved ones that ev­ery one of them may at­tain the sta­tion char­ac­ter­ized by the words: 'Whoso quick­eneth a soul hath ver­ily quick­ened all mankind.'

Tem­po­ral as­cen­dan­cy hath been and will con­tin­ue to be un­der the shad­ow of this sta­tion. Its ap­point­ed hour is pre-​or­dained in the Book of God. He is tru­ly cog­nizant there­of and it will be man­ifest­ed through the po­ten­cy of His might. Ver­ily He is the Pow­er­ful, the All-​Sub­du­ing, the Om­nipo­tent, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

The sanc­ti­fied souls should pon­der and med­itate in their hearts re­gard­ing the meth­ods of teach­ing. From the texts of the won­drous, heav­en­ly Scrip­tures they should mem­orize phras­es and pas­sages bear­ing on var­ious in­stances, so that in the course of their speech they may re­cite di­vine vers­es when­ev­er the oc­ca­sion de­man­deth it, inas­much as these holy vers­es are the most po­tent elixir, the great­est and might­iest tal­is­man. So po­tent is their in­flu­ence that the hear­er will have no cause for vac­il­la­tion. I swear by My life! This Rev­ela­tion is en­dowed with such a pow­er that it will act as the lode­stone for all na­tions and kin­dreds of the earth. Should one pause to med­itate at­ten­tive­ly he would rec­og­nize that no place is there, nor can there be, for any­one to flee to.

In such man­ner hath the Kitáb-​i-​Aq­das been re­vealed that it at­tracteth and em­braceth all the di­vine­ly ap­point­ed Dis­pen­sa­tions. Blessed those who pe­ruse it. Blessed those who ap­pre­hend it. Blessed those who med­itate up­on it. Blessed those who pon­der its mean­ing. So vast is its range that it hath en­com­passed all men ere their recog­ni­tion of it. Ere long will its sovereign pow­er, its per­va­sive in­flu­ence and the great­ness of its might be man­ifest­ed on earth. Ver­ily, thy God is the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed.

O My Name! Hear­ken thou un­to My Voice com­ing from the di­rec­tion of My Throne. He wisheth to make men­tion of thy name at all times inas­much as thou hast proved thy­self stead­fast in ex­tolling His virtues amongst men. In­deed thy Lord loveth fi­deli­ty as found in the realm of cre­ation, and He hath giv­en it prece­dence over most of the praise­wor­thy qual­ities. Ver­ily, He is Po­tent and Pow­er­ful.

Know thou more­over that We have heard the praise thou hast ut­tered in thy com­mu­nion with God, thy Lord, the Ex­alt­ed, the Gra­cious. Great in­deed is the blessed­ness await­ing thee, inas­much as thou hast cur­tailed thine own af­fairs in favour of this in­vi­olable, this mighty and en­light­ened Cause. We en­treat God to make thy call a mag­net which will at­tract the em­bod­iments of names in the world of ex­is­tence that all be­ings may spon­ta­neous­ly has­ten to heed it. No God is there be­sides Him, the Ex­alt­ed, the Pre-​Em­inent, the Ev­er-​Blessed, the Sub­lime, the Most Au­gust, the Most Glo­ri­ous, the Most Boun­ti­ful, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed.

LAWH-​I-​BURHÁN (TABLET OF THE PROOF)

_This Tablet was re­vealed af­ter the mar­tyr­dom of the King of Mar­tyrs and the Beloved of Mar­tyrs (see God Pass­es By pages 200-201) and was ad­dressed to Shaykh Muham­mad Báqir, de­nounced by Bahá'u'lláh as the 'Wolf'. In this Tablet Bahá'u'lláh refers to Mír Muham­mad Husayn, the Imám Jum'ih of Is­fáhán, sur­named the 'She-​Ser­pent', who was Shaykh Muham­mad Báqir's ac­com­plice in the per­se­cu­tion of the Bahá'ís. (See God Pass­es By, pages 198, 200-201 and 219). The Epis­tle to the Son of the Wolf was ad­dressed to Shaykh Muham­mad Taqíy-​i-​Na­jafí, the son of Shaykh Muham­mad Báqir._

HE is the Almighty, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise! The winds of ha­tred have en­com­passed the Ark of Bathá,(66) by rea­son of that which the hands of the op­pres­sors have wrought. O Báqir! Thou hast pro­nounced sen­tence against them for whom the books of the world have wept, and in whose favour 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 judge­ment 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 learn­ing 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 in­to 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 Day-​Star 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(67) 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,(68) 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 judge­ment 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. When thou didst pen thy judge­ment, thou wast ac­cused by thy very pen. Un­to this doth bear wit­ness the Pen of God, the Most High, in His in­ac­ces­si­ble sta­tion.

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.”'(69) 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!

O fool­ish one! 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. O Báqir! 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 foundered, and the She-​Camel was ham­strung, and the Spir­it(70) 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(71) 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.'(72) 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(73) 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.

Hath lead­er­ship made thee proud? Pe­ruse thou what God hath re­vealed to the Sovereign ruler, the Sultán of Turkey, who hath in­car­cer­at­ed Me in this for­ti­fied stronghold, so that thou mayest be in­formed of the con­di­tion of this Wronged One, as de­creed by God, the One, the Sin­gle, the All-​In­formed. Art thou hap­py to see the ab­ject and worth­less as thy fol­low­ers? They sup­port thee as did a peo­ple be­fore them, they that fol­lowed An­nas, who, with­out clear proof and tes­ti­mo­ny, pro­nounced judge­ment against the Spir­it.(74)

Pe­ruse thou the Kitáb-​i-​Íqán and that which the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath sent down un­to the King of Paris(75) 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 di­vines! 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 con­course of di­vines, the things ye have com­posed with the pens of your idle fan­cies and vain imag­in­ings. By God! The Day-​Star of Knowl­edge hath shone forth above the hori­zon of cer­ti­tude.

O Báqir! Read and call thou to mind that which was said of old by a be­liev­er of thy stock: 'Will ye slay a man be­cause he saith my Lord is God, when He hath al­ready come to you with signs from your Lord? If he be a liar, on him will be his lie, but if he be a man of truth, part of what he threat­eneth will fall up­on you. In truth God guideth not him who is a trans­gres­sor, a liar.'(76)

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 Sháh 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 any­one con­cern­ing that which hath be­fall­en the Cause of God. It be­hoveth 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 well-​spring of wis­dom, and walk ye in the gar­den 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 Báqir! 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(77) lament­ed, and the Chaste One(78) 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 clam­our, and there­by was he de­terred from achiev­ing his pur­pose, while the land re­mained fall­en in clear ru­in.

Con­sid­er the Sultán of Turkey! He did not want war, but those like you de­sired it. When its fires were enkin­dled and its flames rose high, the gov­ern­ment and the peo­ple were there­by weak­ened. Un­to this beareth wit­ness ev­ery man of eq­ui­ty and per­cep­tion. Its calami­ties waxed so great that the smoke there­of sur­round­ed the Land of Mys­tery(79) and its en­vi­rons, and what had been re­vealed in the Tablet of the Sultán was made man­ifest. Thus hath it been de­creed in the Book, at the be­hest of God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing.

O My Supreme Pen! Leave Thou the men­tion of the Wolf, and call Thou to re­mem­brance the She-​Ser­pent(80) 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(81) 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(82) of the Apos­tle of God, 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 Thámúd with Sálih, nor the Jews with the Spir­it of God,(83) the Lord of all be­ing. Gain­sayest thou the signs of thy Lord which no soon­er were 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! Ere long 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(84) 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. The chil­dren of the Apos­tle have been slain and their pos­ses­sions pil­laged. 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; ere long 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!

KITÁB-​I-'AHD (BOOK OF THE COVENANT)

AL­THOUGH the Realm of Glo­ry hath none of the van­ities of the world, yet with­in the trea­sury of trust and res­ig­na­tion We have be­queathed to Our heirs an ex­cel­lent and price­less her­itage. Earth­ly trea­sures We have not be­queathed, nor have We added such cares as they en­tail. By God! In earth­ly rich­es fear is hid­den and per­il is con­cealed. Con­sid­er ye and call to mind that which the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath re­vealed in the Qur'án: 'Woe be­tide ev­ery slan­der­er and de­famer, him that layeth up rich­es and coun­teth them.'(85) Fleet­ing are the rich­es of the world; all that per­isheth and changeth is not, and hath nev­er been, wor­thy of at­ten­tion, ex­cept to a rec­og­nized mea­sure.

The aim of this Wronged One in sus­tain­ing woes and tribu­la­tions, in re­veal­ing the Holy Vers­es and in demon­strat­ing proofs hath been naught but to quench the flame of hate and en­mi­ty, that the hori­zon of the hearts of men may be il­lu­mined with the light of con­cord and at­tain re­al peace and tran­quil­li­ty. From the dawn­ing-​place of the di­vine Tablet the day-​star of this ut­ter­ance shineth re­splen­dent, and it be­hoveth ev­ery­one to fix his gaze up­on it: We ex­hort you, O peo­ples of the world, to ob­serve that which will el­evate your sta­tion. Hold fast to the fear of God and firm­ly ad­here to what is right. Ver­ily I say, the tongue is for men­tion­ing what is good, de­file it not with un­seem­ly talk. God hath for­giv­en what is past. Hence­for­ward ev­ery­one should ut­ter that which is meet and seem­ly, and should re­frain from slan­der, abuse and what­ev­er causeth sad­ness in men. Lofty is the sta­tion of man! Not long ago this ex­alt­ed Word streamed forth from the trea­sury of Our Pen of Glo­ry: Great and blessed is this Day--the Day in which all that lay la­tent in man hath been and will be made man­ifest. Lofty is the sta­tion of man, were he to hold fast to righ­teous­ness and truth and to re­main firm and stead­fast in the Cause. In the eyes of the All-​Mer­ci­ful a true man ap­peareth even as a fir­ma­ment; its sun and moon are his sight and hear­ing, and his shin­ing and re­splen­dent char­ac­ter its stars. His is the lofti­est sta­tion, and his in­flu­ence ed­ucateth the world of be­ing.

Ev­ery re­cep­tive soul who hath in this Day in­haled the fra­grance of His gar­ment and hath, with a pure heart, set his face to­wards the all-​glo­ri­ous Hori­zon is reck­oned among the peo­ple of Bahá in the Crim­son Book. Grasp ye, in My Name, the chal­ice of My lov­ing-​kind­ness, drink then your fill in My glo­ri­ous and won­drous re­mem­brance.

O ye that dwell on earth! The re­li­gion of God is for love and uni­ty; make it not the cause of en­mi­ty or dis­sen­sion. In the eyes of men of in­sight and the be­hold­ers of the Most Sub­lime Vi­sion, what­so­ev­er are the ef­fec­tive means for safe­guard­ing and pro­mot­ing the hap­pi­ness and wel­fare of the chil­dren of men have al­ready been re­vealed by the Pen of Glo­ry. But the fool­ish ones of the earth, be­ing nur­tured in evil pas­sions and de­sires, have re­mained heed­less of the con­sum­mate wis­dom of Him Who is, in truth, the All-​Wise, while their words and deeds are prompt­ed by idle fan­cies and vain imag­in­ings.

