Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Glorified
be He that created her
out of the
essence of love in the midmost heart of his
exalted paradise!
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Thereupon the maids of heaven
hastened forth from their chambers,
upon whose countenances the eye of no
dweller in the highest paradise had
ever gazed.
Glorified be our Lord, the Most High!
They all gathered around her, and lo!
they found her body fallen upon the
dust;
Glorified be our Lord, the Most High!
And as they beheld her state and
comprehended a word of the tale told
by the Youth, they bared their heads,
rent their garments asunder, beat
upon their faces, forgot their joy, shed
tears and smote with their hands
upon their cheeks, and this is verily one
of the mysterious grievous afflictions
- Glorified be our Lord, the Most
High!
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Tablet
of the Holy Mariner
HE IS THE ALMIGHTY LORD!
Lo, this is the garden
of Paradise wherein is raised the Voice of God, the
Dominant, the Strong; Here do the
immaculate Maids of Heaven dwell, they
whom no eye hath seen save only God's,
the Sanctified, the Well-Beloved;
Herein the eternal nightingale singeth
on the bough of the sacred Lote-Tree
a song that bedazzaleth the minds,
and herein are the needy led to the
haven of wealth, and all men guided
to the Word of God; verily this is a
manifest truth.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Tablet
of the Feast of Ridvan (provisional translation)
18. O YE DWELLERS IN THE HIGHEST PARADISE!
Proclaim unto the children of assurance
that within the realms of
holiness, nigh unto the celestial
paradise, a new garden hath appeared,
round which circle the denizens of
the realm on high and the immortal
dwellers of
the exalted paradise. Strive, then, that ye may attain that
station, that ye may unravel the
mysteries of love from its wind-flowers
and learn the secret of divine and
consummate wisdom from its eternal
fruits. Solaced are the eyes of them
that enter and abide therein!
--Baha'u'llah, The Persian Hidden
Words
Say: Step out of Thy holy chamber,
O Maid of Heaven, inmate of the Exalted
Paradise!
Drape thyself in whatever manner pleaseth Thee in the silken
Vesture of Immortality, and put on,
in the name of the All-Glorious, the
broidered Robe of Light. Hear, then,
the sweet, the wondrous accent of the
Voice that cometh from the Throne
of Thy Lord, the Inaccessible, the Most
High. Unveil Thy face, and manifest
the beauty of the black-eyed Damsel,
and suffer not the servants of God
to be deprived of the light of Thy
shining countenance. Grieve not if
Thou hearest the sighs of the dwellers
of the earth, or the voice of the
lamentation of the denizens of heaven.
Leave them to perish on the dust
of extinction. Let them be reduced to
nothingness, inasmuch as the flame
of hatred hath been kindled within their
breasts. Intone, then, before the
face of the peoples of earth and heaven,
and in a most melodious voice, the
anthem of praise, for a remembrance of
Him Who is the King of the names
and attributes of God. Thus have We
decreed Thy destiny. Well able are
We to achieve Our purpose.
Beware that Thou divest not Thyself,
Thou Who art the Essence of Purity, of
Thy robe of effulgent glory. Nay,
enrich Thyself increasingly, in the
kingdom of creation, with the incorruptible
vestures of Thy God, that the
beauteous image of the Almighty may
be reflected through Thee in all
created things and the grace of Thy
Lord be infused in the plenitude of its
power into the entire creation.
If Thou smellest from any one the
smell of the love of Thy Lord, offer up
Thyself for him, for We have created
Thee to this end, and have covenanted
with Thee, from time immemorial,
and in the presence of the congregation of
Our well-favored ones, for this very
purpose. Be not impatient if the blind
in heart hurl down the shafts of
their idle fancies upon Thee. Leave them
to themselves, for they follow the
promptings of the evil ones.
Cry out before the gaze of the dwellers
of heaven and of earth: I am the
Maid of Heaven,
the Offspring begotten by the Spirit of Baha. My habitation
is the Mansion of His Name, the All-Glorious.
Before the Concourse on high
I was adorned with the ornament of
His names. I was wrapt within the veil
of an inviolable security, and lay
hidden from the eyes of men. Methinks
that I heard a Voice of divine and
incomparable sweetness, proceeding from
the right hand of the God of Mercy,
and lo, the whole Paradise stirred and
trembled before Me, in its longing
to hear its accents, and gaze on the
beauty of Him that uttered them.
Thus have We revealed in this luminous
Tablet, and in the sweetest of languages,
the verses which the Tongue of
Eternity was moved to utter in the
Qayyumu'l-Asma'.
Say: He ordaineth as He pleaseth,
by virtue of His sovereignty, and doeth
whatsoever He willeth at His own
behest. He shall not be asked of the
things it pleaseth Him to ordain.
He, in truth, is the Unrestrained, the
All-Powerful, the All-Wise.
They that have disbelieved in God
and rebelled against His sovereignty are
the helpless victims of their corrupt
inclinations and desires. These shall
return to their abode in the fire
of hell: wretched is the abode of the
deniers!
--Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 282
"Arise, and proclaim unto the entire
creation the tidings that He who is
the All-Merciful hath directed His
steps towards the Ridván and entered
it. Guide, then, the people unto
the Garden of Delight which God hath made
the Throne of His Paradise... Within
this Paradise, and from the heights of
its loftiest
chambers, the Maids of Heaven have cried out and shouted:
`Rejoice, ye
dwellers of the realms above, for the fingers of Him Who is the
Ancient of
Days are ringing, in the name of the All-Glorious, the Most Great
Bell, in the
midmost heart of the heavens. The hands of bounty have borne
round the cups of everlasting life.
Approach, and quaff your fill.'"
-- Baha'u'llah speaking on the First
Day of Ridvan. Taken from
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes
By, p. 154
Since Thou hast purposed, O my God,
to cause all created things to enter
into the tabernacle of Thy transcendent
grace and favor, and to waft over
the entire creation the fragrances
of the raiment of Thy glorious unity,
and to look upon all things with
the eyes of Thy bounty and Thy oneness, I
beseech Thee, therefore, by Thy love,
which Thou hast made to be the
mainspring of the revelations of
Thine eternal holiness, and the flame that
gloweth within the hearts of such
of Thy creatures as yearn towards Thee,
to create, this very moment, for
those of Thy people who are wholly devoted
to Thee, and for such of Thy loved
ones as love Thee, out of the essence of
Thy bounty and Thy generosity, and
from the inmost spirit of Thy grace and
Thy glory, Thy Paradise of transcendent
holiness, and to exalt it above
everything except Thee, and to sanctify
it from aught else save Thyself.
Create, moreover,
within it, O my God, out of the lights shed by Thy
throne, handmaidens
who will intone the melodies of Thy wondrous and most
sweet invention,
that they may magnify Thy name with such words as have not
been heard
by any of Thy creatures, be they the inmates of Thy heaven or
the dwellers
of Thine earth, nor been comprehended by any of Thy people.
Unlock, then,
the gates of this Paradise to the faces of Thy loved ones,
that haply they may enter them in
Thy name, and by the power of Thy
sovereignty, that thereby the sovereign
bounties vouchsafed by Thee unto
Thy chosen
ones and the transcendent gifts granted unto Thy trusted ones be
perfected, that they may extol Thy
virtues with such melodies as none can
either intone or describe, and that
none of Thy people may conceive the
design of appearing in the guise
of any of Thy chosen ones, or of emulating
the example of Thy loved ones, and
that none may fail to discern between
Thy friends and Thine enemies, or
to distinguish them that are devoted to
Thee from such as stubbornly oppose
Thee. Potent art Thou to do what Thou
willest, and powerful and supreme
art Thou over all things.
--Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations
by Baha'u'llah, p. 326
The word of God which the Abha Pen
hath revealed and inscribed on the first
leaf of the
Most Exalted Paradise is this: Verily I say: The fear of God
hath ever been a sure defence and
a safe stronghold for all the peoples of
the world. It is the chief cause
of the protection of mankind, and the
supreme instrument for its preservation.
Indeed, there existeth in man a
faculty which deterreth him from,
and guardeth him against, whatever is
unworthy and unseemly, and which
is known as his sense of shame. This,
however, is confined to but a few;
all have not possessed and do not
possess it.
--Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah,
p. 63
The instigators of this oppression
are those very persons who, though so
foolish, are reputed the wisest of
the wise. Such is their blindness
that, with unfeigned severity, they
have cast into this fortified and
afflictive Prison Him, for the servants
of Whose Threshold the world hath
been created. The Almighty, however,
in spite of them and those that have
repudiated the truth of this "Great
Announcement," hath transformed this
Prison House into the Most
Exalted Paradise, the Heaven of Heavens.
--Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 116
Be ye guided by wisdom in all your
doings, and cleave ye tenaciously unto
it. 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
the earth, and the glory of the inmates
of the most
exalted Paradise, the heaven of heavens.
--Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 197
CIII. God hath, through His tongue
that uttereth the truth, testified in
all His Tablets to these words: "I
am He that liveth in the Abha Realm of
Glory."
By the righteousness of God! He, from
the heights of this sublime, this
holy, this mighty, and transcendent
station, seeth all things, heareth all
things, and is, at this hour, proclaiming:
Blessed art thou, O Javad,
inasmuch as thou hast attained unto
that which no man before thee hath
attained. I swear by Him Who is the
Eternal Truth! Through thee the eyes of
the inmates of the Exalted
Paradise have been gladdened. The people,
however, are utterly heedless. Were
We to reveal thy station, the hearts of
men would be sorely agitated, their
footsteps would slip, the embodiments
of vain-glory would be dumbfounded,
would fall down upon the ground, and
would thrust the fingers of heedlessness
into their ears, for fear of
hearing.
--(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 207