Mystical writings are a divine test
Qualities needed to understand the holy writings
The Tablet of
the Holy Mariner was revealed in 1863 on the fifth day of
Naw-ruz a few
weeks before Baha'u'llah declared his prophethood and
mission on
the first day of Ridvan. The first part of the tablet speaks of
the forthcoming
declaration of Baha'u'llah. A number of symbolic terms
used related
to the revelation of Baha'u'llah include: "Holy Mariner", "The
ark of eternity",
"the deathless tree", "the Hand of God", "the snow-white
spot" and "the
Maid of Heaven".
The latter part
of the tablet is about one maiden of the Maid of Heaven's
handmaidens.
The text of the tablet is in bold italic,
references
are in
regular font
and
comments are in purple.
He is
the Gracious, the Well-Beloved! O Holy Mariner! Bid thine ark of
eternity
appear before the Celestial Concourse,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Launch it upon
the ancient
sea,
in His Name, the Most Wondrous,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! And let the
angelic spirits
enter,
in the Name of God, the Most High.
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Unmoor it, then,
that it may
sail
upon the ocean of glory,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Haply the dwellers
therein
may attain
the retreats of nearness in the everlasting realm.
This can be
thought of as God revealing to Baha'u'llah, telling him to launch
his revelation
-- to declare his prophethood to the Babi's (and the world) and
reveal to them
the path to nearness to God.
Bless, O my God, those of the followers
of the Bayán as have been numbered
with the people of Bahá, who
have entered within the Crimson Ark in Thy Name,
the Most Exalted, the Most High.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers
and Meditations, p. 44
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Having reached
the sacred
strand,
the shore of the crimson seas,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Bid them issue
forth and
attain
this ethereal invisible station,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! A station wherein
the Lord
hath
in the Flame of His Beauty appeared within the deathless
tree;
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Wherein the
embodiments of
His Cause
cleansed themselves of self and passion;
The believers
are journeying on the ark (a spiritual journey) and reach their
destination,
arriving at the shore of the crimson seas. At which point they
attain the
ethereal (celestial) invisible station in which they are cleansed of
self and passion
-- qualities of a believer at the Seventh
Valley.
And further: The stages that mark
the wayfarer's journey from the abode
of dust to the heavenly homeland
are said to be seven. Some have called
these Seven Valleys, and others,
Seven Cities. And they say that until the
wayfarer taketh leave of self, and
traverseth these stages, he shall never
reach to the ocean of nearness and
union, nor drink of the peerless wine.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The
Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys, p. 4
O My servants! My holy, My divinely
ordained Revelation may be likened
unto an ocean in whose depths are
concealed innumerable pearls of great
price, of surpassing luster. It is
the duty of every seeker to bestir himself and
strive to attain the shores of this
ocean, so that he may, in proportion to the
eagerness of his search and the efforts
he hath exerted, partake of such
benefits as have been pre-ordained
in God's irrevocable and hidden Tablets.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 326
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Around which
the Glory of
Moses
doth circle with the everlasting hosts;
When the qualities of the Ancient
of Days stood revealed,
Then the qualities of earthly things
did Moses burn away.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The
Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys, p. 36
No sooner did the hosts of true knowledge
appear, bearing the standards of
Divine utterance, than the tribes
of the religions were put to flight, save
only those who willed to drink from
the stream of everlasting life in a
Paradise created by the breath of
the All-Glorious.
--Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas,
p. 46
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Wherein the
Hand
of God was
drawn
forth from His bosom of Grandeur;
Say: This is
the infallible Balance which the Hand of God
is holding, in
which all who
are in the heavens and all who are on the earth are weighed,
and their fate
determined, if ye be of them that believe and recognize
this truth.
Say: Through it the poor have been enriched, the learned
enlightened,
and the seekers enabled to ascend unto the presence of God.
Beware, lest
ye make it a cause of dissension amongst you. Be ye as
firmly settled
as the immovable mountain in the Cause of your Lord, the
Mighty, the
Loving.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, p. 119
Put forth, therefore,
out of the bosom of Thy glory,
O my Lord, the hand of
Thine omnipotence,
and through it assist Thou Thy loved ones who, though
sore-tried
in Thy path with such trials as have caused the inmates of the
kingdom of
Thy Cause to groan, were not deterred from turning towards the
horizon of
Thy Revelation.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Prayers and Meditations, p. 217
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Wherein the
ark
of the Cause
remaineth
motionless even though to its dwellers be
declared all
divine
attributes.
