Morning
O friends of God! Incline your inner ears to the voice of
the peerless and self-subsisting Lord, that He may deliver you from the bonds
of entanglement and the depths of darkness and enable you to attain the eternal
light. Ascent and descent, stillness and motion, have come into being through
the will of the Lord of all that hath been and shall be. The cause of ascent is
lightness, and the cause of lightness is heat. Thus hath it been decreed by
God. The cause of stillness is weight and density, which in turn are caused by
coldness. Thus hath it been decreed by God.
And since He hath ordained heat to be the source of motion and ascent and the cause of attainment to the desired goal, He hath therefore kindled with the mystic hand that Fire that dieth not and sent it forth into the world, that this divine Fire might, by the heat of the love of God, guide and attract all mankind to the abode of the incomparable Friend. This is the mystery enshrined in your Book that was sent down aforetime, a mystery which hath until now remained concealed from the eyes and hearts of men. That primal Fire hath in this Day appeared with a new radiance and with immeasurable heat. This divine Fire burneth of itself, with neither fuel nor fume, that it might draw away such excess moisture and cold as are the cause of torpor and weariness, of lethargy and despondency, and lead the entire creation to the court of the presence of the All-Merciful. Whoso hath approached this Fire hath been set aflame and attained the desired goal, and whoso hath removed himself therefrom hath remained deprived.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Tabernacle of Unity’)
Evening
Everyone is eagerly awaiting His appearance, yet since their inner eyes are not directed towards Him sorrow must needs befall Him. In the case of the Apostle of God—may the blessings of God rest upon Him—before the revelation of the Qur’án everyone bore witness to His piety and noble virtues. Behold Him then after the revelation of the Qur’án. What outrageous insults were levelled against Him, as indeed the pen is ashamed to recount. Likewise behold the Point of the Bayán. His behaviour prior to the declaration of His mission is clearly evident unto those who knew Him. Now, following His manifestation, although He hath, up to the present, revealed no less than five hundred thousand verses on different subjects, behold what calumnies are uttered, so unseemly that the pen is stricken with shame at the mention of them. But if all men were to observe the ordinances of God no sadness would befall that heavenly Tree.
- The Báb (From the Persian Bayan,
‘Selections from the Writings of the Báb)
