Friday, August 19, 2011

"These are the ones, O my Lord, who have set their faces towards Thee, and turned unto Thy habitation."


"Glory be to Thee, O my God! I beg of Thee by Thy name, the Most Merciful, to protect Thy servants and Thy handmaidens when the tempests of trials pass over them, and Thy manifold tests assail them. Enable them, then, O my God, so to seek refuge within the stronghold of Thy love and of Thy Revelation, that neither Thine adversaries nor the wicked doers among Thy servants, who have broken Thy Covenant and Thy Testament, and turned away most disdainfully from the Day-Spring of Thine Essence and the Revealer of Thy glory, may prevail against them.

They themselves, O my Lord, have waited at the door of Thy grace. Do Thou open it to their faces with the keys of Thy bountiful favors. Potent art Thou to do what Thou willest, and to ordain what Thou pleasest. These are the ones, O my Lord, who have set their faces towards Thee, and turned unto Thy habitation. Do with them, therefore, as becometh Thy mercy, which hath surpassed the worlds."


-Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh, CXLIII, pp. 231-232

Thursday, August 18, 2011

"This is not a Cause which may be made a plaything ..."



"This is not a Cause which may be made a plaything for your idle fancies, nor is it a field for the foolish and faint of heart. By God, this is the arena of insight and detachment, of vision and upliftment, where none may spur on their chargers save the valiant horsemen of the Merciful, who have severed all attachment to the world of being. These, truly, are they that render God victorious on earth, and are the dawning-places of His sovereign might amidst mankind."

-Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p. 84, paragraph 178

Pocket Qur'an of The Báb










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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

"We testify, O my God, that Thou art God, and that there is no God besides Thee."



"We testify, O my God, that Thou art God, and that there is no God besides Thee. From eternity Thou hast existed with none to equal or rival Thee, and wilt abide for ever the same. I beseech Thee, by the eyes which see Thee stablished upon the throne of unity and the seat of oneness, to aid all them that love Thee by Thy Most Great Name, and to lift them up into such heights that they will testify with their own beings and with their tongues that Thou art God alone, the Incomparable, the One, the Ever-Abiding. Thou hast had at no time any peer or partner. Thou, in truth, art the All-Glorious, the Almighty, Whose help is implored by all men."

-Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh, XVII, pp. 31-32



Revelation Writing

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

"Say: Tribulation is a horizon unto My Revelation."



"Say: Tribulation is a horizon unto My Revelation. The day star of grace shineth above it, and sheddeth a light which neither the clouds of men’s idle fancy nor the vain imaginations of the aggressor can obscure."

-Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, XVII, p. 42



House of The Báb, Shiraz

Monday, August 15, 2011

"Quench ye the lamp of error, and kindle within your hearts the everlasting torch of divine guidance."


"O MY FRIENDS! Quench ye the lamp of error, and kindle within your hearts the everlasting torch of divine guidance. For ere long the assayers of mankind shall, in the holy presence of the Adored, accept naught but purest virtue and deeds of stainless holiness."

- Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, No. 35 Persian






Edda Renouf

Sunday, August 14, 2011

"The whole universe testifieth to Thy generosity."


"Thou well knowest, O my God, my Best-Beloved, that naught can quench the thirst I suffer in my separation from Thee except the waters of Thy presence, and that the tumult of my heart can never be stilled save through the living fountain of my reunion with Thee. Send down, then, upon me, O my Lord, out of the heaven of Thy bounty what will draw me nearer unto the chalice of Thy gifts, and make me able to quaff the choice sealed Wine, Whose seal hath been loosed in Thy name, and from Which the sweet savors of Thy days have been shed abroad. Thou, in truth, art the All-Bountiful, Whose grace is infinite.

The whole universe testifieth to Thy generosity. Have mercy, then, upon me by Thy graciousness, and deal bountifully with me through the power of Thy sovereignty, and suffer me to enjoy near access to Thee by Thy manifold favors. Thou, truly, art the Great Giver, the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Bountiful."

-Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh, XLI, p.58

Saturday, August 13, 2011

"Consider how men for generations have been blindly imitating their fathers ..."


"It is evident that the changes brought about in every Dispensation constitute the dark clouds that intervene between the eye of man’s understanding and the Divine Luminary which shineth forth from the day spring of the Divine Essence. Consider how men for generations have been blindly imitating their fathers, and have been trained according to such ways and manners as have been laid down by the dictates of their Faith. Were these men, therefore, to discover suddenly that a Man, Who hath been living in their midst, Who, with respect to every human limitation hath been their equal, had risen to abolish every established principle imposed by their Faith—principles by which for centuries they have been disciplined, and every opposer and denier of which they have come to regard as infidel, profligate and wicked,—they would of a certainty be veiled and hindered from acknowledging His truth. Such things are as “clouds” that veil the eyes of those whose inner being hath not tasted the Salsabíl 1 of detachment, nor drunk from the Kawthar 2 of the knowledge of God. Such men, when acquainted with those circumstances, become so veiled that, without the least question, they pronounce the Manifestation of God as infidel, and sentence Him to death. You must have heard of such things taking place all down the ages, and are now observing them in these days."

-Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, XIII, p. 26

1. Salsabíl: Literally, softly flowing.  A fountain of Paradise.
2. Kawthar: A river of Paradise from which all the others flow.  Part of its waters are led into a great lake on the shores of which the souls of the faithful rest when they have crossed the terrible bridge which is laid over the midst of Hell.