Shed not the blood of anyone, O people, neither judge ye
anyone unjustly. Thus have ye been
commanded by Him Who knoweth, Who is informed of all. They that commit disorders in the land after
it hath been well ordered, these indeed have outstepped the bounds that have
been set in the Book. Wretched shall be
the abode of the transgressors! 
Should your words, O people, be at variance with your deeds,
what then shall distinguish you from those who profess their faith in the Lord,
their God, and yet, when He came down to them overshadowed with clouds,
rejected Him and waxed proud before God, the Incomparable, the Omniscient?
God hath prescribed unto everyone the duty of teaching His
Cause. Whoever ariseth to discharge this
duty, must needs, ere he proclaimeth His Message, adorn himself with the
ornament of an upright and praiseworthy character, so that his words may
attract the hearts of such as are receptive to his call. Without it, he can never hope to influence
his hearers. Thus doth God instruct
you. He, verily, is the Ever-Forgiving,
the Most Compassionate.
Happy is the man who hath recognized Thee, and discovered
the sweetness of Thy fragrance, and set himself towards Thy kingdom, and tasted
of the things that have been perfected therein by Thy grace and favor. Great is
the blessedness of him who hath acknowledged Thy most excellent majesty, and
whom the veils that have shut out the nations from Thee have not hindered from
directing his eyes towards Thee, O Thou Who art the King of eternity and the
Quickener of every moldering bone! Blessed, also, is he that hath inhaled Thy
sweet savors, and been carried away by Thine utterances in Thy days. Blessed,
moreover, be the man that hath turned unto Thee, and woe betide him that hath
turned his back upon Thee.
Praise be unto Thee, O Lord my God! This is that Day among
Thy Days and that Hour among Thy blessed Hours which Thou hast reserved for
Thine own Self, related to Thine own Being, and exalted in station, that Thy
Name may endure and Thy sovereignty be made manifest. Thou hast made this Day
to be the source of all days, inasmuch as Thou hast showered upon it the
revelations of the Throne of Thy majesty and the signs of Thy transcendent
favour. Thou hast created it anew, at this time, in the most excellent form in
this ancient Temple, so that on this Day, and by its grace, all the dwellers of
earth and heaven might be raised again to life and, unbeknownst to and
unapprehended by all, be called upon to render account regarding Thy Self.
Perchance Thy sacred and celestial blessings and Thy divine and glorious
bestowals might be completed therein, that they may testify to the creation of
all things on the Day of Thy presence and to the appearance of Thy days and the
dawning of the Sun of Thy beauty.
Praise be to Thee, O my God, that Thou hast ordained this
day [Naw-Ruz] as a festival unto the favoured among Thy servants and the
sincere among Thy loved ones. Thou hast called this day by that Name whereby
all created things have been subdued and the breezes of Thy Revelation have
been wafted between earth and heaven, a Name through which all that hath been
recorded in Thy Holy Books and Sacred Scriptures hath been made manifest, and
which Thy Messengers and Thy Chosen Ones have foretold, that all men might be
made ready to behold Thee, to turn towards the ocean of Thy reunion, to stand
before the seat of Thy throne, and to hear Thy wondrous call from the Dayspring
of Thine invisible Self and the Dawning-Place of Thine Essence.
Do not bring our fasts to an end with this fast, O my Lord,
nor the covenants Thou hast made with this covenant. Do Thou accept all that we
have done for love of Thee, and for the sake of Thy pleasure, and all that we
have left undone as a result of our subjection to our evil and corrupt desires.
Enable us, then, to cleave steadfastly to Thy love and Thy good-pleasure, and
preserve us from the mischief of such as have denied Thee and repudiated Thy
most resplendent signs. Thou art, in truth, the Lord of this world and of the
next. No God is there beside Thee, the Exalted, the Most High.
