Through the movement of Our Pen of Glory We have, at the
bidding of the Omnipotent Ordainer, breathed a new life into every human frame,
and instilled into every word a fresh potency. All created things proclaim the
evidences of this worldwide regeneration. 
And when Thou didst purpose to demonstrate the power of Thy
sovereign might, and to glorify Thy word, and to guide the steps of Thy people,
Thou didst raise up from among Thy creatures One of Thy servants, Whom Thou
didst send forth with the signs of Thy sovereignty, and Whom Thou didst endue
with the clear tokens of Thy oneness, that He might fulfill Thy testimony unto
all created things, and perfect Thy proof before all men.
The Great Being, wishing to reveal the prerequisites of the
peace and tranquillity of the world and the advancement of its peoples, hath
written: The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a
vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The
rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its
deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of
the world’s Great Peace amongst men. Such a peace demandeth that the Great
Powers should resolve, for the sake of the tranquillity of the peoples of the
earth, to be fully reconciled among themselves. Should any king take up arms
against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him. If this be done,
the nations of the world will no longer require any armaments, except for the
purpose of preserving the security of their realms and of maintaining internal
order within their territories. This will ensure the peace and composure of
every people, government and nation. We fain would hope that the kings and
rulers of the earth, the mirrors of the gracious and almighty name of God, may
attain unto this station, and shield mankind from the onslaught of tyranny.
O Son of My Handmaid! Quaff from the tongue of the merciful
the stream of divine mystery, and behold from the dayspring of divine utterance
the unveiled splendor of the daystar of wisdom. Sow the seeds of My divine
wisdom in the pure soil of the heart, and water them with the waters of
certitude, that the hyacinths of knowledge and wisdom may spring up fresh and
green from the holy city of the heart.
Though this world be fraught with deception and deceit, yet
it continually warneth all men of their impending extinction. The death of the
father proclaimeth to the son that he, too, shall pass away. Would that the
inhabitants of the world who have amassed riches for themselves and have
strayed far from the True One might know who will eventually lay hand on their
treasures; but, by the life of Bahá, no one knoweth this save God, exalted be
His glory.
Glory and abasement, riches and poverty, tranquillity and
tribulation, all will pass away, and all the peoples of the earth will erelong
be laid to rest in their tombs. It behoveth therefore every man of insight to
fix his gaze upon the goal of eternity, that perchance by the grace of Him Who
is the Ancient King he may attain unto the immortal Kingdom and abide beneath
the shade of the Tree of His Revelation.
Even if this Lifegiver and World Reformer be in thine [1]
estimation guilty of sedition and strife, what crime could have been committed
by a group of women, children, and suckling mothers that they should be thus
afflicted with the scourge of thine anger and wrath? No faith or religion hath
ever held children responsible. The Pen of divine Command hath exempted them,
yet the fire of thy tyranny and oppression encompasseth all. If thou bearest
allegiance to any faith or religion, then thou shouldst know that, according to
all the heavenly Books and all the divinely inspired and weighty Scriptures,
children are not to be held accountable. Aside from this, not even those who
disbelieve in God have perpetrated such unseemly acts. Since from every thing
an effect becometh manifest, a fact that none can deny save those who are
bereft of reason and understanding, it is certain that the sighs of these
children and the cries of these wronged ones will have their due consequence.
Reflect a while, and consider how they who are the loved
ones of God must conduct themselves, and to what heights they must soar.
Beseech thou, at all times, thy Lord, the God of Mercy, to aid them to do what
He willeth. He, verily, is the Most Powerful, the All-Glorious, the All-Knowing.
The imprisonment inflicted on this wronged One, O Dhabíh,
did to Him no harm nor can it ever do so; nor can the loss of all His earthly
goods, His exile, or even His martyrdom and outward humiliation, do Him any
hurt. That which can hurt Him are the evil deeds which the beloved of God
commit, and which they impute to Him Who is the Sovereign Truth. This is the
affliction from which I suffer, and to this He, Himself, Who is potent over all
things, beareth Me witness. That which hath sorely hurt Me are the claims which
the people of the Bayán are advancing every day. Some have proclaimed their
allegiance to one of My Branches (Sons), while others have asserted
independently their claims, and acted after their own desires.
The Tongue of Grandeur saith: By Myself that speaketh the
truth! In this most mighty Revelation all the Dispensations of the past have
attained their highest and final consummation. Whoso layeth claim to a
Revelation after Him, such a man is assuredly a lying impostor. We pray God
that He may graciously assist him to retract and repudiate such claim. Should
he repent, God will no doubt forgive him. If, however, he persisteth in his
error, God will assuredly send down one who will deal mercilessly with him. He,
verily, is the Almighty, the Most Powerful.
Behold how the people of the Bayán have utterly failed to
recognize that the sole object of whatsoever My Previous Manifestation and
Harbinger of My Beauty hath revealed hath been My Revelation and the
proclamation of My Cause. Never—and to this He Who is the Sovereign Truth
beareth Me witness—would He have, but for Me, pronounced what He did pronounce.
