O My Servants! Ye are the trees of My garden; ye must give
forth goodly and wondrous fruits, that ye yourselves and others may profit
therefrom. Thus it is incumbent on every one to engage in crafts and
professions, for therein lies the secret of wealth, O men of understanding! For
results depend upon means, and the grace of God shall be all-sufficient unto
you. Trees that yield no fruit have been and will ever be for the fire. 
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.
It behoveth thee [1] to turn thy gaze in all circumstances
unto the One true God, and seek diligently to serve His Cause. Call thou to
mind when thou wert in My company, within the Tabernacle of Glory, and didst
hear from Me that which He Who conversed with God [Moses] heard upon the Sinai
of divine knowledge. Thus did We graciously aid thee, enabled thee to recognize
the truth and cautioned thee, that thou mightest render thanks unto thy
bountiful Lord. Thou shouldst safeguard this sublime station through the
potency of My Name, the Omnipotent, the Faithful.
Not long ago this most sublime Word was revealed in the
Crimson Book by the All-Glorious Pen: ‘The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined
with two luminaries: consultation and compassion’. Please God, everyone may be
enabled to observe this weighty and blessed word.
Arise thou to serve the Cause of thy Lord; then give the
people the joyful tidings concerning this resplendent Light whose revelation
hath been announced by God through His Prophets and Messengers. Admonish
everyone moreover to observe prudence as ordained by Him, and in the Name of
God advise them, saying: It behoveth every one in this Day of God to dedicate
himself to the teaching of the Cause with utmost prudence and steadfastness.
Should he discover a pure soil, let him sow the seed of the Word of God,
otherwise it would be preferable to observe silence.
How strange that despite this ringing Call, despite the
appearance of this most wondrous Revelation, We notice that men, for the most
part, have fixed their hearts on the vanities of the world and are sorely
dismayed and troubled by reason of prevailing doubts and evil suggestions. Say:
This is the Day of God Himself; fear ye God and be not of them that have
disbelieved in Him. Cast the idle tales behind your backs and behold My
Revelation through Mine eyes. Unto this have ye been exhorted in heavenly Books
and Scriptures, in the Scrolls and Tablets.
On the first day that the Ancient Beauty ascended His Most
Great Throne in the garden named Riḍván, the Tongue of Glory gave utterance to
three blessed words. First, that in this Revelation the law of the sword hath
been annulled.[1] Second, that ere the expiration of one thousand
years whosoever advanceth a prophetic claim is false. By “year” a full year is
intended, and no exegesis or interpretation is permitted in this matter. And
third, that at that very hour God, exalted be His Glory, shed the full
splendour of all His names upon all creation.
Thou beholdest, O my God, how every bone in my body soundeth
like a pipe with the music of Thine inspiration, revealing the signs of Thy
oneness and the clear tokens of Thy unity. I entreat Thee, O my God, by Thy
Name which irradiateth all things, to raise up such servants as shall incline
their ears to the voice of the melodies that hath ascended from the right hand
of the throne of Thy glory. Make them, then, to quaff from the hand of Thy
grace the wine of Thy mercy, that it may assure their hearts, and cause them to
turn away from the left hand of idle fancies and vain imaginings to the right
hand of confidence and certitude.
Glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! I yield Thee thanks for
having enabled me to recognize the Manifestation of Thyself, and for having
severed me from Thine enemies, and laid bare before mine eyes their misdeeds
and wicked works in Thy days, and for having rid me of all attachment to them,
and caused me to turn wholly towards Thy grace and bountiful favors. I give
Thee thanks, also, for having sent down upon me from the clouds of Thy will
that which hath so sanctified me from the hints of the infidels and the
allusions of the misbelievers that I have fixed my heart firmly on Thee, and
fled from such as have denied the light of Thy countenance. Again I thank Thee
for having empowered me to be steadfast in Thy love, and to speak forth Thy
praise and to extol Thy virtues, and for having given me to drink of the cup of
Thy mercy that hath surpassed all things visible and invisible.
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.