At this time the breeze of God is
wafted and the spirit of God hath surrounded.
The pen is
withheld from motion and the tongue hath ceased utterance. Briefly:
In this station
the declaration of divinity and the like have appeared from them,
while in the station of messengership
they have declared prophethood. Likewise
in every station they have made a
declaration expedient thereto and have attributed
all these to themselves; (declarations)
concerning the world of command, the world
of creation, the worlds of divinity,
and the worlds of phenomena. Therefore whatever
they may say and claim, including
divinity, deity, prophethood, messengership,
successorship, imamat or servitude
is true and without doubt. Consequently these
proven statements should be reflected
upon, that no one may be overtaken in the
sayings of the Manifestations of
the Invisible and Dawning-places of Holiness.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Baha'i
scriptures, p. 48
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! O Mariner! Teach
them that are
within
the ark that which we have taught thee behind the mystic veil,
Reveal to believers what God has revealed to you.
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Perchance they
may not tarry
in the
sacred snow-white spot,
Perchance they may not fail to truly apprehend the Revelation of God.
Verily, the
wayfarer who journeyeth unto God, unto the Crimson Pillar
in the snow-white
path, will never reach unto his heavenly goal
unless
he abandoneth
all that men possess: "And if he feareth not God, God will
make him to
fear all things; whereas all things fear him who feareth God."
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys, p. 58
The heart must needs therefore be
cleansed from the idle sayings of men,
and sanctified from every earthly
affection, so that it may discover the
hidden meaning of divine inspiration,
and become the treasury of the
mysteries of divine knowledge. Thus
hath it been said: "He that treadeth
the snow-white
Path, and followeth in the footsteps of the Crimson Pillar,
shall never attain unto his abode
unless his hands are empty of those
worldly things cherished by men."
This is the prime requisite of whosoever
treadeth this path. Ponder thereon,
that, with eyes unveiled, thou mayest
perceive the truth of these words.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The
Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 70
The Celestial
Youth hath, in this Day, raised above the heads of men the
glorious Chalice
of Immortality, and is standing expectant upon His seat,
wondering what
eye will recognize His glory, and what arm will, unhesitatingly,
be stretched
forth to seize the Cup from His snow-white
Hand and drain it.
Only a few
have as yet quaffed from this peerless, this soft-flowing grace
of the Ancient
King. These occupy the loftiest mansions of Paradise, and are
firmly established
upon the seats of authority. By the righteousness of God!
Neither the
mirrors of His glory, nor the revealers of His names, nor any
created thing,
that hath been or will ever be, can ever excel them, if ye be
of them that
comprehend this truth.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 108
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! But may soar
upon the wings
of the
spirit unto that station which the Lord hath exalted above
all mention
in the worlds below,
We dare not,
in this Day, lift the veil that concealeth the exalted
station which
every true believer can attain, for the joy which such a
revelation
must provoke might well cause a few to faint away and die.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 10
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! May wing through
space even
as the
favored birds in the realm of eternal reunion;
Consider those who rejected the Spirit
(Jesus) when He came unto them with
manifest dominion. How numerous the
Pharisees who had secluded themselves
in synagogues in His name, lamenting
over their separation from Him, and
yet when the portals
of reunion were flung open and the divine Luminary
shone resplendent from the Dayspring
of Beauty, they disbelieved in God,
the Exalted, the Mighty. They failed
to attain His presence, notwithstanding
that His advent had been promised
them in the Book of Isaiah as well as in
the Books of the Prophets and the
Messengers.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets
of Baha'u'llah, p. 9
Methinks that thou hast halted and
movest not upon My Tablet. Could the
brightness of the Divine Countenance
have bewildered thee, or the idle talk of
the froward filled thee with grief
and paralyzed thy movement? Take heed lest
anything deter thee from extolling
the greatness of this Day--the Day whereon
the Finger of majesty and power hath
opened the seal of the Wine of Reunion,
and called all who are in the heavens
and all who are on the earth. Preferrest
thou to tarry when the breeze announcing
the Day of God hath already breathed
over thee, or art thou of them that
are shut out as by a veil from Him?
