Selections from the Writings of the Báb

5 EXCERPTS FROM THE KITÁB-I-ASMÁ (The Book of Names)

SAY, God shall of ...

SAY, God shall of a truth cause your hearts to be given to perversity if ye fail to recognize Him Whom God shall make manifest; but if ye do recognize Him God shall banish perversity from your hearts...

That day whereon ye were, by God's Will, initiated into the Bayán, did any of you know who were the Letters of the Living or the Witnesses or the Testimonies or what the names of the believers? Likewise doth God wish you to recognize Him Whom God shall make manifest on the Day of Resurrection. Beware lest ye shut yourselves out as by a veil from Him Who hath created you, by reason of your regard for those who were called into being at the bidding of the Point of the Bayán for the exaltation of His Word. Did ye possess, ere the Point of the Bayán had called you into existence, any trace of identity, how much less a writ or authority? Disregard then your beginnings, perchance ye may be saved on the day of your return. Indeed had it not been for the exaltation of the name of the Primal Point, God would not have ordained for you the Letters of the Living, nor those who are the Testimonies of His Truth, nor the Witnesses of His Justice; could ye but heed a little. All this is to glorify the Cause of Him Whom God shall make manifest at the time of His manifestation; would that ye might ponder a while.

Therefore it behooveth you to return unto God even as ye were brought forth into existence, and to utter not such words as why or nay, if ye wish your creation to yield fruit at the time of your return. For none of you who have been born in the Bayán shall gain the fruit of your beginning unless ye return unto Him Whom God shall make manifest. He it is Who caused your beginning to proceed from God, and your return to be unto Him, did ye but know.