O ye the loved ones and the trustees of God! Kings are the man­ifes­ta­tions of the pow­er, and the daysprings of the might and rich­es, of God. Pray ye on their be­half. He hath in­vest­ed them with the ruler­ship of the earth and hath sin­gled out the hearts of men as His Own do­main.

Con­flict and con­tention are cat­egor­ical­ly for­bid­den in His Book. This is a de­cree of God in this Most Great Rev­ela­tion. It is di­vine­ly pre­served from an­nul­ment and is in­vest­ed by Him with the splen­dour of His con­fir­ma­tion. Ver­ily He is the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to aid those daysprings of au­thor­ity and sources of com­mand who are adorned with the or­na­ment of eq­ui­ty and jus­tice. Blessed are the rulers and the learned among the peo­ple of Bahá. They are My trustees among My ser­vants and the man­ifes­ta­tions of My com­mand­ments amidst My peo­ple. Up­on them rest My glo­ry, My bless­ings and My grace which have per­vad­ed the world of be­ing. In this con­nec­tion the ut­ter­ances re­vealed in the Kitáb-​i-​Aq­das are such that from the hori­zon of their words the light of di­vine grace shineth lu­mi­nous and re­splen­dent.

O ye My Branch­es! A mighty force, a con­sum­mate pow­er li­eth con­cealed in the world of be­ing. Fix your gaze up­on it and up­on its uni­fy­ing in­flu­ence, and not up­on the dif­fer­ences which ap­pear from it.

The Will of the di­vine Tes­ta­tor is this: It is in­cum­bent up­on the Agh­sán, the Afnán and My Kin­dred to turn, one and all, their faces to­wards the Most Mighty Branch. Con­sid­er that which We have re­vealed in Our Most Holy Book: 'When the ocean of My pres­ence hath ebbed and the Book of My Rev­ela­tion is end­ed, turn your faces to­ward Him Whom God hath pur­posed, Who hath branched from this An­cient Root.' The ob­ject of this sa­cred verse is none oth­er ex­cept the Most Mighty Branch ['Ab­du'l-​Bahá]. Thus have We gra­cious­ly re­vealed un­to you Our po­tent Will, and I am ver­ily the Gra­cious, the All-​Pow­er­ful. Ver­ily God hath or­dained the sta­tion of the Greater Branch [Muham­mad 'Alí] to be be­neath that of the Most Great Branch ['Ab­du'l-​Bahá]. He is in truth the Or­dain­er, the All-​Wise. We have cho­sen 'the Greater' af­ter 'the Most Great', as de­creed by Him Who is the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed.

It is en­joined up­on ev­ery­one to man­ifest love to­wards the Agh­sán, but God hath not grant­ed them any right to the prop­er­ty of oth­ers.

O ye My Agh­sán, My Afnán and My Kin­dred! We ex­hort you to fear God, to per­form praise­wor­thy deeds and to do that which is meet and seem­ly and serveth to ex­alt your sta­tion. Ver­ily I say, fear of God is the great­est com­man­der that can ren­der the Cause of God vic­to­ri­ous, and the hosts which best be­fit this com­man­der have ev­er been and are an up­right char­ac­ter and pure and good­ly deeds.

Say: O ser­vants! Let not the means of or­der be made the cause of con­fu­sion and the in­stru­ment of union an oc­ca­sion for dis­cord. We fain would hope that the peo­ple of Bahá may be guid­ed by the blessed words: 'Say: all things are of God.' This ex­alt­ed ut­ter­ance is like un­to wa­ter for quench­ing the fire of hate and en­mi­ty which smoul­dereth with­in the hearts and breasts of men. By this sin­gle ut­ter­ance con­tend­ing peo­ples and kin­dreds will at­tain the light of true uni­ty. Ver­ily He speaketh the truth and lead­eth the way. He is the All-​Pow­er­ful, the Ex­alt­ed, the Gra­cious.

It is in­cum­bent up­on ev­ery­one to show cour­tesy to, and have re­gard for the Agh­sán, that there­by the Cause of God may be glo­ri­fied and His Word ex­alt­ed. This in­junc­tion hath time and again been men­tioned and record­ed in the Holy Writ. Well is it with him who is en­abled to achieve that which the Or­dain­er, the An­cient of Days hath pre­scribed for him. Ye are bid­den more­over to re­spect the mem­bers of the Holy House­hold, the Afnán and the kin­dred. We fur­ther ad­mon­ish you to serve all na­tions and to strive for the bet­ter­ment of the world.

That which is con­ducive to the re­gen­er­ation of the world and the sal­va­tion of the peo­ples and kin­dreds of the earth hath been sent down from the heav­en of the ut­ter­ance of Him Who is the De­sire of the world. Give ye a hear­ing ear to the coun­sels of the Pen of Glo­ry. Bet­ter is this for you than all that is on the earth. Un­to this beareth wit­ness My glo­ri­ous and won­drous Book.

LAWH-​I-​ARD-​I-​BÁ (TABLET OF THE LAND OF BÁ)

PRAISE be to Him Who hath hon­oured the Land of Bá(86) through the pres­ence of Him round Whom all names re­volve. All the atoms of the earth have an­nounced un­to all cre­at­ed things that from be­hind the gate of the Prison-​city there hath ap­peared and above its hori­zon there hath shone forth the Orb of the beau­ty of the great, the Most Mighty Branch of God--His an­cient and im­mutable Mys­tery--pro­ceed­ing on its way to an­oth­er land. Sor­row, there­by, hath en­veloped this Prison-​city, whilst an­oth­er land re­joiceth. Ex­alt­ed, im­mea­sur­ably ex­alt­ed is our Lord, the Fash­ioner of the heav­ens and the Cre­ator of all things, He through Whose sovereign­ty the doors of the prison were opened, there­by caus­ing what was promised afore­time in the Tablets to be ful­filled. He is ver­ily po­tent over what He wil­leth, and in His grasp is the do­min­ion of the en­tire cre­ation. He is the All-​Pow­er­ful, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

Blessed, dou­bly blessed, is the ground which His foot­steps have trod­den, the eye that hath been cheered by the beau­ty of His coun­te­nance, the ear that hath been hon­oured by hear­ken­ing to His call, the heart that hath tast­ed the sweet­ness of His love, the breast that hath di­lat­ed through His re­mem­brance, the pen that hath voiced His praise, the scroll that hath borne the tes­ti­mo­ny of His writ­ings. We be­seech God--blessed and ex­alt­ed be He--that He may hon­our us with meet­ing Him soon. He is, in truth, the All-​Hear­ing, the All-​Pow­er­ful, He Who is ready to an­swer.

EX­CERPTS FROM OTH­ER TABLETS

“GOD tes­ti­fi­eth that there is none oth­er God but...”

GOD tes­ti­fi­eth that there is none oth­er God but Him and that He Who hath come from the heav­en of di­vine rev­ela­tion is the Hid­den Se­cret, the Im­pen­etra­ble Mys­tery, Whose ad­vent hath been fore­told in the Book of God and hath been her­ald­ed by His Prophets and Mes­sen­gers. Through Him the mys­ter­ies have been un­rav­elled, the veils rent asun­der and the signs and ev­idences dis­closed. Lo! He hath now been made man­ifest. He bringeth to light what­so­ev­er He wil­leth, and tread­eth up­on the high places of the earth, in­vest­ed with tran­scen­dent majesty and pow­er.

Blessed is that strong one who will shat­ter the gods of vain imag­in­ings through the po­ten­cy of the Name of his Lord, He Who ruleth over all men.

O My Afnán! We would fain men­tion thy name as a to­ken of grace on Our part, that the sweet savours of My re­mem­brance may at­tract thee un­to My King­dom and draw thee nigh un­to the Taber­na­cle of My majesty which hath been hoist­ed through the pow­er of this Name--a Name which hath caused ev­ery foun­da­tion to trem­ble.

Say: O peo­ples of the earth! By the righ­teous­ness of God! What­ev­er ye have been promised in the Books of your Lord, the Ruler of the Day of Re­turn, hath ap­peared and been made man­ifest. Be­ware lest the changes and chances of the world hold you back from Him Who is the Sovereign Truth. Ere long will ev­ery­thing vis­ible per­ish and on­ly that which hath been re­vealed by God, the Lord of lords, shall en­dure.

Say: This is the Day of mer­ito­ri­ous deeds, did ye but know it. This is the Day of the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of God and of the ex­po­si­tion of His Word, could ye but per­ceive it. Aban­don the things cur­rent amongst men and hold fast un­to that which God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing, hath en­joined up­on you. The day is fast ap­proach­ing when all the trea­sures of the earth shall be of no prof­it to you. Un­to this beareth wit­ness the Lord of Names, He Who pro­claimeth: Ver­ily, no God is there be­sides Him, the Sovereign Truth, the Know­er of things un­seen.

Well is it with thee, O My Afnán, inas­much as thou wert hon­oured to re­ceive My Holy Vers­es, hast in­haled the sweet savours of My Rev­ela­tion and re­spond­ed to My Call at a time when My ser­vants and My crea­tures, cast­ing the Moth­er Book be­hind their backs and, cling­ing to the dic­tates of the ex­po­nents of idle fan­cy and vain imag­in­ings, have de­nounced Me. Thus hath the Tongue of Grandeur spo­ken in the king­dom of ut­ter­ance at the bid­ding of God, the Lord of Cre­ation.

Per­se­vere thou con­sci­en­tious­ly in the ser­vice of the Cause and, through the pow­er of the Name of thy Lord, the Pos­ses­sor of all things vis­ible and in­vis­ible, pre­serve the sta­tion con­ferred up­on thee. I swear by the righ­teous­ness of God! Were any­one ap­prised of that which is veiled from the eyes of men, he would be­come so en­rap­tured as to wing his flight un­to God, the Lord of all that hath been and shall be.

May His glo­ry rest up­on thee and up­on such as have drawn nigh un­to Him and ap­pre­hend­ed the mean­ing of that which the ex­alt­ed Pen of God, the Almighty, the All-​Lov­ing, hath record­ed in this Tablet.

“ALL praise be to Thee, O my God, inas­much as Thou...”

ALL praise be to Thee, O my God, inas­much as Thou hast adorned the world with the splen­dour of the dawn fol­low­ing the night where­in was born the One Who her­ald­ed the Man­ifes­ta­tion of Thy tran­scen­dent sovereign­ty, the Dayspring of Thy di­vine Essence and the Rev­ela­tion of Thy supreme Lord­ship. I be­seech Thee, O Cre­ator of the heav­ens and Fash­ioner of names, to gra­cious­ly aid those who have shel­tered be­neath the shad­ow of Thine abound­ing mer­cy and have raised their voic­es amidst the peo­ples of the world for the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of Thy Name.

O my God! Thou be­hold­est the Lord of all mankind con­fined in His Most Great Prison, call­ing aloud Thy Name, gaz­ing up­on Thy face, pro­claim­ing that which hath en­rap­tured the denizens of Thy king­doms of rev­ela­tion and of cre­ation. O my God! I be­hold Mine own Self cap­tive in the hands of Thy ser­vants, yet the light of Thy sovereign­ty and the rev­ela­tions of Thine in­vin­ci­ble pow­er shine re­splen­dent from His face, en­abling all to know of a cer­tain­ty that Thou art God, and that there is none oth­er God but Thee. Nei­ther can the pow­er of the pow­er­ful frus­trate Thee, nor the as­cen­dan­cy of the rulers pre­vail against Thee. Thou doest what­so­ev­er Thou willest by virtue of Thy sovereign­ty which en­com­pas­seth all cre­at­ed things, and or­dainest that which Thou pleas­est through the po­ten­cy of Thy be­hest which per­vadeth the en­tire cre­ation.

