Fear ye God, O concourse of kings, lest ye remain afar from
Him Who is His Remembrance [the Báb], after the Truth hath come unto you with a
Book and signs from God, as spoken through the wondrous tongue of Him Who is
His Remembrance. Seek ye grace from God, for God hath ordained for you, after
ye have believed in Him, a Garden the vastness of which is as the vastness of
the whole of Paradise. 
The essence of love is for man to turn his heart to the
Beloved One, and sever himself from all else but Him, and desire naught save
that which is the desire of his Lord.
O concourse of kings and of the sons of kings! Lay aside,
one and all, your dominion which belongeth unto God.... Vain indeed is your dominion,
for God hath set aside earthly possessions for such as have denied Him.... O
concourse of kings! Deliver with truth and in all haste the verses sent down by
Us to the peoples of Turkey and of India, and beyond them, with power and with
truth, to lands in both the East and the West.... By God! If ye do well, to
your own behoof will ye do well; and if ye deny God and His signs, We, in very
truth, having God, can well dispense with all creatures and all earthly
dominion.
Consider the rational faculty with which God hath endowed
the essence of man. Examine thine own self, and behold how thy motion and
stillness, thy will and purpose, thy sight and hearing, thy sense of smell and
power of speech, and whatever else is related to, or transcendeth, thy physical
senses or spiritual perceptions, all proceed from, and owe their existence to,
this same faculty. So closely are they related unto it, that if in less than
the twinkling of an eye its relationship to the human body be severed, each and
every one of these senses will cease immediately to exercise its function, and
will be deprived of the power to manifest the evidences of its activity. It is
indubitably clear and evident that each of these afore-mentioned instruments
has depended, and will ever continue to depend, for its proper functioning on
this rational faculty, which should be regarded as a sign of the revelation of
Him Who is the sovereign Lord of all.
O thou that hast fixed thine eyes upon My countenance! The
Day Spring of Glory hath, in this Day, manifested its radiance, and the Voice
of the Most High is calling. We have formerly uttered these words: “This is not
the day for any man to question his Lord. It behoveth whosoever hath hearkened
to the Call of God, as voiced by Him Who is the Day Spring of Glory, to arise
and cry out: ‘Here am I, here am I, O Lord of all Names; here am I, here am I,
O Maker of the heavens! I testify that, through Thy Revelation, the things
hidden in the Books of God have been revealed, and that whatsoever hath been
recorded by Thy Messengers in the sacred Scriptures hath been fulfilled.’”
The source of all good is trust in God, submission unto His
command, and contentment with His holy will and pleasure.
Say, every matter related to state affairs which ye raise
for discussion falls under the shadow of one of the words sent down from the
heaven of His glorious and exalted utterance.
O King! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch,
when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the
knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is
Almighty and All-Knowing. And He bade Me lift up My voice between earth and
heaven, and for this there befell Me what hath caused the tears of every man of
understanding to flow. The learning current amongst men I studied not; their
schools I entered not. Ask of the city
wherein I dwelt, that thou mayest be well assured that I am not of them who
speak falsely.
Say: He hath kindled
the lamp of utterance, and feedeth it with the oil of wisdom and understanding.
Too high is thy Lord, the All-Merciful, for aught in the universe to resist His
Faith. He revealeth what He pleaseth
through the power of His sovereign might, and protecteth it with a host of His
well-favoured angels. He is supreme over His servants and exerciseth undisputed
dominion over His creation. He, verily, is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
O King! I adjure thee by thy Lord, the All-Merciful, to look
upon thy servants with the glances of the eye of thy favour, and to treat them
with justice, that God may treat thee with mercy. Potent is thy Lord to do as
He pleaseth. The world, with all its abasement and glory, shall pass away, and
the kingdom will remain unto God, the Most Exalted, the All-Knowing.
…should a person arise and bring forth a myriad verses,
discourses, epistles, and prayers, none of which have been acquired through
learning, what conceivable excuse could justify those that reject them, and
deprive themselves of the potency of their grace? What answer could they give
when once their soul hath ascended and departed from its gloomy temple? Could
they seek to justify themselves by saying: “We have clung to a certain
tradition, and not having beheld the literal fulfilment thereof, we have
therefore raised such cavils against the Embodiments of divine Revelation, and
kept remote from the law of God?”
