O would that that which interveneth between the children of
men and their Creator were dispelled that they might be enabled to behold God’s
invincible sovereignty and dominion, quaff from the wellspring of His heavenly
streams, be sprinkled with the outpourings of the ocean of true understanding
and be purged from the defilements of the ungodly and the suspicious. 
Emerge from behind the veil, by the leave of thy Lord, the
All-Glorious, the Most Powerful, and seize, before the eyes of those who are in
the heavens and those who are on the earth, the Chalice of Immortality, in the
name of thy Lord, the Inaccessible, the Most High, and quaff thy fill, and be
not of them that tarry. I swear by God! The moment thou touchest the Cup with
thy lips, the Concourse on high will acclaim thee saying, “Drink with healthy
relish, O man that hast truly believed in God!”, and the inhabitants of the
Cities of Immortality will cry out, “Joy be to thee, O thou that hast drained
the Cup of His love!”, and the Tongue of Grandeur will hail thee, “Great is the
blessedness that awaiteth thee, O My servant, for thou hast attained unto that
which none hath attained, except such as have detached themselves from all that
is in the heavens and all that is on the earth, and who are the emblems of true
detachment.”
The followers of the Gospel… hold as impossible that the
Bearer of a new Revelation should again shine forth from the dayspring of the
Will of God after Jesus, Son of Mary—peace be upon Him! In support of this
contention, they adduce the following verse from the Gospel: “Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but the words of the Son of Man shall never pass away.” [cf.
Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33.] They maintain that neither the
teachings nor the commandments of Jesus—peace be upon Him! —may ever be
altered.
…consider Jesus, the Son of Mary. When that Manifestation of
the All-Merciful revealed Himself, all the divines charged that Quintessence of
faith with impiety and rebellion. Eventually, with the sanction of Annas, the
most learned of the divines of His day, and Caiaphas, the high priest, His
blessed person was made to suffer that which the pen is ashamed to mention and
powerless to describe. The wide world in all its vastness could no longer
contain Him, until at last God raised Him up unto heaven.
To enforce the laws of God is naught but justice, and is the
source of universal content. Nay more, the divine statutes have always been,
and will ever remain, the cause and instrument of the preservation of mankind…
Had you believed in Me, O wayward generation, every one of
you would have followed the example of this youth, who stood in rank above most
of you, and willingly would have sacrificed himself in My path. The day will
come when you will have recognised Me; that day I shall have ceased to be with
you.”
Methinks I heard a voice calling in My inmost being: “Do
Thou sacrifice the thing which Thou lovest most in the path of God, even as Ḥusayn,
peace be upon him, hath offered up his life for My sake.” And were I not
regardful of this inevitable mystery, by Him in whose hand is My soul, even if
all the kings of the earth were to be leagued together, they would be powerless
to take from Me a single letter; how much less can such servants as these, who
are worthy of no attention, and who verily are of the outcast? that all may
know the degree of My patience, My resignation and self-sacrifice in the path
of God.
The more He extolled the remembrance of God, the greater
they waxed in their oppression, until all the divines pronounced sentence
against Him, save those that were acquainted with the precepts of God, the
All-Glorious, the Best-Beloved. Matters came to such a pass that they united to
put Him to death. They suspended Him in the air, and the hosts of misbelief
flung at Him the bullets of malice and hatred, piercing the body of the One
unto Whom the Holy Spirit is a humble servant, the dust of Whose feet is the
object of adoration of the Concourse on high, and from Whose very sandals the
inmates of Paradise seek a blessing. Whereupon the inhabitants of the unseen
realm wept sore beneath the pavilion of eternity, the pillars of the Throne
trembled, the inmost realities of all things were stirred into commotion, and
the divine Tree received its full measure of His gleaming blood which was shed
upon the earth.
O people! I have revealed Myself for His Manifestation, and
have caused My Book, the Bayán, to descend upon you for no other purpose except
to establish the truth of His Cause. Fear ye God, and contend not with Him as
the people of the Qur’án have contended with Me. At whatever time ye hear of
Him, hasten ye towards Him, and cleave ye to whatsoever He may reveal unto you.
Naught else besides Him can ever profit you, no, not though ye produce from
first to last the testimonies of all those who were before you.
O people! The clouds of wisdom have been lifted and God hath
revealed His Cause. This is that which ye were promised in all the Scriptures.
Fear ye God and hasten unto Me. I am, O people, a scion of your Prophet. I have
brought unto you verses that bewilder the minds of them that perceive, and this
is but a token of God’s proof and testimony. Deny them not at the prompting of
your idle fancies, and be fair in your judgement. They verily proceed from the
religion of God that hath been sent down unto you through the power of truth,
would that ye might believe!
