It behoveth you to observe truthfulness, whereby your
temples shall be adorned, your names uplifted, your stations exalted amidst
men, and a mighty recompense assured for you before God. 
Upon Our arrival at this Prison, We purposed to transmit to
the kings the messages of their Lord, the Mighty, the All-Praised. Though We
have transmitted to them, in several Tablets, that which We were commanded, yet
We do it once again as a token of God’s grace. Perchance they may recognize the
Lord, Who hath come down in the clouds with manifest sovereignty.
Say, by reason of your remembering Him Whom God shall make
manifest and by extolling His name, God will cause your hearts to be dilated
with joy, and do ye not wish your hearts to be in such a blissful state? Indeed
the hearts of them that truly believe in Him Whom God shall make manifest are
vaster than the expanse of heaven and earth and whatever is between them. God
hath left no hindrance in their hearts, were it but the size of a mustard seed.
He will cheer their hearts, their spirits, their souls and their bodies and
their days of prosperity or adversity, through the exaltation of the name of
Him Who is the supreme Testimony of God and the promotion of the Word of Him
Who is the Dayspring of the glory of their Creator.
…strive thou to comprehend the meaning of this saying of
‘Alí, [the first Imam] the Commander of the Faithful: “Piercing the veils of
glory, unaided.” Among these “veils of glory” are the divines and doctors
living in the days of the Manifestation of God, who, because of their want of
discernment and their love and eagerness for leadership, have failed to submit
to the Cause of God, nay, have even refused to incline their ears unto the
divine Melody. “They have thrust their fingers into their ears.” And the people also, utterly ignoring God and
taking them for their masters, have placed themselves unreservedly under the
authority of these pompous and hypocritical leaders, for they have no sight, no
hearing, no heart, of their own to distinguish truth from falsehood.
If ye become aware of a sin committed by another, conceal
it, that God may conceal your own sin.
He, verily, is the Concealer, the Lord of grace abounding.
Praise be unto Thee, O Thou Who art the Lord of the world
and the Ruler of the nations! I testify that Thou hast from eternity been
sanctified above the mention of all created things and exalted beyond the
loftiest descriptions of Thy creatures. Whensoever Thy devoted servants sought
to ascend unto the station of Thy recognition, the hosts of Thy knowledge
barred their way; and whensoever Thy near ones desired to gain admittance to
the heaven of Thy nearness, the overpowering majesty of Thine utterance kept
them back. We bear witness that the loftiest of the divine names are but
servants at Thy door, and that their most glorious manifestations bow down
before Thy countenance and are humbled in Thy presence. Thou art, in truth, He
Who can neither be described in letters, nor evoked by words, nor even
contained within the hidden meanings they conceal. For these are all
circumscribed by the inherent limitations of speech which characterize all the
utterances of the peoples of the world.
…the terms “first” and “last” [are] applicable unto His
Manifestations. They are at the same time the Exponents of both the “first” and
the “last.” Whilst established upon the seat of the “first,” they occupy the
throne of the “last.” Were a discerning eye to be found, it will readily
perceive that the exponents of the “first” and the “last,” of the “manifest”
and the “hidden,” of the “beginning” and the “seal” are none other than these
holy Beings, these Essences of Detachment, these divine Souls. And wert thou to
soar in the holy realm of “God was alone, there was none else besides Him,”
thou wilt find in that Court all these names utterly non-existent and
completely forgotten. Then will thine eyes no longer be obscured by these
veils, these terms, and allusions. How ethereal and lofty is this station, unto
which even Gabriel, unshepherded, can never attain, and the Bird of Heaven,
unassisted, can never reach!
The divine Revelation associated with the advent of Him Who
is your promised Mihdí hath proved far more wondrous than the Revelation
wherewith Muhammad, the Apostle of God, was invested. Would that ye might
ponder. Verily, God raised up Muhammad, the Apostle of God, from among the
people of Arabia after he had reached forty years of age—a fact which every one
of you affirmeth and upholdeth—while your Redeemer was raised up by God at the
age of twenty-four amidst people none of whom can speak or understand a single
word of Arabic. Thus God layeth bare the glory of His Cause and demonstrateth
the Truth through the potency of His revealed Word. He is indeed the Powerful,
the Omnipotent, the Help in Peril, the Best Beloved.
