O ye leaders of religion! Who is the man amongst you that
can rival Me in vision or insight? Where is he to be found that dareth to claim
to be My equal in utterance or wisdom? No, by My Lord, the All-Merciful! All on
the earth shall pass away; and this is the face of your Lord, the Almighty, the
Well-Beloved. 
Say: O leaders of religion! Weigh not the Book of God with
such standards and sciences as are current amongst you, for the Book itself is
the unerring balance established amongst men. In this most perfect balance
whatsoever the peoples and kindreds of the earth possess must be weighed, while
the measure of its weight should be tested according to its own standard, did
ye but know it.
God testifieth and beareth Us witness that We have, at all
times, been busied with the propagation of this Cause. Neither chains nor
bonds, stocks nor imprisonment, have succeeded in withholding Us from revealing
Our Self. In that land We forbad all mischief, and all unseemly and unholy
deeds. Day and night We sent forth Our Tablets in every direction. We had no
other purpose except to edify the souls of men, and to exalt the blessed Word.
Thou hast enquired about the warning We gave to the people
at the time of Our departure from ‘Iráq to the effect that when the Sun
disappeareth from sight, birds of darkness will be in motion and the standards
of Samírí [1] will be reared high. I swear by God! Those birds have stirred in
these days and Samírí hath raised his clamour. Well is it with him who
recognizeth and is numbered with men of understanding. We have also warned them
against the appearance of the calf. God is My witness! All Our warnings have
come to pass, as indeed, they are bound to, inasmuch as they have issued from
the fingers of glory and might. Beseech thou God to protect thee from the
mischief of these men and to purify thee from the insinuations of the froward.
Strengthen thy loins then for the promotion of the Cause and pay no attention
unto the words uttered by the people of the Bayán, for they are truly incapable
of understanding and have failed to comprehend the essence of the Cause as is
revealed in this august, this Most Great Announcement. Thus have We inspired
thee, and infused into thy heart that which will make thee independent of the
allusions of mankind.
Say, O people, fulfil whatever ye understand of the Persian
Bayán and whatever ye understand not ask this unerring Remembrance
[Baha’u’llah] that He may set forth clearly that which God hath intended in His
Book, for in truth He knoweth that which is enshrined in the Bayán by virtue of
the Will of Him Who is the Omnipotent, the Powerful.
Purge thou thy heart that We may cause fountains of wisdom
and utterance to gush out therefrom, thus enabling thee to raise thy voice
among all mankind. Unloose thy tongue and proclaim the truth for the sake of
the remembrance of thy merciful Lord. Be not afraid of anyone, place thy whole
trust in God, the Almighty, the All-Knowing.
Praised be Thou, O Lord my God! I implore Thee by Thine
Ancient Beauty and Most Great Name, Whom Thou hast sacrificed that all the
dwellers of Thine earth and heaven may be born anew, and Whom Thou hast cast
into prison that mankind may, as a token of Thy bounty and of Thy sovereign
might, be released from the bondage of evil passions and corrupt desires…
…naught is reaped save that which hath been sown, and naught
is taken up save that which hath been laid down, [cf.Luke 19:21] unless it be
through the grace and bestowal of the Lord.
Hath the womb of the world yet conceived one whom the veils of glory
shall not hinder from ascending unto the Kingdom of his Lord, the All-Glorious,
the Most High? Is it yet within us to
perform such deeds as will dispel our afflictions and draw us nigh unto Him Who
is the Causer of causes? We beseech God
to deal with us according to His bounty, and not His justice, and to grant that
we may be of those who have turned their faces unto their Lord and severed
themselves from all else.
Be ye guided by wisdom in all your doings, and cleave ye
tenaciously unto it. Please God ye may all be strengthened to carry out that
which is the Will of God, and may be graciously assisted to appreciate the rank
conferred upon such of His loved ones as have arisen to serve Him and magnify
His name. Upon them be the glory of God, the glory of all that is in the
heavens and all that is on the earth, and the glory of the inmates of the most
exalted Paradise, the heaven of heavens.
These gifts [“favors vouchsafed by Him unto mankind”] are
inherent in man himself. That which is preeminent above all other gifts, is
incorruptible in nature, and pertaineth to God Himself, is the gift of Divine
Revelation. Every bounty conferred by the Creator upon man, be it material or
spiritual, is subservient unto this. It is, in its essence, and will ever so
remain, the Bread which cometh down from Heaven. It is God’s supreme testimony,
the clearest evidence of His truth, the sign of His consummate bounty, the
token of His all-encompassing mercy, the proof of His most loving providence,
the symbol of His most perfect grace. He hath, indeed, partaken of this highest
gift of God who hath recognized His Manifestation in this Day.
