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"O HAYDAR! This Wronged One hath heard thy voice..."
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O HAYDAR!
[Hájí Mírzá Haydar-`Alí, outstanding Persian Bahá'í teacher and author. He spent nine years in prison and exile in Khártúm, travelled extensively in Írán, and passed away in 1920 in the Holy Land. Western pilgrims knew him as the Angel of Mount Carmel.]
This Wronged One hath heard thy voice
raised in the service of the Cause of God and is well aware
of the feeling of joy which His love hath roused in thy
heart and of thy pangs of anguish at that which hath befallen
His loved ones. I swear by the Lord of mercy! The
whole world is overwhelmed with sorrow whilst mankind
is perplexed with doubts and dissensions. The people of
God, the Lord of Names, are so grievously beset by
enemies that the supreme Paradise hath lamented and the
inmates of highest Heaven and those who, day and night,
circle round the Throne have groaned aloud.
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O `Alí! Woes and sorrows are powerless to restrain thy
Lord, the All-Merciful. Indeed He hath risen to champion
the Cause of God in such wise that neither the overpowering
might of the world nor the tyranny of the nations can
ever alarm Him. He calleth aloud betwixt earth and
heaven, saying: The Promised Day is come. The Lord of
creation proclaimeth: Verily, there is no God besides Me,
the Almighty, the All-Bountiful.
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O `Alí! The immature wish to put out the light of God
with their mouths and to extinguish by their acts the flame
in the Burning Bush. Say, wretched indeed is your plight,
O ye embodiments of delusion. Fear ye God and reject not
the heavenly grace which hath shed radiance upon all
regions. Say, He Who is the Exponent of the hidden Name
hath appeared, did ye but know it. He Whose advent hath
been foretold in the heavenly Scriptures is come, could ye
but understand it. The world's horizon is illumined by the
splendours of this Most Great Revelation. Haste ye with
radiant hearts and be not of them that are bereft of understanding.
The appointed Hour hath struck and mankind is
laid low. Unto this bear witness the honoured servants of
God.
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O Haydar-`Alí! I swear by the righteousness of God!
The Blast hath been blown on the Trumpet of the Bayán
as decreed by the Lord, the Merciful, and all that are in the
heavens and on the earth have swooned away except such
as have detached themselves from the world, cleaving fast
unto the Cord of God, the Lord of mankind. This is the
Day in which the earth shineth with the effulgent light of
thy Lord, but the people are lost in error and have been
shut out as by a veil. We desire to regenerate the world, yet
they have resolved to put an end to My life. Thus have their
hearts prompted them in this Day--a Day which hath been
made bright by the radiant light of the countenance of its
Lord, the Omnipotent, the Almighty, the Unconstrained.
The Mother Book hath lifted up its Voice, but the people
are bereft of hearing. The Preserved Tablet hath been
revealed with truth, yet the generality of mankind peruse
it not. They have denied the gracious favour of God after it
hath been sent down unto them and have turned away
from God, the Knower of things unseen. They firmly cling
to the hem of idle fancies, turning their backs on the hidden
Name of the Almighty.
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Say, O concourse of divines! Be fair in your judgement,
I adjure you by God. Produce then whatever proofs and
testimonies ye possess, if ye are to be reckoned among the
inmates of this glorious habitation. Set your hearts towards
the Dayspring of divine Revelation that We may disclose
before your eyes the equivalent of all such verses, proofs,
testimonies, affirmations and evidences as ye and other
kindreds of the earth possess. Fear ye God and be not of
them that well deserve the chastisement of God, the Lord
of creation.
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This is the Day in which the Ocean of knowledge hath
lifted up its Voice and hath brought forth its pearls. Would
that ye knew it! The heaven of the Bayán hath been raised
up in truth at the behest of God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
I swear by God! The Essence of knowledge
exclaimeth and saith: Lo! He Who is the Object of all
knowledge is come and through His advent the sacred
Books of God, the Gracious, the Loving, have been
embellished. Every revelation of grace, every evidence of
goodly gifts emanateth from Him and unto Him doth it
return.
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Fear ye God, O concourse of the foolish, and do not
inflict tribulations upon those who have willed naught but
that which God hath willed. Moreover, if ye heed my call,
follow not your selfish desires. The day is approaching
when everything now discernible will have faded away
and ye shall weep for having failed in your duty towards
God. Unto this testifieth this inscribed Tablet.
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Rejoice thou with great joy that We have remembered
thee both now and in the past. Indeed the sweet savours of
this remembrance shall endure and shall not change
throughout the eternity of the Names of God, the Lord of
mankind. We have graciously accepted thy devotions, thy
praise, thy teaching work and the services thou hast
rendered for the sake of this mighty Announcement. We
have also hearkened unto that which thy tongue hath
uttered at the meetings and gatherings. Verily thy Lord
heareth and observeth all things. We have attired thee with
the vesture of My good-pleasure in My heavenly Kingdom,
and from the Divine Lote-Tree which is raised on the
borders of the vale of security and peace, situate in the
luminous Spot beyond the glorious City, We call aloud
unto thee saying: In truth there is no God but Me, the
All-Knowing, the All-Wise. We have brought thee into
being to serve Me, to glorify My Word and to proclaim
My Cause. Centre thine energies upon that wherefor thou
hast been created by virtue of the Will of the supreme
Ordainer, the Ancient of Days.
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At this moment We call to remembrance Our loved ones
and bring them the joyous tidings of God's unfailing grace
and of the things that have been provided for them in
My lucid Book. Ye have tolerated the censure of the
enemies for the sake of My love and have steadfastly
endured in My Path the grievous cruelties which the ungodly
have inflicted upon you. Unto this I Myself bear
witness, and I am the All-Knowing. How vast the number
of places that have been ennobled with your blood for the
sake of God. How numerous the cities wherein the voice of
your lamentation hath been raised and the wailing of your
anguish uplifted. How many the prisons into which ye have
been cast by the hosts of tyranny. Know ye of a certainty
that He will render you victorious, will exalt you among
the peoples of the world and will demonstrate your high
rank before the gaze of all nations. Surely He will not suffer
the reward of His favoured ones to be lost.
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Take heed lest the deeds wrought by the embodiments
of idle fancy sadden you or the acts committed by every
wayward oppressor grieve you. Seize ye the chalice of
constancy through the power of His Name, quaff then
therefrom by virtue of the sovereignty of God, the
Powerful, the Omnipotent. Thus hath the Day-Star of My
tender compassion and loving-kindness shone forth above
the horizon of this Tablet that ye may render thanks unto
your Lord, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful.
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The glory that hath dawned resplendent from the
heaven of Mine utterance rest upon thee and upon them
that have directed themselves towards thee and inclined
their ears to the words which thy mouth hath uttered
concerning this glorious, this august Revelation.
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