I im­plore Thee by the glo­ry of Thy Man­ifes­ta­tion and by the pow­er of Thy might, Thy sovereign­ty and Thine ex­al­ta­tion to ren­der vic­to­ri­ous those who have arisen to serve Thee, who have aid­ed Thy Cause and hum­bled them­selves be­fore the splen­dour of the light of Thy face. Make them then, O my God, tri­umphant over Thine en­emies and cause them to be stead­fast in Thy ser­vice, that through them the ev­idences of Thy do­min­ion may be es­tab­lished through­out Thy realms and the to­kens of Thine in­domitable pow­er be man­ifest­ed in Thy lands. Ver­ily Thou art po­tent to do what Thou willest; no God is there but Thee, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing.

This glo­ri­ous Tablet hath been re­vealed on the An­niver­sary of the Birth [of the Báb] that thou mayest re­cite it in a spir­it of hu­mil­ity and sup­pli­ca­tion and give thanks un­to thy Lord, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​In­formed. Make thou ev­ery ef­fort to ren­der ser­vice un­to God, that from thee may ap­pear that which will im­mor­tal­ize thy mem­ory in His glo­ri­ous and ex­alt­ed heav­en.

Say: Glo­ri­fied art Thou, O my God! I im­plore Thee by the Dawn­ing-​Place of Thy signs and by the Re­veal­er of Thy clear to­kens to grant that I may, un­der all con­di­tions, hold fast the cord of Thy lov­ing prov­idence and cling tena­cious­ly to the hem of Thy gen­eros­ity. Reck­on me then with those whom the changes and chances of the world have failed to de­ter from serv­ing Thee and from bear­ing al­le­giance un­to Thee, whom the on­slaught of the peo­ple hath been pow­er­less to hin­der from mag­ni­fy­ing Thy Name and cel­ebrat­ing Thy praise. Gra­cious­ly as­sist me, O my Lord, to do what­ev­er Thou lovest and de­sirest. En­able me then to ful­fil that which will ex­alt Thy Name and will set ablaze the fire of Thy love.

Thou art, in truth, the For­giv­ing, the Boun­ti­ful.

“O HUSAYN! God grant thou shalt ev­er be bright and...”

O HUSAYN! God grant thou shalt ev­er be bright and ra­di­ant, beam­ing with the light of the Sun of Truth, and mayest un­loose thy tongue in mag­ni­fy­ing the Name of God, which is the most laud­able of all acts.

Con­sid­er the mul­ti­tude of souls who seemed to be in­tense­ly ea­ger and athirst, yet when the Ocean of liv­ing wa­ters did surge forth in the world of be­ing, they re­mained de­prived there­of, inas­much as they failed to re­lin­quish idle fan­cy and to be­come con­scious­ly aware of Him Who is the Ob­ject of all knowl­edge. This fail­ure is in rec­om­pense for the deeds their hands had for­mer­ly wrought.

Ren­der thou thanks un­to the Beloved of the world for hav­ing gra­cious­ly aid­ed thee to at­tain con­fir­ma­tion in this glo­ri­ous Cause. En­treat Him more­over to make His loved ones stead­fast there­in, for the in­flam­ma­to­ry writ­ings of the mis­chief-​mak­ers are widespread and the clam­our of the fore­boders of evil is raised high. Hap­py are they that have cast be­hind their backs all else save God and have held fast un­to that which the Lord of strength and pow­er hath en­joined up­on them.

His Glo­ry be up­on thee and up­on such as have been en­abled to rec­og­nize and em­brace this mighty Cause.

“THIS is a Tablet which the Lord of all be­ing hath sent...”

THIS is a Tablet which the Lord of all be­ing hath sent down from His glo­ri­ous sta­tion in hon­our of him who hath be­lieved in God, the Almighty, the All-​Lov­ing.

Blessed is the way­far­er who hath rec­og­nized the De­sired One, and the seek­er who hath heed­ed the Call of Him Who is the in­tend­ed Aim of all mankind, and the learned one who hath be­lieved in God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing.

How vast the num­ber of the learned who have turned aside from the way of God and how nu­mer­ous the men de­void of learn­ing who have ap­pre­hend­ed the truth and has­tened un­to Him, say­ing, 'Praised be Thou, O Lord of all things, vis­ible and in­vis­ible.'

By the righ­teous­ness of God! The world's hori­zon is re­splen­dent with the light of the Most Great Lu­mi­nary, yet the gen­er­al­ity of mankind per­ceive it not. Ver­ily He Who is the Sovereign Truth moveth be­fore the eyes of all men. Un­to this beareth wit­ness the One Who is pro­claim­ing in the mid­most heart of the world, 'In truth no God is there but Me, Om­nipo­tent over all things, whether of the past or of the fu­ture.'

Great is the blessed­ness of the be­liev­er who hath di­rect­ed him­self to­wards Him and hath gained ad­mit­tance in­to His pres­ence, and woe be­tide ev­ery dis­be­liev­er who hath turned away from God and fol­lowed the way­ward and the out­cast.

“O FRIEND! In the Bayán We di­rect­ed ev­ery­one in this...”

O FRIEND! In the Bayán We di­rect­ed ev­ery­one in this Most Great Rev­ela­tion to see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears. How­ev­er when the hori­zon of the world was il­lu­mined with the re­splen­dent light of this Rev­ela­tion, many peo­ple for­got this di­vine com­mand­ment, lost sight of this heav­en­ly ex­hor­ta­tion and im­mersed them­selves in the vain imag­in­ings which their minds had de­vised. In­deed the face of the sun of jus­tice and fair­ness is hid­den be­hind the clouds of idle fan­cy which the fool­ish ones have con­ceived. There­fore it is not to be won­dered at that the move­ments of the birds of dark­ness at­tract at­ten­tion. Through the po­ten­cy of the Name of the Best-​Beloved, in­vite thou the re­cep­tive souls un­to God's holy court, that per­chance they may not re­main de­prived of the heav­en­ly Foun­tain of liv­ing wa­ter. He is in truth the Gra­cious, the For­giv­ing.

The gaze of the lov­ing-​kind­ness of God--ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied is He--hath ev­er­last­ing­ly been di­rect­ed to­wards His beloved friends; ver­ily He is the One Who knoweth and re­mem­bereth.

“O JAVÁD! Such is the great­ness of this Day that the Hour...”

O JAVÁD! Such is the great­ness of this Day that the Hour it­self is seized with per­tur­ba­tion, and all heav­en­ly Scrip­tures bear ev­idence to its over­pow­er­ing majesty. In this Day the Book solemn­ly tes­ti­fi­eth to His glo­ry and the Bal­ance is moved to lift up its voice. This is the Day where­in the Sir­at cal­leth aloud: 'I am the straight Path', and Mount Sinai ex­claimeth: 'Ver­ily the Lord of Rev­ela­tion is come.'

Be­ing over­come by the drunk­en­ness of cor­rupt in­cli­na­tions, the peo­ple of the earth find them­selves in a state of stu­por. They are, there­fore, de­barred from the won­drous signs of God, are pre­vent­ed from at­tain­ing the ul­ti­mate goal and are de­prived of the lib­er­al ef­fu­sions of di­vine grace.

It be­hoveth the peo­ple of God to be for­bear­ing. They should im­part the Word of God ac­cord­ing to the hear­er's par­tic­ular mea­sure of un­der­stand­ing and ca­pac­ity, that per­chance the chil­dren of men may be roused from heed­less­ness and set their faces to­wards this Hori­zon which is im­mea­sur­ably ex­alt­ed above ev­ery hori­zon.

O Javád! The man­ifold boun­ties of God have ev­er been and will con­tin­ue to be vouch­safed un­to thee. Praised be God! Thou hast been shield­ed from the most great ter­ror and hast suc­ceed­ed in draw­ing nigh un­to the Most Great Boun­ty at a time when all men were pre­vent­ed from rec­og­niz­ing the eter­nal King by the in­ter­po­si­tion of the veils of out­ward glo­ry, name­ly the di­vines of this day. Cher­ish thou as dear­ly as thine own life this tes­ti­mo­ny pro­nounced by the All-​Glo­ri­ous Pen and strive with all thy might to pre­serve it by the po­ten­cy of the Name of Him Who is the Beloved One of the en­tire cre­ation, that this sub­lime hon­our may be proof against the eyes and the hands of rob­bers. Ver­ily thy Lord is the Ex­pounder, the All-​Know­ing.

Con­vey the greet­ings of this Wronged One un­to all the beloved friends in that re­gion and call to their minds Our won­drous and ex­alt­ed re­mem­brances, that hap­ly they may for­sake the things cur­rent amongst them, may set their hearts on that which per­taineth un­to God and re­main purged from un­seem­ly deeds and pur­suits.

May the glo­ry of the Almighty, the All-​Wise, be up­on thee and up­on such as are re­lat­ed un­to thee.

“WE make men­tion of him who hath been at­tract­ed by Our...”

WE make men­tion of him who hath been at­tract­ed by Our Call when it was raised from the sum­mit of tran­scen­dent glo­ry and hath set his face to­wards God, the Lord of cre­ation. He is num­bered with such as have heard and re­spond­ed to the sum­mons of their Lord at a time when the peo­ples of the world are wrapt in pal­pa­ble veils. He tes­ti­fi­eth un­to that where­un­to God hath tes­ti­fied, and ac­knowl­ed­geth his be­lief in that which the Tongue of Grandeur hath ut­tered. Un­to this beareth wit­ness the Lord of Names in this won­drous Tablet.

O My ex­alt­ed Pen! Bring him, on My be­half, the joy­ful tid­ings con­cern­ing the things that God, the Pow­er­ful, the Om­nipo­tent, hath re­served for him. In­deed he hath, for most of the time, been hemmed in by man­ifold sor­rows, and ver­ily his mer­ci­ful Lord is the One Who seeth and knoweth all things. Re­joice thou with ex­ceed­ing glad­ness inas­much as this Wronged One hath turned His face to­wards thee, hath men­tioned thy name afore­time and doth men­tion it at this very mo­ment.

Un­to My loved friends give thou re­mem­brances in My Name and con­vey to them the tid­ings of the gra­cious boun­ties of their Lord, the Giv­er, the All-​Gen­er­ous. From this ex­alt­ed sta­tion We send Our greet­ings un­to such be­liev­ers as have tak­en fast hold on the Sure Han­dle and quaffed the choice wine of con­stan­cy from the hand of favour of their Lord, the Almighty, the All-​Praised.

