"O ye beloved of G.o.d and His sincere friends!..."
O ye(145) beloved of G.o.d and His sincere friends!
By the life of G.o.d! The hearts are cheered whenever you are mentioned, the souls are comforted in your love, the holy spirits are captivated by your fragrance, the eyes are expecting to see you and the hearts are longing to meet you, owing to the fact that your hearts were kindled with the fire of the love of G.o.d, your ears were charmed by hearing the Word of G.o.d and your souls were rested in the appearance of the mysteries of G.o.d.
Blessed are ye, O children of the Kingdom of G.o.d! Glad-tidings to ye, O friends of G.o.d! as He hath made your destiny great and your share victory and happiness, your lamps lighted and your spring to yield supply!
Ye are the most brilliant stars! Ye are the most dazzling lamps! Ye are the green branches! Ye are the ripe fruits! Ye are the beautiful gardens!
Ye are the overflowing bowls!
G.o.d is merciful and compa.s.sionate! His bounty is great and great! He appropriateth by His mercy those whom He liketh and chooseth for His love those of whom He approveth. This is in accordance with what Christ said: "Many are called, but few chosen."
G.o.d maketh your endeavor praiseworthy, your reward great and your days in El-Baha feasts and pleasures, because of your casting away the imaginary G.o.d and accepting the Knowable, for [your] discarding every evil spirit, craving for the witnessed Light and for turning your faces to the Exalted Position.
G.o.d will show forth your endeavor, increase your spirit and fragrance, perfume the different directions with your perfume, enlighten the horizon with your light and quicken the hearts with that which is treasured within you; will cheer the souls with what you have accomplished and cause the verses of thankfulness to be recited in all places; the banner in remembrance of you to wave through all the ages; your fame and praise to encircle the horizon and the tongues to speak of your virtues and good endeavors.
By the living Truth! That bounty is great and great and the Lord is supreme in majesty! The confirmation is successive and success is continuous, and the kindness of your G.o.d, the Merciful, the Compa.s.sionate, will surround you from all sides.
"O ye sincere ones! O ye firm ones! O ye heralds of..."
O ye(146) sincere ones! O ye firm ones! O ye heralds of the Kingdom of G.o.d!
Fly away with joy! Flutter in the open of the Kingdom! Spread the wings of sanct.i.ty in those districts and lands, so that the shadow of the King of the Kingdom may be stretched over those climes and the fragrances of G.o.d be diffused in those tracts and in those vast and extensive regions.
By the Lord of the Kingdom! If one arise to promote the Word of G.o.d with a pure heart, overflowing with the love of G.o.d and severed from the world, the Lord of Hosts will a.s.sist him with such a power as will penetrate the core of the existent beings.
As to ye, be rejoiced, O ye children of the Kingdom of G.o.d! Your faces will surely become illuminated, your brows shining, your b.r.e.a.s.t.s dilated with an abundant bounty and refreshed with a rain pouring from the clouds of the gift of G.o.d. You will find yourselves as souls for the temple of the contingent world and as arteries pulsating in the body of the universe. Your faces will shine with the light of favor throughout all environments.
Make your feet firm; withstand the creeds (or mult.i.tudes); chant the Book; and explain mysteries through an inspiration on the part of your Exalted Lord, the possessor of glory and honor!
"O ye two revered persons, ye servants in the vineyard..."
O ye two(147) revered persons, ye servants in the vineyard of G.o.d!
Verily, I read your letter and was informed of its contents filled with spiritual attractions and thanked G.o.d-glorified is He!-for His grace and His merciful bestowals.
It behooveth you to be the first a.s.sistant to the Word of G.o.d, the first servant of the Cause of G.o.d and the first one to withstand the spreaders (of false rumors) who say that which they know not, who calumniate G.o.d, well knowing that they are calumniators and that they, themselves, have contrived the thing for their own sakes, and evil is that which they do.
Remember what the Pharisees published concerning Jesus, attributed to Him and said about Him and how they oppressed Him until they paraded Him in Jerusalem in such a form as made the angels of sanct.i.ty to weep in the Sublime Kingdom. They put on His head a crown of thistles; nay, more, they cast dust in His face-into a face whereby the heaven and the earth is illuminated! They turned their backs upon Him, then bowed and said: "Peace be unto thee, O King of kings! Peace be unto thee, O King of the Jews!"
Of the same cla.s.s are the Pharisees and priests in this manifest day.
