Happy is the man who will arise to serve My Cause, and
glorify My beauteous Name. Take hold of My Book with the power of My might, and
cleave tenaciously to whatsoever commandment thy Lord, the Ordainer, the
All-Wise, hath prescribed therein. 
The purpose of God in creating man hath been, and will ever
be, to enable him to know his Creator and to attain His Presence. To this most
excellent aim, this supreme objective, all the heavenly Books and the
divinely-revealed and weighty Scriptures unequivocally bear witness. Whoso hath
recognized the Day Spring of Divine guidance and entered His holy court hath
drawn nigh unto God and attained His Presence, a Presence which is the real
Paradise, and of which the loftiest mansions of heaven are but a symbol. Such a
man hath attained the knowledge of the station of Him Who is “at the distance
of two bows,” Who standeth beyond the Sadratu’l-Muntahá. Whoso hath failed to
recognize Him will have condemned himself to the misery of remoteness, a
remoteness which is naught but utter nothingness and the essence of the
nethermost fire. Such will be his fate, though to outward seeming he may occupy
the earth’s loftiest seats and be established upon its most exalted throne.
....
Say, ye will be unable to recognize the One True God or to
discern clearly the words of divine guidance, inasmuch as ye seek and tread a
path other than His. Whenever ye learn that a new Cause hath appeared, ye must
seek the presence of its author and must delve into his writings that haply ye
may not be debarred from attaining unto Him Whom God shall make manifest at the
hour of His manifestation. Wert thou to walk in the way of truth as handed down
by them that are endowed with the knowledge of the inmost reality, God, thy
Lord, will surely redeem thee on the Day of Resurrection. Verily He is potent over
all things.
Sanctify your souls from the world, O people, and hasten
unto the Divine Lote-Tree in this furthermost sanctuary, that ye may hearken
unto the voice of your Lord, the All-Merciful, calling from this Paradise which
hath been created at the behest of God, the All-Praised, and before whose
portals the inmates of the pavilion of sanctity bow down in adoration.
He Who is the Day Spring of Truth is, no doubt, fully
capable of rescuing from such remoteness wayward souls and of causing them to
draw nigh unto His court and attain His Presence. “If God had pleased He had
surely made all men one people.” His purpose, however, is to enable the pure in
spirit and the detached in heart to ascend, by virtue of their own innate
powers, unto the shores of the Most Great Ocean, that thereby they who seek the
Beauty of the All-Glorious may be distinguished and separated from the wayward
and perverse. Thus hath it been ordained by the all-glorious and resplendent
Pen....
On the first day that the Ancient Beauty ascended His Most
Great Throne in the garden named Riḍván, the Tongue of Glory gave utterance to
three blessed words. First, that in this Revelation the law of the sword hath
been annulled. Second, that ere the expiration of one thousand years whosoever
advanceth a prophetic claim is false. By “year” a full year is intended, and no
exegesis or interpretation is permitted in this matter. And third, that at that
very hour God, exalted be His Glory, shed the full splendour of all His names
upon all creation.
O ye who are invested with the Bayán! Should ye be apprised
of a person laying claim to a Cause and revealing verses which to outward
seeming are unlikely to have been revealed by anyone else save God, the Help in
Peril, the Self-Subsisting, do not pass sentence against him, lest ye may
inadvertently pass sentence against Him Whom God shall make manifest. Say, He
Whom God shall make manifest is but one of you; He will make Himself known unto
you on the Day of Resurrection. Ye shall know God when the Manifestation of His
Own Self is made known unto you, that perchance ye may not stray far from His
Path.
Proclaim unto the celestial Concourse, O Pen of effulgent
glory, that lo, the veil of concealment hath been rent asunder and the Beauty
of the Lord hath been revealed from this Scene of transcendent glory with such
radiance as to cause the luminaries of His command to shine above the dayspring
of His almighty Name.
That the Manifestations of Divine justice, the Day Springs
of heavenly grace, have when they appeared amongst men always been destitute of
all earthly dominion and shorn of the means of worldly ascendancy, should be
attributed to this same principle of separation and distinction which animateth
the Divine Purpose. Were the Eternal Essence to manifest all that is latent
within Him, were He to shine in the plentitude of His glory, none would be
found to question His power or repudiate His truth. Nay, all created things
would be so dazzled and thunderstruck by the evidences of His light as to be
reduced to utter nothingness. How, then, can the godly be differentiated under
such circumstances from the froward?
Blessed are they that have soared on the wings of detachment
and attained the station which, as ordained by God, overshadoweth the entire
creation, whom neither the vain imaginations of the learned, nor the multitude
of the hosts of the earth have succeeded in deflecting from His Cause.
Verily, on the First Day We flung open the gates of Paradise
unto all the peoples of the world, and exclaimed: ‘O all ye created things!
Strive to gain admittance into Paradise, since ye have, during all your lives,
held fast unto virtuous deeds in order to attain unto it.’ Surely all men yearn
to enter therein, but alas, they are unable to do so by reason of that which
their hands have wrought. Shouldst thou, however, gain a true understanding of
God in thine heart of hearts, ere He hath manifested Himself, thou wouldst be
able to recognize Him, visible and resplendent, when He unveileth Himself
before the eyes of all men.
