When man allows the spirit, through his soul, to enlighten
his understanding, then does he contain all Creation; because man, being the
culmination of all that went before and thus superior to all previous
evolutions, contains all the lower world within himself. Illumined by the
spirit through the instrumentality of the soul, man’s radiant intelligence
makes him the crowning-point of Creation. 
There are in the world of humanity three degrees; those of
the body, the soul, and spirit. The body is the physical or animal degree of
man. From the bodily point of view man is a sharer of the animal kingdom. The
bodies alike of men and animals are composed of elements held together by the
law of attraction. Like the animal, man possesses the faculties of the senses,
is subject to heat, cold, hunger, thirst, etc.; unlike the animal, man has a
rational soul, the human intelligence. This intelligence of man is the
intermediary between his body and his spirit.
My name is 'Abdu'l-Bahá. My qualification is 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
My reality is 'Abdu'l-Bahá. My praise is 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Thraldom to the Blessed
Perfection is my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to all the human
race my perpetual religion... No name, no title, no mention, no commendation
have I, nor will ever have, except 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This is my longing. This is my
greatest yearning. This is my eternal life. This is my everlasting glory."
If spiritual forces prevail, this human reality becomes the
noblest of all creatures and the possessor of the image and likeness of God;
but if the animal aspect predominates, man becomes lower than animals because
in man, animal desires and passions are even stronger and more harmful. For
instance, anger, lust, struggle for existence, war, contention, fraud, deception,
greed and avarice are among the imperfections of man but the necessary
qualities in animals. A crafty man without spiritual education is as the fox.
In the animal we find covetousness, aggression and passion. These qualities are
also in man. Since the reality of man is comprehensive, his expression of these
animal qualities is more vehement. They are among the exigencies of the world
of nature and lead to the gloom of imperfections. They are the cause of utter
degradation and misfortune.
No power can eliminate misunderstandings except that of the
Covenant. The power of the Covenant is all-embracing, and resolveth all
difficulties, for the Pen of Glory hath explicitly declared that whatever
misunderstanding may arise should be referred to the Centre of the Covenant....
When a soul has in it the life of the spirit, then does it
bring forth good fruit and become a Divine tree…I hope that the unspeakable
goodness of God will so strengthen you that the celestial quality of your soul,
which relates it to the spirit, will for ever dominate the material side, so
entirely ruling the senses that your soul will approach the perfections of the
Heavenly Kingdom. May your faces, being steadfastly set towards the Divine
Light, become so luminous that all your thoughts, words and actions will shine
with the Spiritual Radiance dominating your souls, so that in the gatherings of
the world you will show perfection in your life.
Let your ambition be the achievement on earth of a Heavenly
civilization! I ask for you the supreme blessing, that you may be so filled
with the vitality of the Heavenly Spirit that you may be the cause of life to
the world.
Life is a load which must be carried on while we are on
earth, but the cares of the lower things of life should not be allowed to
monopolize all the thoughts and aspirations of a human being. The heart’s
ambitions should ascend to a more glorious goal, mental activity should rise to
higher levels! Men should hold in their souls the vision of celestial
perfection, and there prepare a dwelling-place for the inexhaustible bounty of
the Divine Spirit.
Work! Work with all your strength, spread the Cause of the
Kingdom among men; teach the self-sufficient to turn humbly towards God, the
sinful to sin no more, and await with glad expectation the coming of the
Kingdom. Love and obey your Heavenly Father, and rest assured that Divine help
is yours. Verily I say unto you that you shall indeed conquer the world! Only have faith, patience and courage—this is
but the beginning, but surely you will succeed, for God is with you!
It is my dearest hope that you may all become a blessing to
others, that you may give sight to the spiritually blind, hearing to the
spiritually deaf and life to those who are dead in sin. May you help those sunk
in materiality to realize their Divine son-ship, and encourage them to arise
and be worthy of their birthright; so that by your endeavour the world of
humanity may become the Kingdom of God and of His elect.
…know thou for a certainty, that in the divine worlds, the
spiritual beloved ones (believers) will recognize each other, and will seek
union (with each other), but a spiritual union. Likewise, a love that one may
have entertained for any one will not be forgotten in the world of the Kingdom.
Likewise, thou wilt not forget (there) the life that thou hast had in the
material world.
The difference and distinction will naturally become
realized between all men after their departure from this mortal world. But this
(distinction) is not in respect to place, but it is in respect to the soul and
conscience. For the Kingdom of God is sanctified (or free) from time and place;
it is another world and another universe. But the holy souls are promised the
gift of intercession.
I pray for each and all that you may be as flames of love in
the world, and that the brightness of your light and the warmth of your
affection may reach the heart of every sad and sorrowing child of God. May you be as shining stars, bright and
luminous forever in the Kingdom. I counsel you that you study earnestly the
teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, so that, God helping you, you may in deed and truth
become Bahá’ís.