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 28
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! May know the
mysteries hidden
in the
Seas of light.
Qualities of
a true seeker on the path of Positive Knowledge
(Valley of
Knowledge).
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! They passed
the grades of
worldly
limitations and reached that of the divine
unity, the center
of heavenly
guidance.
Reaching "divine
unity" -- the Babis who recognise and follow
Baha'u'llah
are those who
have reached the Valley of Unity (the Fourth Valley) in their
spiritual growth.
They are not attached to a particular manifestation but
recognise the
oneness and divinity of all Manifestations. Therefore, they
recognise a
new Manifestation.
THE VALLEY OF
UNITY (Fourth Valley)
After passing
through the Valley of knowledge, which is the last plane of
limitation,
the wayfarer cometh to the Valley of Unity
and drinketh from
the cup of
the Absolute, and gazeth on the Manifestations of Oneness. In
this station
he pierceth the veils of plurality, fleeth from the worlds of
the flesh,
and ascendeth into the heaven of singleness. With the ear of
God he heareth,
with the eye of God he beholdeth the mysteries of divine
creation. He
steppeth into the sanctuary of the Friend, and shareth as an
intimate the
pavilion of the Loved One. He stretcheth out the hand of
truth from
the sleeve of the Absolute; he revealeth the secrets of power.
He seeth in
himself neither name nor fame nor rank, but findeth his own
praise in praising
God.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys, p. 18
Beware, beware lest thou behave like
unto the people of the Bayan. For
indeed they erred grievously, misguided
the people, ignored the Covenant of
God and His Testament and joined
partners with Him, the One, the
Incomparable, the All-Knowing. Verily
they failed to recognize the Point of
the Bayan, for had they recognized
Him they would not have rejected His
manifestation in this luminous and
resplendent Being.
--Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah,
p. 185
(new theme starts)
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! They have desired
to ascend
unto
that state which the Lord hath ordained to be above their stations.
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Whereupon the
burning meteor
cast
them out from them that abide in the Kingdom of His Presence,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! And they heard
the Voice of
Grandeur
raised from behind the unseen pavilion upon the Height of Glory:
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "O guardian
angels! Return
them
to their abode in the world below,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "Inasmuch as
they have
purposed
to rise to that sphere which the wings of the celestial
dove
have never attained;
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "Whereupon the
ship of fancy
standeth
still which the minds of them that comprehend cannot grasp."
The lines above
appear to be a reference to Mirza-Yahya's false claim to be
Him Whom God
will make Manifest, and the minority of Babis who follow him
(the Azalis).
The "celestial dove"
is a reference to the next manifestation
(Baha'u'llah)
whose station he falsely claimed.
Verily, this
is the Point which God hath ordained to be an ocean of light for
the sincere
among His servants and a flame of fire to the froward amidst His
creatures and
the impious among His people--they who bartered
away the
gift of God
for unbelief, and the celestial food for hypocrisy,
and led their
associates
to a wretched abode. These are the people
who have manifested
sedition throughout
the world and have violated His Covenant on the Day when
the immortal
Being mounted His throne and the Crier raised His Voice from
the haven of
security and peace in the holy Vale.
O followers
of the Bayán! Fear ye the All-Merciful. This is the One Who hath
been glorified
by Muhammad, the Apostle of God, and before Him by the Spirit
and yet before
Him by the One Who discoursed with God.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 102
... I bear witness,
O my God, that through Him Thy most resplendent signs
have been uncovered,
and Thy mercy hath encompassed the entire creation.
But for Him,
how could the Celestial Dove
have uttered its songs or the Heavenly
Nightingale,
according to the decree of God, have warbled its melody?
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Prayers and Meditations, p. 295
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Whereupon the
maid
of heaven
looked
out from her exalted chamber,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! And with her
brow signed to
the Celestial
Concourse,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Flooding with
the light of
her countenance
the heaven and the earth,
Baha'u'llah unveils himself and manifests his signs.
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! And as the radiance
of her
beauty
shone upon the people of dust,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! All beings were
shaken in
their
mortal graves.
"Beings shaken
in their mortal graves" can
be interpreted to refer to
those who are
"as dead" and are awakened by the revelation of God on
the Day of
Resurrection.
