Beware lest ye sow tares of dissension among men or plant
thorns of doubt in pure and radiant hearts.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of
Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
December 8
O My servants! Were ye to discover the hidden, the shoreless
oceans of My incorruptible wealth, ye would, of a certainty, esteem as nothing
the world, nay, the entire creation. Let the flame of search burn with such
fierceness within your hearts as to enable you to attain your supreme and most
exalted goal—the station at which ye can draw nigh unto, and be united with,
your Best-Beloved....
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of
Baha’u’llah’)
December 7
Be thankful to God for having enabled you to recognise His
Cause. Whoever has received this blessing must, prior to his acceptance, have
performed some deed which, though he himself was unaware of its character, was
ordained by God as a means whereby he has been guided to find and embrace the
Truth. As to those who have remained deprived of such a blessing, their acts
alone have hindered them from recognising the truth of this Revelation. We
cherish the hope that you, who have attained to this light, will exert your
utmost to banish the darkness of superstition and unbelief from the midst of
the people. May your deeds proclaim your faith and enable you to lead the
erring into the paths of eternal salvation. The memory of this night will never
be forgotten. May it never be effaced by the passage of time, and may its
mention linger for ever on the lips of men.
- Baha'u'llah (Words of Baha’u’llah addressed to some
pilgrims and a few resident believers on
January 8, 1889, quoted by Nabil in the ‘Dawn-Breakers, translated and edited
by Shoghi Effendi)
December 6
Guard against idleness and sloth, and cling unto that which
profiteth mankind, whether young or old, whether high or low.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
December 5
A different Cause… hath appeared in this day and a different
discourse is required. Indeed, with the inception of the year nine the time for
questions and answers came to an end. Thus He, hallowed and magnified be His
name, saith: “This is not the day for any man to question his Lord. When thou
hearest the call of God voiced by Him Who is the Dayspring of grandeur, cry
out: ’Here am I, O Lord of all names! Here am I, O Maker of the heavens! I
testify that Thou hast revealed Thyself and hast revealed whatsoever Thou didst
desire at Thine Own behest. Thou, in truth, art the Lord of strength and
might.’”
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Tabernacle of Unity’)
December 4
O friends! Let not the deceptive glamour of this fleeting
world--to whose impermanence all things attest--cut you off from God's enduring
bestowals, nor deprive you from partaking of the spiritual sustenance that He
hath sent down from the heaven of His bounty. Keep your gaze centred on Him Who
is the Sovereign Word of Truth: place your whole reliance upon Him, and beg of
Him to destine for you what is meet and fitting. Resign your affairs into the
hands of God, the Lord of creation. Call ye to mind the people of former ages:
whither are they sped, the prideful and vainglorious, the workers of iniquity
and unrighteousness? Where are their hoards of treasure, their palaces,
citadels and thrones? Reflect upon those bygone days, and the vicissitudes of
which they tell, and be ye admonished thereby. The prayer of this Wronged One
is that God may assist all to do what shall meet with His favour and
acceptance.
- Baha’u’llah (From a Tablet; The Compilation of Compilations, Vol.
II, Trustworthiness)
December 3
Dissipate not the wealth of your precious lives in the
pursuit of evil and corrupt affection, nor let your endeavours be spent in
promoting your personal interest. Be generous in your days of plenty, and be
patient in the hour of loss. Adversity is followed by success and rejoicings
follow woe.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
December 2
If ye pay no heed unto the counsels which, in peerless and
unequivocal language, We have revealed in this Tablet, Divine chastisement shall
assail you from every direction, and the sentence of His justice shall be
pronounced against you. On that day ye
shall have no power to resist Him, and shall recognize your own impotence. Have mercy on yourselves and on those beneath
you, and judge ye between them according to the precepts prescribed by God in
His most holy and exalted Tablet, a Tablet wherein He hath assigned to each and
every thing its settled measure, in which He hath given, with distinctness, an
explanation of all things, and which is in itself a monition unto them that
believe in Him.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Suriy-i-Mulk [Tablet to the Kings]; ‘Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
- Baha’u’llah (‘Suriy-i-Mulk [Tablet to the Kings]; ‘Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
December 1
Please God, that we avoid the land of denial, and advance
into the ocean of acceptance, so that we may perceive, with an eye purged from
all conflicting elements, the worlds of unity and diversity, of variation and
oneness, of limitation and detachment, and wing our flight unto the highest and
innermost sanctuary of the inner meaning of the Word of God.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The
Kitab-i-Iqan’)
November 30
O concourse of divines! When My verses were sent down, and
My clear tokens were revealed, We found you behind the veils. This, verily, is
a strange thing. Ye glory in My Name, yet ye recognized Me not at the time your
Lord, the All-Merciful, appeared amongst you with proof and testimony. We have
rent the veils asunder. Beware lest ye shut out the people by yet another veil.