He it is, O my God, about Whom Thou hast said: “But for Thee
the Scriptures would have remained unrevealed, and the Prophets unsent.” And no
sooner had He, by Thy behest, been manifested and spoken forth Thy praise, than
the wicked doers among Thy creatures compassed Him round, with the swords of
hate drawn against Him, O Thou the Lord of all names! Thou well knowest what
befell Him at the hands of such as have rent asunder the veil of Thy grandeur,
and cast behind their backs Thy Covenant and Thy Testament, O Thou Who art the
Maker of the heavens! He is the One for Whose sake Thou (the Báb) hast yielded
Thy life, and hast consented to be touched by the manifold ills of the world
that He may manifest Himself, and summoned all mankind in His name. As soon as He
came down, however, from the heaven of majesty and power, Thy servants
stretched out against Him the hands of cruelty and sedition, and caused Him to
be afflicted with such troubles that the scrolls of the world are insufficient
to contain a full recital of them.
Say, He is that End for Whom no end in all the universe can
be imagined, and for Whom no beginning in the world of creation can be
conceived. Behold, O concourse of the earth, the splendours of the End,
revealed in the Manifestations of the Beginning!
…strive thou to comprehend the meaning of the melody of that
eternal beauty, Husayn, [Imám Husayn] son of ‘Alí, [Imám ‘Alí] who, addressing
Salmán, spoke words such as these: “I was with a thousand Adams, the interval
between each and the next Adam was fifty thousand years, and to each one of
these I declared the Successorship conferred upon my father… Endeavour… to
apprehend… the mysteries of “end,” “return,” and “creation without beginning or
end.” Endeavour now to apprehend from these two traditions the mysteries of
“end,” “return,” and “creation without beginning or end.”
Behold, how many are the mysteries that lie as yet
unravelled within the tabernacle of the knowledge of God, and how numerous the
gems of His wisdom that are still concealed in His inviolable treasuries!
Shouldest thou ponder this in thine heart, thou wouldst realize that His
handiwork knoweth neither beginning nor end. The domain of His decree is too
vast for the tongue of mortals to describe, or for the bird of the human mind
to traverse; and the dispensations of His providence are too mysterious for the
mind of man to comprehend. His creation no end hath overtaken, and it hath ever
existed from the “Beginning that hath no beginning”; and the Manifestations of
His Beauty no beginning hath beheld, and they will continue to the “End that
knoweth no end.” Ponder this utterance in thine heart…
…the highest and most excelling grace bestowed upon men is
the grace of “attaining unto the Presence of God” and of His recognition, which
has been promised unto all people. This is the utmost degree of grace
vouchsafed unto man by the All-Bountiful, the Ancient of Days, and the fulness
of His absolute bounty upon His creatures.
Strive thou, that haply thou mayest achieve a deed the
fragrance of which shall never fade from the earth.
O Son of Man! Magnify My cause that I may reveal unto thee
the mysteries of My greatness and shine upon thee with the light of eternity.
Gracious God! [with reference to the “seven powerful
sovereigns ruling the world” in His day] None of them hath been informed of His
[the Báb’s] Manifestation, and if informed, none hath believed in Him. Who
knoweth, they may leave this world below full of desire, and without having
realized that the thing for which they were waiting had come to pass. This is
what happened to the monarchs that held fast unto the Gospel. They awaited the
coming of the Prophet of God [Muhammad], and when He did appear, they failed to
recognize Him. Behold how great are the sums which these sovereigns expend
without even the slightest thought of appointing an official charged with the
task of acquainting them in their own realms with the Manifestation of God!
They would thereby have fulfilled the purpose for which they have been created.
All their desires have been and are still fixed upon leaving behind them traces
of their names.”
Verily, these [they “that truly believe in Him Whom God
shall make manifest”] are souls who take delight in the remembrance of God, Who
dilates their hearts through the effulgence of the light of knowledge and
wisdom. They seek naught but God and are oft engaged in giving praise unto Him.