In this Day the fac­ul­ty of hear­ing ex­claimeth, 'This is my Day, where­in I hear­ken un­to the won­drous Voice com­ing from the precincts of the Prison of my Lord, the Per­spic­uous, the Hear­ing.' And the fac­ul­ty of sight cal­leth aloud, 'Ver­ily this is my Day, for I be­hold the Dayspring of glo­ry shin­ing re­splen­dent at the bid­ding of Him Who is the Or­dain­er, the All-​Pow­er­ful.' Blessed the ear that hath heard the call, 'Be­hold, and thou shalt see Me.'(87) and hap­py the eye that hath gazed up­on the most won­drous Sign, dawn­ing from this lu­mi­nous hori­zon.

Say: O con­course of the rulers and of the learned and the wise! The Promised Day is come and the Lord of Hosts hath ap­peared. Re­joice ye with great joy by rea­son of this supreme fe­lic­ity. Aid Him then through the pow­er of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance. Thus bid­deth you the One Who hath ev­er pro­claimed, 'Ver­ily, no God is there but Me, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.'

May His glo­ry rest up­on thee and up­on those who are with thee and such ones as cher­ish thee and give ear to the words thou ut­ter­est in glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of this mighty, this tran­scen­dent Rev­ela­tion.

“O THOU who bear­est My Name, Júd [Boun­ty]! Up­on...”

O THOU who bear­est My Name, Júd(88) [Boun­ty]! Up­on thee be My Glo­ry. Give ear un­to that which thou didst hear afore­time when the Day-​Star of tes­ti­mo­ny was shin­ing re­splen­dent above the hori­zon of 'Iráq, when Baghdád served as the Seat of the Throne of thy Lord, the Ex­alt­ed, the Mighty.

I bear wit­ness that thou hast hear­kened un­to the melody of God and His sweet ac­cents, in­clined thine ear to the coo­ing of the Dove of di­vine Rev­ela­tion and hast heard the Nightin­gale of fi­deli­ty pour­ing forth its notes up­on the Branch of Glo­ry: Ver­ily there is none oth­er God but Me, the In­com­pa­ra­ble, the All-​In­formed.

O thou who bear­est My Name! The glances of the lov­ing-​kind­ness of God have been and con­tin­ue to be di­rect­ed to­wards thee. While in His pres­ence, thou hast heard the Voice of the One true God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--and hast be­held the un­veiled splen­dour of the Light of di­vine knowl­edge. Pon­der a while! How sub­lime is the Ut­ter­ance of Him Who is the Sovereign Truth and how ab­ject are the idle con­tentions of the peo­ple! The ac­cu­mu­la­tions of vain fan­cy have ob­struct­ed men's ears and stopped them from hear­ing the Voice of God, and the veils of hu­man learn­ing and false imag­in­ings have pre­vent­ed their eyes from be­hold­ing the splen­dour of the light of His coun­te­nance. With the arm of might and pow­er We have res­cued a num­ber of souls from the slough of im­pend­ing ex­tinc­tion and en­abled them to at­tain the Dayspring of glo­ry. More­over We have laid bare the di­vine mys­ter­ies and in most ex­plic­it lan­guage fore­told fu­ture events, that nei­ther the doubts of the faith­less, nor the de­nials of the froward, nor the whis­per­ings of the heed­less may keep back the seek­ers of truth from the Source of the light of the One true God. Nev­er­the­less some peo­ple seem to have been seized with epilep­sy, oth­ers are torn up even as hol­low tree-​stumps. They aban­don God, the Most Ex­alt­ed--He be­fore Whose rev­ela­tion of a sin­gle verse, all the Scrip­tures of the past and of more re­cent times pale in­to low­li­ness and in­signif­icance--and set their hearts on ly­ing tales and fol­low emp­ty words.

Thou hast sure­ly quaffed from the ocean of Mine ut­ter­ance and hast wit­nessed the ef­ful­gent splen­dour of the orb of My wis­dom. Thou hast al­so heard the say­ings of the in­fi­dels who nei­ther are ac­quaint­ed with the fun­da­men­tals of the Faith, nor have tast­ed this choice Wine whose seal hath been bro­ken through the pow­er of My Name, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. Be­seech thou God that the be­liev­ers who are en­dued with true un­der­stand­ing may be gra­cious­ly en­abled to do that which is pleas­ing un­to Him.

How strange that de­spite this ring­ing Call, de­spite the ap­pear­ance of this most won­drous Rev­ela­tion, We no­tice that men, for the most part, have fixed their hearts on the van­ities of the world and are sore­ly dis­mayed and trou­bled by rea­son of pre­vail­ing doubts and evil sug­ges­tions. Say: This is the Day of God Him­self; fear ye God and be not of them that have dis­be­lieved in Him. Cast the idle tales be­hind your backs and be­hold My Rev­ela­tion through Mine eyes. Un­to this have ye been ex­hort­ed in heav­en­ly Books and Scrip­tures, in the Scrolls and Tablets.

Arise thou to serve the Cause of thy Lord; then give the peo­ple the joy­ful tid­ings con­cern­ing this re­splen­dent Light whose rev­ela­tion hath been an­nounced by God through His Prophets and Mes­sen­gers. Ad­mon­ish ev­ery­one more­over to ob­serve pru­dence as or­dained by Him, and in the Name of God ad­vise them, say­ing: It be­hoveth ev­ery one in this Day of God to ded­icate him­self to the teach­ing of the Cause with ut­most pru­dence and stead­fast­ness. Should he dis­cov­er a pure soil, let him sow the seed of the Word of God, oth­er­wise it would be prefer­able to ob­serve si­lence.

Not long ago this most sub­lime Word was re­vealed in the Crim­son Book by the All-​Glo­ri­ous Pen: 'The heav­en of di­vine wis­dom is il­lu­mined with two lu­mi­nar­ies: con­sul­ta­tion and com­pas­sion'. Please God, ev­ery­one may be en­abled to ob­serve this weighty and blessed word.

Cer­tain peo­ple seem to be en­tire­ly bereft of un­der­stand­ing. By cling­ing to the cord of idle fan­cy they have de­barred them­selves from the Sure Han­dle. I swear by My life! Were they to re­flect a while with fair­ness on that which the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath sent down, they would, one and all, spon­ta­neous­ly give ut­ter­ance to these words, 'Ver­ily Thou art the Truth, the man­ifest Truth.'

It be­hoveth thee to turn thy gaze in all cir­cum­stances un­to the One true God, and seek dili­gent­ly to serve His Cause. Call thou to mind when thou wert in My com­pa­ny, with­in the Taber­na­cle of Glo­ry, and didst hear from Me that which He Who con­versed with God [Moses] heard up­on the Sinai of di­vine knowl­edge. Thus did We gra­cious­ly aid thee, en­abled thee to rec­og­nize the truth and cau­tioned thee, that thou might­est ren­der thanks un­to thy boun­ti­ful Lord. Thou shouldst safe­guard this sub­lime sta­tion through the po­ten­cy of My Name, the Om­nipo­tent, the Faith­ful.

Con­vey greet­ings on My be­half to My loved ones and suf­fer them to hear­ken un­to My sweet Voice. Thus bid­deth thee the One Who hath bid­den thee in the past; I am in truth the Or­dain­er, the All-​In­formed. Glo­ry be up­on thee and up­on those who give ear to thy words con­cern­ing this mo­men­tous Cause and who love thee for the sake of God, the Lord of the worlds.

“O HAY­DAR! This Wronged One hath heard thy voice...”

O HAY­DAR!(89) This Wronged One hath heard thy voice raised in the ser­vice of the Cause of God and is well aware of the feel­ing of joy which His love hath roused in thy heart and of thy pangs of an­guish at that which hath be­fall­en His loved ones. I swear by the Lord of mer­cy! The whole world is over­whelmed with sor­row whilst mankind is per­plexed with doubts and dis­sen­sions. The peo­ple of God, the Lord of Names, are so grievous­ly be­set by en­emies that the supreme Par­adise hath lament­ed and the in­mates of high­est Heav­en and those who, day and night, cir­cle round the Throne have groaned aloud.

O 'Alí! Woes and sor­rows are pow­er­less to re­strain thy Lord, the All-​Mer­ci­ful. In­deed He hath risen to cham­pi­on the Cause of God in such wise that nei­ther the over­pow­er­ing might of the world nor the tyran­ny of the na­tions can ev­er alarm Him. He cal­leth aloud be­twixt earth and heav­en, say­ing: The Promised Day is come. The Lord of cre­ation pro­claimeth: Ver­ily, there is no God be­sides Me, the Almighty, the All-​Boun­ti­ful.

O 'Alí! The im­ma­ture wish to put out the light of God with their mouths and to ex­tin­guish by their acts the flame in the Burn­ing Bush. Say, wretched in­deed is your plight, O ye em­bod­iments of delu­sion. Fear ye God and re­ject not the heav­en­ly grace which hath shed ra­di­ance up­on all re­gions. Say, He Who is the Ex­po­nent of the hid­den Name hath ap­peared, did ye but know it. He Whose ad­vent hath been fore­told in the heav­en­ly Scrip­tures is come, could ye but un­der­stand it. The world's hori­zon is il­lu­mined by the splen­dours of this Most Great Rev­ela­tion. Haste ye with ra­di­ant hearts and be not of them that are bereft of un­der­stand­ing. The ap­point­ed Hour hath struck and mankind is laid low. Un­to this bear wit­ness the hon­oured ser­vants of God.

O Hay­dar-'Alí! I swear by the righ­teous­ness of God! The Blast hath been blown on the Trum­pet of the Bayán as de­creed by the Lord, the Mer­ci­ful, and all that are in the heav­ens and on the earth have swooned away ex­cept such as have de­tached them­selves from the world, cleav­ing fast un­to the Cord of God, the Lord of mankind. This is the Day in which the earth shineth with the ef­ful­gent light of thy Lord, but the peo­ple are lost in er­ror and have been shut out as by a veil. We de­sire to re­gen­er­ate the world, yet they have re­solved to put an end to My life. Thus have their hearts prompt­ed them in this Day--a Day which hath been made bright by the ra­di­ant light of the coun­te­nance of its Lord, the Om­nipo­tent, the Almighty, the Un­con­strained. The Moth­er Book hath lift­ed up its Voice, but the peo­ple are bereft of hear­ing. The Pre­served Tablet hath been re­vealed with truth, yet the gen­er­al­ity of mankind pe­ruse it not. They have de­nied the gra­cious favour of God af­ter it hath been sent down un­to them and have turned away from God, the Know­er of things un­seen. They firm­ly cling to the hem of idle fan­cies, turn­ing their backs on the hid­den Name of the Almighty.

Say, O con­course of di­vines! Be fair in your judge­ment, I ad­jure you by God. Pro­duce then what­ev­er proofs and tes­ti­monies ye pos­sess, if ye are to be reck­oned among the in­mates of this glo­ri­ous habi­ta­tion. Set your hearts to­wards the Dayspring of di­vine Rev­ela­tion that We may dis­close be­fore your eyes the equiv­alent of all such vers­es, proofs, tes­ti­monies, af­fir­ma­tions and ev­idences as ye and oth­er kin­dreds of the earth pos­sess. Fear ye God and be not of them that well de­serve the chas­tise­ment of God, the Lord of cre­ation.

