He is the Foreigner, the Persian, the Iraqi.
When the passengers on the divine
ark had clung to one of the names, with the
permission of the holy mariner in
the pre-existent vessel, then did it set sail
upon the sea of names. They traversed
the stations of limitation, so that they
might make for the Yemen of the powerful
sovereign of oneness, arriving at the
shore of divine unity. Thus might
they drink from the chalice of transcendence.
Indeed, by the aid of the lord, that
eternal ark set sail upon and plied the
spiritual waters of wisdom.
Then they reached a place where the
name, the Still, became dominant over their
course, so that the ship of the spirit
was becalmed, unable to move. At that
moment, the impregnable command of
the lord descended from the holy and
everlasting heavens. The mariner
of eternity was ordered to teach a single
letter of the hidden word to the
people of the ark. Thus did they, by the
succor of the Unseen, pass through
the valley of psychological bewilderment and
arrive at the great court of spiritual
unity, attaining the Mount Qaf of
eternal life and the presence of
the lord of souls. When the people of the ship
attained to the word of the spiritual
friend, they were immediately filled with
meaning and soared into the sacred
sky. By the divine grace and mercy, they
passed beyond the peaks of carnal
desire and the deepest levels of negligence
and blindness. At that moment the
breezes of paradise wafted upon their bodies
from the sanctuary of the All Merciful.
After they soared in the heavens of
divine nearness, they traversed the
spiritual stations in the place of safety
and security. Finally, they halted
at the homeland of lovers. The inhabitants
of this station arose to serve them
and show them kindness. The immortal
attendants and the holy servers poured
ruby wine liberally. Intoxication with
the wine of divine knowledge, and
the cup of eternal wisdom induced such love
and distraction that they escaped
from their own being and that of existing
things. They gave their hearts to
the beauty of the friend. For ages and
centuries they settled and dwelt
in that pleasant and spiritual station, in
that divine and holy rose garden,
with perfect joy and happiness.
Then the gales of divine tests and
the winds of lordly temptation blew from the
Sheba of the everlasting Cause. They
became distracted by the beauty of the
wine server and grew heedless of
the immortal countenance, to the extent that
they imagined the shadow to be the
sun and phantoms to be light. They set out
for the ladders of the greatest name
so that they might scale those heavens and
arrive at that seat and place. When
they rose toward it, the divine assayers
descended upon them with the sacred
touchstone, by the irresistible decree of
the lord. When these emissaries did
not perceive the scent of the spiritual
youth, they forbade entry to all.
Afterwards, there occurred what is inscribed
upon the guarded tablet.
Then, you who dwell upon the plain
of divine love and drink the wine of
unceasing forgiveness, do not exchange
nearness to the beauty of the friend for
both worlds. Do not prefer the presence
of the wine server to meeting him, and
do not give your heart to the intoxicant
of ignorance and heedlessness in
preference to his wine of knowledge
and wisdom. Lips are for mentioning the
beloved; do not defile them with
filthy water. The heart is the home of
everlasting mysteries, do not busy
it with perishable things. Seek the water of
life from the fountain of the beauty
of the All-Praised, not from the
manifestations of Satan.
Yes, this ephemeral youth here mentions
the highest station of the love of the
divine friends. He does so by reference
to the wonders of the text of divine
unity and the gems of the wisdom
of the self-sufficient sovereign. Thus,
perhaps some might recognize the
value of courage and gallantry, and put off
the shirt of negligence and carnal
appetites. Perhaps they will visit the
illumined beauty of the pure, radiant
and sanctified friend in the land of
love, detachment, amiability and
exaltation. Thus would they receive the lights
dawning from the morn of his brow
and the effulgence of the perspicuous day, to
at least the extent that they would
be enabled to unite their inner and outer
selves. We have passed beyond the
loftiness of abstraction, the sublimity of
divine oneness, the ultimate recognition
that God is above all attributes, and
the most great sanctification. Now,
they must put forth their utmost effort and
give their unswerving attention,
so that their inward secrets not be contrary
to their overt behavior, nor their
outward deeds at variance with their inner
mysteries. We have traversed the
stage of expending the self for others. Arise
to expend justice and fairness upon
the souls that pertain to you.
In the end, however, you prefer the
cloak of carnal longing and desire to the
robe of divine benediction, and you
exchange the song of the nightingale of
immortality for the disagreeable
croaking of death that issues from the throats
of the hateful and rebellious. How
miserable a trade you make! We are from God
and to him do we return. God willing,
we maintain the hope that the immortal
temples of glory shall, through the
adornment of holiness and the divine
attributes, appear illumined, gentle,
pure and undefiled like the eternal sun.
This is not difficult for God.
- Bahá'u'lláh, Tablet
of the Holy Mariner from the Persian. (a provisional
translation)