< < back to Table of Contents
Chapter 20
---------------
The Deathless Tree (Burning Bush) -- the Revelation of God.
1)
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.
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;
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Around which the Glory of Moses doth circle with the everlasting hosts;
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Tablet of the Holy Mariner, Compilations, Baha'i Prayers, p. 220
2)
The breezes of the Most Merciful have passed over all created things;
happy the man that hath discovered their fragrance, and set himself
towards them with a sound heart. Attire thy temple with the ornament of
My Name, and thy tongue with remembrance of Me, and thine heart with
love for Me, the Almighty, the Most High. We have desired for thee
naught except that which is better for thee than what thou dost possess
and all the treasures of the earth. Thy Lord, verily, is knowing,
informed of all. Arise, in My Name, amongst My servants, and say: `O ye
peoples of the earth! Turn yourselves towards Him Who hath turned
towards you. He, verily, is the Face of God amongst you, and His
Testimony and His Guide unto you. He hath come to you with signs which
none can produce.' The voice of the Burning Bush
is raised in the midmost heart of the world, and the Holy Spirit
calleth aloud among the nations: `Lo, the Desired One is come with
manifest dominion!'
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Proclamation of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 18-19
3)
Lauded be Thy name, O my God! This is the hour when Thou hast unlocked
the doors of Thy bounty before the faces of Thy creatures, and opened
wide the portals of Thy tender mercy unto all the dwellers of Thine
earth. I beseech Thee, by all them whose blood was shed in Thy path,
who, in their yearning over Thee, rid themselves from all attachment to
any of Thy creatures, and who were so carried away by the sweet savors
of Thine inspiration that every single member of their bodies intoned
Thy praise and vibrated to Thy remembrance, not to withhold from us the
things Thou hast irrevocably ordained in this Revelation--a Revelation
the potency of which hath caused every tree to cry out what the Burning Bush
had aforetime proclaimed unto Moses, Who conversed with Thee, a
Revelation that hath enabled every least pebble to resound again with
Thy praise, as the stones glorified Thee in the days of Muhammad, Thy
Friend.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and Meditations, p. 144
4)
O ye kinsmen of the Most Great Remembrance! This Tree of Holiness, dyed
crimson with the oil of servitude, hath verily sprung forth out of your
own soil in the midst of the Burning Bush,
yet ye comprehend nothing whatever thereof, neither of His true,
heavenly attributes, nor of the actual circumstances of His earthly
life, nor of the evidences of His powerful and unblemished behaviour.
-- The Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 52
5)
O ye that circle the throne of glory! Hearken unto My Call which is raised from the midst of the Burning Bush,
`Verily I am God and there is none other God but Me. Hence worship Me,
and for the sake of Him Who is the Most Great Remembrance, offer ye
prayers, purged from the insinuations of the people, for verily your
Lord, the One true God, is none other than the Sovereign Truth. Indeed
such as invoke others besides Him are deservedly numbered among the
inmates of the fire, while He Who is the Remembrance of God verily
abideth, firm and undeviating, on the Path of Truth amidst the Burning
Bush.'...
-- The Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 69
6)
"Call out to Zion, O Carmel, and announce the joyful tidings: He that
was hidden from mortal eyes is come! His all-conquering sovereignty is
manifest; His all-encompassing splendor is revealed. Beware lest thou
hesitate or halt. Hasten forth and circumambulate the City of God that
hath descended from heaven, the celestial Kaaba round which have
circled in adoration the favored of God, the pure in heart, and the
company of the most exalted angels. Oh, how I long to announce unto
every spot on the surface of the earth, and to carry to each one of its
cities, the glad-tidings of this Revelation--a Revelation to which the
heart of Sinai hath been attracted, and in whose name the Burning Bush
is calling: `Unto God, the Lord of Lords, belong the kingdoms of earth
and heaven.' Verily this is the Day in which both land and sea rejoice
at this announcement, the Day for which have been laid up those things
which God, through a bounty beyond the ken of mortal mind or heart,
hath destined for revelation. Ere long will God sail His Ark upon thee,
and will manifest the people of Bahá who have been mentioned in the
Book of Names."
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 16
7)
Moreover, in the traditions the terms "sun" and "moon" have been
applied to prayer and fasting, even as it is said: "Fasting is
illumination, prayer is light." One day, a well-known divine came to
visit Us. While We were conversing with him, he referred to the
above-quoted tradition. He said: "Inasmuch as fasting causeth the heat
of the body to increase, it hath therefore been likened unto the light
of the sun; and as the prayer of the night-season refresheth man, it
hath been compared unto the radiance of the moon." Thereupon We
realized that that poor man had not been favoured with a single drop of
the ocean of true understanding, and had strayed far from the burning Bush of
divine wisdom. We then politely observed to him saying: "The
interpretation your honour hath given to this tradition is the one
current amongst the people. Could it not be interpreted differently?"
He asked Us: "What could it be?" We made reply: "Muhammad, the Seal of
the Prophets, and the most distinguished of God's chosen Ones, hath
likened the Dispensation of the Qur'án unto heaven, by reason of its
loftiness, its paramount influence, its majesty, and the fact that it
comprehendeth all religions. And as the sun and moon constitute the
brightest and most prominent luminaries in the heavens, similarly in
the heaven of the religion of God two shining orbs have been
ordained--fasting and prayer. `Islám is heaven; fasting is its sun,
prayer, its moon.'"
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 39-40
< < back to Table of Contents