They desire naught except whatever He desireth and stand ready to do His
bidding. Their hearts are mirrors reflecting whatsoever He Whom God shall make
manifest willeth. Thus God will cheer the hearts of those who truly believe in
Him and in His signs and who are well assured of the life to come. Say, the
life to come is none other than the days associated with the coming of Him Whom
God will make manifest.
Immeasurably exalted is the state of Thy loved ones who have
clung to the cord of Thy command, held fast to the hem of Thine ordinances,
uttered that which hath been permitted unto them in Thy Tablets, transgressed
not the bounds ordained in Thy Book, and spoken out in Thy lands with wisdom as
decreed in the scrolls of Thy bounty and the epistles of Thy grace. O Lord!
Assist them to arise for the triumph of Thy Cause through what Thou hast
expounded unto them with Thy most exalted Pen and what Thou hast instructed
them in certain of Thy Tablets. O Lord! Leave them not to themselves, but keep
them safe through Thy sovereignty and power and assist them through Thy might
and bounty.
By God! This is the Day whereon from the murmur of the
waters can be heard: “No God is there but Him, the Help in Peril, the
Self-Subsisting”, and from the whispering of whose breezes can be heard: “No
God is there but Him, the Almighty, the Best-Beloved”, and from the rustling of
whose trees can be heard: “No God is there but Him, the Most Powerful, the
Ever-Giving, the All-Glorious, the All-Loving”, and beyond them, from the
Tongue of Grandeur can be heard: “This is the Day of the appearance of Him Who
is manifest yet hidden, Who is visible yet concealed. Hasten unto Him, O ye who
are the daysprings of the divine names, and draw nigh unto Him, O ye who dwell
in the kingdom of creation, with hearts that have been purified from
superstitions and vain imaginings and sanctified from the idle talk of men!”
Exalted be this blessed and glorious day [Naw-Ruz] which
Thou hast designated by that beloved Name which is both hidden and manifest,
and which, when it shone forth above the horizon of eternity, the Divine
Lote-Tree called out, saying: “By God! The Lord of creation hath come, Whom no
name can describe.” Whereupon Paradise was set astir and proclaimed with joy
and fervour: “O concourse of the world! He hath come, round Whom circle the
Daysprings of the All-Merciful, the Manifestations of the All-Praised, and the
Dawning-Places of inspiration.” And all things cried aloud: “This is that
Tablet with which the kingdom of creation hath been adorned and through which
the gate leading unto the Divine Presence hath been flung open unto all who are
in heaven and on earth.” Happy the one who hath forsaken every desire and hath
drawn nigh unto the One Whose reality no word or utterance can convey.
As My tribulations multiplied, so did My love for God and
for His Cause increase, in such wise that all that befell Me from the hosts of
the wayward was powerless to deter Me from My purpose. Should they hide Me away in the depths of the
earth, yet would they find Me riding aloft on the clouds, and calling out unto
God, the Lord of strength and of might.
I have offered Myself up in the way of God, and I yearn after
tribulations in My love for Him, and for the sake of His good pleasure. Unto this bear witness the woes which now
afflict Me, the like of which no other man hath suffered. Every single hair of Mine head calleth out
that which the Burning Bush uttered on Sinai, and each vein of My body invoketh
God and saith: “O would I had been
severed in Thy path, so that the world might be quickened, and all its peoples
be united!” Thus hath it been decreed by Him Who is the All-Knowing, the
All-Informed.
O Son of Man! Neglect not My commandments if thou lovest My
beauty, and forget not My counsels if thou wouldst attain My good pleasure.
O Son of Being! Walk in My statutes for love of Me and deny
thyself that which thou desirest if thou seekest My pleasure.
O people of the world! We have enjoined upon you fasting
during a brief period, and at its close have designated for you Naw-Ruz as a
feast. Thus hath the Day-Star of Utterance shone forth above the horizon of the
Book as decreed by Him Who is the Lord of the beginning and the end. … The traveller, the ailing, those who are with
child or giving suck, are not bound by the Fast; they have been exempted by God
as a token of His grace. He, verily, is the Almighty, the Most Generous.
