Incline your ears to the sweet melody of this Prisoner.
Arise, and lift up your voices, that haply they that are fast asleep may be
awakened. Say: O ye who are as dead! The Hand of Divine bounty proffereth unto
you the Water of Life. Hasten and drink your fill. Whoso hath been re-born in
this Day, shall never die; whoso remaineth dead, shall never live. 
Hast thou [‘Álí Páshá, the Ottoman Prime Minister] imagined
thyself capable of extinguishing the fire which God hath kindled in the heart
of creation? Nay, by Him Who is the Eternal Truth, couldst thou but know it.
Rather, on account of what thy hands have wrought, it blazed higher and burned
more fiercely. Erelong will it encompass the earth and all that dwell therein. Thus hath it been decreed by God, and the powers of earth and heaven are unable
to thwart His purpose.
He Who is your Lord, the All-Merciful, cherisheth in His
heart the desire of beholding the entire human race as one soul and one body.
Haste ye to win your share of God’s good grace and mercy in this Day that
eclipseth all other created Days. How great the felicity that awaiteth the man
that forsaketh all he hath in a desire to obtain the things of God! Such a man,
We testify, is among God’s blessed ones.
How great the blessedness that awaiteth the king who will
arise to aid My Cause in My Kingdom, who will detach himself from all else but
Me! Such a king is numbered with the companions of the Crimson Ark—the Ark
which God hath prepared for the people of Bahá. All must glorify his name, must
reverence his station, and aid him to unlock the cities with the keys of My
Name, the omnipotent Protector of all that inhabit the visible and invisible
kingdoms. Such a king is the very eye of mankind, the luminous ornament on the
brow of creation, the fountain-head of blessings unto the whole world. Offer
up, O people of Bahá, your substance, nay your very lives, for his assistance.
O Chief! [‘Álí Páshá,
the Ottoman Prime Minister] We revealed Ourself unto thee at one time upon
Mount Tíná, and at another time upon Mount Zaytá, [1] and yet again in this
hallowed Spot. Following, however, thy corrupt inclinations, thou didst fail to
respond and wert accounted with the heedless. Consider, then, and call thou to
mind the time when Muhammad came with clear tokens from Him Who is the
Almighty, the All-Knowing. The people were wont to pelt Him with stones from
hidden places and in the markets, and they rejected the signs of God, thy Lord
and the Lord of thy forefathers. The learned also denied Him, as did their
followers, and likewise the kings of the earth, as thou hast heard from the
tales of old. Among those kings was Chosroes, [2] to whom Muhammad sent a
blessed epistle summoning him unto God and forbidding him from misbelief. Verily,
thy Lord knoweth all things. Following the promptings of his evil and corrupt
desires, however, Chosroes waxed arrogant before God and tore up the Tablet.
He, verily, is accounted among the inmates of the nethermost fire.
We can well perceive how the whole human race is encompassed
with great, with incalculable afflictions. We see it languishing on its bed of
sickness, sore-tried and disillusioned. They that are intoxicated by
self-conceit have interposed themselves between it and the Divine and
infallible Physician. Witness how they have entangled all men, themselves
included, in the mesh of their devices. They can neither discover the cause of
the disease, nor have they any knowledge of the remedy. They have conceived the
straight to be crooked, and have imagined their friend an enemy.
The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of
mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom,
the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular
aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can
never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously
concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations
on its exigencies and requirements.
By the righteousness of God! It is not Our wish to lay hands
on your [kings of the earth] kingdoms. Our mission is to seize and possess the
hearts of men. Upon them the eyes of Bahá are fastened. To this testifieth the
Kingdom of Names, could ye but comprehend it. Whoso followeth his Lord, will
renounce the world and all that is therein; how much greater, then, must be the
detachment of Him Who holdeth so august a station! Forsake your palaces, and
haste ye to gain admittance into His Kingdom. This, indeed, will profit you
both in this world and in the next. To this testifieth the Lord of the realm on
high, did ye but know it.
Drink deep, O ye dwellers of earth and heaven, from the
chalice of eternal life that the hand of Bahá proferreth in this most lofty and
exalted Paradise. By God! Whoso partaketh but a drop thereof shall neither
suffer the vicissitudes of time nor fall prey to the wiles of the Evil One, but
the Lord shall send him forth in every Dispensation adorned with a hallowed and
wondrous beauty. All hail then to this, the Festival of the Lord, that hath
been made manifest from the seat of the Lord of all wisdom!
O kings of the earth! The Most Great Law hath been revealed
in this Spot, this scene of transcendent splendor. Every hidden thing hath been
brought to light, by virtue of the Will of the Supreme Ordainer, He Who hath
ushered in the Last Hour, through Whom the Moon hath been cleft, and every
irrevocable decree expounded.