Thou hast, moreover, asked Me concerning the nature of the
celestial spheres. To comprehend their nature, it would be necessary to inquire
into the meaning of the allusions that have been made in the Books of old to
the celestial spheres and the heavens, and to discover the character of their
relationship to this physical world, and the influence which they exert upon
it. Every heart is filled with wonder at so bewildering a theme, and every mind
is perplexed by its mystery. God, alone, can fathom its import. The learned
men, that have fixed at several thousand years the life of this earth, have
failed, throughout the long period of their observation, to consider either the
number or the age of the other planets. Consider, moreover, the manifold
divergencies that have resulted from the theories propounded by these men. Know
thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet its own
creatures, whose number no man can compute.
And likewise, He saith: “And had We sent down unto Thee a
Book written on parchment, and they had touched it with their hands, the
infidels would surely have said ‘This is naught but palpable sorcery.’” [Qur’án
6:7] Most of the verses of the Qur’án are indicative of this theme. We have,
for the sake of brevity, mentioned only these verses. Consider, hath anything
else besides the verses been established in the whole Book, as a standard for
the recognition of the Manifestations of His Beauty, that the people might
cling to, and reject the Manifestations of God? On the contrary, in every
instance, He hath threatened with fire those that repudiate and scoff at the
verses, as already shown.
As to thy question whether the physical world is subject to
any limitations, know thou that the comprehension of this matter dependeth upon
the observer himself. In one sense, it is limited; in another, it is exalted
beyond all limitations. The one true God hath everlastingly existed, and will
everlastingly continue to exist. His creation, likewise, hath had no beginning,
and will have no end. All that is created, however, is preceded by a cause.
This fact, in itself, establisheth, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the unity of
the Creator.
Verily I say, the human soul is exalted above all egress and
regress. It is still, and yet it soareth; it moveth, and yet it is still. It
is, in itself, a testimony that beareth witness to the existence of a world
that is contingent, as well as to the reality of a world that hath neither
beginning nor end. Behold how the dream thou hast dreamed is, after the lapse
of many years, re-enacted before thine eyes. Consider how strange is the
mystery of the world that appeareth to thee in thy dream. Ponder in thine heart
upon the unsearchable wisdom of God, and meditate on its manifold
revelations....
And likewise, He saith: “Say, O people of the Book! do ye
not disavow us only because we believe in God and in what He hath sent down to
us, and in what He hath sent down aforetime, and because most of you are doers
of ill?” [Qur’án 5:62] How explicitly doth this verse reveal Our purpose, and
how clearly doth it demonstrate the truth of the testimony of the verses of
God! This verse was revealed at a time when Islám was assailed by the infidels,
and its followers were accused of misbelief, when the Companions of Muhammad
were denounced as repudiators of God and as followers of a lying sorcerer. In
its early days, when Islám was still to outward seeming devoid of authority and
power, the friends of the Prophet, who had turned their face toward God,
wherever they went, were harassed, persecuted, stoned and vilified. At such a
time this blessed verse was sent down from the heaven of divine Revelation.
O My Nabíl! Let nothing grieve thee, rather rejoice with
exceeding gladness inasmuch as I have mentioned thy name, have turned My heart
and My face towards thee and have conversed with thee through this irrefutable
and weighty exposition. Ponder in thy heart upon the tribulations I have
sustained, the imprisonment and the captivity I have endured, the sufferings
that have befallen Me and the accusations that the people have levelled against
Me. Behold, they are truly wrapped in a grievous veil.
Beware, O My loved ones, lest ye despise the merits of My
learned servants whom God hath graciously chosen to be the exponents of His
Name ‘the Fashioner’ amidst mankind. Exert your utmost endeavour that ye may
develop such crafts and undertakings that everyone, whether young or old, may
benefit therefrom. We are quit of those ignorant ones who fondly imagine that
Wisdom is to give vent to one’s idle imaginings and to repudiate God, the Lord
of all men; even as We hear some of the heedless voicing such assertions today.
O Shaykh! Wert thou to perceive, be it less than a needle’s
eye, the breaths of Mine utterance, thou wouldst abandon the world and all that
is therein, and wouldst set thy face towards the lights of the countenance of
the Desired One. Briefly, in the sayings of Him Who is the Spirit (Jesus)
unnumbered significances lie concealed. Unto many things did He refer, but as
He found none possessed of a hearing ear or a seeing eye He chose to conceal
most of these things. Even as He saith: “But ye cannot bear them now.” That
Dawning-Place of Revelation saith that on that Day He Who is the Promised One
will reveal the things which are to come. Accordingly in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and
in the Tablets to the Kings, and in the Lawḥ-i-Ra’ís, and in the Lawḥ-i-Fu’ád,
most of the things which have come to pass on this earth have been announced
and prophesied by the Most Sublime Pen.