"Leave them to amuse themselves with their vain discourse." They are as people deluded by their temptations and are isolated from the gifts of your Lord, the Clement, the Merciful. "They are deaf, dumb and blind; therefore, they will not understand."
Verily, I, through the grace of my Lord, have never heeded these souls, even to reading their articles, inasmuch as their articles signify no other than the buzzing of flies to the hearing of an eagle, or the croaking of a frog of the material world to the ears of the leviathan of the sea of the Kingdom. Is it to be considered as anything? No, by no means! Verily, the eagle soareth high in the supreme apex while the flies rumble in the lowest rubbish.
But it is inc.u.mbent upon you to block them up as a stone with decisive arguments before which heads are bowed and voices are made humble. G.o.d will strengthen you therein. You will surely find these Pharisees in manifest loss. Can one ever prevent the waves of the sea of the Lofty One from rolling? Or is it possible for me to restrain the fragrances of sanct.i.ty from diffusion? Or can one withhold the sun from casting its rays to all regions? No, by no means! Nay, rather such souls make the table sent down from heaven unlawful unto themselves.
How is the bat to be compared with the most great orb which bestows bounty upon all regions! How is the gnat to be compared with the eagle soaring in the s.p.a.cious firmament! How are the Caiaphas and Annas to be compared with the Christ mounted on the clouds with great power and glory!
Thank G.o.d that He hath opened your insight to the Light which is shining from the Supreme Concourse and caused you to witness His most mighty signs. By my life! the hearts of the people of Baha" are cheered with such gifts!
"O ye sincere, O ye firm and steadfast in the Testament..."
O ye(148) sincere, O ye firm and steadfast in the Testament of G.o.d!
I have read your letter signed by you, which shows your steadfastness and firmness in the Covenant of G.o.d and His Testament, which was confirmed by the trace of His Supreme Pen(149), the greatness of which hath been divulged in all the regions, entered the palaces of kings of which both rulers and subjects have been informed, and no human being could ever deny it, even he who turns away and backslides. It came to the imagination of some children that they are able to abolish this Covenant, the like of which was not known in the early centuries and the heavenly ages of the past; and they shall see themselves in evident loss!
But as to you, O ye firm and steadfast, be straightforward in the Cause of G.o.d, let your feet be firm in the Religion of G.o.d, and arise with every effort within your power to render victorious the Covenant of G.o.d. By G.o.d, the Truth, you will be a.s.sisted by a numerous army, and re-inforced by a cohort of the angels of G.o.d. Pay not the slightest attention to that which is said by these children, for their statements and sayings are nothing but confused dreams.
The Star of the Covenant shall shine intensely upon all horizons and regions, and the violators will be as bats hiding themselves in dark holes! It is enough humiliation and abas.e.m.e.nt to them that they have violated the Covenant of G.o.d and contradicted the Appointed Center, and desired to demolish this solid edifice-which, alas, could not be! By G.o.d, they did not demolish but their own edifice, did not shake but their own foundations, and did not scatter but their own union, and to them shall come the news of what they have done!
But as to you, O ye beloved of G.o.d, strengthen yourselves by every effort and arise to serve the Cause of G.o.d, for verily the Holy Spirit will confirm you by the breaths of the True One in all cases and under all circ.u.mstances!
"O thou who art firm in the Covenant!..."
O thou(150) who art firm in the Covenant!
***The prison is like a paradise to Abdul-Baha, the depth of the well is as the height of the moon-such is my desire in the Path of the Blessed Beauty! Were it not for the chain, sword and affliction, how should the people of faithfulness be distinguished from the people of hatred? Nay, otherwise, they would seem as one. This wound cannot be remedied save by a host of calamities, and this illness cannot be cured except by the cup of affliction.
I ask G.o.d that I may not repose for a moment, but that, night and day, in the love of the Blessed Beauty(151)-may my spirit be a sacrifice to Him!-I may drink from the rosy cup of the blood of the heart.
With every breath do I desire to perceive thousands of afflictions approaching me from every inhuman one; at one time, to rest in the bottom of a dungeon; at another, to repose on the chain; and, ultimately, by the favor and providence of the Blessed Perfection, to roll my face and hair in my blood.
Therefore, their invitation(152) was not accepted because they invited departure to that region. Lately, that general letter was requested from persia, and it was sent thereto.***
"O ye friends of G.o.d and daughters of the Kingdom!..."