Vie ye with each other in the service of God and of His
Cause. This is indeed what profiteth you in this world, and in that which is to
come. Your Lord, the God of Mercy, is the All-Informed, the All-Knowing. Grieve
not at the things ye witness in this day. The day shall come whereon the
tongues of the nations will proclaim: ‘The earth is God’s, the Almighty, the
Single, the Incomparable, the All-Knowing!’ 
We render thanks unto God for whatsoever hath befallen Us,
and We patiently endure the things He hath ordained in the past or will ordain
in the future. In Him have I placed My trust; and into His hands have I
committed My Cause. He will, certainly, repay all them that endure with
patience and put their confidence in Him. His is the creation and its empire.
He exalteth whom He will, and whom He will He doth abase. He shall not be asked
of His doings. He, verily, is the All-Glorious, the Almighty.
This profitless world produceth naught save deadly poison,
and its ephemeral dregs can never yield the everlasting cup. Were the Jesus of
the spirit to give ear to the call of holiness from the Falcon of the realm
above, He would assuredly cry out from His inmost being and be seized with
fervid longing even as the lover’s soul. It is through that call that the Moses
of eternity was dumbfounded; it is by its virtue that the Abraham of
faithfulness shattered the idol of the mortal body. Shatter then, in turn, this
idol, that thou mayest take up thine abode in the land of the Beloved; and
forsake all desire, that thou mayest take flight unto the Egypt of imperishable
glory. Sanctify the city of thine heart, that thou mayest behold the beauty of
the Divine Essence and be quickened to a new life through the grace of the Holy
Spirit.
The Pen of the Most High proclaimeth: O thou [1] who hast
imagined thyself to be the most exalted of men
and who hast regarded as the lowliest of all creatures this divine
Youth, through Whom the eyes of the Concourse on high have been illumined and
made radiant! This Youth hath sought
nothing from thee or from such as are like unto thee, inasmuch as from time
immemorial, whenever the Manifestations of the All-Merciful and the Exponents
of His unfading glory have stepped out of the Realm of eternity into this
mortal world and revealed themselves to revive the dead, men such as thee have
considered these sanctified Souls and Temples of Divine Oneness, upon Whom must
needs depend the rehabilitation of the peoples of the earth, to be stirrers of
mischief and worthy of blame. These men,
verily, have all returned unto dust.
Thou, too, shalt erelong take abode therein and find thyself in grievous
loss.
Great is thy blessedness, for thou hast received the wine of
utterance from the hand of the All-Merciful, and became so enraptured by the
sweet fragrance of the Best-Beloved as to renounce thy comfort and to be
numbered with them that have hastened unto His Paradise, the Dawning-Place of the
signs of thy Lord, the Gracious, the Peerless. Happy the one who hath quaffed the wine of inner mysteries from the
countenance of his Lord and been intoxicated by this pure and crystal draught. By God! It causeth every true believer to soar in the heaven of majesty and
grandeur, and transmuteth every doubt into certainty.
Say: O people, do ye imagine that, after rejecting the One
through Whom the religions of the world have been made manifest, ye still bear
allegiance to the Faith of God? By the
righteousness of God! Ye are accounted among the inmates of the Fire. Thus hath
the decree been recorded in the Tablets by the Pen of God. Say: Never will the barking of dogs deter the
Nightingale from warbling its melodies.
Ponder awhile that perchance ye may discover a path leading to the
Eternal Truth.
O Pen of the Most High!
Recount unto him who hath turned unto Thy Lord, the All-Glorious, that
which shall enable him to dispense with the sayings of men. Say: Spirit, mind, soul, and the powers of sight
and hearing are but one single reality which hath manifold expressions owing to
the diversity of its instruments. As thou dost observe, man’s power to
comprehend, move, speak, hear, and see all derive from this sign of his Lord
within him. It is single in its essence, yet manifold through the diversity of
its instruments. This, verily, is a
certain truth. For example, if it directeth its attention to the means of
hearing, then hearing and its attributes become manifest. Likewise, if it
directeth itself to the means of vision, a different effect and attribute
appear. Reflect upon this subject that thou mayest comprehend the true meaning
of what hath been intended, find thyself independent of the sayings of the
people, and be of them that are well assured. In like manner, when this sign of
God turneth towards the brain, the head, and such means, the powers of the mind
and the soul are manifested. Thy Lord, verily, is potent to do whatsoever He
pleaseth.
O people of Bahá! That there is none to rival you is a sign
of mercy. Quaff ye of the Cup of Bounty the wine of immortality, despite them
that have repudiated God, the Lord of names and Maker of the heavens.
Certain ones among you have said: “He it is Who hath laid
claim to be God.” By God! This is a gross calumny. I am but a servant of God
Who hath believed in Him and in His signs, and in His Prophets and in His
angels. My tongue, and My heart, and My inner and My outer being testify that
there is no God but Him, that all others have been created by His behest, and
been fashioned through the operation of His Will. There is none other God but
Him, the Creator, the Raiser from the dead, the Quickener, the Slayer. I am He
that telleth abroad the favors with which God hath, through His bounty, favored
Me. If this be My transgression, then I am truly the first of the
transgressors. I and My kindred are at your mercy. Do ye as ye please, and be
not of them that hesitate, that I might return to God My Lord, and reach the
place where I can no longer behold your faces. This, indeed, is My dearest
wish, My most ardent desire. Of My state God is, verily, sufficiently informed,
observant.
