By the righteousness of God! These are the days in which God
hath proved the hearts of the entire company of His Messengers and Prophets,
and beyond them those that stand guard over His sacred and inviolable
Sanctuary, the inmates of the celestial Pavilion and dwellers of the Tabernacle
of Glory. 
To whatever place We may be banished, however great the
tribulation We may suffer, they who are the people of God must, with fixed
resolve and perfect confidence, keep their eyes directed towards the Day Spring
of Glory, and be busied in whatever may be conducive to the betterment of the
world and the education of its peoples. All that hath befallen Us in the past
hath advanced the interests of Our Revelation and blazoned its fame; and all
that may befall Us in the future will have a like result. Cling ye, with your
inmost hearts, to the Cause of God, a Cause that hath been sent down by Him Who
is the Ordainer, the All-Wise. We have, with the utmost kindliness and mercy,
summoned and directed all peoples and nations to that which shall truly profit
them.
O My brother! When a true seeker determineth to take the
step of search in the path leading unto the knowledge of the Ancient of Days,
he must, before all else, cleanse his heart, which is the seat of the
revelation of the inner mysteries of God, from the obscuring dust of all
acquired knowledge, and the allusions of the embodiments of satanic fancy. He
must purge his breast, which is the sanctuary of the abiding love of the
Beloved, of every defilement, and sanctify his soul from all that pertaineth to
water and clay, from all shadowy and ephemeral attachments. He must so cleanse
his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that
love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth.
Even as thou dost witness in this Day how most of the people, because of such
love and hate, are bereft of the immortal Face, have strayed far from the
Embodiments of the Divine mysteries, and, shepherdless, are roaming through the
wilderness of oblivion and error.
Glorified, immeasurably glorified art Thou, in Whose hands
is the empire of whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is on earth, Thou,
Who through but one word of Thy mouth, caused all things to expire and dissolve
asunder, and Who, by yet another word, caused whatever had been separated to be
combined and reunited! Magnified be Thy name, O Thou Who hast power over all
that are in the heavens and all that are on earth, Whose dominion embraceth
whatsoever is in the heaven of Thy Revelation and the kingdom of Thy creation.
None can equal Thee in Thy created realms; none can compare with Thee in the
universe Thou hast fashioned. The mind of no one hath comprehended Thee, and
the aspiration of no soul hath reached Thee. I swear by Thy might! Were any one
to soar, on whatever wings, as long as Thine own Being endureth, throughout the
immensity of Thy knowledge, he would still be powerless to transgress the
bounds which the contingent world hath set for him. How can, then, such a man
aspire to wing his flight into the atmosphere of Thy most exalted presence?
Examine Our Cause, [“O kings of the earth”] inquire into the
things that have befallen Us, and decide justly between Us and Our enemies, and
be ye of them that act equitably towards their neighbour. If ye stay not the hand of the oppressor, if
ye fail to safeguard the rights of the downtrodden, what right have ye then to
vaunt yourselves among men? What is it
of which ye can rightly boast? Is it on
your food and your drink that ye pride yourselves, on the riches ye lay up in
your treasuries, on the diversity and the cost of the ornaments with which ye
deck yourselves? If true glory were to
consist in the possession of such perishable things, then the earth on which ye
walk must needs vaunt itself over you, because it supplieth you, and bestoweth
upon you, these very things, by the decree of the Almighty. In its bowels are contained, according to
what God hath ordained, all that ye possess.
From it, as a sign of His mercy, ye derive your riches. Behold then your state, the thing in which ye
glory! Would that ye could perceive
it!
Take heed lest the deeds wrought by the embodiments of idle
fancy sadden you or the acts committed by every wayward oppressor grieve you.
Seize ye the chalice of constancy through the power of His Name, quaff then
therefrom by virtue of the sovereignty of God, the Powerful, the Omnipotent.
Thus hath the Day-Star of My tender compassion and loving-kindness shone forth
above the horizon of this Tablet that ye may render thanks unto your Lord, the
Almighty, the All-Bountiful.
Lay not aside the fear of God, O kings of the earth, and
beware that ye transgress not the bounds which the Almighty hath fixed. Observe the injunctions laid upon you in His
Book, and take good heed not to overstep their limits. Be vigilant, that ye may not do injustice to
anyone, be it to the extent of a grain of mustard seed. Tread ye the path of justice, for this,
verily, is the straight path.
