Morning
He is really a believer in the Unity of God who recognizeth in each and every created thing the sign of the revelation of Him Who is the Eternal Truth, and not he who maintaineth that the creature is indistinguishable from the Creator.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings
of Baha’u’llah’)
Evening
Morning
…in the exercise of the royal justice, it is not sufficient to give ear to the claimant alone. God saith in the Qur’án, the unerring Balance that distinguisheth truth from falsehood: “O ye who believe! If a wicked man come to you with news, clear it up at once, lest through ignorance ye harm others, and afterward repent of what ye have done.” [Qur’an 49:6] The holy Traditions, moreover, contain the admonition: “Believe not the tale-bearer.” Certain of the divines, who have never seen Us, have misconceived the nature of Our Cause. Those, however, who have met Us will testify that this Servant hath not spoken save in accordance with that which God hath commanded in the Book, and that He hath called attention to the following blessed verse—exalted be His Word: “Do ye not disavow us merely because we believe in God, and in what He hath sent down unto us, and in what He had sent down aforetime?” [Qur’an 5:59]
- Baha'u'llah (Tablet to Nasiri’d-Din Shah,
Suriy-i-Haykal [Tablet of Temple]; ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
Evening
A Word hath, as a token of Our grace, gone forth from the
Most Great Tablet—a Word which God hath adorned with the ornament of His own
Self, and made it sovereign over the earth and all that is therein, and a sign
of His greatness and power among its people, that all may glorify thereby their
Lord, the Almighty, the All-Powerful, the All-Wise, and extol the praise of
their Creator and the sanctity of the Soul of God that holdeth sway over all
created things. This, verily, is none other than a Word sent down by Him Who is
the All-Knowing, the Ancient of Days.
Render thanks unto God, O people, for His appearance; for verily He is the most great Favour unto you, the most perfect bounty upon you; and through Him every mouldering bone is quickened. Whoso turneth towards Him hath turned towards God, and whoso turneth away from Him hath turned away from My Beauty, hath repudiated My Proof, and transgressed against Me. He is the Trust of God amongst you, His charge within you, His manifestation unto you and His appearance among His favoured servants.
- Baha’u’llah (From Súriy-i-Ghusn [Tablet of Branch], ‘Days of Remembrance)
Morning
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.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
Evening
Morning
There hath branched from the Sadratu’l-Muntahá this sacred and glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that hath sought His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow. Verily the Limb of the Law of God hath sprung forth from this Root which God hath firmly implanted in the Ground of His Will, and Whose Branch hath been so uplifted as to encompass the whole of creation. Magnified be He, therefore, for this sublime, this blessed, this mighty, this exalted Handiwork! Draw nigh unto Him, O people, and taste the fruits of wisdom and knowledge that have proceeded from Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Knowing. Whoso hath failed to taste thereof is deprived of God’s bounty, though he partake of all that the earth can produce, could ye but perceive it!
- Baha’u’llah (From Súriy-i-Ghusn [Tablet of Branch], ‘Days of
Remembrance)
Evening
Morning
Strive, O people, to enter beneath the sheltering shadow of the Word of God. Quaff, then, from it the choice wine of inner meaning and explanation, for it is the repository of the living waters of the All-Glorious and hath appeared from the horizon of the Will of the All-Merciful with matchless splendour. Say: Out of this Most Great Ocean there hath branched the Pre-existent Sea; blessed the one that hath attained and found repose upon its shores.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Days of Remembrance)
Evening
Morning
O Pen of Glory! Intone the anthems of grandeur, for We have inhaled the fragrance of reunion at the approach of that Day whereon the kingdom of names was adorned with the ornament of Our Name, the Exalted, the Most High. No sooner was this Day mentioned before the Throne than the Maids of Heaven chanted a wondrous melody, the Nightingale pealed out its heavenly song, and the All-Merciful gave voice to that which enraptured the souls of the Messengers of God, His chosen ones, and those who enjoy near access to Him.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Days of Remembrance)
Evening
Morning
Lo, the Tongue of Glory hath called aloud and the Word of God hath cried out, proclaiming: “The Kingdom is God’s, the Creator of the heavens and the Lord of all names!” And yet the people, for the most part, are heedless. The entire creation resoundeth with the melodies of the All-Merciful, the realms of sanctity are redolent with the fragrance of His raiment, and the Most Great Name hath shed the splendour of His glory upon all who dwell on earth, and yet the people are wrapped in a palpable veil.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Days
of Remembrance)
Evening
Morning
…O ye lovers of the beauty of the All-Glorious! O ye that ardently seek the court of the presence of the Almighty! This is the day of nearness and reunion, not the time for contention and idle words. If ye be sincere lovers, behold the beauty of the Best-Beloved shining clear and resplendent as the true morn. It behoveth you to be free from all attachment, whether to yourselves or to others; nay, ye should renounce existence and non-existence, light and darkness, glory and abasement alike. Sever your hearts from all transitory things, from all idle fancies and vain imaginings, that ye may, pure and unsullied, enter the realm of the spirit and partake with radiant hearts of the splendours of everlasting holiness.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Days of
Remembrance)
Evening
Morning
That concealed Word upon which the souls of all the Messengers of God and His Chosen Ones have ever depended hath manifested itself out of the invisible world into the visible plane. No sooner had this hidden Word shone forth from the Realm of inmost being and absolute singleness to illumine the peoples of the earth than a breeze of mercy wafted therefrom, purifying all things from the stench of sin and arraying the countless forms of existence and the reality of man with the vesture of forgiveness. So great was the wondrous grace which pervaded all things that through the utterance of the letters “B” and “E” the gems that lay hid within the repositories of this contingent world were brought forth and made manifest. Thus were the seen and the unseen joined in one garment, and the hidden and the manifest clothed in a single robe; thus did utter nothingness attain the realm of eternity, and pure evanescence gain admittance into the court of everlasting life.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Days of Remembrance)
Evening
Morning
O Essence of Negligence! Myriads of mystic tongues find utterance in one speech, and myriads of hidden mysteries are revealed in a single melody; yet, alas, there is no ear to hear, nor heart to understand.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Hidden Words’)
Evening
Morning
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 [1] which hath caused the footsteps of them that are endued with understanding to slip.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
[1] The Most Great Name
Morning
It should be borne in mind, however, that when the light of My Name, the All-Pervading, hath shed its radiance upon the universe, each and every created thing hath, according to a fixed decree, been endowed with the capacity to exercise a particular influence, and been made to possess a distinct virtue… The potency infused into all created things is the direct consequence of the revelation of this most blessed Name. Glorified be He, Who is the Creator of all names and attributes!