If thou [Muhammad Shah of Persia] art not apprehensive that
the truth might be revealed and the works of the ungodly be brought to naught,
why summonest thou not the divines of the land, and then summon Me, [the Báb]
so that I may confound them forthwith, even as those disbelievers whom I have
previously confounded? This is My sure testimony unto thee and unto them, if
they speak the truth. Summon thou all of them. Should they then be able to
utter words like unto this, thou wouldst know that their cause is worthy of
attention. Nay, by the righteousness of My Lord! They are bereft of power, nor
are they endued with perception. They professed faith in the past without
understanding its significance, then later they repudiated the Truth; for they
are devoid of discernment.
Thou art God’s shadow on earth. Strive, therefore, to act in
such a manner as befitteth so eminent, so august a station. If thou dost depart
from following the things We have caused to descend upon thee and taught thee,
thou wilt, assuredly, be derogating from that great and priceless honor. Return,
then, and cleave wholly unto God, and cleanse thine heart from the world and
all its vanities, and suffer not the love of any stranger to enter and dwell
therein. Not until thou dost purify thine heart from every trace of such love
can the brightness of the light of God shed its radiance upon it, for to none
hath God given more than one heart. This, verily, hath been decreed and written
down in His ancient Book. And as the human heart, as fashioned by God, is one
and undivided, it behoveth thee to take heed that its affections be, also, one
and undivided. Cleave thou, therefore, with the whole affection of thine heart,
unto His love, and withdraw it from the love of any one besides Him, that He
may aid thee to immerse thyself in the ocean of His unity, and enable thee to
become a true upholder of His oneness. God is My witness. My sole purpose in
revealing to thee these words is to sanctify thee from the transitory things of
the earth, and aid thee to enter the realm of everlasting glory, that thou mayest,
by the leave of God, be of them that abide and rule therein....
The gaze of the loving-kindness of God—exalted and glorified
is He—hath everlastingly been directed towards His beloved friends; verily He
is the One Who knoweth and remembereth.
O friend! In the Bayán We directed everyone in this Most
Great Revelation to see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears. However
when the horizon of the world was illumined with the resplendent light of this
Revelation, many people forgot this divine commandment, lost sight of this
heavenly exhortation and immersed themselves in the vain imaginings which their
minds had devised. Indeed the face of the sun of justice and fairness is hidden
behind the clouds of idle fancy which the foolish ones have conceived.
Therefore it is not to be wondered at that the movements of the birds of
darkness attract attention. Through the potency of the Name of the
Best-Beloved, invite thou the receptive souls unto God’s holy court, that
perchance they may not remain deprived of the heavenly Fountain of living
water. He is in truth the Gracious, the Forgiving.
It behoveth every king to be as bountiful as the sun, which
fostereth the growth of all beings, and giveth to each its due, whose benefits
are not inherent in itself, but are ordained by Him Who is the Most Powerful,
the Almighty. The King should be as generous, as liberal in his mercy as the
clouds, the outpourings of whose bounty are showered upon every land, by the
behest of Him Who is the Supreme Ordainer, the All-Knowing.
Blessed is the wayfarer who hath recognized the Desired One,
and the seeker who hath heeded the Call of Him Who is the intended Aim of all
mankind, and the learned one who hath believed in God, the Help in Peril, the
Self-Subsisting.
By the righteousness of God! The world’s horizon is
resplendent with the light of the Most Great Luminary, yet the generality of
mankind perceive it not. Verily He Who is the Sovereign Truth moveth before the
eyes of all men. Unto this beareth witness the One Who is proclaiming in the
midmost heart of the world, ‘In truth no God is there but Me, Omnipotent over
all things, whether of the past or of the future.’
I swear by the Most Great Lord! Wert thou to be told in what
place I dwell, the first person to have mercy on Me would be thyself. In the
heart of a mountain is a fortress [Mákú] ... the inmates of which are confined
to two guards and four dogs. Picture, then, My plight... I swear by the truth
of God! Were he who hath been willing to treat Me in such a manner to know Who
it is Whom he hath so treated, he, verily, would never in his life be happy.
Nay—I, verily, acquaint thee with the truth of the matter—it is as if he hath
imprisoned all the Prophets, and all the men of truth and all the chosen
ones...
O My Servant! Free thyself from the fetters of this world,
and loose thy soul from the prison of self. Seize thy chance, for it will come
to thee no more.
I know not the path ye have chosen and which ye tread, O
congregation of My ill-wishers! We summon you to God, We remind you of His Day,
We announce unto you tidings of your reunion with Him, We draw you nigh unto
His court, and send down upon you tokens of His wondrous wisdom, and yet lo,
behold how ye reject Us, how ye condemn Us, through the things which your lying
mouths have uttered, as an infidel, how ye devise your devices against Us! And
when We manifest unto you what God hath, through His bountiful favor, bestowed
upon Us, ye say, “It is but plain magic.” The same words were spoken by the
generations that were before you and were what you are, did ye but perceive it.
Ye have thereby deprived yourselves of the bounty of God and of His grace, and
shall never obtain them till the day when God will have judged between Us and
you, and He, verily, is the best of Judges.
One must step forth and raise aloft the banner of earnest
striving. By God! Wert thou to hearken unto the heavenly words of this
evanescent Servant that have been raised in this mystic Tablet, thou wouldst
assuredly take to the desert of self-surrender, turn aside from thine own heart
and soul, and cast thy head at the feet of the Friend. How high is the soaring
flight of the phoenix of love, and how low the requisite measure of our
yearning! Strive but a little to soar, that, by the grace of Him Who is the
eternal King, thou mayest ascend from the dust-heap of utter non-existence unto
the loftiest heights of ancient glory. Give wings to thy celestial spirit and
lend strength to thy mystic soul, that haply it may take flight in the
atmosphere of divine nearness and attain the ultimate and invisible goal.