…when the name of anyone, whether living or dead, is
mentioned in His [Baha’u’llah’s] presence, that soul hath verily attained to
the mention of the pre-existent King. Blessed are they that attain thereto!
Ponder upon the people unto whom the Gospel was given. Their
religious leaders were considered as the true Guides of the Gospel, yet when
they shut themselves out from Muhammad, the Apostle of God, they turned into
guides of error, notwithstanding that all their lives they had faithfully
observed the precepts of their religion in order to attain unto Paradise; then
when God made Paradise known unto them, they would not enter therein. Those
unto whom the Qur’án is given have wrought likewise. They performed their acts
of devotion for the sake of God, hoping that He might enable them to join the
righteous in Paradise. However, when the gates of Paradise were flung open to
their faces, they declined to enter. They suffered themselves to enter into the
fire, though they had been seeking refuge therefrom in God.
Behold how in this Dispensation the worthless and foolish
have fondly imagined that by such instruments as massacre, plunder and
banishment they can extinguish the Lamp which the Hand of Divine power hath
lit, or eclipse the Day Star of everlasting splendor. How utterly unaware they
seem to be of the truth that such adversity is the oil that feedeth the flame
of this Lamp! Such is God’s transforming power. He changeth whatsoever He
willeth; He verily hath power over all things....
Verily no God is there but God; His is the kingdom of heaven
and earth and He is the Clement, the All-Knowing. God testifieth that there is
no God but Him, and He Who speaketh at the bidding of His Lord is but the First
to worship Him. He is the peerless Creator Who hath created the heavens and the
earth and whatsoever lieth between them, and all do His bidding. He is the One
Whose grace hath encompassed all that are in the heavens, on earth or
elsewhere, and everyone abideth by His behest.
O thou who hast set thy face towards the Realm on High and
hast quaffed My sealed wine from the hand of bounteousness! Know thou that the
term ‘Infallibility’ hath numerous meanings and divers stations. In one sense
it is applicable to the One Whom God hath made immune from error. Similarly it
is applied to every soul whom God hath guarded against sin, transgression,
rebellion, impiety, disbelief and the like. However, the Most Great
Infallibility is confined to the One Whose station is immeasurably exalted
beyond ordinances or prohibitions and is sanctified from errors and omissions.
Indeed He is a Light which is not followed by darkness and a Truth not
overtaken by error. Were He to pronounce water to be wine or heaven to be earth
or light to be fire, He speaketh the truth and no doubt would there be about
it; and unto no one is given the right to question His authority or to say why
or wherefore. Whosoever raiseth objections will be numbered with the froward in
the Book of God, the Lord of the worlds. ‘Verily He shall not be asked of His
doings but all others shall be asked of their doings.’ He is come from the invisible heaven, bearing
the banner ‘He doeth whatsoever He willeth’ and is accompanied by hosts of
power and authority while it is the duty of all besides Him to strictly observe
whatever laws and ordinances have been enjoined upon them, and should anyone
deviate therefrom, even to the extent of a hair’s breadth, his work would be
brought to naught.
Say, this is the Day when the Speaker on Sinai hath mounted
the throne of Revelation and the people have stood before the Lord of the
worlds. This is the Day wherein the earth hath told out her tidings and hath
laid bare her treasures; when the oceans have brought forth their pearls and
the divine Lote-Tree its fruit; when the Sun hath shed its radiance and the
Moons have diffused their lights, and the Heavens have revealed their stars,
and the Hour its signs, and the Resurrection its dreadful majesty; when the
pens have unloosed their outpourings and the spirits have laid bare their
mysteries. Blessed is the man who recognizeth Him and attaineth His presence,
and woe betide such as deny Him and turn aside from Him.
Say, by the righteousness of God! The All-Merciful is come
invested with power and sovereignty. Through His power the foundations of
religions have quaked and the Nightingale of Utterance hath warbled its melody
upon the highest branch of true understanding. Verily, He Who was hidden in the
knowledge of God and is mentioned in the Holy Scriptures hath appeared.
They [“the people of tyranny”] have rejected the bounty of
God and His proofs and have repudiated the testimony of God and His signs. They
have gone astray and have caused the people to go astray, yet perceive it not.
They worship vain imaginings but know it not. They have taken idle fancies for
their lords and have neglected God, yet understand not. They have abandoned the
most great Ocean and are hastening towards the pool, but comprehend not. They
follow their own idle fancies while turning aside from God, the Help in Peril,
the Self-Subsisting.
Verily, the birds abiding within the domains of My Kingdom
and the doves dwelling in the rose-garden of My wisdom utter such melodies and
warblings as are inscrutable to all but God, the Lord of the kingdoms of earth
and heaven; and were these melodies to be revealed even to an extent smaller
than a needle’s eye, the people of tyranny would utter such calumnies as none
among former generations hath ever uttered, and would commit such deeds as no
one in past ages and centuries hath ever committed.