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
Evening
Morning
How puny and insignificant is the evanescent drop when compared with the waves and billows of God’s limitless and everlasting Ocean, and how utterly contemptible must every contingent and perishable thing appear when brought face to face with the uncreated, the unspeakable glory of the Eternal!... How can a fleeting fancy compare with the Self-Subsisting, and how can the Creator be likened unto His creatures, who are but as the script of His Pen? Nay, His script excelleth all things, and is sanctified from, and immeasurably exalted above, all creatures.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
Evening
Morning
O Vafa! [1] 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.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
[1] Muhammad Husayn, one of the early believers of Shíráz,
surnamed ‘Vafá (Fidelity) by Bahá’u’lláh
Evening
Morning
And I praise and glorify that primal Sea which hath branched out from the ocean of the unseen Essence, and that primal Morn which hath broken forth upon the horizon of Singleness, and that primal Sun which hath risen in the heaven of everlasting splendour, and that primal Fire which was kindled from the Lamp of eternity within the Niche of oneness: He Who is called “Ahmad” in the kingdom of the exalted ones, and “Muhammad” amongst the concourse of the favoured ones, and “Mahmúd” in the realm of the sincere; [1] and in the hearts of the knowing, “whichsoever ye call upon, most beauteous are His names.” [Qur’án 17:110] And upon His kindred and His companions be abundant, abiding, and eternal peace!
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Seven Valleys’, 2019
revised translation by the Baha’i World Centre; ‘The Call of the Divine
Beloved’)
[1] Ahmad, Muhammad, and Mahmúd are names and titles of the
Prophet derived from the verb “to praise”, “to extol”.
Evening
Morning
Let no one imagine that by Our assertion that all created things are the signs of the revelation of God is meant that—God forbid—all men, be they good or evil, pious or infidel, are equal in the sight of God. Nor doth it imply that the Divine Being—magnified be His name and exalted be His glory—is, under any circumstances, comparable unto men, or can, in any way, be associated with His creatures. Such an error hath been committed by certain foolish ones who, after having ascended into the heavens of their idle fancies, have interpreted Divine Unity to mean that all created things are the signs of God, and that, consequently, there is no distinction whatsoever between them. Some have even outstripped them by maintaining that these signs are peers and partners of God Himself. Gracious God! He, verily, is one and indivisible; one in His essence, one in His attributes. Everything besides Him is as nothing when brought face to face with the resplendent revelation of but one of His names, with no more than the faintest intimation of His glory—how much less when confronted with His own Self!
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings
of Baha’u’llah’)
Evening
Morning
Consider…how frequently doth man become forgetful of his own self, whilst God remaineth, through His all-encompassing knowledge, aware of His creature, and continueth to shed upon him the manifest radiance of His glory. It is evident, therefore, that, in such circumstances, He is closer to him than his own self. He will, indeed, so remain for ever, for, whereas the one true God knoweth all things, perceiveth all things, and comprehendeth all things, mortal man is prone to err, and is ignorant of the mysteries that lie enfolded within him....
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of
Baha’u’llah’)
Evening
Morning
O Son of My Handmaid! Wouldst thou seek the grace of the Holy Spirit, enter into fellowship with the righteous, for he hath drunk the cup of eternal life at the hands of the immortal Cup-bearer and even as the true morn doth quicken and illumine the hearts of the dead.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The
Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah’)
Evening
Morning
That the heart is the throne, in which the Revelation of God
the All-Merciful is centered, is attested by the holy utterances which We have
formerly revealed.
Among them is this saying: “Earth and heaven cannot contain Me; what can alone contain Me is the heart of him that believeth in Me, and is faithful to My Cause.” How often hath the human heart, which is the recipient of the light of God and the seat of the revelation of the All-Merciful, erred from Him Who is the Source of that light and the Well Spring of that revelation. It is the waywardness of the heart that removeth it far from God, and condemneth it to remoteness from Him. Those hearts, however, that are aware of His Presence, are close to Him, and are to be regarded as having drawn nigh unto His throne.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
Evening
Morning
O Son of Passion! Cleanse thyself from the defilement of riches and in perfect peace advance into the realm of poverty; that from the well-spring of detachment thou mayest quaff the wine of immortal life.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah’)
Evening