This is the Day in which the Ocean of knowl­edge hath lift­ed up its Voice and hath brought forth its pearls. Would that ye knew it! The heav­en of the Bayán hath been raised up in truth at the be­hest of God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. I swear by God! The Essence of knowl­edge ex­claimeth and saith: Lo! He Who is the Ob­ject of all knowl­edge is come and through His ad­vent the sa­cred Books of God, the Gra­cious, the Lov­ing, have been em­bel­lished. Ev­ery rev­ela­tion of grace, ev­ery ev­idence of good­ly gifts em­anateth from Him and un­to Him doth it re­turn.

Fear ye God, O con­course of the fool­ish, and do not in­flict tribu­la­tions up­on those who have willed naught but that which God hath willed. More­over, if ye heed my call, fol­low not your self­ish de­sires. The day is ap­proach­ing when ev­ery­thing now dis­cernible will have fad­ed away and ye shall weep for hav­ing failed in your du­ty to­wards God. Un­to this tes­ti­fi­eth this in­scribed Tablet.

Re­joice thou with great joy that We have re­mem­bered thee both now and in the past. In­deed the sweet savours of this re­mem­brance shall en­dure and shall not change through­out the eter­ni­ty of the Names of God, the Lord of mankind. We have gra­cious­ly ac­cept­ed thy de­vo­tions, thy praise, thy teach­ing work and the ser­vices thou hast ren­dered for the sake of this mighty An­nounce­ment. We have al­so hear­kened un­to that which thy tongue hath ut­tered at the meet­ings and gath­er­ings. Ver­ily thy Lord heareth and ob­serveth all things. We have at­tired thee with the ves­ture of My good-​plea­sure in My heav­en­ly King­dom, and from the Di­vine Lote-​Tree which is raised on the bor­ders of the vale of se­cu­ri­ty and peace, sit­uate in the lu­mi­nous Spot be­yond the glo­ri­ous City, We call aloud un­to thee say­ing: In truth there is no God but Me, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise. We have brought thee in­to be­ing to serve Me, to glo­ri­fy My Word and to pro­claim My Cause. Cen­tre thine en­er­gies up­on that where­for thou hast been cre­at­ed by virtue of the Will of the supreme Or­dain­er, the An­cient of Days.

At this mo­ment We call to re­mem­brance Our loved ones and bring them the joy­ous tid­ings of God's un­fail­ing grace and of the things that have been pro­vid­ed for them in My lu­cid Book. Ye have tol­er­at­ed the cen­sure of the en­emies for the sake of My love and have stead­fast­ly en­dured in My Path the grievous cru­el­ties which the un­god­ly have in­flict­ed up­on you. Un­to this I My­self bear wit­ness, and I am the All-​Know­ing. How vast the num­ber of places that have been en­no­bled with your blood for the sake of God. How nu­mer­ous the cities where­in the voice of your lamen­ta­tion hath been raised and the wail­ing of your an­guish up­lift­ed. How many the pris­ons in­to which ye have been cast by the hosts of tyran­ny. Know ye of a cer­tain­ty that He will ren­der you vic­to­ri­ous, will ex­alt you among the peo­ples of the world and will demon­strate your high rank be­fore the gaze of all na­tions. Sure­ly He will not suf­fer the re­ward of His favoured ones to be lost.

Take heed lest the deeds wrought by the em­bod­iments of idle fan­cy sad­den you or the acts com­mit­ted by ev­ery way­ward op­pres­sor grieve you. Seize ye the chal­ice of con­stan­cy through the pow­er of His Name, quaff then there­from by virtue of the sovereign­ty of God, the Pow­er­ful, the Om­nipo­tent. Thus hath the Day-​Star of My ten­der com­pas­sion and lov­ing-​kind­ness shone forth above the hori­zon of this Tablet that ye may ren­der thanks un­to your Lord, the Almighty, the All-​Boun­ti­ful.

The glo­ry that hath dawned re­splen­dent from the heav­en of Mine ut­ter­ance rest up­on thee and up­on them that have di­rect­ed them­selves to­wards thee and in­clined their ears to the words which thy mouth hath ut­tered con­cern­ing this glo­ri­ous, this au­gust Rev­ela­tion.

“BY the righ­teous­ness of God! The Moth­er Book is made...”

BY the righ­teous­ness of God! The Moth­er Book is made man­ifest, sum­mon­ing mankind un­to God, the Lord of the worlds, while the seas pro­claim: The Most Great Ocean hath ap­peared, from whose waves one can hear the thun­der­ing cry: 'Ver­ily, no God is there but Me, the Peer­less, the All-​Know­ing.' And the trees rais­ing their clam­our ex­claim: O peo­ple of the world! The voice of the Di­vine Lote-​Tree is clear­ly sound­ing and the shrill cry of the Pen of Glo­ry is ring­ing loud: Give ye ear and be not of the heed­less. The sun is call­ing out: O con­course of the di­vines! The heav­en of re­li­gions is split and the moon cleft asun­der and the peo­ples of the earth are brought to­geth­er in a new res­ur­rec­tion. Fear ye God and fol­low not the prompt­ings of your pas­sions, rather fol­low Him un­to Whom have tes­ti­fied the Scrip­tures of God, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

The episode of Sinai hath been re-​en­act­ed in this Rev­ela­tion and He Who con­versed up­on the Mount is call­ing aloud: Ver­ily, the De­sired One is come, seat­ed up­on the throne of cer­ti­tude, could ye but per­ceive it. He hath ad­mon­ished all men to ob­serve that which is con­ducive to the ex­al­ta­tion of the Cause of God and will guide mankind un­to His Straight Path.

How vast the num­ber of the down-​trod­den who have been en­rap­tured by the Call of God! How nu­mer­ous the po­ten­tates who have risen up to com­mit acts of ag­gres­sion that have caused the in­mates of the all-​high­est Par­adise to lament and the dwellers of this glo­ri­ous habi­ta­tion to wail with grief! How great the mul­ti­tude of the poor who have quaffed the choice wine of di­vine rev­ela­tion and how many the rich who have turned away, re­pu­di­at­ed the truth and voiced their dis­be­lief in God, the Lord of this blessed and won­drous Day!

Say: Fear ye God, then ob­serve eq­ui­ty in your judge­ment of this Great An­nounce­ment be­fore which, as soon as it shone forth, ev­ery mo­men­tous an­nounce­ment bowed low in ado­ra­tion. Say: O con­course of the fool­ish! If ye re­ject Him, by what ev­idence can ye prove your al­le­giance to the for­mer Mes­sen­gers of God or vin­di­cate your be­lief in that which He hath sent down from His mighty and ex­alt­ed King­dom? What ben­efit do your pos­ses­sions be­stow up­on you? What pro­tec­tion can your trea­sures af­ford you? None, I swear by the Spir­it of God that per­vadeth all that are in the heav­ens and on the earth. Cast away that which ye have put to­geth­er with the hands of idle fan­cy and vain imag­in­ings and take fast hold of the Book of God which hath been sent down by virtue of His all-​com­pelling and in­vi­olable au­thor­ity.

Thy let­ter was pre­sent­ed be­fore this Wronged One and in thine hon­our have We re­vealed this Tablet from which the fra­grance of the gra­cious favour of thy Lord, the Com­pas­sion­ate, the Boun­ti­ful, is dif­fused. We be­seech God to make thee as a ban­ner up­raised in the city of His re­mem­brance, and to ex­alt thy sta­tion in this Cause--a Cause be­neath whose shad­ow the sin­cere ones of God shall be­hold the peo­ples and kin­dreds of the earth seek­ing shel­ter. Ver­ily, thy Lord knoweth and in­formeth. More­over We en­treat Him to nour­ish thee with the best of what hath been trea­sured in His Book. He is in truth the One Who doth hear and an­swer the call.

Per­se­vere thou in help­ing His Cause through the strength­en­ing pow­er of the hosts of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance. Thus hath it been de­creed by God, the Gra­cious, the All-​Praised. Blessed is the be­liev­er who hath in this Day em­braced the Truth and the man of fixed re­solve whom the hosts of tyran­ny have been pow­er­less to af­fright.

The glo­ry which hath shone forth above the hori­zon of ut­ter­ance be up­on thee and up­on such be­liev­ers as have seized the chal­ice of His sealed wine through the pow­er of His Name, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing, and drunk deep de­spite those that have re­ject­ed the One in Whom they had for­mer­ly pro­fessed be­lief--they that have dis­put­ed the truth of this Great An­nounce­ment where­un­to God hath tes­ti­fied in His pre­cious and an­cient Book.

“O MUHAM­MAD HUSAYN! Be thou pre­pared to re­ceive the...”

O MUHAM­MAD HUSAYN! Be thou pre­pared to re­ceive the out­pour­ings of the lov­ing-​kind­ness of God, the Lord of the worlds. The All-​Mer­ci­ful hath deigned to be­stow up­on thee pearls of knowl­edge from the Ocean of the grace of God, the Almighty, the Most Ex­alt­ed.

Where is the man of in­sight who will rec­og­nize and per­ceive the truth? Where is to be found the man of hear­ing who will hear­ken un­to My won­drous Voice call­ing from the realm of glo­ry? Where is the soul who will set his face to­wards the Di­vine Lote-​Tree in such wise that nei­ther the over­pow­er­ing might of the kings, nor the vi­olent com­mo­tions of their sub­jects may frus­trate him, lift­ing up his voice amidst the en­tire cre­ation through the pow­er of wis­dom and ut­ter­ance and tes­ti­fy­ing un­to that where­un­to hath tes­ti­fied God, that ver­ily no God is there be­sides Him, the Pow­er­ful, the In­vin­ci­ble, the Om­nipo­tent, the Know­ing, the Wise.

O Husayn! Thy name hath been men­tioned in the Most Great Prison be­fore this Wronged One and We have re­vealed for thee that with which none of the books of the world can com­pare. Un­to this beareth wit­ness the King of eter­ni­ty; yet the gen­er­al­ity of mankind are num­bered among the heed­less. From the dawn­ing-​place of tes­ti­mo­ny We have raised the Call un­to all that dwell in the realm of cre­ation. Amongst men there are those who have been car­ried away by the fra­grance of the ut­ter­ance of their Lord in such man­ner that they have for­sak­en ev­ery­thing which per­taineth un­to men in their ea­ger­ness to at­tain the court of the pres­ence of God, the Lord of the mighty throne. There are al­so those who are sore per­plexed and wa­ver­ing. Oth­ers have made haste, winged their way to an­swer the Call of their Lord, the An­cient of Days. Still oth­ers have turned aside, re­ject­ed the truth and even­tu­al­ly dis­be­lieved in God, the Almighty, the All-​Praised. And there are yet oth­ers who have pro­nounced judge­ment against Him with such cru­el­ty that ev­ery wise and dis­cern­ing soul hath been moved to lament. We have gra­cious­ly sum­moned them un­to the riv­er that is life in­deed, while they have, with man­ifest in­jus­tice, de­creed the shed­ding of My blood. Thus hath the Day-​Star of wis­dom shone forth from above the hori­zon of the ut­ter­ance of thy Lord, the All-​Mer­ci­ful. Shouldst thou at­tain un­to its light, it be­hoveth thee to mag­ni­fy the praise of thy Lord and say, I yield Thee thanks, O God of the worlds.

Blessed art thou and are they whom the world and its van­ities have failed to de­ter from this lu­mi­nous Hori­zon.

Con­vey greet­ings on My be­half un­to My loved ones. We ex­hort them to ob­serve wis­dom as de­creed in My won­drous Book.