From the dawning-place of the divine Tablet the day-star of
this utterance shineth resplendent, and it behoveth everyone to fix his gaze
upon it: We exhort you, O peoples of the world, to observe that which will
elevate your station. Hold fast to the fear of God and firmly adhere to what is
right. Verily I say, the tongue is for mentioning what is good, defile it not
with unseemly talk. God hath forgiven what is past. Henceforward everyone
should utter that which is meet and seemly, and should refrain from slander,
abuse and whatever causeth sadness in men.
AlthoughL the Realm of Glory hath none of the vanities of
the world, yet within the treasury of trust and resignation We have bequeathed
to Our heirs an excellent and priceless heritage. Earthly treasures We have not
bequeathed, nor have We added such cares as they entail. By God! In earthly
riches fear is hidden and peril is concealed. Consider ye and call to mind that
which the All-Merciful hath revealed in the Qur’án: ‘Woe betide every slanderer
and defamer, him that layeth up riches and counteth them.’ [Qur’án 104:1–2]
Fleeting are the riches of the world; all that perisheth and changeth is not,
and hath never been, worthy of attention, except to a recognized measure.
This is the day which God hath announced through the tongue
of His Apostle. Reflect, that thou mayest apprehend what the All-Merciful hath
sent down in the Qur’án and in this inscribed Tablet. This is the day whereon
He Who is the Dayspring of Revelation hath come with clear tokens which none
can number. This is the day whereon every man endued with perception hath
discovered the fragrance of the breeze of the All-Merciful in the world of
creation, and every man of insight hath hastened unto the living waters of the
mercy of His Lord, the King of Kings.
Thou art He, O my God, Who hath raised me up at Thy behest,
and bidden me to occupy Thy seat, and to summon all men to the court of Thy
mercy. It is Thou Who hast commanded me to tell out the things Thou didst
destine for them in the Tablet of Thy decree and didst inscribe with the pen of
Thy Revelation, and Who hast enjoined on me the duty of kindling the fire of
Thy love in the hearts of Thy servants, and of drawing all the peoples of the
earth nearer to the habitation of Thy throne.
O Dwellers in the City of Love! Mortal blasts have beset the
everlasting candle, and the beauty of the celestial Youth is veiled in the
darkness of dust. The chief of the monarchs of love is wronged by the people of
tyranny and the dove of holiness lies prisoned in the talons of owls. The
dwellers in the pavilion of glory and the celestial concourse bewail and
lament, while ye repose in the realm of negligence, and esteem yourselves as of
the true friends. How vain are your imaginings!
This is the Day in which He Who held converse with God hath
attained the light of the Ancient of Days, and quaffed the pure waters of
reunion from this Cup that hath caused the seas to swell. Say: By the one true
God! Sinai is circling round the Day Spring of Revelation, while from the
heights of the Kingdom the Voice of the Spirit of God is heard proclaiming:
“Bestir yourselves, ye proud ones of the earth, and hasten ye unto Him.” Carmel
hath, in this Day, hastened in longing adoration to attain His court, whilst
from the heart of Zion there cometh the cry: “The promise is fulfilled. That
which had been announced in the holy Writ of God, the most Exalted, the
Almighty, the Best-Beloved, is made manifest.”
Thou hast, O Chief, committed that which hath caused
Muhammad, the Apostle of God, to lament in the most sublime Paradise. The world
hath made thee proud, so much so that thou hast turned away from the Face
through whose brightness the Concourse on high hath been illumined. Soon thou
shalt find thyself in manifest loss! Thou didst conspire with the Persian
Ambassador to harm Me, though I had come unto you from the source of majesty
and grandeur with a Revelation that hath solaced the eyes of the favoured ones
of God.
The whole world hath been set ablaze by the Word of thy
Lord, the All-Glorious, a Word softer than the morning breeze. It hath been manifested in the form of the
human temple, and through it God hath quickened the souls of the sincere among
His servants. In its inner essence, this
Word is the living water by which God hath purified the hearts of such as have
turned unto Him and forgotten every other mention, and through which He draweth
them nigh unto the seat of His mighty Name. We have sprinkled it upon the people of the graves, and lo, they have
risen up, with their gaze fixed upon the shining and resplendent Beauty of
their Lord.
We see you [“kings of the earth”] rejoicing in that which ye
have amassed for others and shutting out yourselves from the worlds which
naught except My guarded Tablet can reckon. The treasures ye have laid up have
drawn you far away from your ultimate objective. This ill beseemeth you, could
ye but understand it. Wash your hearts from all earthly defilements, and hasten
to enter the Kingdom of your Lord, the Creator of earth and heaven, Who caused
the world to tremble and all its peoples to wail, except them that have
renounced all things and clung to that which the Hidden Tablet hath ordained.