Morning
Behold, the “mystery of the Great Reversal in the Sign of the Sovereign” hath now been made manifest. Well is it with him whom God hath aided to recognize the “Six” raised up by virtue of this “Upright Alif”[1]; he, verily, is of those whose faith is true. How many the outwardly pious who have turned away, and how many the wayward who have drawn nigh, exclaiming: “All praise be to Thee, O Thou the Desire of the worlds!” In truth, it is in the hand of God to give what He willeth to whomsoever He willeth, and to withhold what He pleaseth from whomsoever He may wish. He knoweth the inner secrets of the hearts and the meaning hidden in a mocker’s wink. How many an embodiment of heedlessness who came unto Us with purity of heart have We established upon the seat of Our acceptance; and how many an exponent of wisdom have We in all justice consigned to the fire. We are, in truth, the One to judge. He it is Who is the manifestation of “God doeth whatsoever He pleaseth”, and abideth upon the throne of “He ordaineth whatsoever He chooseth”.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The
Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
[1] In his writings, Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá’í placed great emphasis on the Arabic letter “Váv.” In The Dawn-Breakers, Nabíl states that this letter “symbolized for the Báb the advent of a new cycle of Divine Revelation, and has since been alluded to by Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas in such passages as ‘the mystery of the Great Reversal’ and ‘the Sign of the Sovereign.’”
The name for the letter “Váv” consists of three letters:
Váv, Alif, Váv. According to the abjad reckoning, the numerical value of each
of these letters is 6, 1 and 6 respectively. Shoghi Effendi in a letter written
on his behalf to one of the believers in the East provides an interpretation of
this verse of the Aqdas. He states that the “Upright Alif” refers to the advent
of the Báb. The first letter with its value of six, which comes before the
Alif, is a symbol of earlier Dispensations and Manifestations which predate the
Báb, while the third letter, which also has a numerical value of six, stands
for Bahá’u’lláh’s supreme Revelation which was made manifest after the Alif. (The Universal House of Justice, the 'Notes' section of the 'Kitab-i-Aqdas')
Evening
O people of God! In this day everyone should fix his eyes upon the horizon of these blessed words: ‘Alone and unaided He doeth whatsoever He pleaseth.’ Whoso attaineth this station hath verily attained the light of the essential unity of God and is enlightened thereby, while all others are reckoned in the Book of God among the followers of idle fancy and vain imagination. Incline your ears to the Voice of this Wronged One and safeguard the integrity of your stations. It is highly necessary and imperative that everyone should observe this matter.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah
revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