“O MY hand­maid­en and My leaf! Re­joice with great joy...”

O MY hand­maid­en and My leaf! Re­joice with great joy inas­much as thy call hath as­cend­ed un­to the Di­vine Lote-​Tree and is an­swered from the all-​glo­ri­ous Hori­zon. Ver­ily, no God is there but Me, the Wronged One, the Ex­ile.

We have re­vealed Our­self un­to men, have un­veiled the Cause, guid­ed all mankind to­wards God's Straight Path, pro­mul­gat­ed the laws and have en­joined up­on ev­ery­one that which shall tru­ly prof­it them both in this world and in the next; yet they have pro­nounced judge­ment to shed My blood, where­at the Maid of Heav­en hath wept sore, Sinai hath lament­ed and the Faith­ful Spir­it was made to sigh with grief.

In these days the peo­ple have de­barred them­selves from the ef­fu­sions of di­vine grace by fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of ev­ery ig­no­rant one that hath gone astray. They have cast the Ocean of di­vine knowl­edge be­hind their backs and fixed their eyes up­on such fool­ish men as claim to be well versed in learn­ing with­out be­ing sup­port­ed by any ev­idence from God, the Lord of mankind.

Well is it with thee inas­much as thou hast for­sak­en idle imag­in­ings and tak­en fast hold of the Cord of God that no man can sev­er. Con­sid­er the gra­cious favour of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry. How nu­mer­ous are the kings and queens on earth who, de­spite much yearn­ing, an­tic­ipa­tion and wait­ing, have been de­barred from Him Who is the De­sire of the world, whilst thou didst at­tain. God will­ing, thou mayest ac­com­plish a deed whose fra­grance shall en­dure as long as the Names of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--will en­dure. By the righ­teous­ness of God! The ti­tle 'O My hand­maid­en' far ex­cel­leth aught else that can be seen in the world. Ere long the eyes of mankind shall be il­lu­mined and cheered by rec­og­niz­ing that which Our Pen of Glo­ry hath re­vealed.

Blessed art thou and blessed is the moth­er that hath nursed thee. Ap­pre­ci­ate the val­ue of this sta­tion and arise to serve His Cause in such wise that the idle fan­cies and in­sin­ua­tions of the doubters with­hold thee not from this high re­solve. The Day-​Star of cer­ti­tude is shin­ing re­splen­dent but the peo­ple of the world are hold­ing fast un­to vain imag­in­ings. The Ocean of di­vine knowl­edge hath risen high whilst the chil­dren of men are cling­ing to the hem of the fool­ish. But for the un­fail­ing grace of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--no an­ti­dote could ev­er cure these in­vet­er­ate dis­eases.

Con­vey My greet­ings un­to the hand­maid­ens of God in that re­gion and give them the joy­ful tid­ings that His ten­der mer­cy and grace are vouch­safed un­to them. High in­deed is the sta­tion We have des­tined for thee. It be­hoveth thee to yield praise and thanks­giv­ing un­to thy Lord, the Boun­ti­ful, the Most Gen­er­ous. Glo­ri­fied be God, the Ex­alt­ed, the Great.

“AT one time this sub­lime Word was heard from the...”

AT one time this sub­lime Word was heard from the Tongue of Him Who is the Pos­ses­sor of all be­ing and the Lord of the throne on high and of earth be­low--ex­alt­ed is the glo­ry of His ut­ter­ance--: Piety and de­tach­ment are even as two most great lu­mi­nar­ies of the heav­en of teach­ing. Blessed the one who hath at­tained un­to this supreme sta­tion, this habi­ta­tion of tran­scen­dent ho­li­ness and sub­lim­ity.

“THIS is a Tablet sent down by the All-​Mer­ci­ful from the...”

THIS is a Tablet sent down by the All-​Mer­ci­ful from the King­dom of ut­ter­ance un­to all that dwell on earth. Hap­py is the man who hear­keneth and heedeth and woe be­tide him who hath erred and doubt­ed. This is the Day that hath been il­lu­mined by the ef­ful­gent light of the Coun­te­nance of God--the Day when the Tongue of Grandeur is call­ing aloud: The King­dom is God's, the Lord of the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion.

Thy name hath been men­tioned in Our Pres­ence and We have deigned to re­veal for thee that which the tongue of no one among the peo­ples of the world can re­count. Re­joice with ex­ceed­ing joy inas­much as thou hast been re­mem­bered in the Most Great Prison and the Coun­te­nance of the An­cient of Days hath turned to­wards thee from this ex­alt­ed habi­ta­tion.

We have tru­ly re­vealed the signs, demon­strat­ed the ir­refutable tes­ti­monies and have sum­moned all men un­to the straight Path. Among the peo­ple there are those who have turned away and re­pu­di­at­ed the truth, oth­ers have pro­nounced judge­ment against Us with­out any proof or ev­idence. The first to turn away from Us have been the world's spir­itu­al lead­ers in this age--they that call up­on Us in the day­time and in the night sea­son and men­tion My Name while rest­ing on their lofty thrones. How­ev­er, when I re­vealed My­self un­to men they rose against Me in such wise that even the stones groaned and lament­ed bit­ter­ly.

Great is thy blessed­ness inas­much as thou hast hear­kened un­to His Voice, set thy face to­wards Him and heed­ed the Call of thy Lord when He came in­vest­ed with in­vin­ci­ble pow­er and sovereign­ty.

“O MY hand­maid­en, O My leaf! Ren­der thou thanks un­to...”

O MY hand­maid­en, O My leaf! Ren­der thou thanks un­to the Best-​Beloved of the world for hav­ing at­tained this bound­less grace at a time when the world's learned and most dis­tin­guished men have re­mained de­prived there­of. We have des­ig­nat­ed thee 'a leaf' that thou mayest, like un­to leaves, be stirred by the gen­tle wind of the Will of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry--even as the leaves of the trees are stirred by on­rush­ing winds. Yield thou thanks un­to thy Lord by virtue of this bril­liant ut­ter­ance. Wert thou to per­ceive the sweet­ness of the ti­tle 'O My hand­maid­en' thou wouldst find thy­self de­tached from all mankind, de­vout­ly en­gaged day and night in com­mu­nion with Him Who is the sole De­sire of the world.

In words of in­com­pa­ra­ble beau­ty We have made fit­ting men­tion of such leaves and hand­maid­ens as have quaffed from the liv­ing wa­ters of heav­en­ly grace and have kept their eyes di­rect­ed to­wards God. Hap­py and blessed are they in­deed. Ere long shall God re­veal their sta­tion whose lofti­ness no word can be­fit­ting­ly ex­press nor any de­scrip­tion ad­equate­ly de­scribe.

We ad­mon­ish thee to do that which will serve to pro­mote the in­ter­ests of the Cause of God amongst men and wom­en. He doth hear the call of the friends and be­hold­eth their ac­tions. Ver­ily, He is the Hear­ing and the See­ing.

Up­on thee and up­on them be the glo­ry of God, the Pow­er­ful, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise.

“O HAND­MAID of God! Hear­ken un­to the Voice of the...”

O HAND­MAID of God! Hear­ken un­to the Voice of the Lord of Names, Who from His Prison hath di­rect­ed His gaze to­wards thee and is mak­ing men­tion of thee.

He hath ex­tend­ed as­sis­tance to ev­ery way­far­er, hath gra­cious­ly re­spond­ed to ev­ery pe­ti­tion­er and grant­ed ad­mit­tance to ev­ery seek­er af­ter truth. In this Day the Straight Path is made man­ifest, the Bal­ance of di­vine jus­tice is set and the light of the sun of His boun­ty is re­splen­dent, yet the op­pres­sive dark­ness of the peo­ple of tyran­ny hath, even as clouds, in­ter­vened and caused a grievous ob­struc­tion be­tween the Day-​Star of heav­en­ly grace and the peo­ple of the world. Blessed is he who hath rent the in­ter­ven­ing veils asun­der and is il­lu­mined by the ra­di­ant light of di­vine Rev­ela­tion. Con­sid­er how nu­mer­ous were those who ac­count­ed them­selves among the wise and the learned, yet in the Day of God were de­prived of the out­pour­ings of heav­en­ly boun­ties.

O My leaf, O My hand­maid! Ap­pre­ci­ate the val­ue of this bless­ing and of this ten­der mer­cy which hath en­com­passed thee and guid­ed thy steps un­to the Dayspring of glo­ry.

Con­vey greet­ings on be­half of this Wronged One to such hand­maid­ens as wor­ship God and cheer their hearts with the as­sur­ance of His lov­ing prov­idence.

“FIX your gaze up­on wis­dom in all things, for it is an...”

FIX your gaze up­on wis­dom in all things, for it is an un­fail­ing an­ti­dote. How of­ten hath it turned a dis­be­liev­er in­to a be­liev­er or a foe in­to a friend? Its ob­ser­vance is high­ly es­sen­tial, inas­much as this theme hath been set forth in nu­mer­ous Tablets re­vealed from the empyre­an of the Will of Him Who is the Man­ifes­ta­tion of the light of di­vine uni­ty. Well is it with them that act ac­cord­ing­ly.

Cen­tre your at­ten­tion un­ceas­ing­ly up­on that which will cause the Word of God to be ex­alt­ed. In this Most Great Rev­ela­tion good­ly deeds and a praise­wor­thy char­ac­ter are re­gard­ed as the hosts of God, like­wise is His blessed and holy Word. These hosts are the lode­stone of the hearts of men and the ef­fec­tive means for un­lock­ing doors. Of all the weapons in the world this is the keen­est.

Be­seech thou God to gra­cious­ly as­sist all men to ob­serve that which His all-​glo­ri­ous Pen hath record­ed in the sa­cred Books and Tablets.

“THIS Wronged One doth men­tion him who hath set his...”

THIS Wronged One doth men­tion him who hath set his face to­ward the In­com­pa­ra­ble One, the All-​Know­ing, him who beareth wit­ness un­to His uni­ty even as the All-​Glo­ri­ous Pen hath borne wit­ness as it moveth swift­ly with­in the are­na of ut­ter­ance. Blessed is the soul that hath rec­og­nized its Lord and woe be­tide him who hath grievous­ly erred and doubt­ed.

Man is like un­to a tree. If he be adorned with fruit, he hath been and will ev­er be wor­thy of praise and com­men­da­tion. Oth­er­wise a fruit­less tree is but fit for fire. The fruits of the hu­man tree are exquisite, high­ly de­sired and dear­ly cher­ished. Among them are up­right char­ac­ter, vir­tu­ous deeds and a good­ly ut­ter­ance. The spring­time for earth­ly trees oc­cur­reth once ev­ery year, while the one for hu­man trees ap­peareth in the Days of God--ex­alt­ed be His glo­ry. Were the trees of men's lives to be adorned in this di­vine Spring­time with the fruits that have been men­tioned, the ef­ful­gence of the light of Jus­tice would, of a cer­tain­ty, il­lu­mine all the dwellers of the earth and ev­ery­one would abide in tran­quil­li­ty and con­tent­ment be­neath the shel­ter­ing shad­ow of Him Who is the Ob­ject of all mankind. The Wa­ter for these trees is the liv­ing wa­ter of the sa­cred Words ut­tered by the Beloved of the world. In one in­stant are such trees plant­ed and in the next their branch­es shall, through the out­pour­ings of the show­ers of di­vine mer­cy, have reached the skies. A dried-​up tree, how­ev­er, hath nev­er been nor will be wor­thy of any men­tion.

