O concourse of the seen and the unseen! Rejoice with
exceeding gladness in your hearts and souls, for the night hath come for the
harvesting of the ages and the gathering up of past cycles, the night wherein
all days and nights were called into being and the time preordained for this
Revelation was fulfilled at the behest of Him Who is the Lord of might and
power. All joy to the Concourse on high at the appearance of so glorious, so
wondrous a Spirit!
This is the night [Birth of Baha’u’llah] wherein the doors of Paradise were flung open and the gates of Hell were shut fast, the night wherein the paradise of the All-Merciful was unveiled in the midmost heart of creation, the breezes of God were wafted from the retreats of forgiveness, and the Last Hour ushered in through the power of truth, could ye but know it. All joy to this night through which all days have been suffused with light, though none can apprehend this save those that are endued with certitude and discernment!
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablet of the Birth, ‘Days of Remembrance’)
Evening
And if, confirmed by the Creator, the lover escapeth the
claws of the eagle of love, he will enter the Realm of Knowledge and come out
of doubt into certitude, and turn from the darkness of wayward desire to the
guiding light of the fear of God. His inner eye will open and he will privily
converse with his Beloved; he will unlock the gates of truth and supplication
and shut the doors of idle fancy. He in this realm is content with the divine
decree, and seeth war as peace, and in death findeth the meaning of everlasting
life. With both inward and outward eyes he witnesseth the mysteries of
resurrection in the realms of creation and in the souls of men, and with a
spiritual heart apprehendeth the wisdom of God in His endless manifestations.
In the sea he findeth a drop, in a drop he beholdeth the secrets of the sea.
Split the atom’s heart, and lo!
Within it thou wilt find a sun. [Hátif-i-Isfahání (d.1783),
Persian poet]
- Baha’u’llah (The Seven Valleys, revised translation by the
Baha’i World Center included in ‘The Call of the Divine Beloved’)