O people of God! I admonish you to observe courtesy, for
above all else it is the prince of virtues. Well is it with him who is
illumined with the light of courtesy and is attired with the vesture of
uprightness. Whoso is endued with courtesy hath indeed attained a sublime
station. It is hoped that this Wronged One and everyone else may be enabled to
acquire it, hold fast unto it, observe it, and fix our gaze upon it. This is a
binding command which hath streamed forth from the Pen of the Most Great Name.
Incline your hearts, O people of God, unto the counsels of
your true, your incomparable Friend. The Word of God may be likened unto a
sapling, whose roots have been implanted in the hearts of men. It is incumbent
upon you to foster its growth through the living waters of wisdom, of
sanctified and holy words, so that its root may become firmly fixed and its
branches may spread out as high as the heavens and beyond.
In the year sixty He Who heralded the light of Divine
Guidance—may all creation be a sacrifice unto Him—arose to announce a fresh
revelation of the Divine Spirit, and was followed, twenty years later, by Him
through Whose coming the world was made the recipient of this promised glory,
this wondrous favor. Behold how the generality of mankind hath been endued with
the capacity to hearken unto God’s most exalted Word—the Word upon which must
depend the gathering together and spiritual resurrection of all men.
The summons and the message which We gave were never
intended to reach or to benefit one land or one people only. Mankind in its
entirety must firmly adhere to whatsoever hath been revealed and vouchsafed
unto it. Then and only then will it attain unto true liberty. The whole earth
is illuminated with the resplendent glory of God’s Revelation.
Say, verily God hath caused all created things to enter
beneath the shade of the tree of affirmation, except those who are endowed with
the faculty of understanding. Theirs is the choice either to believe in God
their Lord, and put their whole trust in Him, or to shut themselves out from
Him and refuse to believe with certitude in His signs. These two groups sail
upon two seas: the sea of affirmation and the sea of negation.
This Wronged One hath forbidden the people of God to engage
in contention or conflict and hath exhorted them to righteous deeds and
praiseworthy character. In this day the hosts that can ensure the victory of
the Cause are those of goodly conduct and saintly character. Blessed are they
who firmly adhere unto them and woe betide such as turn away therefrom.
All praise be to the one true God—exalted be His glory—inasmuch
as He hath, through the Pen of the Most High, unlocked the doors of men’s
hearts. Every verse which this Pen hath revealed is a bright and shining portal
that discloseth the glories of a saintly and pious life, of pure and stainless
deeds.
O people of Justice! Be as brilliant as the light, and as
splendid as the fire that blazed in the Burning Bush. The brightness of the
fire of your love will no doubt fuse and unify the contending peoples and
kindreds of the earth, whilst the fierceness of the flame of enmity and hatred
cannot but result in strife and ruin. We beseech God that He may shield His
creatures from the evil designs of His enemies. He verily hath power over all
things.
Of old it hath been revealed: ‘Love of one’s country is an
element of the Faith of God.’ The Tongue of Grandeur hath, however, in the day
of His manifestation proclaimed: ‘It is not his to boast who loveth his
country, but it is his who loveth the world.’ Through the power released by
these exalted words He hath lent a fresh impulse and set a new direction to the
birds of men’s hearts, and hath obliterated every trace of restriction and
limitation from God’s holy Book.
From the heaven of God’s Will, and for the purpose of
ennobling the world of being and of elevating the minds and souls of men, hath
been sent down that which is the most effective instrument for the education of
the whole human race. The highest essence and most perfect expression of
whatsoever the peoples of old have either said or written hath, through this
most potent Revelation, been sent down from the heaven of the Will of the
All-Possessing, the Ever-Abiding God.
In My Name, calling aloud in the Kingdom of Utterance
More grievous became Our plight from day to day, nay, from
hour to hour, until they took Us forth from Our prison and made Us, with
glaring injustice, enter the Most Great Prison. And if anyone ask them: “For
what crime were they imprisoned?”, they would answer and say: “They, verily,
sought to supplant the Faith with a new religion!” If that which is ancient be
what ye prefer, wherefore, then, have ye discarded that which hath been set
down in the Torah and the Evangel? Clear it up, O men! By My life! There is no
place for you to flee to in this day. If this be My crime, then Muhammad, the
Apostle of God, committed it before Me, and before Him He Who was the Spirit of
God, and yet earlier He Who conversed with God. And if My sin be this, that I
have exalted the Word of God and revealed His Cause, then indeed am I the
greatest of sinners! Such a sin I will not barter for the kingdoms of earth and
heaven.