Witness how this foolish people have treated the Cause of Him Who is the
All-Possessing, the Inaccessible, as a play and pastime! Their hearts devise
each day a new device, and their fancy leadeth them to seek a fresh retreat. If
what they say be true, how then can the stability of the Cause of thy Lord be
ensured? Ponder this in thine heart, and be thou of them who are sharp-sighted,
who scan heedfully, who are steadfast in their purpose and confident in their
belief. Such should be thy certitude that if all mankind were to advance such
claims as no man hath ever advanced, or any mind conceived, thou wouldst
completely ignore them, wouldst cast them from thee, and would set thy face
towards Him Who is the Object of the adoration of all worlds.
Such is the greatness of this Day that the Hour itself is
seized with perturbation, and all heavenly Scriptures bear evidence to its
overpowering majesty. In this Day the Book solemnly testifieth to His glory and
the Balance is moved to lift up its voice. This is the Day wherein the Siraṭ
[1] calleth aloud: ‘I am the straight Path’, and Mount Sinai exclaimeth:
‘Verily the Lord of Revelation is come.’
By the righteousness of Mine own Self! Great, immeasurably
great is this Cause! Mighty, inconceivably mighty is this Day! Blessed indeed
is the man that hath forsaken all things, and fastened his eyes upon Him Whose
face hath shed illumination upon all who are in the heavens and all who are on
the earth.
O kings of Christendom! Heard ye not the saying of Jesus,
the Spirit of God, “I go away, and come again unto you”? Wherefore, then, did
ye fail, when He did come again unto you in the clouds of heaven, to draw nigh
unto Him, that ye might behold His face, and be of them that attained His
Presence? In another passage He saith: “When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come,
He will guide you into all truth.” And yet, behold how, when He did bring the
truth, ye refused to turn your faces towards Him, and persisted in disporting yourselves
with your pastimes and fancies. Ye welcomed Him not, neither did ye seek His
Presence, that ye might hear the verses of God from His own mouth, and partake
of the manifold wisdom of the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the All-Wise. Ye
have, by reason of your failure, hindered the breath of God from being wafted
over you, and have withheld from your souls the sweetness of its fragrance. Ye
continue roving with delight in the valley of your corrupt desires. Ye, and all
ye possess, shall pass away. Ye shall, most certainly, return to God, and shall
be called to account for your doings in the presence of Him Who shall gather
together the entire creation...
Let your principal concern be to rescue the fallen from the
slough of impending extinction, and to help him embrace the ancient Faith of
God. Your behavior towards your neighbor should be such as to manifest clearly
the signs of the one true God, for ye are the first among men to be re-created
by His Spirit, the first to adore and bow the knee before Him, the first to
circle round His throne of glory.
Center your energies in the propagation of the Faith of God.
Whoso is worthy of so high a calling, let him arise and promote it. Whoso is
unable, it is his duty to appoint him who will, in his stead, proclaim this
Revelation, whose power hath caused the foundations of the mightiest structures
to quake, every mountain to be crushed into dust, and every soul to be
dumbfounded.
All days have attained their consummation in this most
august of days, and all hours in this noblest of hours, and the Unseen hath
willed to confer every grace upon the inmates of earth and heaven, to
establish, before all who are in the kingdoms of revelation and creation, the
Manifestation of God and His loftiness, and the sovereignty of God and His
grandeur, that His favour might be made complete unto His servants and His
bounty fulfilled unto His creation. And yet, when once He appeared, the eyes of
all who had awaited Him were dazzled, save for those whom His might had
protected and from whose sight He had lifted all worldly veils. Blessed, then,
be He Who hath been made manifest through the power of truth in this wondrous,
this shining vesture!
The promised Day of God is come! He Who is the Manifestation
of the Adored One hath been established upon the throne of His name, the
All-Loving, and the sun of His bounty hath cast its rays upon the seeing and
seen alike. Wherefore renounce ye, O denizens of the realms of limitation, that
which ye possess, adorn your temples with His glorious vesture, and behold with
untainted vision Him Who is the luminous Beauty of God seated upon the throne
of glory in His transcendent, His almighty and all-subduing sovereignty. All
praise be to the Best-Beloved, Who hath revealed His hidden beauty with such manifest
authority!
The day-star of words, dawning above the horizon of the
utterance of Him Who is the Lord of all names and attributes, hath, at this
most blessed of hours, shone forth in all truth with the splendours of the
light of God. The spirit of understanding, flowing from the Pen of the
All-Glorious, hath, by virtue of His grace, been conferred upon all created
things. The mystery of all mysteries, emerging from behind the veils of
concealment, hath, in very truth, been revealed to the righteous, as bidden by
God, the Almighty, the Unconstrained.
God, the Most Powerful, the Most Exalted, the Most Great,
addresseth the holy Beings created through the Primal Word that proceeded from
His mouth, and beyond them the Concourse on high, and beyond them those whom He
hath sanctified above the comprehension of all who are on earth and in heaven
and whom He hath raised up through His hidden and inscrutable Will, saying:
“Rejoice in your very souls, for the most auspicious time hath come; and the
Hour hath struck round which revolve all the other hours foretold in the
Tablets of God, the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the Most Merciful; and the
hidden Morn hath broken forth, in this treasured Name, from the dayspring of
divinity, shedding its radiance upon all that hath been and all that shall be.”
Blessed be the Lord of all bounty, the source of this supernal grace!