This is
The City of Radiant Acquiescence
In the name of God, the exalted, the most high.
Remind his servant of God's clemency in truth, that he might be honored
thereby among the concourse of the worlds, and might give thanks to his lord
at all times, insofar as God's bounties to him and the people of the heavens
and the earth have been completed. This is from a Book wherein is mentioned
that which will bring the people near to the court of the holy, the
manifest. It bears witness that there is no God but him and all are his
servants, and all shall return to him. The likeness of those who listen to
the melodies of God and follow them is: A light illumined by the radiance of
God, the mighty, the All-Powerful. Likewise, gaze at the crystal that
ignites fires when the sun shines on it. This is a reminder from us to those
who remember. Say, O people of the earth: If you sanctify your souls and
spirits, you will find them more fine than crystal, and this is an
indisputable truth. And if you allow God, your creator, to shine on them,
there would be reflected in them the Word of God, the help in peril, the
uncreated. Then the fire of nearness would be ignited therein, whereby your
physical and ethereal bodies would be illumined, as would everything that
pertains to you. Thus would the torch of love be kindled in the bush of your
soul, which would burn away the veils that come between you and the splendor
of the divine countenance. Thus do we teach you the paths of the soul, that
you might be among the mystic knowers.
Say: If the odor of evanescence lingers in your heart with regard to this
world and its baubles, you shall never perceive the fragrance of immortality
from the coat of the holy, the radiant One. Follow, people of the earth,
what God had enjoined upon you and do not differ with regard to the
ordinances ordained in the Book. Then hold fast to the sure handle of God,
the omnipotent, the magnificent, the All-Praised. In truth, in this tablet
the dove warbles the songs of everlasting life and speaks to you from the
kingdoms of the spirit. Herein is guidance and a reminder to the believers.
Thus does God single out for his compassion whomever he pleases, and reveals
to you from the heaven of glory mighty and wondrous fruits.
Say: People of the earth, the lamp of light has been ignited within the
glass of sanctity, whereby the concourse of eternal life has been illumined.
Fear God, and do not veil yourselves from him. The ark of God has been
fashioned by the hands of the angels of paradise. So cling to it, people of
the Bayan. It is better for you than the treasures and the glorious and
sparkling gems found in the earth. The sun of beauty has risen to the
zenith, but you are lying in the beds of heedlessness, deprived of this
grace that even the eyes of the near ones have never seen. Fear God, then
set out on the paths of radiant acquiescence in the days of God, the
powerful, the splendid, the All-Praised. If you do not know his paths, we
shall teach them to you in truth by virtue of a letter that God revealed to
me so as to complete his proof to all those who are in the realm.
Know that radiant acquiescence has infinite stages. We shall instruct you in
them by means of the words God makes to flow from my pen. This shall enable
you to dispense with all that the ancients and moderns possess. Whoever
wishes to tread the path of radiant acquiescence must be content with God,
his creator, and with what he has ordained for him and written with an
exalted pen in truth, and with whatever he has specified in holy and guarded
tablets.
He must be content with himself. But no one can attain this state until he
has severed himself from all who are in the heavens and the earth, if you be
among the mystic knowers. For if a human being commits the least iniquity
within himself, he will not be content with himself. This is that which we
have shown you in truth, so that you might be content and might ascend to
the station wherein honey and poison are the same, since both are decreed by
the mighty, the ordainer. Were someone to worship God from all eternity and
yet abhors within himself any of the calamities and adversities that have
afflicted him, his name shall not be entered in the tablets as among those
who are content with the holy and radiant pen. For those who claim in
themselves the love of God but who regret their tribulations in his path
cannot rightly be called content. This is what we say to you in truth, that
you might be steadfast in love. How can someone assert that he has the love
of God in his heart and then despise what befalls him from his beloved, the
mighty, the generous? Or that he is content with the friends of God in the
land and is humble before the believers? For if he deems himself above the
believers, it is as though he has grown haughty toward God. We take refuge
in God from that, concourse of the sincere! Whoever is content with God, his
lord, will be content with his servants, who have believed in him and his
signs on the day whereon all who are in the heavens and the earth have
swooned. For a servant's satisfaction with God cannot be demonstrated save
by his satisfaction with the friends of God, who have detached themselves
from everything but God and depended on him.
Await, then, the day whereon the trump shall be sounded, the dove shall
warble, the gates of paradise shall be thrown open, and God shall come with
a wondrous Cause. Therefore, hasten to him, people of the Bayan, and do not
hesitate for less than an instant. This is the basis of radiant
acquiescence. Do not differ regarding it, concourse of near ones. At that
time you will discover the breezes of radiant acquiescence from the east of
sanctity. You shall be overcome by yearning and you shall be transformed
upon the seat of the mighty, the trustworthy.