Blessed the
lifeless one who is quickened through My reviving breaths.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 16
The breeze of the All-Merciful hath
wafted, and the souls have been quickened
in the tombs of their bodies. Thus
hath the decree been fulfilled by God, the
Mighty, the Beneficent.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets
of Baha'u'llah, p. 118
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! She then raised
the call
which
no ear through all eternity hath ever heard,
Baha'u'llah declaring a new revelation - revealing new laws and teachings.
"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
In the passage
above, the Maids of Heaven
also announce the declaration of
Baha'u'llah
to the dwellers in the invisible realm. In the passage below,
the "Moons
have diffused their lights, and the Heavens have revealed their
stars,"
can also be interpreted as another reference to this.
Say, this is
the Day when the Speaker on Sinai hath mounted the throne of
Revelation...
...when the Sun hath shed its radiance and
the Moons have
diffused their
lights, and the Heavens have revealed their
stars,...
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 107
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! And thus proclaimed:
"By
the Lord!
He whose heart hath not the fragrance of the love of the
exalted
and glorious Arabian Youth,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "Can in no wise
ascend unto
the glory
of the highest heaven."
The Arabian
Youth is the Bab, who was the Imam Mahdi (12th Imam), and
a descendant
of the Prophet Muhammad (like the Holy Imams),
and the
forerunner
of Baha'u'llah. The Babis who lack the fragrance of the Bab are
not true believers,
and also fail to recognise Baha'u'llah -- they are not
acceptable
to (have disbelieved in) God.
(new theme starts)
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Thereupon she
summoned unto
herself
one
maiden from her handmaidens,
The handmaidens
are the pre-existent dependent (lesser)
prophets of
Baha'u'llah.
O My servants
[believers]! Through the might of God and His power, and
out of the
treasury of His knowledge and wisdom, I have brought forth
and revealed
unto you the pearls that lay concealed in the depths of
His everlasting
ocean. I have summoned the Maids of Heaven
to emerge
from behind
the veil of concealment, and have clothed them
with these
words of Mine--words
of consummate power and wisdom. I have, moreover,
with the hand
of divine power, unsealed the choice wine of My Revelation,
and have wafted
its holy, its hidden, and musk-laden fragrance upon all
created things.
Who else but yourselves is to be blamed if ye choose to
remain unendowed
with so great an outpouring of God's transcendent and
all-encompassing
grace, with so bright a revelation of His resplendent
mercy?...
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 327
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.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers
and Meditations, p. 326-327
Literally, a handmaiden is a servant to the maiden.
30. O SON OF
MAN!
Deny not My
servant should he ask anything from thee, for his face is
My
face be then abashed before Me.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah.
Glorified be
my Lord, the All-Glorious! Thereupon the countenance of the
favored damsel
beamed above the celestial chambers even as the light that
shineth from
the face of the Youth above His mortal temple;
- Bahá'u'lláh,
Tablet of the Holy Mariner (taken from further below in
reference to
the handmaiden)
The Independent
Prophet (Baha'u'llah) is the Face of God and
receives
revelation
directly from God. The dependent prophets ("Maids of Heaven",
"handmaidens",
"Thy Chosen ones") are the Face of the Independent
Prophet
and receive
their revelation from the Independent Prophet (Baha'u'llah) as
indicated above
-- they are also the Face of God.
Such revelation is confined to His
Prophets and chosen Ones, inasmuch as
none mightier than they hath come
to exist in the world of being. This truth
all recognize, and bear witness thereto.
These
Prophets and chosen Ones
of God are
the recipients and revealers of all the unchangeable attributes and
names of God.
They are the mirrors that truly and faithfully reflect the light of
God.
Whatsoever is applicable to them is in reality applicable to God, Himself,
Who is both the Visible and the Invisible.
The knowledge of Him, Who is the
Origin of all things, and attainment
unto Him, are impossible save through
knowledge of, and attainment unto,
these luminous Beings who proceed from
the Sun of Truth.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The
Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 142
All recent major
revelations have had dependent prophets -- The 12 Imams
in
era of Muhammad,
the 12 Apostles in the era of Christ, and the
12 "minor" prophets
or chiefs in
the era of Moses (among: David, Solomon, Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel,
Jeremiah, Aaron,
Joshua, Samuel, Amos, Hezekiah, Elijah). At the link to Abdu'l-Baha's
writings at
the bottom of the page, the two classes of prophets are explained. Also,
Abdu'l-Baha
explains (based on the Bible) that there will be 24 dependent prophets
in the Baha'i
era -- twice the number in each of the recent major revelations -- an
aspect of the
greatness of the Day of God.