Day and night I pray to Heaven for you that strength may be
yours, and that, one and all, you may participate in the blessings of
Bahá’u’lláh, and enter into the Kingdom. I supplicate that you may become as
new beings, illumined with the Divine Light, like unto shining lamps, and that
from one end of Europe to the other the knowledge of the Love of God may
spread. May this boundless love so fill your hearts and minds that sadness may
find no room to enter and may you with joyful hearts soar like birds into the
Divine Radiance. May your hearts become clear and pure like unto polished
mirrors in which may be reflected the full glory of the Sun of Truth. May your
eyes be opened to see the signs of the Kingdom of God, and may your ears be
unstopped so that you may hear with a perfect understanding the Heavenly
Proclamation sounding in your midst. May your souls receive help and comfort,
and, being so strengthened, may they be enabled to live in accordance with the
teachings of Bahá’u’lláh.
The souls of the well-favored among the concourse on high,
the sacred dwellers of the most exalted Paradise, are in this day filled with
burning desire to return unto this world, that they may render such service as
lieth in their power to the threshold of the Abhá Beauty.
The holy ones of past ages and centuries have, each and all,
yearned with tearful eyes to live, though for one moment, in the Day of God.
Their longings unsatisfied, they repaired to the Great Beyond. How great,
therefore, is the bounty of the Abhá Beauty Who, notwithstanding our utter
unworthiness, hath through His grace and mercy breathed into us in this
divinely-illumined century the spirit of life, hath gathered us beneath the
standard of the Beloved of the world, and chosen to confer upon us a bounty for
which the mighty ones of bygone ages had craved in vain.
The mere contemplation of the Dispensation inaugurated by
the Blessed Beauty would have sufficed to overwhelm the saints of bygone
ages—saints who longed to partake for one moment of its great glory.
Centuries, nay ages, must pass away ere the Day-Star of
Truth shineth again in its mid-summer splendor, or appeareth once more in the
radiance of its vernal glory... How thankful must we be for having been made in
this Day the recipients of so overwhelming a favor! Would that we had ten
thousand lives that we might lay them down in thanksgiving for so rare a
privilege, so high an attainment, so priceless a bounty!
What more shall I say? What else can my pen recount? So loud
is the call that reverberates from the Abhá Kingdom that mortal ears are
well-nigh deafened with its vibrations. The whole creation, methinks, is being
disrupted and is bursting asunder through the shattering influence of the
Divine summons issued from the throne of glory. More than this I cannot write.
O my friend! The undying Fire which the Lord of the Kingdom
hath kindled in the midst of the holy Tree is burning fiercely in the midmost
heart of the world. The conflagration it will provoke will envelop the whole
earth. Its blazing flames will illuminate its peoples and kindreds. All the
signs have been revealed; every prophetic allusion hath been manifested.
Whatever hath been enshrined in all the Scriptures of the past hath been made
evident. To doubt or hesitate is no more possible... Time is pressing. The
Divine Charger is impatient, and can tarry no longer. Ours is the duty to rush
forward and, ere it is too late, win the victory.
Concerning the Manifestations that will come down in the
future ‘in the shadows of the clouds,’ know verily that in so far as their
relation to the source of their inspiration is concerned they are under the
shadow of the Ancient Beauty. In their relation, however, to the age in which
they appear, each and every one of them ‘doeth whatsoever He willeth.’
Walk… with a sure step and engage with the utmost assurance
and confidence in the promulgation of the divine fragrances, the glorification
of the Word of God and firmness in the Covenant. Rest ye assured that if a soul
ariseth in the utmost perseverance and raiseth the Call of the Kingdom and
resolutely promulgateth the Covenant, be he an insignificant ant he shall be
enabled to drive away the formidable elephant from the arena…
The Bahá’ís are commanded to establish the oneness of
mankind; if they cannot unite around one point how will they be able to bring
about the unity of mankind?
As to the reference in the Arabic Hidden Words that the
human being must become detached from self, here too the meaning is that he
should not seek out anything whatever for his own self in this swiftly-passing
life, but that he should cut the self away, that is, he should yield up the
self and all its concerns on the field of martyrdom, at the time of the coming
of the Lord.
We have explained before that what the Sacred Scriptures
most often mean by the Holy City or divine Jerusalem is the religion of God,
which has at times been likened to a bride, or called “Jerusalem”, or depicted
as the new heaven and the new earth. Thus in Revelation, chapter 21, it is
said: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the
holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and
they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their
God.”
…man is the repository of divine perfections and heavenly
favors that bring him eternal happiness and everlasting honor. Such perfections
as justice, fidelity, truthfulness, purity, wisdom, piety, mercy, bounty, love,
amity, nobility and sagacity enable man to comprehend the realities of things
and unfold hidden mysteries. Human reality is therefore between light and
darkness and has a threefold nature: the heavenly, the human and the physical.
The physical condition is darkness upon darkness and the source of trouble,
disgrace, discord, bloodshed and war. The heavenly condition, however, which is
the zenith of the human aspect of man's nature, is light upon light and the
means of acquiring everlasting prosperity, peace and tranquillity, honor and
glory.
The reality of man possesses two aspects: one being the
image and likeness of God and the other is the material and satanic aspect.
Besides the physical body, man has a reality which is called the spiritual
body, or the heavenly creation or form. When man says, `I saw', who is it that
says `I saw'? Clearly it is something besides the physical body. When one
thinks, it is like consulting with oneself. It is clear that there is a second
entity which is being consulted. It is not the physical body that advises man
`to do' or `not to do' a thing and informs him whether it is profitable or
harmful.