Cling firmly to obligatory prayer and fasting. Verily, the
religion of God is like unto heaven; fasting is its sun, and obligatory prayer
is its moon. In truth, they are the pillars of religion whereby the righteous
are distinguished from those who transgress His commandments. We entreat God,
exalted and glorified be He, that He may graciously enable all to observe that
which He hath revealed in His Ancient Book.
In the Name of Him Who hath been promised in the Books of
God, the All-Knowing, the All-Informed! The days of fasting have arrived
wherein those servants who circle round Thy throne and have attained Thy
presence have fasted. Say: O God of names and creator of heaven and earth! I
beg of Thee by Thy Name, the All-Glorious, to accept the fast of those who have
fasted for love of Thee and for the sake of Thy good-pleasure and have carried
out what Thou hast bidden them in Thy Books and Tablets. I beseech Thee by them
to assist me in the promotion of Thy Cause and to make me steadfast in Thy
love, that my footsteps may not slip on account of the clamour of Thy
creatures. Verily, Thou art powerful over whatsoever Thou willest. No God is
there but Thee, the Quickener, the All-Powerful, the Most Bountiful, the
Ancient of Days.
O Son of Man! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the
ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created
thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.
...they that tread the path of faith, they that thirst for
the wine of certitude, must cleanse themselves of all that is earthly -- their
ears from idle talk, their minds from vain imaginings, their hearts from
worldly affections, their eyes from that which perisheth. They should put their
trust in God, and, holding fast unto Him, follow in His way. Then will they be
made worthy of the effulgent glories of the sun of divine knowledge and understanding,
and become the recipients of a grace that is infinite and unseen…
O ye rich ones on earth!
If ye encounter one who is poor, treat him not disdainfully. Reflect upon that whereof ye were
created. Every one of you was created of
a sorry germ. [Qur’an 77:20; 32:8]
Let the days in excess of the months be placed before the
month of fasting. We have ordained that these, amid all nights and days, shall
be the manifestations of the letter Ha, and thus they have not been bounded by
the limits of the year and its months. It behoveth the people of Baha,
throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and,
beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and
glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name;
O Son of the Throne! Thy hearing is My hearing, hear thou
therewith. Thy sight is My sight, do thou see therewith, that in thine inmost
soul thou mayest testify unto My exalted sanctity, and I within Myself may bear
witness unto an exalted station for thee.
Time and again have We admonished Our beloved ones to avoid,
nay to flee from, anything whatsoever from which the odor of mischief can be
detected. The world is in great turmoil, and the minds of its people are in a
state of utter confusion. We entreat the Almighty that He may graciously
illuminate them with the glory of His Justice, and enable them to discover that
which will be profitable unto them at all times and under all conditions. He,
verily is the All-Possessing, the Most High.
O ye that dwell on earth! The distinguishing feature that
marketh the preeminent character of this Supreme Revelation consisteth in that
We have, on the one hand, blotted out from the pages of God’s holy Book
whatsoever hath been the cause of strife, of malice and mischief amongst the
children of men, and have, on the other, laid down the essential prerequisites
of concord, of understanding, of complete and enduring unity. Well is it with
them that keep My statutes.
It is clear and evident that whenever the Manifestations of
Holiness were revealed, the divines of their day have hindered the people from
attaining unto the way of truth. To this testify the records of all the
scriptures and heavenly books. Not one Prophet of God was made manifest Who did
not fall a victim to the relentless hate, to the denunciation, denial, and
execration of the clerics of His day! Woe unto them for the iniquities their
hands have formerly wrought! Woe unto them for that which they are now doing! What
veils of glory more grievous than these embodiments of error! By the
righteousness of God! to pierce such veils is the mightiest of all acts, and to
rend them asunder the most meritorious of all deeds!
