He is the Most Glorious.
O Khurshíd! Thy letter hath come into the presence of God, and attained unto the court wherein His mercy-seat hath been established. Thanks and praise be unto Him. O Khurshíd! Strive that thou mayest become in reality like unto thy name—a heavenly luminary shining brilliantly above the horizon of the firmament of love; [1] for a name alone is not sufficient in this day: rather what is requisite and fitting is a matching character, a reality that correspondeth to the name. How many are the souls who, though in name “Beloved”, [2] are in reality detested of the Lord! Please God, thou wilt, both inwardly and outwardly, exemplify thy name.
I swear by the Day-Star of the heaven of Divine Unity! Were the sun of this physical heaven to be acquainted with the sorrows that have afflicted the Beauty of the All-Merciful, it would rise no more above its dawning-place, and would divest itself of the robe of its refulgency and light. Howbeit, We have concealed Our woes from all created things, lest they that are the embodiments of names in the kingdom of creation should be consumed away.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Additional Tablets and Extracts from Tablets Revealed by
Bahá’u’lláh’; Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)
[1] A punning reference to the fact that the addressee’s
name, “Khurshíd”, is also the Persian word for “sun”.
[2] i.e, who bear the name “Mahbúb” or “Mahbúbih”
(“Beloved”)