Hap­py is the faith­ful one who is at­tired with the ves­ture of high en­deav­our and hath arisen to serve this Cause. Such a soul hath tru­ly at­tained the de­sired Goal and hath ap­pre­hend­ed the Ob­ject for which it hath been cre­at­ed. But a myr­iad times alas for the way­ward who are like un­to dried-​up leaves fall­en up­on the dust. Ere long mor­tal blasts shall car­ry them away to the place or­dained for them. Ig­no­rant did they ar­rive, ig­no­rant did they linger and ig­no­rant did they re­tire to their abodes.

The world is con­tin­ual­ly pro­claim­ing these words: Be­ware, I am evanes­cent, and so are all my out­ward ap­pear­ances and colours. Take ye heed of the changes and chances con­trived with­in me and be ye roused from your slum­ber. Nev­er­the­less there is no dis­cern­ing eye to see, nor is there a hear­ing ear to hear­ken.

In this Day the in­ner ear ex­claimeth and saith: In­deed well is it with me, to­day is my day, inas­much as the Voice of God is call­ing aloud. And the essence of vi­sion cri­eth out: Blessed am I, this is my day, for the An­cient Beau­ty is shin­ing re­splen­dent from the most ex­alt­ed Hori­zon.

It be­hoveth the peo­ple of Bahá to in­voke and en­treat the Lord of Names that per­chance the peo­ple of the world may not be de­prived of the ef­fu­sions of grace in His days.

In the past the di­vines were per­plexed over this ques­tion, a ques­tion which He Who is the Sovereign Truth hath, dur­ing the ear­ly years of His life, Him­self heard them ask re­peat­ed­ly: 'What is that Word which the Qá'im will pro­nounce where­by the lead­ers of re­li­gion are put to flight?' Say, that Word is now made man­ifest and ye have fled ere ye heard it ut­tered, al­though ye per­ceive it not. And that blessed, that hid­den, that con­cealed and trea­sured Word is this: '“HE” hath now ap­peared in the rai­ment of “I”. He Who was hid­den from mor­tal eyes ex­claimeth: Lo! I am the All-​Man­ifest.' This is the Word which hath caused the limbs of dis­be­liev­ers to quake. Glo­ri­fied be God! All the heav­en­ly Scrip­tures of the past at­test to the great­ness of this Day, the great­ness of this Man­ifes­ta­tion, the great­ness of His signs, the great­ness of His Word, the great­ness of His con­stan­cy, the great­ness of His pre-​em­inent sta­tion. Yet de­spite all this the peo­ple have re­mained heed­less and are shut out as by a veil. In­deed all the Prophets have yearned to at­tain this Day. David saith: 'Who will bring me in­to the Strong City?'(90) By Strong City is meant Akká. Its for­ti­fi­ca­tions are very strong and this Wronged One is im­pris­oned with­in its walls. Like­wise it is re­vealed in the Qur'án: 'Bring forth thy peo­ple from the dark­ness in­to the light and an­nounce to them the days of God.'(91)

The glo­ry with which this Day is in­vest­ed hath been ex­plic­it­ly men­tioned and clear­ly set forth in most heav­en­ly Books and Scrip­tures. How­ev­er, the di­vines of the age have de­barred men from this tran­scen­dent sta­tion, and have kept them back from this Pin­na­cle of Glo­ry, this Supreme Goal.

Blessed art thou inas­much as the dark­ness of vain imag­in­ings hath been pow­er­less to hin­der thee from the light of cer­ti­tude, and the on­slaught of the peo­ple hath failed to de­ter thee from the Lord of mankind. Ap­pre­ci­ate thou the val­ue of this high sta­tion and be­seech God--ex­alt­ed is His glo­ry--to gra­cious­ly en­able thee to safe­guard it. Im­per­ish­able do­min­ion hath ex­clu­sive­ly per­tained un­to the One true God and His loved ones and will con­tin­ue to per­tain un­to them ev­er­last­ing­ly.

The glo­ry that hath shone forth from the hori­zon of eter­ni­ty rest up­on thee and up­on such as have tak­en fast hold of the Cord of God that no man can sev­er.

“HE Who lead­eth to true vic­to­ry is come. By the righ­teous­ness...”

HE Who lead­eth to true vic­to­ry is come. By the righ­teous­ness of God! He is ful­ly ca­pa­ble of rev­olu­tion­iz­ing the world through the pow­er of a sin­gle Word. Hav­ing en­joined up­on all men to ob­serve wis­dom, He Him­self hath ad­hered to the cord of pa­tience and res­ig­na­tion.

The clay clods of the world have set forth to vis­it the em­bel­lished, the lu­mi­nous, the crim­son City of God, and cer­tain emis­saries from Per­sia are se­cret­ly stir­ring up mis­chief, though to out­ward seem­ing they pre­tend to be gen­tle and meek. Gra­cious God! When will this world-​af­flict­ing crafti­ness be trans­formed in­to sin­cer­ity? The ex­hor­ta­tions of God, the True One, have com­passed the world, but un­til now their in­flu­ence hath not been dis­closed. Men's un­seem­ly deeds have kept them back from at­tain­ing un­to Him. We en­treat God--ex­alt­ed and glo­ri­fied is He--to pour down, out of the clouds of di­vine grace, the over­flow­ing rain of His boun­ty up­on all His ser­vants. Ver­ily po­tent is He over all things.

O 'Alí Hay­dar! O thou who hast risen to serve My Cause and art en­gaged in mag­ni­fy­ing the praise of God, the Lord of the mighty throne! Un­to the em­blems of jus­tice and the ex­po­nents of eq­ui­ty it is in­du­bitably clear and ev­ident that this Wronged One, strength­ened by the tran­scen­dent pow­er of the King­dom, is seek­ing to ef­face from among the peo­ples and kin­dreds of the earth ev­ery ev­idence of dis­or­der, dis­cord, dis­sen­sion, dif­fer­ences or di­vi­sions; and it is for no oth­er rea­son but this great, this mo­men­tous ob­ject that He hath again and again been cast in­to prison and many a day and a night hath been sub­ject­ed to chains and fet­ters. Blessed are they that judge this im­preg­nable Cause, this glo­ri­ous An­nounce­ment, with fair­ness and eq­ui­ty.

“THIS is a Tablet sent down by the Lord of mer­cy that the...”

THIS is a Tablet sent down by the Lord of mer­cy that the peo­ple of the world may be en­abled to draw nigh un­to this Ocean which hath surged through the po­ten­cy of His au­gust Name. Amongst men there are those who have turned away from Him and gain­said His tes­ti­mo­ny, while oth­ers have quaffed the wine of as­sur­ance in the glo­ry of His Name which per­vadeth all cre­at­ed things. A grievous loss hath in­deed been suf­fered by those that have in­clined their ears to the croak­ing of the raven, and re­fused to hear­ken un­to the sweet war­blings of the Bird of Heav­en singing up­on the twigs of the Tree of eter­ni­ty: Ver­ily there is none oth­er God but Me, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise. This is the Day that hath been il­lu­mined by the splen­dours of the light of Our coun­te­nance--the Day around which all days and nights cir­cle in ado­ra­tion. Blessed is the man of in­sight who hath per­ceived, and the sore athirst who hath quaffed from this lu­mi­nous Foun­tain. Blessed the man who ac­knowl­ed­geth the truth, earnest­ly striv­ing to serve the Cause of his Lord, the Pow­er­ful, the Almighty.

O ser­vant who hast fixed his gaze up­on My face! Hear­ken un­to the Voice of thy Lord, the All-​Glo­ri­ous, call­ing aloud from the dayspring of grandeur and majesty. Ver­ily His Call will draw thee nigh un­to the realm of glo­ry and will cause thee to ex­tol His praise in such wise that ev­ery cre­at­ed thing will be en­rap­tured, and to mag­ni­fy His glo­ry in such man­ner as to in­flu­ence the en­tire cre­ation. Tru­ly thy Lord is the Pro­tec­tor, the Gra­cious, the All-​In­formed.

Gath­er thou to­geth­er the friends of God in that land and ac­quaint them with My in­com­pa­ra­ble re­mem­brance. We have re­vealed for them a Tablet from which the fra­grance of the All-​Mer­ci­ful hath been waft­ed up­on the realm of ex­is­tence, that they may re­joice with ex­ceed­ing glad­ness and re­main stead­fast in this won­drous Cause.

While in prison We have re­vealed a Book which We have en­ti­tled 'The Most Holy Book'. We have en­act­ed laws there­in and adorned it with the com­mand­ments of thy Lord, Who ex­er­ciseth au­thor­ity over all that are in the heav­ens and on the earth. Say: Take hold of it, O peo­ple, and ob­serve that which hath been sent down in it of the won­drous pre­cepts of your Lord, the For­giv­ing, the Boun­ti­ful. It will tru­ly pros­per you both in this world and in the next and will purge you of what­so­ev­er ill be­seemeth you. He is in­deed the Or­dain­er, the Ex­pounder, the Giv­er, the Gen­er­ous, the Gra­cious, the All-​Praised.

Great is thy blessed­ness inas­much as thou hast been faith­ful to the Covenant of God and His Tes­ta­ment and for thy be­ing hon­oured with this Tablet through which thy name is record­ed in My Pre­served Tablet. Ded­icate thy­self to the ser­vice of the Cause of thy Lord, cher­ish His re­mem­brance in thy heart and cel­ebrate His praise in such wise that ev­ery way­ward and heed­less soul may there­by be roused from slum­ber.

Thus have We deigned to be­stow up­on thee a to­ken of favour from Our pres­ence; and I ver­ily am the For­giv­ing, the All-​Mer­ci­ful.

“WE de­sire to men­tion him who hath set his face to­wards...”

WE de­sire to men­tion him who hath set his face to­wards Us and to let him once again drink deep from the life-​giv­ing wa­ters of Our gra­cious prov­idence that he may be en­abled to draw nigh un­to My Hori­zon, be adorned with Mine at­tributes, soar in Mine at­mo­sphere, be con­firmed in that which will cause the sanc­ti­ty of My Cause to be man­ifest­ed amongst My peo­ple and to cel­ebrate My praise in a man­ner that will cause ev­ery hes­itat­ing soul to has­ten, ev­ery mo­tion­less crea­ture to wing its flight, ev­ery mor­tal frame to be con­sumed, ev­ery chilled heart to be stirred with life and ev­ery de­ject­ed spir­it to surge with de­light. Thus doth it be­hove him who hath turned his face to Mine, hath en­tered be­neath the shad­ow of My lov­ing-​kind­ness and re­ceived My vers­es which have per­vad­ed the whole world.

