THE GARDEN OF JUSTICE, PART II 
[ Part One | Part Three ]
O that Name! We have rendered Thee an ornament for rulers. Blessed are they if they adorn their temples with Thee, do justice among the people with pure truth and right, and make their decrees in accordance with what God hath ordained in His mighty and pre-existent Book. No ornament was ordained for them better than Thee, and by Thee their sovereignty is made manifest, their mention is exalted, and their names are commemorated in the kingdom of God, the Mighty, the Great. Whoso hath deprived himself of Thee is naked between the heavens and the earth even if attired in all the silk in the world. O concourse of monarchs, array your heads with the crowns of justice, that all regions of the land might be illumined by their light. Thus do We command you, out of Our grace upon you. O concourse of kings, God shall make manifest in the land rulers who shall repose upon cushions of justice and decree for the people that which they decree for themselves. These are the flower of My entire creation.
O people, clothe your bodies in the robes of justice, for it becometh all souls, if ye be among those who know. So, to, is it with good manners and fairness, and We require both in most of the Tablets, that ye may act accordingly. Verily, He hath only commanded Our soul to perform what is best for it and will benefit it in this world and the next. He is able, in Himself, to dispense with the actions of all others and with the insight of the learned and the perspicacious. Verily, God hath by this Name in this Tablet shed His effulgence on all things. Blessed are they who are illumined by its rays; and those who have attained it--they are Our servants who have drawn near. Verily, We have, with the hands of might, planted in this garden the trees of justice and watered them with the springs of grace. Each one of them shall bring forth its fruits. Thus hath the matter been irrevocably decreed. We are by Ourselves the Ordainer of decrees.
O manifestations of justice, when the gales of might blow, summon the people of the Bayan and remind them of this Great, this Most Great Announcement. Then ask them, "O people, by what proof have ye believed in 'Alí (the Báb) and yet have rejected the One of Whom He gave glad tidings in all the Tablets. Examine matters critically, O ignorant ones. Fear God, O concourse of the heedless! Do ye assert your faith in My Herald while disbelieving in My own Self, the Mighty, the Wise? Your likeness is as those who believed in John, the Prophet, who proclaimed to the people the kingdom of God. But when the Word (Jesus) became manifest, they rejected and slandered Him. The malediction of God be upon the wrong-doers! John had called the servants each and every day in His loudest voice, and concluded with them the Covenant of the Word of God, prophesying to them that they would attain His presence. In the end, John sacrificed His own life out of love for that glorious and wondrous Soul. But when the veil was rent and the Most Great Word appeared, they opposed Him, and said, "He has transgressed against the commandments of John." Thus have their base selves deceived them, insofar as they were deprived of meeting their Lord, the Mighty, the Powerful.
Among the idolaters was he who said, "The message of the son of Zachariah hath not yet been vindicated in the land, nor hath His sovereignty been established among the servants throughout the countries. Before it is established, no other should arise." Thereby did he display haughtiness toward the Spirit (Jesus) and he joined the opposition to Him.
Another said, "John baptized the people with water, but the one who hath appeared baptizeth only with the spirit and associateth with sinners," just as ye hear similar sayings from the people of the Bayan in these days. They repeat the charges of the former, nay, they say what none hath ever said before. Woe unto those who follow the idolaters.
Say: O people of the Bayan, stand ashamed before the Beauty of your Lord, the All-Merciful, Who hath appeared in the center of the cosmos with evident and perspicuous proof. The One who came to you aforetime named 'Alí (the Báb) gave you the glad tidings that ye would attain My presence, and informed you of My Self. He did not move save out of love for Me, nor exhaled save that He breathed My mention, the Mighty, the Wondrous. He informed you that all illumined ones would be cast into the shade by His glory, and every woman with a suckling Bábe would forsake her newborn, and every woman with a burden in her womb shall cast her burden. Thus hath the matter been revealed from the kingdom of the Will of thy Lord, the Exalted, the Omniscient.
And when the Hour came, at a time when ye were heedless thereof, and the beauty of the Beloved dawned forth from the horizon of the Will of your Lord, the Powerful, the Almighty, ye turned away from Him and opposed Him, rejecting His signs and joining partners with His Self. Then ye desired to shed His holy, pure, potent and unattainable blood. O people, fear God, and do not circumscribe the Cause of God with the limitations of your own selves. Verily, He decreeth, as He pleaseth, His command. He is, verily, the Help in Peril, the Mighty, the Omnipotent. Say: By God, He speaketh in My breast, calleth out in My spirit, and uttereth by My tongue. Verily, He it is Who wakened Me by the breezes of His Cause and inspired Me to speak forth between the heavens and the earth. Say: By God, the Mighty, the Exalted: Thus might I be among you and hear from you what no ear hath ever heard aforetime. But God made Me manifest in truth and I was enjoined to worship none but Him and to remind you of what is best for you in the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. Had this matter been in My hands, I would not have manifested Myself among those idolaters, but He, verily, chooseth and doeth as He pleaseth, and decreeth what He willeth.
