I beseech Thee, O God of bounty and King of all created things, to guard
Thy servants from the imaginations which their hearts may devise. Raise
them up, then, to such heights that their footsteps may slip not in the
face of the evidences of Thy handiwork, which the manifold exigencies of
Thy wisdom have ordained, and whose secrets Thou hast hid from the face of
Thy people and Thy creatures. Withhold them not, O my Lord, from the ocean
of Thy knowledge, neither do Thou deprive them of what Thou didst destine
for such of Thy chosen ones as have near access to Thee, and those of Thy
trusted ones as are wholly devoted to Thy Self. Supply them, then, from
Thy sea of certainty with what will calm the agitation of their hearts.
Turn, O Lord my God, the darkness of their fancies into the brightness of
certitude, and cause them to arise, and to walk steadfastly in Thy
straight Path, that haply Thy Book may not hinder them from recognizing
Him Who is its Revealer, and Thy names from acknowledging the One Who is
their Creator, and their Provider, and their Origin, and their King, and
their Begetter, and their Destroyer, and their Glorifier, and their
Abaser, and their Governor, and the Sovereign Protector of their Bearers.
Thou art the One, O my God and my Ruler, Who hast sent down Thy Book that
Thou mayest manifest my Cause, and glorify my Word. Through it Thou didst
enter into a Covenant, concerning me, with all that hath been created in
Thy realm. Thou seest, O Beloved of the world, how the rebellious among
Thy creatures have made of that Covenant a bulwark for themselves, and
through it have withdrawn from Thy Beauty, and repudiated Thy signs.
Thou art He, O my God, Who hath commanded them in Thy great Book, and
said: “Fear ye the Most Merciful, O people of the Bayán, and deny not Him
for Whom I have ordained the Bayán to be one of the leaves of His
Paradise. I, verily, esteem it as a gift from me unto Him. Were it His
pleasure to accept it, He, truly, is the Most Bountiful; and if He cast it
away and refuse to consider it, His verdict is just, and He, in very
truth, is Praiseworthy in His acts, and meet to be obeyed in His behests.
To none is given the right to cavil at Him.”
Thou beholdest, therefore, O my God, how this wronged one hath fallen into
the hands of such as have denied Thy right, and broken off from Thy
sovereignty. He, round whose person circleth Thy proof, and in whose name
and on behalf of whose sovereignty Thy testimony crieth out unto all
created things, hath suffered more grievously in his days than any pen can
recount, and been so harassed that He Who is Thy Spirit (Jesus) lamented,
and all the denizens of Thy Kingdom and all the inmates of Thy Tabernacle
in the realms above cried with a great and bitter lamentation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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