Thou art God’s shadow on earth. Strive, therefore, to act in
such a manner as befitteth so eminent, so august a station. If thou dost depart
from following the things We have caused to descend upon thee and taught thee,
thou wilt, assuredly, be derogating from that great and priceless honor. Return,
then, and cleave wholly unto God, and cleanse thine heart from the world and
all its vanities, and suffer not the love of any stranger to enter and dwell
therein. Not until thou dost purify thine heart from every trace of such love
can the brightness of the light of God shed its radiance upon it, for to none
hath God given more than one heart. This, verily, hath been decreed and written
down in His ancient Book. And as the human heart, as fashioned by God, is one
and undivided, it behoveth thee to take heed that its affections be, also, one
and undivided. Cleave thou, therefore, with the whole affection of thine heart,
unto His love, and withdraw it from the love of any one besides Him, that He
may aid thee to immerse thyself in the ocean of His unity, and enable thee to
become a true upholder of His oneness. God is My witness. My sole purpose in
revealing to thee these words is to sanctify thee from the transitory things of
the earth, and aid thee to enter the realm of everlasting glory, that thou mayest,
by the leave of God, be of them that abide and rule therein....
- Baha’u’llah (From a Tablet to Sultan Abdu’l-Aziz, ‘Gleanings from the Writings of
Baha’u’llah’)
