…We beseech God, exalted be His glory, to enable thee
[Nasiri’d-Din Shah] to aid His Faith and turn towards His justice, that thou
mayest judge between the people even as thou wouldst judge between thine own
kindred, and mayest choose for them that which thou choosest for thine own
self. He, verily, is the All-Powerful,
the Most Exalted, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. 
We bear witness unto that whereunto God hath Himself borne
witness ere the creation of the heavens and of the earth, that there is none
other God but Him, the Almighty, the All-Bounteous. We testify that He is One
in His Essence, One in His attributes. He hath none to equal Him in the whole
universe, nor any partner in all creation. He hath sent forth His Messengers,
and sent down His Books, that they may announce unto His creatures the Straight
Path.
The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every
direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily
increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be
discerned....
O concourse of Shí’ihs! Fear ye God, and Our Cause, which
concerneth Him Who is the Most Great Remembrance of God. For great is its fire,
as decreed in the Mother-Book.
O concourse of divines! Fear God from this day onwards in
the views ye advance, for He Who is Our Remembrance in your midst, and Who
cometh from Us, is, in very truth, the Judge and Witness. Turn away from that
which ye lay hold of, and which the Book of God, the True One, hath not
sanctioned, for on the Day of Resurrection ye shall, upon the Bridge, be, in
very truth, held answerable for the position ye occupied.
We pray God… to graciously aid the King to do His will and
pleasure, and to confirm him in that which shall draw him nigh unto the
Dayspring of God’s most excellent names, so that he may not give countenance to
the injustice he witnesseth, may look upon his subjects with the eye of
loving-kindness, and shield them from oppression.
We cherish the hope that one of the kings of the earth will,
for the sake of God, arise for the triumph of this wronged, this oppressed
people. Such a king will be eternally extolled and glorified. God hath
prescribed unto this people the duty of aiding whosoever will aid them, of serving
his best interests, and of demonstrating to him their abiding loyalty. They who
follow Me must strive, under all circumstances, to promote the welfare of
whosoever will arise for the triumph of My Cause, and must at all times prove
their devotion and fidelity unto him. Happy is the man that hearkeneth and
observeth My counsel. Woe unto him that faileth to fulfil My wish.
What mankind needeth in this day is obedience unto them that
are in authority, and a faithful adherence to the cord of wisdom. The
instruments which are essential to the immediate protection, the security and
assurance of the human race have been entrusted to the hands, and lie in the
grasp, of the governors of human society. This is the wish of God and His
decree....
We… beseech God, exalted be He, to gather all mankind around
the Gulf of the Most Great Ocean, an ocean every drop of which proclaimeth that
He is the Harbinger of joy unto the world and the Quickener of all its
peoples. Praise be to God, the Lord of
the Day of Reckoning!
How lofty is the station which man, if he but choose to
fulfill his high destiny, can attain! To what depths of degradation he can
sink, depths which the meanest of creatures have never reached! Seize, O
friends, the chance which this Day offereth you, and deprive not yourselves of
the liberal effusions of His grace. I beseech God that He may graciously enable
every one of you to adorn himself, in this blessed Day, with the ornament of
pure and holy deeds. He, verily, doeth whatsoever He willeth.
Whatsoever instilleth assurance into the hearts of men,
whatsoever exalteth their station or promoteth their contentment, is acceptable
in the sight of God.
… I now reveal for thee this Tablet… that thou mayest hear…
the sweet melodies of the nearness of the heavenly Paradise… Perchance thou
mayest become pure spirit; attain, without taking a single step, the loftiest
stations of mystic ascent; and explore, without leaving thine outward
habitation, the furthermost reaches of the worlds of inner significance.
Thereupon wouldst thou, with a divine rapture, experience true spiritual
attraction, lay down thy life in the path of the Friend, and sacrifice thy soul
in the wilderness of His love. This indeed is the meaning of stillness in
flight and flight in stillness, of fluidity in solidity and solidity in
fluidity.
We beseech God to extend wide His shadow, that the true
believers may hasten thereunto and that His sincere lovers may seek shelter
therein. May He bestow upon men blossoms
from the bowers of His grace and stars from the horizon of His providence.
This is the night [Birth of Baha’u’llah’] round which have
circled the Nights of Power, [ Cf. Qur’án, súrih 97] wherein the angels and the
Spirit have come down bearing cups filled at the streams of Paradise, the night
wherein Heaven itself was adorned with the ornament of God, the Almighty, the
All-Gracious, the Most Bountiful, wherein every created thing was brought to
life, and all the peoples of the earth were surrounded by His grace. All joy to
the concourse of the Spirit for this manifest and resplendent bounty!
O concourse of the seen and the unseen! Rejoice with
exceeding gladness in your hearts and souls, for the night hath come for the
harvesting of the ages and the gathering up of past cycles, the night wherein
all days and nights were called into being and the time preordained for this
Revelation was fulfilled at the behest of Him Who is the Lord of might and
power. All joy to the Concourse on high at the appearance of so glorious, so
wondrous a Spirit!
…dumbfounded, the Pen of the Most High cried out: “O Thou
Who art exalted above all names! I adjure Thee by Thy might that encompasseth
the heavens and the earth to exempt me from mentioning Thee, for I myself have
been called into being by virtue of Thy creative power. How, then, can I depict
that which all created things are powerless to describe? And yet, I swear by
Thy glory, were I to proclaim that wherewith Thou hast inspired me, the entire
creation would pass away from joy and ecstasy, how much more then would it be
overwhelmed before the billows of the ocean of Thine utterance in this most
luminous, most exalted and transcendent Spot! Absolve, O Lord, this faltering
Pen from magnifying so august a station, and deal mercifully with me, O my
Possessor and my King. Overlook then my trespasses in Thy presence. Thou,
verily, art the Lord of bounty, the All-Powerful, the Ever-Forgiving, the Most
Generous.”
O night of the All-Bountiful! [Birth of the Báb] In thee do
We verily behold the Mother Book. Is it a Book, in truth, or rather a child
begotten? Nay, by Myself! Such words pertain to the realm of names, whilst God
hath sanctified this Book above all names. Through it the Hidden Secret and the
Treasured Mystery have been revealed. Nay, by My life! All that hath been
mentioned pertaineth to the realm of attributes, whereas the Mother Book
standeth supreme above this. Through it have appeared the manifestations of
“There is no God but God” over them all. Nay, while such things have been
proclaimed to all people, in the estimation of thy Lord naught but His ear is
capable of hearing them. Blessed are those that are well assured!
On this night [Birth of the Báb] the fragrance of nearness
was wafted, the portals of reunion at the end of days were flung open, and all
created things were moved to exclaim: “The Kingdom is God’s, the Lord of all
names, Who is come with world-embracing sovereignty!” On this night the
Concourse on high celebrated the praise of their Lord, the Exalted, the Most
Glorious, and the realities of the divine names extolled Him Who is the King of
the beginning and the end in this Revelation, a Revelation through whose potency
the mountains have hastened unto Him Who is the All-Sufficing, the Most High,
and the hearts have turned towards the countenance of their Best-Beloved, and
the leaves have been stirred into motion by the breezes of yearning, and the
trees have raised their voices in joyful reply to the call of Him Who is the
Unconstrained, and the entire earth hath trembled with longing in its desire to
attain reunion with the Eternal King, and all things have been made new by that
concealed Word which hath appeared in this mighty Name.