December 19

This is not a Cause which may be made a plaything for your idle fancies, nor is it a field for the foolish and faint of heart. By God, this is the arena of insight and detachment, of vision and upliftment, where none may spur on their chargers save the valiant horsemen of the Merciful, who have severed all attachment to the world of being. These, truly, are they that render God victorious on earth, and are the dawning-places of His sovereign might amidst mankind. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘The Kitab-i-Aqdas’)

December 18

O Son of Man! Thou dost wish for gold and I desire thy freedom from it. Thou thinkest thyself rich in its possession, and I recognize thy wealth in thy sanctity therefrom. By My life! This is My knowledge, and that is thy fancy; how can My way accord with thine? 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah’)

December 17

O Lord of all being and Educator of all things visible and invisible! Grant us ears that are pure, hearts that are sanctified, and eyes that see, so that we may discover the sweetness of Thine enthralling utterance, may fix our gaze upon Thy supreme horizon, and may come to know whatever hath been sent down through Thy bounty, O Thou Who art the King of Names! 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Days of Remembrance’)

December 16

Burden not an animal with more than it can bear. We, truly, have prohibited such treatment through a most binding interdiction in the Book. Be ye the embodiments of justice and fairness amidst all creation. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘The Kitab-i-Aqdas’)

December 15

Think ye that the things ye possess shall profit you? Soon others will possess them and ye will return unto the dust with none to help or succour you. What advantage is there in a life that can be overtaken by death, or in an existence that is doomed to extinction, or in a prosperity that is subject to change? Cast away the things that ye possess and set your faces toward the favours of God which have been sent down in this wondrous Name. 

- Baha'u'llah  (Tablet to Czar Alexander II, Suriy-i-Haykal [Tablet of Temple]; ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)

December 14

Let them that bear allegiance to this Wronged One be even as a raining cloud in moments of charity and benevolence and as a blazing fire in restraining their base and appetitive natures. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)

December 13

O proud ones of the earth!  Do ye believe yourselves to be abiding in palaces whilst He Who is the King of Revelation resideth in the most desolate of abodes?  Nay, by My life!  In tombs do ye dwell, could ye but perceive it.  Verily, he who faileth, in these days, to be stirred by the breeze of God is accounted among the dead in the sight of Him Who is the Lord of all names and attributes.  Arise, then, from the tombs of self and desire and turn unto the Kingdom of God, the Possessor of the Throne on high and of earth below, that ye may behold that which ye were promised aforetime by your Lord, the All-Knowing. 

- Baha'u'llah  (Tablet to Czar Alexander II, Suriy-i-Haykal [Tablet of Temple]; ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)

December 12

According to the fundamental laws which We have formerly revealed in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and other Tablets, all affairs are committed to the care of just kings and presidents and of the Trustees of the House of Justice. Having pondered on that which We have enunciated, every man of equity and discernment will readily perceive, with his inner and outer eyes, the splendours of the day-star of justice which radiate therefrom. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)

December 11

It is for the sake of God alone that My tongue counselleth you and that My pen moveth to make mention of you, for neither can the malice and denial of all who dwell on earth harm Me, nor the allegiance of the entire creation profit Me. We, verily, exhort you unto that which We were commanded, and desire naught from you except that ye draw nigh unto what shall profit you in both this world and the world to come. Say: Will ye slay Him Who summoneth you unto life everlasting? Fear ye God, and follow not every contumacious oppressor. 

- Baha'u'llah  (Tablet to Czar Alexander II, Suriy-i-Haykal [Tablet of Temple]; ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)

December 10

… [since] only those who are initiated into the divine mysteries can comprehend the melodies uttered by the Bird of Heaven, it is therefore incumbent upon every one to seek enlightenment from the illumined in heart and from the Treasuries of divine mysteries regarding the intricacies of God’s Faith and the abstruse allusions in the utterances of the Day-springs of Holiness. Thus will these mysteries be unravelled, not by the aid of acquired learning, but solely through the assistance of God and the outpourings of His grace. “Ask ye, therefore, of them that have the custody of the Scriptures, if ye know it not.”  (Qur’an 16:43) 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘The Kitab-i-Iqan’)

December 9

Say: If ye be seekers after this life and the vanities thereof, ye should have sought them while ye were still enclosed in your mothers’ wombs, for at that time ye were continually approaching them, could ye but perceive it. Ye have, on the other hand, ever since ye were born and attained maturity, been all the while receding from the world and drawing closer to dust. Why, then, exhibit such greed in amassing the treasures of the earth, when your days are numbered and your chance is well-nigh lost? Will ye not, then, O heedless ones, shake off your slumber? 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)

December 8

The days of your life are far spent, O people, and your end is fast approaching. Put away, therefore, the things ye have devised and to which ye cleave, and take firm hold on the precepts of God, that haply ye may attain that which He hath purposed for you, and be of them that pursue a right course. Delight not yourselves in the things of the world and its vain ornaments, neither set your hopes on them. Let your reliance be on the remembrance of God, the Most Exalted, the Most Great. He will, erelong, bring to naught all the things ye possess. Let Him be your fear, and forget not His covenant with you, and be not of them that are shut out as by a veil from Him. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)

December 7

Beware that ye swell not with pride before God, and disdainfully reject His loved ones. Defer ye humbly to the faithful, they that have believed in God and in His signs, whose hearts witness to His unity, whose tongues proclaim His oneness, and who speak not except by His leave. Thus do We exhort you with justice, and warn you with truth, that perchance ye may be awakened. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)

December 6

Respect ye the divines and learned amongst you, they whose conduct accords with their professions, who transgress not the bounds which God hath fixed, whose judgments are in conformity with His behests as revealed in His Book. Know ye that they are the lamps of guidance unto them that are in the heavens and on the earth. They who disregard and neglect the divines and learned that live amongst them—these have truly changed the favor with which God hath favored them. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)

December 5

Lay not on any soul a load which ye would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for any one the things ye would not desire for yourselves. This is My best counsel unto you, did ye but observe it. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)

December 4

The day is approaching when God will have raised up a people who will call to remembrance Our days, who will tell the tale of Our trials, who will demand the restitution of Our rights from them that, without a tittle of evidence, have treated Us with manifest injustice. God, assuredly, dominateth the lives of them that wronged Us, and is well aware of their doings. He will, most certainly, lay hold on them for their sins. He, verily, is the fiercest of avengers. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)

December 3

O Son of Being! Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent. Thy spirit is My place of revelation; cleanse it for My manifestation. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah’)

December 2

O Son of Man! The temple of being is My throne; cleanse it of all things, that there I may be established and there I may abide. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah’)

December 1

O Shaykh! [1] Seek thou the shore of the Most Great Ocean, and enter, then, the Crimson Ark which God hath ordained in the Qayyúm-i-Asmá for the people of Bahá. Verily, it passeth over land and sea. He that entereth therein is saved, and he that turneth aside perisheth. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Epistle to the Son of the Wolf’)

[1] Shaykh Muhammad-Taqi, a son of Shaykh Muhammad-Baqir who was stigmatized by Baha’u’llah as 'Wolf'. He was an inveterate enemy and formidable opponent of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.

November 30

The eyes of this Wronged One are turned towards naught save trustworthiness, truthfulness, purity, and all that profiteth men. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Epistle to the Son of the Wolf’)