Beware, people of the Bayan, that you do not delay within yourselves. Do not
veil yourselves from the beauty of God, the glorious, the All-Praised. By
God, it is better for you to stand in his presence once than to possess all
that is on earth and in the heavens. But you, who have asked of God, rejoice
in yourself, for you have arrived at the city of radiant acquiescence and
wended your way to the squares of sanctity. At this time, we bear witness to
you that you have soared into the heaven of contentment. You have avoided
your own regions and drawn near to the precincts of God, the mighty, the
generous. You have emigrated from your homeland and journeyed unto God,
until you arrived in the place that is visited by the people of the
pavilions of eternity at morn and eve. Blessed are you and those like you,
whom God has enabled to attain to the shore of eternity along the crimson
sea. They hastened to the melodies of God from behind the veils of power.
Then they made pilgrimage to the place around which circumambulate the
bushes of Sinai, wherein all beings, whether among the ancients or the
moderns, have removed their sandals.
Then know that your love for God is God's good-pleasure with you and your
good-pleasure with him. This is the religious path that was ordained by the
right hand of God's wisdom, and it shall not change with a change of
prophets, nor is it renewed by the advent of a new messenger. Rather, all
enjoin this upon the people, and it is a trust of God deposited in the
hearts of the sincere. This is what suffices you above all else. Whoever
attains this flowing spring shall never forsake an iota of the Book, and
shall only be pleased with what God desires for him. Thus do we set forth
for you the verses in truth, so that you might attain certitude. After you
revive your spirit by means of the warbling of the dove and renew the temple
of your soul with the robe of immortality, then return to the house of God
in your own land and spread the glad-tidings from us among those who rejoice
in the gladness of the spirit. Remind them of the verses of God and be as
the breezes of spring to the people of your homeland, whereby they may renew
their souls and spirits. This is what we command you in truth if you are
among those who hear. You shall never be capable of this unless you turn
toward God with your entire being and unless you reject all that is in the
hands of the people.
Once you have renewed yourself then you will be able to renew the people.
This is what the dove counsels you in truth, so that you might be among the
reformers who have been encompassed by the guidance of God, who have tasted
the sweetness of love and drunk from the springs that flow from the
direction of a mighty throne.
Then remind for us all those who believe in God and his verses in your land,
as well as those who have emigrated unto God and entered into the precincts
of God, the glorious, the noble. Among them is K, who has surpassed all
others in virtue, and whom we are at this time mentioning in the book as
among the myriad of saints. Also among them is Q, who emigrated toward God
in his days and was among the devout. They include H, who emigrated and then
returned with our permission, who was immersed in the ocean of love. R heard
the melodies of the dove and entered under the shadow of God, the mighty,
the knowing. Among them are they who emigrated and returned, but whose names
we have not mentioned, all of whom have attained a high station with regard
to virtue, which none among the creation can comprehend. God will manifest
to them the fruits of their deeds and they shall soar with sapphire wings
into the garden of the holy, the generous. Some made the journey with their
hearts, and their names were inscribed by the pen of power upon glorious and
inaccessible tablets. The doors of paradise shall be thrown open before
their faces, and they shall enter therein by virtue of our peace and
compassion, where they shall reside. By God, were he to manifest to the
people of the heavens and the earth an incalculably small portion of what he
has decreed for those who journeyed and emigrated unto God, all would be led
to the wondrous and sacred shore. But all have been veiled as a result of
what they have committed in the days of God, and they were another, evil
people.
Say: Concourse of believers, be patient at what has befallen you and be not
anxious concerning the harm and suffering that have afflicted you. He shall
bestow full recompense upon the long-suffering. The world and its people
shall pass away, and all shall return to their abode in the fire, nor is
there any escape for them from the vengeance of the lord, the conquering,
the subduing, the mighty, the omnipotent. Say: People of the earth, do you
not see the transformations occurring in the land, and the changes the earth
is undergoing, such that no second goes by without most affairs therein
suffering an alteration? Therefore, what sign reassures your hearts and
souls? Woe unto you! Upon what basis have you acted in this vain life? For
you have advanced toward your base selves, and turned away from the one who
created you, nourished you, and showed greater compassion to you than has
any other. Say: By God, you are only as a wayfarer resting in the shade of a
tree. But that shade is of necessity ephemeral, and you must not repose your
confidence in it or in anything that will pass away. Put your trust in what
does not perish, in what endures in the immortality of God, the everlasting,
the eternal, the glorious. Have you found that your mornings are like your
evenings, or that your youth is like your old age? All this is a reminder to
you, Muslims. The contradictions apparent in all things were only ordained
to remind you of the impermanence of your selves, so that you might become
aware of it and not be obdurate. Hold fast instead to the cord of God, then
firmly grasp the firm handle of the Bayan. This is what was writ for you by
the finger of the glorious, the true. Thus have we taught you the gems of
knowledge, acquainted you with the wonders of wisdom, spoken to you of the
realities of mystical insight, and shown you the paths of paradise_so that
thereby your hearts and the hearts of the mystic knowers might be reassured.