Warn and acquaint the people, O Servant, with the things We
have sent down unto Thee, and let the fear of no one dismay Thee, and be Thou
not of them that waver. The day is approaching when God will have exalted His
Cause and magnified His testimony in the eyes of all who are in the heavens and
all who are on the earth. Place, in all circumstances, Thy whole trust in Thy
Lord, and fix Thy gaze upon Him, and turn away from all them that repudiate His
truth. Let God, Thy Lord, be Thy sufficing succorer and helper. We have pledged
Ourselves to secure Thy triumph upon earth and to exalt Our Cause above all
men, though no king be found who would turn his face towards Thee.
O thou who bearest My Name! [1] The glances of the
loving-kindness of God have been and continue to be directed towards thee.
While in His presence, thou hast heard the Voice of the One true God—exalted be
His glory—and hast beheld the unveiled splendour of the Light of divine
knowledge. Ponder a while! How sublime is the Utterance of Him Who is the
Sovereign Truth and how abject are the idle contentions of the people! The
accumulations of vain fancy have obstructed men’s ears and stopped them from
hearing the Voice of God, and the veils of human learning and false imaginings
have prevented their eyes from beholding the splendour of the light of His
countenance. With the arm of might and power We have rescued a number of souls
from the slough of impending extinction and enabled them to attain the
Dayspring of glory. Moreover We have laid bare the divine mysteries and in most
explicit language foretold future events, that neither the doubts of the faithless,
nor the denials of the froward, nor the whisperings of the heedless may keep
back the seekers of truth from the Source of the light of the One true God.
Nevertheless some people seem to have been seized with epilepsy, others are
torn up even as hollow tree-stumps. They abandon God, the Most Exalted—He
before Whose revelation of a single verse, all the Scriptures of the past and
of more recent times pale into lowliness and insignificance—and set their
hearts on lying tales and follow empty words.
Say: O people of God! Beware lest the powers of the earth
alarm you, or the might of the nations weaken you, or the tumult of the people
of discord deter you, or the exponents of earthly glory sadden you. Be ye as a
mountain in the Cause of your Lord, the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the
Unconstrained.
God, in His Essence, is sanctified above all ascent and
descent, egress and regress; He hath through all eternity been exalted beyond
the attributes of His creation, and will ever remain so. No man hath ever known
Him; no soul hath ever fathomed the nature of His Being. In the valley of His
knowledge every mystic wandereth astray; in the comprehension of His Essence
every saint standeth bewildered. Sanctified is He above the understanding of
the wise; exalted is He beyond the knowledge of the knowing! “The way is barred
and all seeking rejected. His proof is His signs, His evidence His being.”
[1]
Whensoever the light of the revelation of the King of
Oneness settleth upon the throne of the heart and soul, His radiance becometh
visible in every limb and member. At that time, the mystery of the famed tradition gleameth out
of the darkness: “A servant is drawn unto Me in
prayer until I answer him, and when I have answered him, I become the
ear wherewith he heareth…” [1] For thus the Master of the house hath appeared
within His home, and all the pillars of the
dwelling are ashine with His light. And as the action and effect of the
light are from the Light-Giver, so it is that all move through Him and arise by
His will. This is that wellspring whereof the near ones drink, as it is said:
“A fount whereof they who draw nigh to God shall drink”. [2]
Say: O concourse of the rulers and of the learned and the
wise! The Promised Day is come and the Lord of Hosts hath appeared. Rejoice ye
with great joy by reason of this supreme felicity. Aid Him then through the
power of wisdom and utterance. Thus biddeth you the One Who hath ever
proclaimed, ‘Verily, no God is there but Me, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.’
In this Day the faculty of hearing exclaimeth, ‘This is my
Day, wherein I hearken unto the wondrous Voice coming from the precincts of the
Prison of my Lord, the Perspicuous, the Hearing.’ And the faculty of sight
calleth aloud, ‘Verily this is my Day, for I behold the Dayspring of glory
shining resplendent at the bidding of Him Who is the Ordainer, the
All-Powerful.’ Blessed the ear that hath heard the call, ‘Behold, and thou
shalt see Me.’ and happy the eye that hath
gazed upon the most wondrous Sign, dawning from this luminous horizon.
