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Chapter 2
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Tablet of the Holy Mariner (from the Persian).
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 by Juan Cole)
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