Reduce not the ordinances of God to fanciful imaginations of
your own; rather observe all the things which God hath created at His behest
with the eye of the spirit, even as ye see things with the eyes of your bodies.
This is the day when the gems of constancy that lie hid in
the mine of men’s inner selves should be made manifest. O people of Justice! Be
as brilliant as the light and as splendid as the fire that blazed in the
Burning Bush. The brightness of the fire of your love will no doubt fuse and
unify the contending peoples and kindreds of the earth, whilst the fierceness
of the flame of enmity and hatred cannot but result in strife and ruin. We
beseech God that He may shield His creatures from the evil designs of His
enemies. He verily hath power over all things.
Notwithstanding the divinely-inspired admonitions of all the
Prophets, the Saints, and Chosen ones of God, enjoining the people to see with
their own eyes and hear with their own ears, they have disdainfully rejected
their counsels and have blindly followed, and will continue to follow, the
leaders of their Faith. Should a poor and obscure person, destitute of the
attire of men of learning, address them saying: “Follow ye, O people! the
Messengers of God,” [Qur’an 36:20] they would, greatly surprised at such a
statement, reply: “What! Meanest thou that all these divines, all these
exponents of learning, with all their authority, their pomp and pageantry, have
erred, and failed to distinguish truth from falsehood? Dost thou, and people
like thyself, pretend to have comprehended that which they have not
understood?”
It behoveth you to observe truthfulness, whereby your
temples shall be adorned, your names uplifted, your stations exalted amidst
men, and a mighty recompense assured for you before God.
Upon Our arrival at this Prison, We purposed to transmit to
the kings the messages of their Lord, the Mighty, the All-Praised. Though We
have transmitted to them, in several Tablets, that which We were commanded, yet
We do it once again as a token of God’s grace. Perchance they may recognize the
Lord, Who hath come down in the clouds with manifest sovereignty.
Say, by reason of your remembering Him Whom God shall make
manifest and by extolling His name, God will cause your hearts to be dilated
with joy, and do ye not wish your hearts to be in such a blissful state? Indeed
the hearts of them that truly believe in Him Whom God shall make manifest are
vaster than the expanse of heaven and earth and whatever is between them. God
hath left no hindrance in their hearts, were it but the size of a mustard seed.
He will cheer their hearts, their spirits, their souls and their bodies and
their days of prosperity or adversity, through the exaltation of the name of
Him Who is the supreme Testimony of God and the promotion of the Word of Him
Who is the Dayspring of the glory of their Creator.
…strive thou to comprehend the meaning of this saying of
‘Alí, [the first Imam] the Commander of the Faithful: “Piercing the veils of
glory, unaided.” Among these “veils of glory” are the divines and doctors
living in the days of the Manifestation of God, who, because of their want of
discernment and their love and eagerness for leadership, have failed to submit
to the Cause of God, nay, have even refused to incline their ears unto the
divine Melody. “They have thrust their fingers into their ears.” And the people also, utterly ignoring God and
taking them for their masters, have placed themselves unreservedly under the
authority of these pompous and hypocritical leaders, for they have no sight, no
hearing, no heart, of their own to distinguish truth from falsehood.
If ye become aware of a sin committed by another, conceal
it, that God may conceal your own sin.
He, verily, is the Concealer, the Lord of grace abounding.
Praise be unto Thee, O Thou Who art the Lord of the world
and the Ruler of the nations! I testify that Thou hast from eternity been
sanctified above the mention of all created things and exalted beyond the
loftiest descriptions of Thy creatures. Whensoever Thy devoted servants sought
to ascend unto the station of Thy recognition, the hosts of Thy knowledge
barred their way; and whensoever Thy near ones desired to gain admittance to
the heaven of Thy nearness, the overpowering majesty of Thine utterance kept
them back. We bear witness that the loftiest of the divine names are but
servants at Thy door, and that their most glorious manifestations bow down
before Thy countenance and are humbled in Thy presence. Thou art, in truth, He
Who can neither be described in letters, nor evoked by words, nor even
contained within the hidden meanings they conceal. For these are all
circumscribed by the inherent limitations of speech which characterize all the
utterances of the peoples of the world.
