Grieve not because of my imprisonment and calamity; for this
prison is my beautiful garden, my mansioned paradise and my throne of dominion
among mankind. My calamity in my prison is a crown to me in which I glory among
the righteous. 
O thou who art advancing unto God! Thy precious and beloved
letter came to hand and all contents noted. Consider how the bounty of God hath
surrounded thee until it brought thee to the shore of the sea of the endless
and boundless gift of God! I supplicate the benevolence of God and His
providence to make thee a dazzling light and a merciful and bounteous gift to
His creatures; and to enable thee to be firm and steadfast in the Cause of the
Truth and to appoint thee as a means for the exaltation of His Word.
The lamp of the Covenant is the light of the world, and the
words traced by the Pen of the Most High a limitless ocean.
The power of the Covenant is as the heat of the sun which
quickeneth and promoteth the development of all created things on earth. The
light of the Covenant, in like manner, is the educator of the minds, the
spirits, the hearts and souls of men.
I supplicate God that day by day thou mayest become more
steadfast, so that like unto an impregnable stronghold thou mayest withstand
the surging of the ocean of tests and trials. The people of the world are like unto
trees. Those that are rootless are toppled by the slightest breeze, while those
that grow deep roots and become strong and firm are not shaken by violent
winds, and in time bring forth leaves and blossoms and fruit.
Rest not, even for an instant, and seek not comfort, even
for a moment; rather labour with heart and soul that thou mayest render devoted
service to but one amongst the friends and bring happiness and joy to but one
luminous heart. This is true bounty, and by it the brow of 'Abdu'l-Baha is
illumined. Be thou my partner and associate therein.
O ye friends of 'Abdu'l-Baha! The tumult of the nations and
the clamour of their peoples are certain and inevitable in the Day of the
Manifestation of the Most Great Name. The wisdom of this irrevocable decree is
clear and evident. For when the winds of tests blow, the frail trees are
uprooted while the blessed trees are made firm and immovable. Torrents of rain
distress and scatter the creeping things that walk upon the earth while the gardens
are filled with anemones and bring forth roses and sweet herbs, and the
nightingales warble their melodies, chanting a myriad songs at every moment.
This is a bounty unto the righteous and a calamity unto those who are weak.
Render thanks unto God that your feet are firm and your faces, like pure gold,
are aglow in the fire of tests. I beseech the one true God that day by day ye
may increase in firmness and steadfastness.
…in the day of God’s Manifestation, they that are endued
with insight will find all things pertaining to Him to be miraculous. For these
things are distinguished above all else, and this distinction is in itself an
absolute miracle. Consider how Christ, alone and single-handed, with no helper
or protector, with no legions or armies, and with the utmost meekness, raised
aloft the banner of God before all the peoples of the world; how He withstood
them; and how at last He subdued them all, even though outwardly He was
crucified. Now, this is an absolute miracle which can in no wise be denied.
Indeed, the truth of Christ stands in no need of further proof.
Question: Certain miracles have been attributed to Christ.
Should these accounts be taken literally or do they have other meanings? For it
has been established through sound investigation that the inherent nature of
each thing does not change, that all created things are subject to a universal
law and organization from which they cannot deviate, and that hence nothing can
possibly violate that universal law.
O ye loved ones of God! The wine-cup of Heaven overfloweth,
the banquet of God’s Covenant is bright with festive lights, the dawn of all
bestowals is breaking, the gentle winds of grace are blowing, and out of the
invisible world come good tidings of bounties and gifts. In flower-spangled meadows
hath the divine springtime pitched its tents, and the spiritual are inhaling
sweet scents from the Sheba of the spirit, carried their way by the east wind.
Now doth the mystic nightingale carol its odes, and buds of inner meaning are
bursting into blossoms delicate and fair. The field larks are become the
festival’s musicians, and lifting wondrous voices they cry and sing to the
melodies of the Company on high, ‘Blessed are ye! Glad Tidings! Glad Tidings!’
And they urge on the revellers of the Abhá Paradise to drink their fill, and
they eloquently hold forth upon the celestial tree, and utter their sacred
cries. All this, that withered souls who tread the desert of the heedless, and
faded ones lost in the sands of unconcern, may come to throbbing life again,
and present themselves at the feasts and revels of the Lord God.
You see all round you proofs of the inadequacy of material
things—how joy, comfort, peace and consolation are not to be found in the
transitory things of the world. Is it not then foolishness to refuse to seek
these treasures where they may be found? The doors of the spiritual Kingdom are
open to all, and without is absolute darkness.
Praise be to Him Who hath rent the dark asunder, hath
blotted out the night, hath drawn aside the coverings and torn away the veils;
Whose light thereupon shone out, Whose signs and tokens were spread abroad, and
His mysteries laid bare. Then did His clouds part and loaded down the earth
with His bounties and bestowals, and made all things sweet with rain, and
caused the fresh greenery of knowledge and the hyacinths of certitude to spring
forth and to shake and tremble for joy, till the whole world was scented with
the fragrance of His holiness.