Praise be to the lord of the worlds, and mercy be upon you, followers of the
Bayan. Behold, I desire to sever myself from all names, and to call out to
my lord with the melodies that enthrall the hearts of the unitarians. Praise
be to you, O God, my God. Send to your lovers what will refresh their hearts
and calm their souls, so that they might make mention of you aloud just as
they make mention of you in their hearts. That is within your power, which
encompasses both the easy and the hard. My beloved, raise the standards of
your triumph and victory above the people of your kingdom, that they might
gather together in the shade of your loving-kindness. These are the
scattered, who have dispersed through your lands, and shall never find for
themselves a refuge save with you, or a sanctuary other than you, or an
asylum except for you. Then gather them beneath the shadow of the tree of
your loving-kindness and honor them with your grace, and verily you are the
most generous of the generous.
You know, my beloved, what your enemies have done to your friends, such that
they usurped from them everything you had bestowed upon them by your
munificence and inflicted on them that of which no ear had ever heard. In
every land their blood was shed, and on every pyre their bodies were
cremated. How many a little one was left with no elder, how many a mother
wailed for her son, and how many a son wept for his father. You have
reckoned all of that, and were witness to it. In truth, my God, you witness
and see how tyranny has encompassed your earth and your countries such that
the traits of justice will not be visible to anyone. All have followed the
demons, and affairs have nearly reached the point where your name and
attributes have been lifted from the earth. All have adopted a deity for
themselves other than you. You are, concerning all this, knowing, informed.
The darkness of heedlessness has encompassed all the people of your earth,
such that were any of your servants to mention your name, they would
ridicule him. My heart, and the breasts of the unitarians, have burned at
this. By your glory, my beloved, I shall never find any of your servants
following your path, nor shall I ever perceive from them the fragrance of
your love. All have adopted this world for themselves as a protector, save
for those who returned to you and were among the returnees.
Every day I associate with the servants, and I see them heedless of you,
such that they turn their faces toward every countenance but not toward your
illumined visage, and they turn toward every city save the city of your
glorious divinity. It is as though it was not you who had created them and
nourished them. Thus have we found affairs to be among those idolaters.
Abasement has reached the point where your friends will be unable to make
mention of you, and when they wish to recite your words they will have to
hide in their homes. Thus have the hearts of the lovers been filled with
sorrow. If you accept this state of affairs for yourself, O my God, then woe
betide your pure ones in your land. How can they hear from your enemies what
does not befit your station? Would that all of them were struck blind so as
not to see it, and struck deaf so as not to hear what is inappropriate to
your radiant beauty. In truth, were you to leave them in this condition, by
your might, the evidences of your sovereignty would be effaced in your
kingdom, the pillars of your rule in your land would be demolished, and your
name and epithet would be erased throughout all creation.
O my God and my beloved, do not make them wait, after matters have come to
this. Rather, reveal them what will turn them toward you. Then remove this
lad who has arisen against you with his entire being, and those who followed
him in his passions, so as to purify your sanctified land from those
infidels. I know, O my God, that you desired this every year, but it did not
occur because you changed your mind, and this is the evident truth. Then
send down, O my God, your fixed decrees and effective laws, which can never
be repelled by a change of mind or altered by selfish passion. Then fix all
this, my beloved, upon glorious and preserved Tablets and in a holy and wise
book that shall never be effaced and which shall not be subject to
limitations, but rather in which matters shall be inscribed by the mighty
pen of command. Then decree thereafter, my God, what is good for your
servants, for in your hand is all good. In truth, you are the ruler, the
judge, the knowing, the giving, the wise.
How long, O my God, will you forebear toward your own enemies? By your
glory, your patience has reached the point where your servants complain of
the wonders of your might, rather they have become convinced it does not
exist, whereas I remain certain that you are powerful over all things. In
truth, you are the most powerful of the powerful.
You know that my anxiety was not for myself, nor for the abasement of your
lovers. Rather, I see that all have risen in opposition to you and your
beauty, and have ridiculed your verses. For this reason, my breast burns, my
inmost soul cries out, and my eye weeps. In truth, you know what is in my
soul, and you encompass all things. Therefor, my beloved, forgive me and my
offenses, which I have committed in your presence, for my very mention of
you is a sin unmatched by anything in the heavens or on earth. Then forgive
my parents, my loved ones, my kith and kin. In truth, you are the most
merciful of the merciful. Then forgive the one who hurried unto you and
arrived in your presence, and his parents. Do not seize hold of them, my
beloved, for their offenses and sins. Rather, show compassion to them and
show them forbearance. In truth, you are the most clement of the clement,
and the most generous of the generous. This is a Book from Baha to all who
are in the heavens and on earth. Praise be to God, lord of the worlds.