O people, look not upon Me through your eyes or the eyes of your leaders, for by God, the Eternal Truth, that shall never profit you in any way, even should ye appeal for help to the first creatures to be created. Rather, look upon My beauty with My eyes, for if ye gaze with the eyes of anyone else, ye will never know Me. Thus hath the matter been revealed in the Tablets of God, the Almighty, the Glorious, the Wise. Say: O people, I do not call out among you by Myself or for Myself. Rather, He calleth out as He willeth to His Self and to His servants. To this beareth witness My wailing and My plaints, and the lament of My heart, if ye be equitable. Can the dove caught up in the gales of the Will of God regain her balance? Nay, by Him Who caused Me to speak forth with the truth! Rather, they move her as they will. He, verily, decreeth that which He desireth. Her motion, and her agitation in herself, bear witness to her truth, if ye but knew. Look, O people, at the change undergone by the reed pipe that falleth into the fingers of the Will of its Lord, into which the breath of the All-Praised bloweth. Can it be silent in itself? Nay, by your Lord, the Mighty, the Beneficent. Rather, He will cause to appear from it divers melodies, according to His wish, for He is, verily, the Glorious, the Sovereign, the Powerful. Or, can the sun rise above the horizon of the Cause without giving light, or can it deny things its illumination? Nay, by the Self of Bahá, every fair-minded and perceptive person will bear witness thereto.
Say: O people, the Most High Pen is moved by the fingers of the power of your Lord, the Exalted, the Most Glorious. This was not from Me, rather from God, your Lord and the Lord of your ancient forebears. And you, O concourse of idolaters! Do ye oppose this Pen, or the One Who wieldeth it by His sovereignty? Say, woe unto you! What ye have done hath bewildered the concourse of the worlds. Then, the eye of justice weepeth for My Self, and the Re'Alíty of Justice lamenteth the harm and tribulations that have befallen Me, and crieth out at what hath been perpetrated against Me by those who were created by My Will, who pride themselves in having stood in My presence, and who sought blessings in the very earth trodden by My powerful and unattainable feet.
O manifestation of Justice! Verily, I make My plaint unto Thee concerning those who disbelieved and joined partners with God after they had been promised to My Self in all the Tablets, and in a Tablet that God preserved in the treasure hold of His impregnability, and guarded it from the eyes of all His creatures. Say: O people! Behold, ye have arrived in the Garden and have discerned a rose. Smell it, if ye perceive therefrom the fragrance of perfume. Fear God, reject Him not, nor be of those who knew and then denied, and fell into disbelief. If any persons could be found with a sense of smell, they would perceive in everything that hath appeared from Me the fragrance of God, the Sanctified, the Almighty, the Generous.
O manifestations of this Name, ye were created by My decree and were sent forth by My volition. Beware lest this station deprive you of humility in the presence of your Lord, the Glorious, the Omniscient, on a Day when God cometh in the shadows of the clouds with great dominion; when the spirit of life is breathed into the people of the universe; when the Garden is adorned by My name, the Mighty, the Munificent; when human beings are renewed by the adornment of the All-Merciful; and when all things are arrayed with the robe of the Names by the Creator, the Wondrous. Verily, ye were created for that Day. Fear God, and deprive not yourselves of that sublime grace. O ye who are named after that Name: Let not the names beguile you on that Day. Hasten unto the precincts of grace, even if the clouds of the Cause rain down upon you all the darts of wrath. Beware lest ye restrain yourselves therefrom for less than an instant. On that Day, no one shall possess anything; and on that Day, the decree shall belong to God, the Omnipotent, the All-Wise.
Say: O people, be faithful to the covenant of God, and break not the pact to which ye swore in the world of pre-existence, in the Presence of God, the Mighty, the Glorious, the All-Knowing. Say: Then open your eyes! By God, the Eternal Truth, He hath resurrected all on that Day, at that time. And God hath come in the shadows of the clouds. Blessed be God, the Dispatcher, the Mighty, the Exalted, the Great. Then shall all who are in the heavens be stricken with fear, and all the people of the concourse on High shall lament, save for the one who hath been taken by the hand of the Most Glorious by virtue of His mighty, exalted and most high Sovereignty, the one who hath had the veils obscuring his sight torn by the fingers of the divine decree, and the one whom God hath delivered from those who were in doubt about attaining the presence of God, the King, the Mighty, the Beauteous.
ART THREE