In the passages
below, the "angels"
(Matthew, 16:27), "the prophets and witnesses"
(Quran, 39:69),
"apostles..
rehearsing to you the Signs of your Lord" (Quran,
39:71)
can also be
interpreted as references to the dependent prophets.
16:27 For the
Son of man shall come in the glory of his
Father with his angels;
and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
16:28 Verily
I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste
of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
-- Bible: Matthew.
39:68 The Trumpet
will (just) be sounded [appearance of The
Bab], when all that
are in the heavens and on earth will swoon, except such as it will please
God
(to exempt). Then will a second one be sounded [appearance
of Baha'u'llah],
when, behold, they will be standing and looking on!
39:69 And the
Earth will shine with the Glory of its Lord [era
of Baha'u'llah]: the Record
(of Deeds) will be placed (open); the prophets and
the witnesses will be brought
forward and a just decision pronounced between them; and they will
not be
wronged (in the least).
39:70 And to every soul will be paid
in full (the fruit) of its Deeds; and (God) knoweth
best all that they do.
39:71 The Unbelievers will be led
to Hell in crowd: until, when they arrive,
there, its gates will be opened. And its keepers will say, "Did
not apostles
come to you from among yourselves, rehearsing to you the Signs of your
Lord,
and warning you of the Meeting of This Day of yours?" The answer
will be:
"True: but the Decree of Punishment has been proved true against the
Unbelievers!"
-- Qur'an: 39 - AZ-ZUMAR
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! And commanded
her: "Descend
into
space from the mansions of eternity,
Baha'u'llah summons a dependent prophet to appear earth.
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "And turn thou
unto that
which
they have concealed in the inmost of their hearts.
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "Shouldst thou
inhale the
perfume
of the robe from the Youth that hath been hidden within
the tabernacle
of light by reason of that which the hands of the
wicked
have wrought,
Tabernacle:
Any small cell, or like place, in which some holy precious things
was deposited
or kept. Tabernacle is also a place of worship/holiness. In the
link above
where Baha'u'llah describes the qualities needed to understand the
writings (purity,
chastity,..) it ends with the following quotation: "Well
is it with
the sincere
in heart for their share of the light of a mighty Day!"
So, what
is "hidden
in the tabernacle of light" can be interpreted
as: knowledge (in the
writings) that
would be hidden to one except if they are pure (bear the
perfume/robe
with the fragrance of the Youth) -- if they are not, they would
not grasp it
or be aware of its significance.
I swear by the life of Him Who is
the Desire of the world! Were a man to ponder
in his heart he would, free of all
attachment to the world, hasten unto the Most
Great Light
and would purge and purify himself from the
dust of vain imaginings
and the smoke of idle fancy. What
could have prompted the people of the past
to err and by whom were they misled?
They still reject the truth and have turned
towards their own selfish desires.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets
of Baha'u'llah, p. 41
Since Thou hast, O my God, established
Thyself upon the throne of Thy
transcendent unity, and ascended
the mercy seat of Thy oneness, it befitteth Thee
to blot out from the hearts of all
beings whatsoever may keep them back from
gaining admittance into the sanctuary
of Thy Divine mysteries, and may shut them
out from the tabernacle
of Thy Divinity, that all hearts may mirror Thy beauty...
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers
and Meditations, p. 324
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "Raise a cry
within thyself,
that
all the inmates of the chambers of Paradise,
that are the
embodiments
of the eternal wealth, may understand and
hearken;
Reveal yourself that true believers may recognise you.
71. O MY FRIENDS!
Call ye to
mind that covenant ye have entered into with Me upon Mount
Paran, situate
within the hallowed precincts of Zaman. I have taken
to witness
the concourse on high
and the dwellers in the city of eternity,
yet now none
do I find faithful unto the covenant. Of a certainty pride
and rebellion
have effaced it from the hearts, in such wise that no trace
thereof remaineth.
Yet knowing this, I waited and disclosed it not.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah, p.
Persian no.