God is My witness, O people! I am come to you with a
Revelation from the Lord, your God, the Lord of your fathers of old. Look not,
O people, at the things ye possess. Look rather at the things God hath sent
down unto you. This, surely, will be better for you than the whole of creation,
could ye but perceive it. Repeat the gaze, O people, and consider the testimony
of God and His proof which are in your possession, and compare them unto the
Revelation sent down unto you in this Day, that the truth, the infallible
truth, may be indubitably manifested unto you. Follow not, O people, the steps
of the Evil One; follow ye the Faith of the All-Merciful, and be ye of them
that truly believe. What would it profit man, if he were to fail to recognize
the Revelation of God? Nothing whatever. To this Mine own Self, the Omnipotent,
the Omniscient, the All-Wise, will testify.”
…this, the Lord of days, the Day whereon the Day-Star of the
Bayán manifested itself above the horizon of mercy, the Day in which the Beauty
of the All-Glorious shone forth in the exalted person of ‘Alí-Muḥammad, the
Báb. No sooner did He reveal Himself, than all the people rose up against Him.
By some He was denounced as one that hath uttered slanders against God, the
Almighty, the Ancient of Days. Others regarded Him as a man smitten with
madness, an allegation which I, Myself, have heard from the lips of one of the
divines. Still others disputed His claim to be the Mouthpiece of God, and
stigmatized Him as one who had stolen and used as his the words of the
Almighty, who had perverted their meaning, and mingled them with his own. The
Eye of Grandeur weepeth sore for the things which their mouths have uttered,
while they continue to rejoice upon their seats.
O company of the Concourse on high, and O denizens of the
immortal city! Hasten ye to pay homage, for the Shrine of grandeur hath
appeared within this Tabernacle round which all former shrines revolve; and
circle about and draw nigh unto the Lord of all men in these days, the like of
which the eyes of the former generations have never beheld. All hail then to
this, the Festival of the Lord, that hath dawned above the horizon of God, the
Most Gracious, the All-Bountiful!
O ye that abide beneath the tabernacle of grandeur! O ye
that dwell within the pavilion of inviolable sanctity! O ye that are sheltered
under the canopy of loftiness and glory! Lift up your voices and sing in the most
melodious of tones in your most exalted chambers, for in this Dispensation the
veiled Beauty hath been revealed, and the Day-Star of the Unseen hath risen
above the horizon of ancient glory. All hail then to this, the Festival of the
Lord, that hath appeared with a splendid adorning!
He [God], in truth, hath, throughout eternity, been one in
His Essence, one in His attributes, one in His works. Any and every comparison
is applicable only to His creatures, and all conceptions of association are
conceptions that belong solely to those that serve Him. Immeasurably exalted is
His Essence above the descriptions of His creatures. He, alone, occupieth the
Seat of transcendent majesty, of supreme and inaccessible glory. The birds of
men’s hearts, however high they soar, can never hope to attain the heights of
His unknowable Essence. It is He Who hath called into being the whole of
creation, Who hath caused every created thing to spring forth at His behest.
Shall, then, the thing that was born by virtue of the word which His Pen hath
revealed, and which the finger of His Will hath directed, be regarded as
partner with Him, or an embodiment of His Self? Far be it from His glory that
human pen or tongue should hint at His mystery, or that human heart conceive
His Essence. All else besides Him stand poor and desolate at His door, all are
powerless before the greatness of His might, all are but slaves in His Kingdom.
He is rich enough to dispense with all creatures.
O people of the Bayán! I swear by God! This Wronged One hath
had no other intention except to manifest the Cause He was commissioned to
reveal. Were ye to incline your inner ears unto Him, ye would hear from every
limb and member and vein and even from every single hair of this Wronged One
that which would stir and enrapture the Concourse on high and the world of
creation.
Consecrate Thou, O my God, the whole of this Tree unto Him,
[Baha’u’llah] that from it may be revealed all the fruits created by God within
it for Him through Whom God hath willed to reveal all that He pleaseth. By Thy
glory! I have not wished that this Tree should ever bear any branch, leaf, or
fruit that would fail to bow down before Him, on the day of His Revelation, or
refuse to laud Thee through Him, as beseemeth the glory of His all-glorious
Revelation, and the sublimity of His most sublime Concealment. And shouldst
Thou behold, O my God, any branch, leaf, or fruit upon Me that hath failed to
bow down before Him, on the day of His Revelation, cut it off, O My God, from
that Tree, for it is not of Me, nor shall it return unto Me.
Say: “The True One is come evident as the shining sun; O
pity that He should have come into the city of the blind!”
God is My witness that this Wronged One hath had no purpose
except to convey the Word of God. Blessed are the fair-minded, and woe betide
them that have turned aside.