Fear God Ye Inhabitants Of The City (constantinople)

Sources: Gleanings From The Writings Of Baha'u'llah

Fear God, ye inhabitants of the City (Constantinople), and sow not the

seeds of dissension amongst men. Walk not in the paths of the Evil One.

Walk ye, during the few remaining days of your life, in the ways of the

one true God. Your days shall pass away as have the days of them who were

before you. To dust shall ye return, even as your fathers of old did

return.



Know ye that I am afraid of none except Go . In none but Him have I placed

My trust; to none will I cleave but Him, and wish for naught except the

thing He hath wished for Me. This, indeed, is My heart's desire, did ye

but know it. I have offered up My soul and My body as a sacrifice for God,

the Lord of all worlds. Whoso hath known God shall know none but Him, and

he that feareth God shall be afraid of no one except Him, though the

powers of the whole earth rise up and be arrayed against him. I speak

naught except at His bidding, and follow not, through the power of God and

His might, except His truth. He, verily, shall recompense the truthful.



Narrate, O Servant, the things Thou didst behold at the time of Thine

arrival in the City, that Thy testimony may endure amongst men, and serve

as a warning unto them that believe. We found, upon Our arrival in the

City, its governors and elders as children gathered about and disporting

themselves with clay. We perceived no one sufficiently mature to acquire

from Us the truths which God hath taught Us, nor ripe for Our wondrous

words of wisdom. Our inner eye wept sore over them, and over their

transgressions and their total disregard of the thing for which they were

created. This is what We observed in that City, and which We have chosen

to note down in Our Book, that it may serve as a warning unto them, and

unto the rest of mankind.



Say: If ye be seekers after this life and the vanities thereof, ye should

have sought them while ye were still enclosed in your mothers' wombs, for

at that time ye were continually approaching them, could ye but perceive

it. Ye have, on the other hand, ever since ye were born and attained

maturity, been all the while receding from the world and drawing closer to

dust. Why, then, exhibit such greed in amassing the treasures of the

earth, when your days are numbered and your chance is well-nigh lost? Will

ye not, then, O heedless ones, shake off your slumber?



Incline your ears to the counsels which this Servant giveth you for the

sake of God. He, verily, asketh no recompense from you and is resigned to

what God hath ordained for Him, and is entirely submissive to God's Will.



The days of your life are far spent, O people, and your end is fast

approaching. Put away, therefore, the things ye have devised and to which

ye cleave, and take firm hold on the precepts of God, that haply ye may

attain that which He hath purposed for you, and be of them that pursue a

right course. Delight not yourselves in the things of the world and its

vain ornaments, neither set your hopes on them. Let your reliance be on

the remembrance of God, the Most Exalted, the Most Great. He will,

erelong, bring to naught all the things ye possess. Let Him be your fear,

and forget not His covenant with you, and be not of them that are shut out

as by a veil from Him.



Beware that ye swell not with pride before God, and disdainfully reject

His loved ones. Defer ye humbly to the faithful, they that have believed

in God and in His signs, whose hearts witness to His unity, whose tongues

proclaim His oneness, and who speak not except by His leave. Thus do We

exhort you with justice, and warn you with truth, that perchance ye may be

awakened.



Lay not on any soul a load which ye would not wish to be laid upon you,

and desire not for any one the things ye would not desire for yourselves.

This is My best counsel unto you, did ye but observe it.



Respect ye the divines and learned amongst you, they whose conduct accords

with their professions, who transgress not the bounds which God hath

fixed, whose judgments are in conformity with His behests as revealed in

His Book. Know ye that they are the lamps of guidance unto them that are

in the heavens and on the earth. They who disregard and neglect the

divines and learned that live amongst them--these have truly changed the

favor with which God hath favored them.



Say: Await ye till God will have changed His favor unto you. Nothing

whatsoever escapeth Him. He knoweth the secrets both of the heavens and of

the earth. His knowledge embraceth all things. Rejoice not in what ye have

done, or will do in the future, nor delight in the tribulation with which

ye have afflicted Us, for ye are unable by such means as these to exalt

your stations, were ye to examine your works with acute discernment.

Neither will ye be capable of detracting from the loftiness of Our state.

Nay, God will add unto the recompense with which He shall reward Us, for

having sustained with persevering patience the tribulations We have

suffered. He, verily, shall increase the reward of them that endure with

patience.



Know ye that trials and tribulations have, from time immemorial, been the

lot of the chosen Ones of God and His beloved, and such of His servants as

are detached from all else but Him, they whom neither merchandise nor

traffic beguile from the remembrance of the Almighty, they that speak not

till He hath spoken, and act according to His commandment. Such is God's

method carried into effect of old, and such will it remain in the future.

Blessed are the steadfastly enduring, they that are patient under ills and

hardships, who lament not over anything that befalleth them, and who tread

the path of resignation....



The day is approaching when God will have raised up a people who will call

to remembrance Our days, who will tell the tale of Our trials, who will

demand the restitution of Our rights from them that, without a tittle of

evidence, have treated Us with manifest injustice. God, assuredly,

dominateth the lives of them that wronged Us, and is well aware of their

doings. He will, most certainly, lay hold on them for their sins. He,

verily, is the fiercest of avengers.



Thus have We recounted unto you the tales of the one true God, and sent

down unto you the things He had preordained, that haply ye may ask

forgiveness of Him, may return unto Him, may truly repent, may realize

your misdeeds, may shake off your slumber, may be roused from your

heedlessness, may atone for the things that have escaped you, and be of

them that do good. Let him who will, acknowledge the truth of My words;

and as to him that willeth not, let him turn aside. My sole duty is to

remind you of your failure in duty towards the Cause of God, if perchance

ye may be of them that heed My warning. Wherefore, hearken ye unto My

speech, and return ye to God and repent, that He, through His grace, may

have mercy upon you, may wash away your sins, and forgive your trespasses.

The greatness of His mercy surpasseth the fury of His wrath, and His grace

encompasseth all who have been called into being and been clothed with the

robe of life, be they of the past or of the future.