O 'Alí! He Who is the Dayspring of di­vine Rev­ela­tion is call­ing un­to thee through this most won­drous ut­ter­ance. By the righ­teous­ness of God! If thou wert present be­fore My Throne and didst hear­ken un­to the Tongue of might and grandeur, thou wouldst sac­ri­fice thy body, thy soul, thine en­tire be­ing as a to­ken of thy love for God, the Sovereign, the Pro­tec­tor, the All-​Know­ing, the All-​Wise, and wouldst so thrill to the fas­ci­na­tion of His Voice that ev­ery pen would be pow­er­less to re­count thy sta­tion and ev­ery elo­quent speak­er would be con­found­ed in his at­tempt to de­scribe it. Pon­der a while con­cern­ing this Rev­ela­tion and its in­vin­ci­ble sovereign­ty; aid it then as it be­seemeth thy Lord, the Gra­cious, the All-​Boun­ti­ful. Di­rect thou the peo­ple un­to the Dayspring of glo­ry. Ver­ily it is He Him­self Who is es­tab­lished up­on His mighty Throne. Through Him hath the hori­zon of this Prison been made to shine and by Him have all that are in the heav­ens and on the earth been il­lu­mined.

We have deigned to men­tion thy name in the past as well as in this gra­cious Tablet that thou mayest once again in­hale the sweet fra­grance of the All-​Mer­ci­ful. This is but a to­ken of My favour un­to thee. Ren­der thou thanks un­to thy Lord, the All-​Boun­ti­ful, the All-​See­ing.

Grieve thou not at men's fail­ure to ap­pre­hend the Truth. Ere long thou shalt find them turn­ing to­wards God, the Lord of all mankind. We have in­deed, through the po­ten­cy of the Most Sub­lime Word, en­com­passed the whole world, and the time is ap­proach­ing when God will have sub­dued the hearts of all that dwell on earth. He is in truth the Om­nipo­tent, the All-​Pow­er­ful.

We al­so re­mem­ber thy broth­er from this land that he may re­joice at My men­tion of him and be of them that re­flect.

O friend! The Best-​Beloved is call­ing thee from His Most Great Prison and ex­hort­eth thee to ob­serve that which Mine ex­alt­ed Pen hath re­vealed in My Most Holy Book that thou mayest hold fast un­to it with such re­solve and pow­er as is born of Me; and I ver­ily am the Or­dain­er, the All-​Wise.

Great is in­deed your blessed­ness inas­much as His un­fail­ing grace hath been vouch­safed un­to you and ye have been aid­ed to rec­og­nize this Cause--a Cause through whose po­ten­cy the heav­ens have been fold­ed to­geth­er and ev­ery lofty and tow­er­ing moun­tain hath been scat­tered in dust.

More­over through Our bound­less grace We make men­tion of your moth­er who hath been priv­ileged to rec­og­nize God. We send her Our greet­ings from this glo­ri­ous sta­tion. We re­mem­ber ev­ery one of you, men and wom­en, and from this Spot--the Scene of in­com­pa­ra­ble glo­ry--re­gard you all as one soul and send you the joy­ous tid­ings of di­vine bless­ings which have pre­ced­ed all cre­at­ed things, and of My re­mem­brance that per­vadeth ev­ery­one, whether young or old. The glo­ry of God rest up­on you, O peo­ple of Bahá. Re­joice with ex­ceed­ing glad­ness through My re­mem­brance, for He is in­deed with you at all times.

“GIVE ear un­to that which the Spir­it im­parteth un­to thee from...”

GIVE ear un­to that which the Spir­it im­parteth un­to thee from the vers­es of God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing, that His Call may at­tract thee to the Sum­mit of tran­scen­dent glo­ry and draw thee nigh un­to the Sta­tion where thou shalt be­hold thine en­tire be­ing set ablaze with the fire of the love of God in such wise that nei­ther the as­cen­dan­cy of the rulers nor the whis­per­ings of their vas­sals can quench it, and thou wilt arise amidst the peo­ples of the world to cel­ebrate the praise of thy Lord, the Pos­ses­sor of Names. This is that which well be­seemeth thee in this Day.

We will re­count for thee the thing that hath hap­pened in the past that thou mayest per­ceive the sweet­ness of this ut­ter­ance and be­come aware of such events as have tran­spired in for­mer times. Ver­ily thy Lord is the Ad­mon­ish­er, the Gra­cious, the Best-​Beloved.

Call thou to mind the days when He Who con­versed with God tend­ed, in the wilder­ness, the sheep of Jethro, His fa­ther-​in-​law. He hear­kened un­to the Voice of the Lord of mankind com­ing from the Burn­ing Bush which had been raised above the Holy Land, ex­claim­ing, 'O Moses! Ver­ily I am God, thy Lord and the Lord of thy fore­fa­thers, Abra­ham, Isaac and Ja­cob.' He was so car­ried away by the cap­ti­vat­ing ac­cent of the Voice that He de­tached Him­self from the world and set out in the di­rec­tion of Pharaoh and his peo­ple, in­vest­ed with the pow­er of thy Lord Who ex­er­ciseth sovereign­ty over all that hath been and shall be. The peo­ple of the world are now hear­ing that which Moses did hear, but they un­der­stand not.

Say, I swear by the righ­teous­ness of God! Ere long the pomp of the min­is­ters of state and the as­cen­dan­cy of the rulers shall pass away, the palaces of the po­ten­tates shall be laid waste and the im­pos­ing build­ings of the em­per­ors re­duced to dust, but what shall en­dure is that which We have or­dained for you in the King­dom. It be­hoveth you, O peo­ple, to make the ut­most en­deav­our that your names may be men­tioned be­fore the Throne and ye may bring forth that which will im­mor­tal­ize your mem­ories through­out the eter­ni­ty of God, the Lord of all be­ing.

Re­mem­ber thou on My be­half the loved ones in that land, con­vey My greet­ings to them and glad­den their hearts with the tid­ings of that which hath been re­vealed for them from this glo­ri­ous sta­tion.

Say, take heed lest the over­pow­er­ing might of the op­pres­sors alarm you. The day is ap­proach­ing when ev­ery em­blem of vain­glo­ry will have been re­duced to noth­ing­ness; then shall ye be­hold the in­vin­ci­ble sovereign­ty of your Lord rul­ing over all things vis­ible and in­vis­ible.

Be­ware lest the veils de­ter you from the out­pour­ings of His boun­ty in this Day. Cast away the things that keep you back from God and per­se­vere on this far-​stretch­ing Way. We de­sire naught for you but that which prof­iteth you as hath been record­ed in His Pre­served Tablet. We of­ten re­mem­ber Our loved ones; how­ev­er, We have found them want­ing in that which be­cometh them at the Court of the favour of their Lord, the Gra­cious, the For­giv­ing, save those whom God de­sireth to ex­empt. Ver­ily, po­tent is He to do what He wil­leth. He giveth and with­hold­eth. He is in­deed the Eter­nal Truth, the Know­er of things un­seen.

Seize ye, O loved ones of the All-​Mer­ci­ful, the chal­ice of eter­nal life prof­fered by the hand of the boun­ti­ful favours of your Lord, the Pos­ses­sor of the en­tire cre­ation, then drink ye deep there­from. I swear by God, it will so en­rap­ture you that ye shall arise to mag­ni­fy His Name and pro­claim His ut­ter­ances amidst the peo­ples of the earth and shall con­quer the cities of the hearts of men in the name of your Lord, the Almighty, the All-​Praised.

More­over, We an­nounce un­to ev­ery­one the joy­ful tid­ings con­cern­ing that which We have re­vealed in Our Most Holy Book--a Book from above whose hori­zon the day-​star of My com­mand­ments shineth up­on ev­ery ob­serv­er and ev­ery ob­served one. Hold ye fast un­to it and ful­fil that which is re­vealed there­in. In­deed bet­ter is this for you than what­so­ev­er hath been cre­at­ed in the world, did ye but know it. Be­ware lest the tran­si­to­ry things of hu­man life with­hold you from turn­ing un­to God, the True One. Pon­der ye in your hearts the world and its con­flicts and changes, so that ye may dis­cern its mer­it and the sta­tion of those who have set their hearts up­on it and have turned away from that which hath been sent down in Our Pre­served Tablet.

Thus have We re­vealed these holy vers­es and sent them un­to thee that thou mayest arise to glo­ri­fy the Name of God, the Help in Per­il, the Self-​Sub­sist­ing. The glo­ry of God be up­on thee and up­on such as have par­tak­en of this choice, sealed Wine.

“THIS Wronged One hath pe­rused thy let­ter in the Most...”

THIS Wronged One hath pe­rused thy let­ter in the Most Great Prison and is ap­prised of thine en­quiry con­cern­ing the com­mand­ments of God on the sub­jects of res­ur­rec­tion and the means of liveli­hood. Thou hast done well to ask these ques­tions, for the ben­efit there­of will be gained by thy­self as well as oth­er ser­vants of God, both out­ward­ly and in­ward­ly. Ver­ily thy Lord knoweth all things and read­ily an­swereth the call.

The supreme cause for cre­at­ing the world and all that is there­in is for man to know God. In this Day whoso­ev­er is guid­ed by the fra­grance of the rai­ment of His mer­cy to gain ad­mit­tance in­to the pris­tine Abode, which is the sta­tion of rec­og­niz­ing the Source of di­vine com­mand­ments and the Dayspring of His Rev­ela­tion, hath ev­er­last­ing­ly at­tained un­to all good. Hav­ing reached this lofty sta­tion a twofold obli­ga­tion resteth up­on ev­ery soul. One is to be stead­fast in the Cause with such stead­fast­ness that were all the peo­ples of the world to at­tempt to pre­vent him from turn­ing to the Source of Rev­ela­tion, they would be pow­er­less to do so. The oth­er is ob­ser­vance of the di­vine or­di­nances which have streamed forth from the well­spring of His heav­en­ly-​pro­pelled Pen. For man's knowl­edge of God can­not de­vel­op ful­ly and ad­equate­ly save by ob­serv­ing what­so­ev­er hath been or­dained by Him and is set forth in His heav­en­ly Book.

A year ago the Most Holy Book was sent down from the heav­en of the boun­ty of the Lord of Names. God will­ing, thou mayest be gra­cious­ly en­abled to ful­fil that which hath been re­vealed there­in.

Con­cern­ing the means of liveli­hood, thou shouldst, while plac­ing thy whole trust in God, en­gage in some oc­cu­pa­tion. He will as­sured­ly send down up­on thee from the heav­en of His favour that which is des­tined for thee. He is in truth the God of might and pow­er.

Yield thou thanks un­to God that thy let­ter hath reached the pres­ence of this Pris­on­er and from the Seat of di­vine au­thor­ity the an­swer hath been re­vealed and is be­ing sent to thee. This is an in­cal­cu­la­ble bless­ing vouch­safed by God. Al­though it is not ev­ident at present, it soon shall be. It be­hoveth thee to say:

Mag­ni­fied be Thy Name, O Lord my God! I am the one who hath turned his face to­wards Thee and hath placed his whole re­liance in Thee. I im­plore Thee by Thy Name where­by the ocean of Thine ut­ter­ance hath surged and the breezes of Thy knowl­edge have stirred, to grant that I may be gra­cious­ly aid­ed to serve Thy Cause and be in­spired to re­mem­ber Thee and praise Thee. Send down then up­on me from the heav­en of Thy gen­eros­ity that which will pre­serve me from any­one but Thee and will prof­it me in all Thy worlds.

Ver­ily, Thou art the Pow­er­ful, the In­ac­ces­si­ble, the Supreme, the Know­ing, the Wise.

FOOT­NOTES