Alas! Alas! O Lovers of Worldly Desire! Even as the
swiftness of lightning ye have passed by the Beloved One, and have set your
hearts on satanic fancies. Ye bow the knee before your vain imagining, and call
it truth. Ye turn your eyes towards the thorn, and name it a flower. Not a pure
breath have ye breathed, nor hath the breeze of detachment been wafted from the
meadows of your hearts. Ye have cast to the winds the loving counsels of the
Beloved and have effaced them utterly from the tablet of your hearts, and even
as the beasts of the field, ye move and have your being within the pastures of
desire and passion.
God hath committed into your [kings] hands the reins of the
government of the people, that ye may rule with justice over them, safeguard
the rights of the down-trodden, and punish the wrong-doers. If ye neglect the
duty prescribed unto you by God in His Book, your names shall be numbered with
those of the unjust in His sight. Grievous, indeed, will be your error. Cleave
ye to that which your imaginations have devised, and cast behind your backs the
commandments of God, the Most Exalted, the Inaccessible, the All-Compelling,
the Almighty? Cast away the things ye possess, and cling to that which God hath
bidden you observe. Seek ye His grace, for he that seeketh it treadeth His
straight Path.
Please God ye may all be strengthened to carry out that
which is the Will of God, and may be graciously assisted to appreciate the rank
conferred upon such of His loved ones as have arisen to serve Him and magnify
His name. Upon them be the glory of God, the glory of all that is in the
heavens and all that is on earth, and the glory of the inmates of the most
exalted Paradise, the heaven of heavens.
“The day is approaching when God will have, by an act of His
Will, raised up a race of men the nature of which is inscrutable to all save
God, the All-Powerful, the Self-Subsisting.” “He will, erelong, out of the
Bosom of Power, draw forth the Hands of Ascendancy and Might—Hands who will
arise to win victory for this Youth, and who will purge mankind from the
defilement of the outcast and the ungodly. These Hands will gird up their loins
to champion the Faith of God, and will, in My name, the Self-Subsistent, the
Mighty, subdue the peoples and kindreds of the earth. They will enter the
cities, and will inspire with fear the hearts of all their inhabitants. Such
are the evidences of the might of God; how fearful, how vehement is His might!”
Praise be to Thee, O Thou Who art the Well-Beloved of all
that have known Thee, and the Desire of the hearts of such as are devoted to
Thee, inasmuch as Thou hast made me a target for the ills that I suffer in my
love for Thee, and the object of the assaults launched against me in Thy path.
Thy glory beareth me witness! I can, on no account, feel impatient of the
adversities that I have borne in my love for Thee. From the very day Thou didst
reveal Thyself unto me, I have accepted for myself every manner of tribulation…
Behold, then, O my God, my loneliness among Thy servants and my remoteness from
Thy friends and Thy chosen ones…
Praise be to Him Whose Essence is immeasurably exalted above
the strivings of human hearts, however pure, to soar into the atmosphere of His
nearness, and Whose Being is immensely sanctified beyond the exertions of human
minds, however lofty, to ascend unto the heaven of His presence. From time
immemorial He hath been exalted above the description of aught save Himself,
and He will forever continue to be sanctified beyond the praise of all created
things. The hearts of them that have recognized Him are sore perplexed before
the tokens of His everlasting handiwork, and the minds of them that have
attained His court are bewildered by the wondrous evidences of the Revealers of
His oneness. He, verily, is the All-Possessing, the Almighty, the Most
Glorious, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
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.
O ye wise men of the City [Constantinople] and philosophers
of the world! Beware lest human learning and wisdom cause you to wax proud
before God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Know ye that true wisdom is
to fear God, to know Him, and to recognize His Manifestations. This wisdom,
however, can be attained only by those who detach themselves from the world,
and who walk in the ways of the good pleasure of their Lord.