If sorrow and adversity visit us, let us turn our faces to
the Kingdom and heavenly consolation will be outpoured. If we are sick and in
distress let us implore God’s healing, and He will answer our prayer.
…a merchant may lose his trade and depression ensues. A
workman is dismissed and starvation stares him in the face. A farmer has a bad
harvest, anxiety fills his mind. A man builds a house which is burnt to the
ground and he is straightway homeless, ruined, and in despair. All these
examples are to show you that the trials which beset our every step, all our
sorrow, pain, shame and grief, are born in the world of matter; whereas the
spiritual Kingdom never causes sadness. A man living with his thoughts in this
Kingdom knows perpetual joy. The ills all flesh is heir to do not pass him by,
but they only touch the surface of his life, the depths are calm and serene.
Praise be to Him! The renown of His Cause hath reached to
east and west, and word of the power of the Abhá Beauty hath quickened north
and south. That cry from the American continent is a choir of holiness, that
shout from far and near that riseth even to the Company on high is ‘Yá Bahá’u’l-Abhá!’
Now is the east lit up with a glory, and the west rose-sweet, and all the earth
is fragrant with ambergris, and the winds that blow over the Holy Shrine are
laden with musk. Erelong shall ye see that even the darkest lands are bright,
and the continents of Europe and Africa have turned into gardens of flowers,
and forests of blossoming trees.
O thou who art enamoured of the Covenant! The Blessed Beauty
hath promised this servant that souls would be raised up who would be the very
embodiments of guidance, and banners of the Concourse on high, torches of God’s
oneness, and stars of His pure truth, shining in the heavens where God reigneth
alone. They would give sight to the blind, and would make the deaf to hear;
they would raise the dead to life. They would confront all the peoples of the
earth, pleading their Cause with proofs of the Lord of the seven spheres.
…through the manifestation of Christ, the sacred teachings,
which are everlasting grace, were spread abroad, the lights of guidance shone
forth, and the spirit of life was conferred upon human realities. Whosoever was
guided aright found life, and whosoever remained astray was overtaken by
everlasting death. That bread which came down from heaven was the celestial
body of Christ and His spiritual elements, of which the disciples ate and
through which they attained everlasting life.
Among the miracles which distinguish this sacred
Dispensation is this, that women have evinced a greater boldness than men when
enlisted in the ranks of the Faith.
Praise be to God that whatsoever hath been announced in the
Blessed Tablets unto the Israelites, and the things explicitly written in the
letters of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, are all being fulfilled. Some have come to pass;
others will be revealed in the future. The Ancient Beauty hath in His sacred
Tablets explicitly written that the day of their abasement is over. His bounty
will overshadow them, and this race will day by day progress, and be delivered
from its age-long obscurity and degradation.
You must attach great importance to the Indians, the
original inhabitants of America. For these souls may be likened unto the
ancient inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula, who, prior to the Revelation of
Muhammad, were like savages. When the Muhammadan Light shone forth in their
midst, they became so enkindled that they shed illumination upon the world.
Likewise, should these Indians be educated and properly guided, there can be no
doubt that through the Divine teachings they will become so enlightened that
the whole earth will be illumined.
One of the important questions which affect the unity and
the solidarity of mankind is the fellowship and equality of the white and
colored races.
…you must be very grateful to the whites of America, and the
whites must become very loving toward you so that you may progress in all human
grades. Strive jointly to make extraordinary progress and mix together
completely. In short, you must be very thankful to the whites who were the
cause of your freedom in America. Had you not been freed, other blacks would
not have been freed either. Now—praise be to God! —everyone is free and lives
in tranquillity. I pray that you attain to such a degree of good character and
behavior that the names of black and white shall vanish. All shall be called
human, just as the name for a flight of doves is dove. They are not called
black and white. Likewise with other birds.
…the Most Great Name was held prisoner and confined nine
years in the fortress-town of Akká; and at all times, both in the barracks and
afterward, from without the house, the police and farráshes had Him under
constant guard. The Blessed Beauty lived in a very small house, and He never
set foot outside that narrow lodging, because His oppressors kept continual
watch at the door. When, however, nine years had elapsed, the fixed and
predetermined length of days was over; and at that time, against the rancorous
will of the tyrant, ‘Abdu’l-ḤamÃd, and all his minions, Bahá’u’lláh proceeded
out of the fortress with authority and might, and in a kingly mansion beyond
the city, made His home.
Supplicate to God, pray to Him and invoke Him at midnight
and at dawn. Be humble and submissive to God and chant the verses of
thanksgiving at morn and eve, for that He guided thee unto the Manifest Light
and showed to thee the straight Path and destined to thee the station of
nearness in His wonderful Kingdom. Verily I ask God to augment for thee, every
day, the light of guidance and His gift of virtue, comfort and ease. Thus thou
mayest set a good example in that region; that He may lift up the veil from before
the eyes of thy mother and father, so that they may witness the lights of the
Kingdom of God, which have encompassed all regions.