71
The "Covenant"
mentioned in the Hidden Words is the Covenant and Testament
which was entered
into by the pen of the Most High in the hallowed precincts
of the Paran
of the love of God, the summit of timeless time.[10]
The
"dwellers in the city of eternity" and the
"concourse on high" are souls
who are firm
in the Covenant.
('Abdu'l-Bahá,
from a Tablet to an individual believer -- translated from
the Persian)
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "And kiss their
hands and
feet
for having soared to the heights of faithfulness;
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "Perchance they
may find from
their
robes the fragrance of the Beloved One."
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! Thereupon the
countenance
of
the favored
damsel beamed above the celestial chambers even as the
light
that shineth from the face of the Youth above His mortal temple;
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! She then descended
with such
an adorning
as to illumine the heavens and all that is therein.
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! She bestirred
herself and
perfumed
all things in the lands of holiness and grandeur.
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! When she reached
that place
she rose
to her full height in the midmost heart of
creation,
The dependent
prophet declares her/his mission in a manner that is outwardly
visible to
all -- in "midmost heart of creation".
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! And sought to
inhale their
fragrance
at a time that knoweth neither beginning nor end.
The appearance
of dependent prophets, at whatever time - an unknown
time, is a
divine test to believers. The true believers have the fragrance of
the Youth while
those who fail the test (fail to recognise the dependent
prophet) do
not. For example, a female prophet could be a test if one
has not truly
embraced the Baha'i principle of gender equality.
Know thou moreover
that in the Day of Revelation were He to pronounce
one of the
leaves [women] to be the manifestation of all His excellent
titles, unto
no one is given the right to utter why or wherefore, and
should one
do so he would be regarded as a disbeliever in God and be
numbered with
such as have repudiated His Truth.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 185
Ponder this in thine heart, that the
sweet gales of divine knowledge,
blowing from the meads of mercy,
may waft upon thee the fragrance of the
Beloved's utterance,
and cause thy soul to attain the Ridván of
understanding. As the wayward of
every age have failed to fathom the deeper
import of these weighty and pregnant
utterances, and imagined the answer of
the Prophets of God to be irrelevant
to the questions they asked them, they
therefore have attributed ignorance
and folly to those Essences of
knowledge and understanding.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The
Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 149
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.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
Tablet of the Holy Mariner (from the Persian).
69. O CHILDREN
OF ADAM!
Holy words
and pure and goodly deeds ascend unto the heaven of celestial
glory. Strive
that your deeds may be cleansed from the dust of self and
hypocrisy and
find favor at the court of glory; for ere long the assayers of
mankind shall,
in the holy presence of the Adored One, accept naught but
absolute virtue
and deeds of stainless purity. This is the daystar of wisdom
and of divine
mystery that hath shone above the horizon of the divine will.
Blessed are
they that turn thereunto.
-- Bahá'u'lláh,
The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah
Persian no.
69
This holy verse
is replete with meaning, and as time is pressing only a brief
mention is
made as follows: naught else but upright conduct and pure deeds
shall be accepted
at His divine Threshold.
('Abdu'l-Bahá
from a Tablet to an individual believer -- translated
from the Persian)
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! She found not
in them that which
she did
desire,
and this, verily, is but one of His wondrous tales.
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! She then cried
aloud, wailed
and repaired
to her own station within her most lofty mansion,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! And then gave
utterance to
one mystic
word, whispered privily by her honeyed tongue,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! And raised the
call amidst
the Celestial
Concourse and the immortal maids of heaven:
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "By the Lord!
I found not
from
these idle claimants the breeze of Faithfulness!
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! "By the Lord!
The Youth hath
remained
lone and forlorn in the land of exile in the hands of the
ungodly."
"By the Lord!..."
-- likening the experiences of the dependent prophet to those
of Bahá'u'lláh
(The Youth)?
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! She then uttered
within
herself
such a cry that the Celestial Concourse did shriek and tremble,
Glorified
be my Lord, the All-Glorious! And she fell
upon the dust
and gave
up the spirit. It seemeth she was called and hearkened unto
Him that
summoned her unto the Realm on High.
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
References in the writings of Baha'u'llah.
References in the writings of Abdu'l-Baha.
Tablet
of the Holy Mariner - Persian (provisional translation).
Download
HTML files of compilation on Tablet of the Holy Mariner.