O Children of Negligence and Passion! Ye have suffered My
enemy to enter My house and have cast out My friend, for ye have enshrined the
love of another than Me in your hearts. Give ear to the sayings of the Friend
and turn towards His paradise. Worldly friends, seeking their own good, appear
to love one the other, whereas the true Friend hath loved and doth love you for
your own sakes; indeed He hath suffered for your guidance countless
afflictions. Be not disloyal to such a Friend, nay rather hasten unto Him. Such
is the daystar of the word of truth and faithfulness, that hath dawned above
the horizon of the pen of the Lord of all names. Open your ears that ye may
hearken unto the word of God, the Help in peril, the Self-existent.
By Thy glory! Were all the peoples of the earth to join
together to harm a single one of the people of Bahá, they would find themselves
powerless, for all that they see as harming Thy chosen ones is as light unto
them and as fire unto Thine enemies. Were it not for the confinement, in the
Most Great Prison, of Him Who is the Exponent of Thy transcendent sovereignty,
how would Thy Cause have been promulgated, Thy sovereignty manifested, Thy
might proclaimed, and the truth of Thy signs established? Would that I Myself
had borne all the tribulations of the world, out of love for Thee and for Thy
creatures!
He, indeed, is endued with understanding who acknowledgeth
his powerlessness and confesseth his sinfulness, for should any created thing
lay claim to any existence, when confronted with the infinite wonders of Thy
Revelation, so blasphemous a pretension would be more heinous than any other
crime in all the domains of Thine invention and creation. Who is there, O my
Lord, that, when Thou revealest the first glimmerings of the signs of Thy
transcendent sovereignty and might, hath the power to claim for himself any
existence whatever? Existence itself is as nothing when brought face to face
with the mighty and manifold wonders of Thine incomparable Self.
Glorified be Thy name, O Lord my God! I beseech Thee by Him
Who is Thine exalted and supreme Remembrance, Whom Thou hast sent down unto all
Thy creatures and invested with Thy name, the All-Glorious, Whose will Thou
hast ordained to be Thine own will, Whose self Thou hast decreed to be the
revealer of Thine own Self, and His essence the Day-Spring of Thy wisdom, and
His heart the treasury of Thine inspiration, and His breast the dawning-place
of Thy most excellent attributes and most exalted titles, and His tongue the
fountain-head of the waters of Thy praise and the well-spring of the
soft-flowing streams of Thy wisdom, to send down upon us that which will enable
us to dispense with all else except Thee, and will cause us to direct our steps
towards the sanctuary of Thy pleasure and to aspire after the things Thou didst
ordain for us according to Thine irrevocable decree. Empower us, then, O my
God, to forsake ourselves and cleave steadfastly to Him Who is the
Manifestation of Thy Self, the Most Exalted, the Most High.
BY the righteousness of God! The Mother Book is made
manifest, summoning mankind unto God, the Lord of the worlds, while the seas
proclaim: The Most Great Ocean hath appeared, from whose waves one can hear the
thundering cry: ‘Verily, no God is there but Me, the Peerless, the
All-Knowing.’ And the trees raising their clamour exclaim: O people of the
world! The voice of the Divine Lote-Tree is clearly sounding and the shrill cry
of the Pen of Glory is ringing loud: Give ye ear and be not of the heedless. The
sun is calling out: O concourse of the divines! The heaven of religions is
split and the moon cleft asunder and the peoples of the earth are brought
together in a new resurrection. Fear ye God and follow not the promptings of
your passions, rather follow Him unto Whom have testified the Scriptures of
God, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
Rejoice thou [1] with great joy that We have remembered thee
both now and in the past. Indeed the sweet savours of this remembrance shall
endure and shall not change throughout the eternity of the Names of God, the
Lord of mankind. We have graciously accepted thy devotions, thy praise, thy
teaching work and the services thou hast rendered for the sake of this mighty
Announcement. We have also hearkened unto that which thy tongue hath uttered at
the meetings and gatherings. Verily thy Lord heareth and observeth all things.
We have attired thee with the vesture of My good-pleasure in My heavenly
Kingdom, and from the Divine Lote-Tree which is raised on the borders of the
vale of security and peace, situate in the luminous Spot beyond the glorious
City, We call aloud unto thee saying: In truth there is no God but Me, the
All-Knowing, the All-Wise. We have brought thee into being to serve Me, to
glorify My Word and to proclaim My Cause. Centre thine energies upon that
wherefor thou hast been created by virtue of the Will of the supreme Ordainer,
the Ancient of Days.