…these two illustrious souls [Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kázim]
endowed their followers with the greatest receptivity. That is why after the passing of the late
Siyyid his disciples sought with all their might after the Promised
Beauty. Mullá Ḥusayn and some of his
disciples departed from Iraq, made for Persia, and were taken up with the
search till they entered the city of ShÃráz.
As Mullá Ḥusayn had met the Báb before in Karbilá and knew Him, he
became His guest. On the night of the
fifth of JamádÃyu’l-Avval, [23 May 1844] Mullá Ḥusayn was seated in the presence of the
Báb, who was preparing the tea. As the
Báb was serving the tea, He recited certain verses. Mullá Ḥusayn was amazed and astonished to
hear a young man, with no religious education or training in the Arabic tongue,
recite verses of the utmost eloquence and power, a feat which he could have
never thought possible. This led to his
awakening and allegiance. The following
day he told his disciples and others that he had found the Object of their
search and proceeded to describe and portray Him, but he concealed His identity
and did not divulge His name. However,
he so extolled His attributes that his disciples and the others were enthralled
with this news and with unrelenting thirst continued to search for the
life-giving waters.
Consider likewise that when Christ blessed the bread and
gave it to His disciples, saying, “this is My body”, [Matt. 26:26] He was
visibly and distinctly present with them in person and in body, and was not
transformed into bread and wine. Had He become the bread and wine itself, He
could not have remained distinctly present before them in body and in person.
There are no solitaries and no hermits among the Bahá’Ãs.
Man must work with his fellows. Everyone should have some trade, or art or
profession, be he rich or poor, and with this he must serve humanity. This
service is acceptable as the highest form of worship.
A friend asked how the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh contrasted
with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Man in this age has learned the weight of the sun, the path
of a star, the movement of an eclipse -- the advance step now is to learn the
expansion of the inflexible law of matter into the subtler kingdom of spirit,
which contains a finer gravitation which holds the balance of power from age to
age unbroken. Blessed is that soul who knows that against all appearances, the
nature of things works for truth and right forever… The emancipated soul sees
with the eyes of perfect faith because it knows what vast provisions are made
to enable it to gain the victory over every difficulty and trial. Yet man must
ever remember the earth plane is a workshop, not an art gallery for the
exhibits of powers. This is not the plane of perfection, but earth is the
crucible for refining and moulding character."
Unless these Teachings [of the Faith] are effectively spread
among the people, until the old ways, the old concepts, are gone and forgotten,
this world of being will find no peace, nor will it reflect the perfections of
the Heavenly Kingdom. Strive ye with all your hearts to make the heedless
conscious, to waken those who sleep, to bring knowledge to the ignorant, to
make the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and restore the dead to life.
…Christ had both an elemental and a heavenly body. The
elemental body was crucified, but the heavenly one is alive, eternal, and the
source of everlasting life. The elemental body was His human nature and the
heavenly body His divine nature.
…the spirit of Christ was a celestial bounty which descended
from heaven, and that whosoever receives the outpourings of this spirit—that
is, embraces its heavenly teachings—will attain everlasting life. Thus it is
said in verse 35: “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that
cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never
thirst.”
The first person who recognized the sublimity and holiness
of Bahá’u’lláh and became certain that He would manifest a momentous Cause was
Mullá ‘Abdu’l-KarÃm-i-QazvÃnÃ, whom the Báb had named MÃrzá Ahmad. He was the
intermediary between the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh and was aware of the truth of the
matter.
Siyyid Kázim [a forerunner of the Báb] explicitly specified,
in the preamble of his book “Sharh-iQasÃdih”, the name of Bahá’u’lláh: “Praise
be to God Who hath adorned the preamble of the book of His Essence with the
mystery of distinction, the ornament of that Point wherefrom the Há is
manifested, with neither assimilation nor separation, through the Alif.” To
fully explain this expression to you would take a long time, since you are
unfamiliar with such words and expressions, and were I to do so it would fill
an entire book. But since time is short I will briefly provide a word-for-word
translation [Arabic to Persian] so that you will understand the general
meaning. He says: Praise be to God who
has adorned the book of existence with the mystery of distinction through
degrees, for it is through such differences that the world of existence is
adorned. If all things were of one kind and there were no distinctions,
existence would be imperfect. The realm of God and the realm of creation, the realm
above and the realm below, the realm of truth and the realm of illusion: All
these distinctions are among the inherent requirements of existence. He then
says that the book of existence is adorned with that Point wherefrom the letter
Há’ appears and the letter Alif is manifested. And in the same book he explains
in numerous passages that the Point is the letter Bá’. And when the letters
Bá’, Há’, and Alif are brought together it makes “Bahá.”
O thou who art directed to the Light of Guidance! Thank thou
God, for thou hast chanted the verses of the Mighty guidance in the assemblage
of knowledge and hast unfurled the banner of attraction in those most extensive
places. Therefore, appreciate this with due appreciation and know thou that
this guidance is a gift, greater than which cannot be imagined. For as much as it
is a bounty from the Glorious Lord, a success to every sincere servant, a light
for the faces of devoted ones and a bestowal from the Lord, the Clement, the
Merciful.