…the terms “first” and “last” [are] applicable unto His
Manifestations. They are at the same time the Exponents of both the “first” and
the “last.” Whilst established upon the seat of the “first,” they occupy the
throne of the “last.” Were a discerning eye to be found, it will readily
perceive that the exponents of the “first” and the “last,” of the “manifest”
and the “hidden,” of the “beginning” and the “seal” are none other than these
holy Beings, these Essences of Detachment, these divine Souls. And wert thou to
soar in the holy realm of “God was alone, there was none else besides Him,”
thou wilt find in that Court all these names utterly non-existent and
completely forgotten. Then will thine eyes no longer be obscured by these
veils, these terms, and allusions. How ethereal and lofty is this station, unto
which even Gabriel, unshepherded, can never attain, and the Bird of Heaven,
unassisted, can never reach!
The divine Revelation associated with the advent of Him Who
is your promised Mihdí hath proved far more wondrous than the Revelation
wherewith Muhammad, the Apostle of God, was invested. Would that ye might
ponder. Verily, God raised up Muhammad, the Apostle of God, from among the
people of Arabia after he had reached forty years of age—a fact which every one
of you affirmeth and upholdeth—while your Redeemer was raised up by God at the
age of twenty-four amidst people none of whom can speak or understand a single
word of Arabic. Thus God layeth bare the glory of His Cause and demonstrateth
the Truth through the potency of His revealed Word. He is indeed the Powerful,
the Omnipotent, the Help in Peril, the Best Beloved.
O people of God! I admonish you to observe courtesy, for
above all else it is the prince of virtues. Well is it with him who is
illumined with the light of courtesy and is attired with the vesture of
uprightness. Whoso is endued with courtesy hath indeed attained a sublime
station. It is hoped that this Wronged One and everyone else may be enabled to
acquire it, hold fast unto it, observe it, and fix our gaze upon it. This is a
binding command which hath streamed forth from the Pen of the Most Great Name.
Incline your hearts, O people of God, unto the counsels of
your true, your incomparable Friend. The Word of God may be likened unto a
sapling, whose roots have been implanted in the hearts of men. It is incumbent
upon you to foster its growth through the living waters of wisdom, of
sanctified and holy words, so that its root may become firmly fixed and its
branches may spread out as high as the heavens and beyond.
In the year sixty He Who heralded the light of Divine
Guidance—may all creation be a sacrifice unto Him—arose to announce a fresh
revelation of the Divine Spirit, and was followed, twenty years later, by Him
through Whose coming the world was made the recipient of this promised glory,
this wondrous favor. Behold how the generality of mankind hath been endued with
the capacity to hearken unto God’s most exalted Word—the Word upon which must
depend the gathering together and spiritual resurrection of all men.
The summons and the message which We gave were never
intended to reach or to benefit one land or one people only. Mankind in its
entirety must firmly adhere to whatsoever hath been revealed and vouchsafed
unto it. Then and only then will it attain unto true liberty. The whole earth
is illuminated with the resplendent glory of God’s Revelation.
Say, verily God hath caused all created things to enter
beneath the shade of the tree of affirmation, except those who are endowed with
the faculty of understanding. Theirs is the choice either to believe in God
their Lord, and put their whole trust in Him, or to shut themselves out from
Him and refuse to believe with certitude in His signs. These two groups sail
upon two seas: the sea of affirmation and the sea of negation.
This Wronged One hath forbidden the people of God to engage
in contention or conflict and hath exhorted them to righteous deeds and
praiseworthy character. In this day the hosts that can ensure the victory of
the Cause are those of goodly conduct and saintly character. Blessed are they
who firmly adhere unto them and woe betide such as turn away therefrom.