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Thee, Whose knowledge transcendeth all who are in Thy heaven and all who
are on Thy earth.
Thou well knowest, O my God, that the Revealer of the Bayán (the Báb) hath
commanded all mankind concerning Thy Cause, and Thy Revelation, and Thy
Sovereignty. He hath said, and sweet is His speech: "Beware lest the Bayán
and its Letters keep you back from Him Who is the Most Merciful and from
His sovereignty." He, moreover, hath written: "Were He to produce no more
than one verse, ye must not deny Him. Haste ye towards Him, that haply He
may cause to descend upon you what He pleaseth, as a token of His grace
unto you. He truly is the Possessor of His servants, and the King of
creation."
Thou seest, then, O Thou Who art the Beloved of the world and the Revealer
of the Most Great Name, how He hath come down with the kingdom of His
signs, and in a manner that hath caused the atoms of the earth to testify
that the whole world hath been filled with these signs. And yet,
notwithstanding this most manifest and all-glorious Revelation, and these
signs which none can appraise except Thee, O Thou the King of names, Thou
beholdest how they have broken off from Him Who is the Day-Spring of Thine
Essence, and have caviled at the One Who is the Fountain-Head of Thy
wisdom and of Thine utterance. They were so seized with thirst for fame,
that they rejected Thy tokens, and Thy testimonies, and Thy signs, which
every man of insight perceiveth in whatsoever declareth Thy greatness, and
Thy sovereignty, and acknowledgeth Thy Revelation and Thy might. They have
so traduced Him as to cause the inmates of the all-glorious Tabernacle and
the Concourse on high to lament, and have uttered such calumnies against
Him that the souls of Thy chosen Ones and the hearts of them that are dear
to Thee have melted. They have erred so grievously that they cast away Thy
most resplendent signs, and clung to their idle fancies, O Thou Who art
the Possessor of Names and the Lord of the Throne on high and of earth
below!
Thou art, O my God and the Exultation of my heart, the One Who hath
adorned Thy Tablet, of which none is aware except Thee, with the mention
of this Day which Thou didst call after Thy name, that haply none may on
that day be seen save Thy most august Self, and naught else be brought to
mind except Thy most sweet remembrance.
No sooner had He revealed Himself than the foundations of the kindreds of
the earth shook and trembled, and the learned swooned away, and the wise
were bewildered, except such as have, through the power of Thy might,
drawn nigh unto Thee, and received the choice wine of Thy Revelation from
the hand of Thy grace, and have quaffed it in Thy name, and exclaimed:
"Praise be unto Thee, O Thou the Desire of the worlds! and glory be to
Thee, O Thou Who art the Exultation of the hearts that pant after Thee!"
My God, my Master, my Highest Hope, and the Goal of my desire! Thou seest
and hearest the sighing of this wronged One, from this darksome well which
the vain imaginations of Thine adversaries have built, and from this blind
pit which the idle fancies of the wicked among Thy creatures have digged.
By Thy Beauty, O Thou Whose glory is uncovered to the face of men! I am
not impatient in the troubles that touch me in my love for Thee, neither
in the adversities which I suffer in Thy path. Nay, I have, by Thy power,
chosen them for mine own self, and I glory in them amongst such of Thy
creatures as enjoy near access to Thee, and those of Thy servants that are
wholly devoted to Thy Self.
I beseech Thee, however, O Thou Who art the Enlightener of the world and
the Lord of the nations, at this very moment when, with the hands of hope,
I have clung to the hem of the raiment of Thy mercy and Thy bounty, to
forgive Thy servants who have soared in the atmosphere of Thy nearness,
and set their faces towards the splendors of the light of Thy countenance,
and turned unto the horizon of Thy good pleasure, and approached the ocean
of Thy mercy, and all their lives long have spoken forth Thy praise, and
have been inflamed with the fire of their love for Thee. Do Thou ordain
for them, O Lord my God, both before and after their death, what becometh
the loftiness of Thy bounty and the excellence of Thy loving-kindness.
Grant, O my Lord, that they who have ascended unto Thee may repair unto
Him Who is the most exalted Companion, and abide beneath the shadow of the
Tabernacle of Thy majesty and the Sanctuary of Thy glory. Sprinkle, O my
Lord, upon them from the ocean of Thy forgiveness what will make them
worthy to abide, so long as Thine own sovereignty endureth, within Thy
most exalted kingdom and Thine all-highest dominion. Potent art Thou to do
what pleaseth Thee.
Deny not Thy loved ones, O my Lord, the sweet savors of this Day whereon
the mysteries of Thy name, the Self-Subsisting, were unraveled, and all
that had been enshrined within the treasuries of Thy wisdom was revealed.
This is the Day, O my Lord, whereon every atom of the earth hath been made
to vibrate and to cry out: "O Thou Who art the Revealer of signs and the
King of creation! I, verily, perceive the fragrance of Thy presence.
Methinks Thou hast revealed Thyself, and unlocked the door of reunion with
Thee before all who are in Thy heaven and all who are on Thy earth. I am
persuaded through the fragrance of Thy robe, O my Lord, that the world
hath been honored through Thy presence, and hath inhaled the sweet smell
of Thy meeting. I know not, however, O Thou the Beloved of the world and
the Desire of the nations, the place wherein the throne of Thy majesty
hath been established, nor the seat which hath been made Thy footstool,
and been illumined with the splendors of the light of Thy face."
I swear by Thy glory, O Thou Who art the Lord of all being and the
Possessor of all things visible and invisible! Every man of understanding
hath been so bewildered at Thy knowledge, and every man endued with
insight been so perplexed in his attempt to fathom the signs of Thy great
glory, that all have recognized their powerlessness to visualize, and
their impotence to soar into, the heaven wherefrom one of the Luminaries
of the Manifestations of Thy knowledge and of the Day-Springs of Thy
wisdom hath shone forth. Who is he that shall befittingly describe this