"Arise thou amongst men in the name
of this all-compelling Cause, and
summon, then, the nations unto God,
the Mighty, the Great. Be thou not of
them who called upon God by one
of His names, but who, when He Who is the
Object of all
names appeared, denied Him and turned aside from Him, and, in
the end, pronounced sentence against
Him with manifest injustice. Consider
and call thou to mind the days whereon
the Spirit of God (Jesus Christ)
appeared, and Herod gave judgment
against Him. God, however, aided Him with
the hosts of the unseen, and protected
Him with truth, and sent Him down
unto another land, according to His
promise. He, verily, ordaineth what He
pleaseth. Thy Lord truly preserveth
whom He willeth, be he in the midst of
the seas or in the maw of the serpent,
or beneath the sword of the
oppressor."
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Epistle
to the Son of the Wolf, p. 57-58
Forget the world of creation, O Pen,
and turn thou towards the face of thy
Lord, the Lord of all names. Adorn,
then, the world with the ornament of
the favors of thy Lord, the King
of everlasting days. For We perceive the
fragrance of the Day whereon He Who
is the Desire of all nations hath
shed upon the kingdoms of the unseen
and of the seen the splendor of the
light of His
most excellent names, and enveloped them with the radiance
of the luminaries of His most gracious
favors--favors which none can reckon
except Him, Who is the omnipotent
Protector of the entire creation.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 32
Attract the hearts of men, through
the call of Him, the one alone Beloved.
Say: This is the Voice of God, if
ye do but hearken. This is the Day Spring of
the Revelation of God, did ye but
know it. This is the Dawning-Place of the
Cause of God, were ye to recognize
it. This is the Source of the commandment
of God, did ye but judge it fairly.
This is the manifest and hidden Secret; would
that ye might perceive it. O peoples
of the world! Cast away, in My name that
transcendeth
all other names, the things ye possess, and immerse yourselves
in this Ocean in whose depths lay
hidden the pearls of wisdom and of utterance,
an ocean that surgeth in My name,
the All-Merciful. Thus instructeth you He with
Whom is the Mother Book.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 33
This is an Epistle from Our presence
unto him whom the veils of names have
failed to keep back from God, the
Creator of earth and heaven, that his eyes may
be cheered in the days of his Lord,
the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
Say, O followers of the Son!
Have ye shut out yourselves from Me by reason of
My Name?
Wherefore ponder ye not in your hearts? Day and night ye have been
calling upon your Lord, the Omnipotent,
but when He came from the heaven of
eternity in His great glory, ye turned
aside from Him and remained sunk in
heedlessness.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets
of Baha'u'llah, p. 9
LVII. O Jews! If ye be intent on crucifying
once again Jesus, the Spirit of
God, put Me to death, for He hath
once more, in My person, been made
manifest unto you. Deal with Me as
ye wish, for I have vowed to lay down
My life in the path of God. I will
fear no one, though the powers of earth
and heaven be leagued against Me.
Followers of the Gospel! If ye cherish
the desire to slay Muhammad, the
Apostle of God, seize Me and put an end
to My life, for I am He, and My Self
is His Self. Do unto Me as ye like, for
the deepest longing of Mine heart
is to attain the presence of My Best-Beloved
in His Kingdom of Glory. Such is
the Divine decree, if ye know it. Followers
of Muhammad! If it be your wish to
riddle with your shafts the breast of Him
Who hath caused His Book the Bayán
to be sent down unto you, lay hands on
Me and persecute Me, for I am His
Well-Beloved, the revelation of His own
Self, though
My name be not His name. I have come in the shadows of the
clouds of glory, and am invested
by God with invincible sovereignty. He, verily,
is the Truth, the Knower of things
unseen. I, verily, anticipate from you the
treatment ye have accorded unto Him
that came before Me. To this all things,
verily, witness, if ye be of those
who hearken.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 101
These attributes of God are not, and
have never been, vouchsafed specially
unto certain Prophets, and withheld
from others. Nay, all the Prophets of God,
His well-favored, His holy and chosen
Messengers are, without exception, the
bearers of His
names, and the embodiments of His attributes. They only differ
in the intensity of their revelation,
and the comparative potency of their light.
Even as He hath revealed: "Some of
the Apostles We have caused to excel the
others."
It hath, therefore, become manifest
and evident that within the tabernacles of
these Prophets and chosen Ones of
God the light of His infinite names and exalted
attributes hath been reflected, even
though the light of some of these attributes
may or may not be outwardly revealed
from these luminous Temples to the eyes
of men. That a certain attribute
of God hath not been outwardly manifested by
these Essences of Detachment doth
in no wise imply that they who are the Day
Springs of God's attributes and the
Treasuries
of His holy names did not actually
possess it. Therefore, these illuminated
Souls, these beauteous Countenances
have, each and every one of them,
been endowed with all the attributes of God,
such as sovereignty, dominion, and
the like, even though to outward seeming
they be shorn of all earthly majesty....
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 48
And when after the lapse of a few
years the heaven of Divine decree was cleft
asunder, and the Beauty of the Báb
appeared in the clouds of the names
of God,
arrayed in a new raiment, these same
people maliciously rose up against Him,
Whose light embraceth all created
things. They broke His Covenant, rejected His
truth, contended with Him, caviled
at His signs, treated His testimony as falsehood,
and joined the company of the infidels.
Eventually, they determined to take away
His life. Such is the state of them
who are in a far-gone error!
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 147
LXXIII. It is clear and evident that
when the veils that conceal the realities of the
manifestations of the Names
and Attributes of God, nay of all created things visible
or invisible, have been rent asunder,
nothing except the Sign of God will remain--a
sign which He, Himself, hath placed
within these realities. This sign will endure as
long as is the wish of the Lord thy
God, the Lord of the heavens and of the earth.
If such be the blessings conferred
on all created things, how superior must be the
destiny of the true believer, whose
existence and life are to be regarded as the
originating purpose of all creation.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 140
O Kings of the earth! He Who is the
sovereign Lord of all is come. The Kingdom is
God's, the omnipotent Protector,
the Self-Subsisting. Worship none but God, and,
with radiant hearts, lift up your
faces unto your Lord, the Lord of all names.
This is
a Revelation to which whatever ye
possess can never be compared, could ye but
know it. We see you rejoicing in
that which ye have amassed for others, and
shutting out yourselves from the
worlds which naught except My Guarded Tablet can
reckon. The treasures ye have laid
up have drawn you far away from your ultimate
objective. This ill beseemeth you,
could ye but understand it. Wash your hearts from
all earthly defilements, and hasten
to enter the Kingdom of your Lord, the Creator of
earth and heaven, Who caused the
world to tremble, and all its peoples to wail,
except them that have renounced all
things and clung to that which the Hidden
Tablet hath ordained....
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Proclamation
of Baha'u'llah, p.
Further, we have harkened to what
the nightingale of knowledge sang on the
boughs of the tree of thy being,
and learned what the dove of certitude cried on
the branches of the bower of thy
heart. Methinks I verily inhaled the pure fragrances
of the garment of thy love, and attained
thy very meeting from perusing thy letter.
And since I noted thy mention of
thy death in God, and thy life through Him, and thy
love for the beloved of God and the
Manifestations
of His Names and the Dawning-Points
of His Attributes--I therefore reveal
unto thee sacred and resplendent tokens from
the planes of glory, to attract thee
into the court of holiness and nearness and beauty,
and draw thee to a station wherein
thou shalt see nothing in creation save the Face
of thy Beloved One, the Honored,
and behold all created things only as in the day
wherein none hath a mention.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The
Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys, p. 2