This is the Day in which the Ocean of knowledge hath lifted
up its Voice and hath brought forth its pearls. Would that ye knew it! The
heaven of the Bayán hath been raised up in truth at the behest of God, the Help
in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. I swear by God! The Essence of knowledge
exclaimeth and saith: Lo! He Who is the Object of all knowledge is come and
through His advent the sacred Books of God, the Gracious, the Loving, have been
embellished. Every revelation of grace, every evidence of goodly gifts
emanateth from Him and unto Him doth it return.
“Grieve thou not over those that have busied themselves with
the things of this world, and have forgotten the remembrance of God, the Most
Great. By Him Who is the Eternal Truth! The day is approaching when the
wrathful anger of the Almighty will have taken hold of them. He, verily, is the
Omnipotent, the All-Subduing, the Most Powerful. He shall cleanse the earth
from the defilement of their corruption, and shall give it for an heritage unto
such of His servants as are nigh unto Him.” “Soon will the cry, ‘Yea, yea, here
am I, here am I’ be heard from every land. For there hath never been, nor can
there ever be, any other refuge to fly to for anyone.” “And when the appointed
hour is come, there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of
mankind to quake. Then, and only then, will the Divine Standard be unfurled,
and the Nightingale of Paradise warble its melody.”
Arise [“O kings of the earth”], then, and make steadfast
your feet, and make ye amends for that which hath escaped you, and set then
yourselves towards His holy Court, on the shore of His mighty Ocean, so that the
pearls of knowledge and wisdom, which God hath stored up within the shell of
His radiant heart, may be revealed unto you. Such is the counsel that shall profit you most; make of it your
provision, that ye may be of those who are guided aright. Beware lest ye hinder the breeze of God from
blowing over your hearts, the breeze through which the hearts of such as have
turned unto Him can be quickened. Hearken unto the clear admonitions that We have revealed for you in this
Tablet, that God, in turn, may hearken unto you, and may open before your faces
the portals of His mercy. He, verily, is
the Compassionate, the Merciful.
There can be no doubt whatever that, in consequence of the
efforts which every man may consciously exert and as a result of the exertion
of his own spiritual faculties, this mirror can be so cleansed from the dross
of earthly defilements and purged from satanic fancies as to be able to draw
nigh unto the meads of eternal holiness and attain the courts of everlasting
fellowship. In pursuance, however, of the principle that for every thing a time
hath been fixed, and for every fruit a season hath been ordained, the latent
energies of such a bounty can best be released, and the vernal glory of such a
gift can only be manifested, in the Days of God. Invested though each day may
be with its pre-ordained share of God’s wondrous grace, the Days immediately
associated with the Manifestation of God possess a unique distinction and
occupy a station which no mind can ever comprehend. Such is the virtue infused
into them that if the hearts of all that dwell in the heavens and the earth
were, in those days of everlasting delight, to be brought face to face with
that Day Star of unfading glory and attuned to His Will, each would find itself
exalted above all earthly things, radiant with His light, and sanctified
through His grace. All hail to this grace which no blessing, however great, can
excel, and all honor to such a loving-kindness the like of which the eye of
creation hath not seen! Exalted is He above that which they attribute unto Him
or recount about Him!
I implore Thee by the glory of Thy Manifestation and by the
power of Thy might, Thy sovereignty and Thine exaltation to render victorious
those who have arisen to serve Thee, who have aided Thy Cause and humbled
themselves before the splendour of the light of Thy face. Make them then, O my
God, triumphant over Thine enemies and cause them to be steadfast in Thy
service, that through them the evidences of Thy dominion may be established
throughout Thy realms and the tokens of Thine indomitable power be manifested
in Thy lands. Verily Thou art potent to do what Thou willest; no God is there
but Thee, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
O Offspring of Dust! Be not content with the ease of a
passing day, and deprive not thyself of everlasting rest. Barter not the garden
of eternal delight for the dust-heap of a mortal world. Up from thy prison
ascend unto the glorious meads above, and from thy mortal cage wing thy flight
unto the paradise of the Placeless.
O my God! Thou beholdest the Lord of all mankind confined in
His Most Great Prison, calling aloud Thy Name, gazing upon Thy face,
proclaiming that which hath enraptured the denizens of Thy kingdoms of
revelation and of creation. O my God! I behold Mine own Self captive in the
hands of Thy servants, yet the light of Thy sovereignty and the revelations of
Thine invincible power shine resplendent from His face, enabling all to know of
a certainty that Thou art God, and that there is none other God but Thee.
Neither can the power of the powerful frustrate Thee, nor the ascendancy of the
rulers prevail against Thee. Thou doest whatsoever Thou willest by virtue of
Thy sovereignty which encompasseth all created things, and ordainest that which
Thou pleasest through the potency of Thy behest which pervadeth the entire
creation.