Look not upon Him [Baha’u’llah] with any eye except His own.
For whosoever looketh upon Him with His eye, will recognize Him; otherwise he
will be veiled from Him. Shouldst thou seek God and His Presence, seek thou Him
and gaze upon Him. 
The Great Being saith: The Tongue of Wisdom proclaimeth: He
that hath Me not is bereft of all things. Turn ye away from all that is on
earth and seek none else but Me. I am the Sun of Wisdom and the Ocean of
Knowledge. I cheer the faint and revive the dead. I am the guiding Light that
illumineth the way. I am the royal Falcon on the arm of the Almighty. I unfold
the drooping wings of every broken bird and start it on its flight.
Send down, then, upon Thy loved ones, O my God, from the
heaven of Thy bounty that which will cause them to fix their gaze upon Thee and
to act in accordance with Thy will and behest. Ordain for them, then, what will
profit them and preserve them, what will draw them nigh and set them free.
Verily Thou art their Lord, their Creator, and their Helper. No God is there
but Thee, the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Generous.
Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony,
with friendliness and fellowship.
This lowly one entreateth the people of the world to observe
fairness, that their tender, their delicate and precious hearing which hath
been created to hearken unto the words of wisdom may be freed from impediments
and from such allusions, idle fancies or vain imaginings as ‘cannot fatten nor
appease the hunger’, so that the true Counsellor may be graciously inclined to
set forth that which is the source of blessing for mankind and of the highest
good for all nations.
Lawful is it for Him Whom God will make manifest to reject
him who is greatest on earth, inasmuch as such a one is but a creature in His
grasp, and all things adore Him.
The heaven of true understanding shineth resplendent with
the light of two luminaries: tolerance and righteousness.
Know thou with absolute certainty, and through the firmly
established and most irrevocable decree, that He [Baha’u’llah]—exalted be His
glory, and magnified be His might, and sanctified be His holiness, and
glorified be His grandeur, and lauded be His ways, maketh each thing to be
known through its own self; who then can know Him through any one except
Himself?
Better is it for thee to recite but one of the verses of Him
Whom God shall make manifest than to set down the whole of the Bayán, for on
that Day that one verse can save thee, whereas the entire Bayán cannot save
thee.
Ere nine will have elapsed from the inception of this Cause,
the realities of the created things will not be made manifest. All that thou
hast as yet seen is but the stage from the moist germ until We clothed it with
flesh. Be patient, until thou beholdest a new creation. Say: ‘Blessed,
therefore, be God, the most excellent of Makers!’
It is the ardent hope of this lowly one that God—exalted be
His glory—may grant all men that which is good. For he who is endowed therewith
is the possessor of all things.
O Son of Worldliness! Pleasant is the realm of being, wert
thou to attain thereto; glorious is the domain of eternity, shouldst thou pass
beyond the world of mortality; sweet is the holy ecstasy if thou drinkest of
the mystic chalice from the hands of the celestial Youth. Shouldst thou attain
this station, thou wouldst be freed from destruction and death, from toil and
sin.
By the righteousness of God! Our withdrawal [from Baghdad to
mountains of Kurdistan] contemplated no return, and Our separation hoped for no
reunion. The one object of Our retirement was to avoid becoming a subject of
discord among the faithful, a source of disturbance unto Our companions, the
means of injury to any soul, or the cause of sorrow to any heart. Beyond these,
We cherished no other intention, and apart from them, We had no end in view. And
yet, each person schemed after his own desire, and pursued his own idle fancy,
until the hour when, from the Mystic Source, there came the summons bidding Us
return whence We came. Surrendering Our will to His, We submitted to His
injunction.
It is incumbent upon them who are in authority to exercise
moderation in all things. Whatsoever passeth beyond the limits of moderation
will cease to exert a beneficial influence. Consider for instance such things
as liberty, civilization and the like. However much men of understanding may
favourably regard them, they will, if carried to excess, exercise a pernicious
influence upon men.
The Great Being saith: The learned of the day must direct
the people to acquire those branches of knowledge which are of use, that both
the learned themselves and the generality of mankind may derive benefits
therefrom.
O Children of Adam! Holy words and pure and goodly deeds
ascend unto the heaven of celestial glory. Strive that your deeds may be
cleansed from the dust of self and hypocrisy and find favor at the court of
glory; for ere long the assayers of mankind shall, in the holy presence of the
Adored One, accept naught but absolute virtue and deeds of stainless purity.
This is the daystar of wisdom and of divine mystery that hath shone above the
horizon of the divine will. Blessed are they that turn thereunto.
Lauded be Thy name, O Lord my God! Thou dost witness that
Thy will hath prevailed over all created things, and Thy mercy hath surpassed
all who are in heaven and on earth. And when Thou didst purpose to unveil Thy
sovereignty, and to glorify Thy word, and to reveal Thy bounteousness and
mercy, Thou didst raise up one of Thy servants, and didst choose Him above all
Thy creatures, and didst single Him out for Thy purpose, and didst clothe Him
with the robe of Thy guidance, and didst immerse Him beneath the seas of Thy
majesty and grandeur, and didst sanctify Him from all that beseemeth not the
greatness of Thy glory and the power of Thy might, and didst bid Him to cry out
before all that are in heaven and on earth, and summon the multitudes to the
Manifestation of Thy Self and the Revealer of Thy signs.
Say: He is not to be numbered with the people of Bahá who
followeth his mundane desires, or fixeth his heart on things of the earth. He
is My true follower who, if he come to a valley of pure gold will pass straight
through it aloof as a cloud, and will neither turn back, nor pause. Such a man
is assuredly of Me. From his garment the Concourse on high can inhale the
fragrance of sanctity.... And if he met the fairest and most comely of women,
he would not feel his heart seduced by the least shadow of desire for her
beauty. Such an one indeed is the creation of spotless chastity. Thus
instructeth you the Pen of the Ancient of Days, as bidden by your Lord, the
Almighty, the All-Bountiful.
Say: God is indeed the Maker of all things. He giveth
sustenance in plenty to whomsoever He willeth. He is the Creator, the Source of
all beings, the Fashioner, the Almighty, the Maker, the All-Wise. He is the
Bearer of the most excellent titles throughout the heavens and the earth and
whatever lieth between them. All do His bidding, and all the dwellers of earth
and heaven celebrate His praise, and unto Him shall all return.