Morning
…reflect upon the state and condition of Mary. So deep was
the perplexity of that most beauteous countenance, so grievous her case, that
she bitterly regretted she had ever been born. To this beareth witness the text
of the sacred verse wherein it is mentioned that after Mary had given birth to
Jesus, she bemoaned her plight and cried out: “O would that I had died ere
this, and been a thing forgotten, forgotten quite!” [Qur’án 19:22] I swear by
God! Such lamenting consumeth the heart and shaketh the being. Such
consternation of soul, such despondency, could have been caused by no other
than the censure of the enemy and the cavilings of the infidel and perverse.
Reflect, what answer could Mary have given to the people around her? How could
she claim that a Babe Whose father was unknown had been conceived of the Holy
Ghost? Therefore did Mary, that veiled and immortal Countenance, take up her
Child and return unto her home. No sooner had the eyes of the people fallen
upon her than they raised their voice saying: “O sister of Aaron! Thy father
was not a man of wickedness, nor unchaste thy mother.” [Qur’án 19:28]
And now, meditate upon this most great convulsion, this grievous test. Notwithstanding all these things, God conferred upon that essence of the Spirit, Who was known amongst the people as fatherless, the glory of Prophethood, and made Him His testimony unto all that are in heaven and on earth.
- Baha’u’llah ('The Kitab-i-Iqan')
Evening
He Who is the Lord of the seen and unseen is now manifest unto all men. His blessed Self hath been afflicted with such harm that if all the seas, visible and invisible, were turned into ink, and all that dwell in the kingdom into pens, and all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth into scribes, they would, of a certainty, be powerless to record it.
- Baha’u’llah (Quoted by Shoghi Effendi in ‘The Promised Day Is Come’)