Pluck asunder the chains of vain imaginings, in the name of the Lord of all
men, and be not of the deceitful. Should ye turn unto God and embrace His
Cause, spread not disorder within it, and measure not the Book of God with your
selfish desires. This, verily, is the counsel of God aforetime and hereafter,
and to this God’s witnesses and chosen ones, yea, each and every one of Us, do
solemnly attest.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Kitab-i-Aqdas)
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Kitab-i-Aqdas)
November 29
Take heed that your words be purged from idle fancies and
worldly desires and your deeds be cleansed from craftiness and suspicion.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
November 28
Man’s merit lieth in service and virtue and not in the
pageantry of wealth and riches.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
November 27
Time and again have We written and commanded that no one
should solicit such payment. The offering of every person that voluntarily
tendereth the Huququ'lláh with the utmost joy and pleasure may be accepted,
otherwise acceptance was not and is not permissible. Those that are oblivious
of their duty should be briefly reminded. Deeds must be performed with willingness
and in all circumstances high regard must be given to the dignity of the Cause
of God. Formerly We have mentioned that were a person to possess the whole
world and would tender his possessions at the cost of degrading the honour of
the Cause, even to the extent of a grain of mustard, it would be essential and
imperative to refuse to accept such wealth. Such is the Cause of God, eternal
in the past, eternal in the future. Well is it with them that act accordingly.
- Baha’u’llah (The Compilation of Compilation, vol. I, Huqúqu'lláh)
- Baha’u’llah (The Compilation of Compilation, vol. I, Huqúqu'lláh)
November 26
We have made Thee [‘Abdu’l-Baha] a shelter for all mankind,
a shield unto all who are in heaven and on earth, a stronghold for whosoever
hath believed in God, the Incomparable, the All-Knowing. God grant that through
Thee He may protect them, may enrich and sustain them, that He may inspire Thee
with that which shall be a wellspring of wealth unto all created things, an
ocean of bounty unto all men, and the dayspring of mercy unto all peoples.
- Baha’u’llah (Quoted by Shoghi Effendi in ‘The World Order of Baha'u'llah’)
- Baha’u’llah (Quoted by Shoghi Effendi in ‘The World Order of Baha'u'llah’)
November 25
O Thou Who art the apple of Mine eye! [‘Abdu’l-Baha] My
glory, the ocean of My loving-kindness, the sun of My bounty, the heaven of My
mercy rest upon Thee. We pray God to illumine the world through Thy knowledge
and wisdom, to ordain for Thee that which will gladden Thine heart and impart
consolation to Thine eyes.
- Baha’u’llah (Quoted by Shoghi Effendi in ‘The World Order of Baha'u'llah’)
- Baha’u’llah (Quoted by Shoghi Effendi in ‘The World Order of Baha'u'llah’)
November 24
Justice is, in this day, bewailing its plight, and Equity
groaneth beneath the yoke of oppression. The thick clouds of tyranny have
darkened the face of the earth, and enveloped its peoples. Through the movement
of Our Pen of glory We have, at the bidding of the omnipotent Ordainer,
breathed a new life into every human frame, and instilled into every word a
fresh potency. All created things proclaim the evidences of this world-wide
regeneration. This is the most great, the most joyful tidings imparted by the
Pen of this wronged One to mankind.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
November 23
Thy day of service is now come… Arise for the triumph of My
Cause, and, through the power of thine utterance, subdue the hearts of men.
Thou must show forth that which will ensure the peace and the well-being of the
miserable and the down-trodden. Gird up the loins of thine endeavor, that
perchance thou mayest release the captive from his chains, and enable him to
attain unto true liberty.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of
Baha’u’llah’)
November 22
Know ye that the poor are the trust of God in your
midst. Watch that ye betray not His
trust, that ye deal not unjustly with them and that ye walk not in the ways of
the treacherous. Ye will most certainly
be called upon to answer for His trust on the day when the Balance of Justice
shall be set, the day when unto everyone shall be rendered his due, when the
doings of all men, be they rich or poor, shall be weighed.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Suriy-i-Mulk [Tablet to the Kings]; ‘Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
November 21
How vast is the tabernacle of the Cause of God! It hath
overshadowed all the peoples and kindreds of the earth, and will, erelong,
gather together the whole of mankind beneath its shelter.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
November 20
Blessed is the man that hath acknowledged his belief in God
and in His signs, and recognized that “He shall not be asked of His doings”.
Such a recognition hath been made by God the ornament of every belief and its
very foundation. Upon it must depend the acceptance of every goodly deed.
Fasten your eyes upon it, that haply the whisperings of the rebellious may not
cause you to slip.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
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