It is ye who have taken counsel together regarding them, ye that have preferred to follow the promptings of your own desires, and forsaken the commandment of God, the Help in Peril, the Almighty.
- Baha’u’llah (Súriy-i-Mulúk [Tablet to Kings], ‘Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
Say: It behoveth you, O Ministers of State, to keep the precepts of God, and to forsake your own laws and regulations, and to be of them who are guided aright. Better is this for you than all ye possess, did ye but know it. If ye transgress the commandment of God, not one jot or one tittle of all your works shall be acceptable in His sight. Ye shall, erelong, discover the consequences of that which ye shall have done in this vain life, and shall be repaid for them. This, verily, is the truth, the undoubted truth.
- Baha’u’llah (Súriy-i-Mulúk [Tablet to Kings], ‘Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
The Day Star of Truth that shineth in its meridian splendor
beareth Us witness! They who are the people of God have no ambition except to
revive the world, to ennoble its life, and regenerate its peoples. Truthfulness
and good-will have, at all times, marked their relations with all men. Their
outward conduct is but a reflection of their inward life, and their inward life
a mirror of their outward conduct. No veil hideth or obscureth the verities on
which their Faith is established. Before the eyes of all men these verities
have been laid bare, and can be unmistakably recognized. Their very acts attest
the truth of these words.
When a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in
the path leading unto the knowledge of the Ancient of Days he… should forgive
the sinful, and never despise his low estate, for none knoweth what his own end
shall be. How often hath a sinner attained, at the hour of death, to the
essence of faith, and, quaffing the immortal draught, hath taken his flight
unto the Concourse on high! And how often hath a devout believer, at the hour
of his soul’s ascension, been so changed as to fall into the nethermost fire!
By My life! The Day is come which from all eternity was
concealed in the treasuries of the might of your Lord. Rejoice in this blessed,
this glorious and sublime Day. For He verily is Mine own Appearance amongst
you, and whoso maketh the slightest distinction between Him and Me hath indeed
strayed far from the straight path of truth. He it is Who hath caused the
Mystic Dove to warble upon the twigs of the Tree of glory, saying: “By the one
true God! The Best-Beloved of the worlds is come!”
We verily behold, at this hour and from His realm, all the
denizens of earth and heaven, and summon them to this Beauty that hath solaced
the eyes of the inmates of Paradise and the dwellers of the tabernacle of
holiness, them that have fixed their gaze on this Scene of resplendent glory
and whom the veils of human limitations have failed to debar from beholding the
countenance of God, the Almighty, the Most Wondrous. He it is Who proclaimeth
within all things: “Verily, I am your Lord, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
From time immemorial I was a Treasure hidden in a station unknown to all save
Mine own Self, the All-Knowing, the All-Informed. Cast away all that ye possess
and soar on the wings of detachment into this atmosphere wherein waft the
breezes of the mercy of your Lord, the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Generous.”
Verily God hath testified, in Himself and by Himself, and in
His inmost Essence, that there is none other God but Him and that He Who is
come through the power of truth is the Manifestation of His most excellent
names and the Dawning-Place of His most exalted attributes. Through Him the
voice of the mystic Morn rang out from the horizon of eternity and the Most
Great Spirit spoke forth before the Divine Lote-Tree, saying: “This, verily, is
He Who hath been intended in the Cities of Names and mentioned in the Tablets
revealed from the empyrean of the Will of your Lord, the Ruler of earth and
heaven. He, indeed, is the most great Instrument amidst the nations, Who hath
come to regenerate the whole world.”
Every single letter proceeding from Our mouth is endowed
with such regenerative power as to enable it to bring into existence a new
creation—a creation the magnitude of which is inscrutable to all save God. He
verily hath knowledge of all things.
O Son of Dust! Turn not away thine eyes from the matchless
wine of the immortal Beloved, and open them not to foul and mortal dregs. Take
from the hands of the divine Cup-bearer the chalice of immortal life, that all
wisdom may be thine, and that thou mayest hearken unto the mystic voice calling
from the realm of the invisible. Cry aloud, ye that are of low aim! Wherefore
have ye turned away from My holy and immortal wine unto evanescent water?
Twenty years have passed, O kings, during which We have,
each day, tasted the agony of a fresh tribulation. No one of them that were
before Us hath endured the things We have endured. Would that ye could perceive
it! They that rose up against Us have put us to death, have shed our blood,
have plundered our property, and violated our honour. Though aware of most of
our afflictions, ye, nevertheless, have failed to stay the hand of the
aggressor. For is it not your clear duty to restrain the tyranny of the oppressor,
and to deal equitably with your subjects, that your high sense of justice may
be fully demonstrated to all mankind?
O Minister of the King of Paris! [1] Hast thou forgotten the
pronouncement recorded in the Gospel according to John concerning the Word and
those who are its Manifestations? And hast thou ignored the counsels of the
Spirit [Jesus] concerning the Manifestations of the Word, and been numbered
with the heedless? If not, wherefore
then didst thou conspire with the Minister of Persia to inflict upon Us that
which hath caused the hearts of men of insight and understanding to melt, the
tears of the denizens of the Realm of eternity to flow, and the souls of them
who are nigh unto God to mourn? And all this thou didst commit without seeking
to examine Our Cause or to discern its truth. For is it not thy clear duty to
investigate this Cause, to inform thyself of the things that have befallen Us,
to judge with equity, and to cleave unto justice?
“This is the Day whereon the unseen world crieth out, ‘Great
is thy blessedness, O earth, for thou hast been made the footstool of thy God,
and been chosen as the seat of His mighty throne.’” “Say, O men! This is a
matchless Day. Matchless must, likewise, be the tongue that celebrateth the
praise of the Desire of all nations, and matchless the deed that aspireth to be
acceptable in His sight. The whole human race hath longed for this Day, that
perchance it may fulfill that which well beseemeth its station and is worthy of
its destiny.”
What! Believe ye in your hearts that ye possess the power to
extinguish the radiance of the Sun, or to eclipse its splendor? Nay, by My
life! Ye will never and can never achieve your purpose, though ye summon to
your aid all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. Walk ye in
the fear of God, and render not your works vain. Incline your ears to His
words, and be not of them that are shut out as by a veil from Him. Say: God is
My witness! I have wished nothing whatever for Myself. What I have wished is
the victory of God and the triumph of His Cause. He is Himself a sufficient
witness between you and Me. Were ye to cleanse your eyes, ye would readily
perceive how My deeds testify to the truth of My words, how My words are a
guide to My deeds.
When a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in
the path leading unto the knowledge of the Ancient of Days he… should… regard
backbiting as grievous error, and keep himself aloof from its dominion,
inasmuch as backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the
life of the soul.