Every one of these gifts [“favors vouchsafed by Him unto
mankind”] is an undoubted evidence of the majesty, the power, the ascendancy,
the all-embracing knowledge of the one true God—exalted be His glory. Consider
the sense of touch. Witness how its power hath spread itself over the entire
human body. Whereas the faculties of sight and of hearing are each localized in
a particular center, the sense of touch embraceth the whole human frame. Glorified
be His power, magnified be His sovereignty!
About two months after Our arrival in ‘Iráq, following the
command of His Majesty the Sháh of Persia—may God assist him—Mírzá Yaḥyá joined
Us. We said unto him: “In accordance with the Royal command We have been sent
unto this place. It is advisable for thee to remain in Persia. We will send Our
brother, Mírzá Músá, to some other place. As your names have not been mentioned
in the Royal decree, you can arise and render some service.” Subsequently, this
Wronged One departed from Baghdád, and for two years withdrew from the world.
Upon Our return, We found that he had not left, and had postponed his
departure. This Wronged One was greatly saddened.
One must call the people to love and faithfulness, to zeal
and contentment, that the sinful may be admonished and the ranks of the
virtuous may swell. Nor is it possible that there be no sinners: So long as the
name “the Ever-Forgiving” shineth resplendent above the horizon of existence,
there will be sinners in the world of creation, for the latter cannot appear
without the former and the former cannot exist without the latter.
I sorrow not for Myself, however. By God! Mine head yearneth
for the spear out of love for its Lord. I never passed a tree, but Mine heart
addressed it saying: “O would that thou wert cut down in My name, and My body
crucified upon thee, in the path of My Lord!”, for I see the people wandering
distraught and unconscious in their drunken stupor. They have raised on high
their passions and set down their God. Methinks they have taken His Cause for a
mockery and regard it as a play and pastime, believing all the while that they
do well, and that they dwell securely in the citadel of safety. Howbeit the
matter is not as they fondly imagine:
tomorrow shall they behold that which today they are wont to deny!
I have seen, O Sháh, in the path of God what eye hath not
seen nor ear heard. Mine acquaintances
have repudiated Me, and My pathways have been straitened. The fount of
well-being hath run dry, and the bower of ease hath withered. How numerous the tribulations which have
rained, and will soon rain, upon Me! I advance with My face set towards Him Who
is the Almighty, the All-Bounteous, whilst behind Me glideth the serpent. Mine
eyes have rained down tears until My bed is drenched.
Whither are gone the learned men, the divines and potentates
of old? What hath become of their
discriminating views, their shrewd perceptions, their subtle insights and sage
pronouncements? Where are their hidden
coffers, their flaunted ornaments, their gilded couches, their rugs and
cushions strewn about? Gone forever is
their generation! All have perished,
and, by God’s decree, naught remaineth of them but scattered dust. Exhausted is the wealth they gathered,
dispersed the stores they hoarded, dissipated the treasures they
concealed. Naught can now be seen but
their deserted haunts, their roofless dwellings, their uprooted tree-trunks,
and their faded splendour. No man of
insight will let wealth distract his gaze from his ultimate objective, and no
man of understanding will allow riches to withhold him from turning unto Him
Who is the All-Possessing, the Most High.
Shall a man’s wealth endure forever, or protect him from the
One Who shall, erelong, seize him by his forelock? Gazing upon those who sleep beneath the
gravestones, embosomed in the dust, could one ever distinguish the sovereign’s
crumbling skull from the subject’s mouldering bones? Nay, by Him Who is the King of kings! Could one discern the lord from the vassal,
or those that enjoyed wealth and riches from those who possessed neither shoes
nor mat? By God! Every distinction hath been erased, save only
for those who upheld the right and who ruled with justice.
O Rebellious Ones! My forbearance hath emboldened you and My
long-suffering hath made you negligent, in such wise that ye have spurred on
the fiery charger of passion into perilous ways that lead unto destruction.
Have ye thought Me heedless or that I was unaware?
The breezes of utterance in this Revelation are not to be
compared with those of former ages. This Wronged One hath been perpetually
afflicted, and found no place of safety in which He could peruse either the
writings of the Most Exalted One (the Báb) or those of any one else.