"Ye bow the knee before your vain imagining, and call it truth."

© Chuck Egerton 2025

 

ALAS! ALAS! O LOVERS OF WORLDLY DESIRE! 

Even as the swiftness of lightning ye have passed by the Beloved One, and have set your hearts on satanic fancies. Ye bow the knee before your vain imagining, and call it truth. Ye turn your eyes towards the thorn, and name it a flower. Not a pure breath have ye breathed, nor hath the breeze of detachment been wafted from the meadows of your hearts. Ye have cast to the winds the loving counsels of the Beloved and have effaced them utterly from the tablet of your hearts, and even as the beasts of the field, ye move and have your being within the pastures of desire and passion.

(Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, #45 Persian)
www.bahai.org/r/577977380

"The essence of beauty is within the peerless pavilion, set upon the throne of glory, whilst ye busy yourselves with idle contentions."

 

© Chuck Egerton 2025

O BRETHREN IN THE PATH!

Wherefore have ye neglected the mention of the Loved One, and kept remote from His holy presence? The essence of beauty is within the peerless pavilion, set upon the throne of glory, whilst ye busy yourselves with idle contentions. The sweet savors of holiness are breathing and the breath of bounty is wafted, yet ye are all sorely afflicted and deprived thereof. Alas for you and for them that walk in your ways and follow in your footsteps!

(Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, #46 Persian)
www.bahai.org/r/076998102

" ... divest yourselves of the attire of haughtiness."

 

O CHILDREN OF DESIRE! 

Put away the garment of vainglory, and divest yourselves of the attire of haughtiness.

(Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, #47 Persian)
www.bahai.org/r/630765205

"By My beauty! I have created all things from dust, and to dust will I return them again."

 

blood moon by Margarete P.

O BRETHREN!

Be forbearing one with another and set not your affections on things below. Pride not yourselves in your glory, and be not ashamed of abasement. By My beauty! I have created all things from dust, and to dust will I return them again.

(Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, #48 Persian)
www.bahai.org/r/410608045

"To give and to be generous are attributes of Mine ..."

 

bloodmoon by Trina Ridvan

O CHILDREN OF DUST!

Tell the rich of the midnight sighing of the poor, lest heedlessness lead them into the path of destruction, and deprive them of the Tree of Wealth. To give and to be generous are attributes of Mine; well is it with him that adorneth himself with My virtues.

(Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, #49 Persian)
www.bahai.org/r/886046055

" ... the contented hath ever been loved and praised."

 

Seal of BahÁ'u'llÁh

O QUINTESSENCE OF PASSION!

 
Put away all covetousness and seek contentment; for the covetous hath ever been deprived, and the contented hath ever been loved and praised.

(Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, #50 Persian)
www.bahai.org/r/089879189

“God is the all-possessing”

 

photo by Trina Ridvan

O SON OF MY HANDMAID!

Be not troubled in poverty nor confident in riches, for poverty is followed by riches, and riches are followed by poverty. Yet to be poor in all save God is a wondrous gift, belittle not the value thereof, for in the end it will make thee rich in God, and thus thou shalt know the meaning of the utterance, “In truth ye are the poor,” and the holy words, “God is the all-possessing,” shall even as the true morn break forth gloriously resplendent upon the horizon of the lover’s heart, and abide secure on the throne of wealth.

(Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, #51 Persian)
www.bahai.org/r/937503023