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the power of the might of thy Lord, the Supreme Protector, the Almighty,

the one Beloved. Thou art indeed to be numbered with those Letters that

have excelled every other Letter. Wherefore thou hast been singled out by

God through the tongue of thy Lord, the Bab, the brightness of Whose

countenance hath enveloped, and will continue to envelop, the whole of

creation. Render thanks unto the Almighty, and magnify His name, inasmuch

as He hath aided thee to recognize a Cause that hath made the hearts of

the inhabitants of the heavens and of the earth to tremble, that hath

caused the denizens of the Kingdoms of creation and of Revelation to cry

out, and through which the hidden secrets of men's breasts have been

searched out and tested.



Thy Lord, the Most High (the Bab), addresseth thee, from His Realm of

glory, these words: Great is the blessedness that awaiteth thee, O Letter

of the Living, for thou hast truly believed in Me, hast refused to shame

Me before the Concourse on high, hast fulfilled thy pledge, hast cast away

the veil of vain imaginings, and hast fixed thy gaze upon the Lord, thy

God, the Lord of the unseen and the seen, the Lord of the Frequented Fane.

I am well pleased with thee, inasmuch as I have found thy face beaming

with light on the Day when faces have been made dismal and turned black.



Say: O people of the Bayan! Did We not admonish you, in all Our Tablets

and in all Our hidden Scriptures, not to follow your evil passions and

corrupt inclinations, but to keep your eyes directed towards the Scene of

transcendent glory, on the Day when the Most Mighty Balance shall be set,

the Day when the sweet melodies of the Spirit of God shall be poured out

from the right hand of the throne of your Lord, the omnipotent Protector,

the All-Powerful, the Holy of Holies? Did We not forbid you to cleave to

the things that would shut you out from the Manifestation of our Beauty,

in its subsequent Revelation, be they the embodiments of the names of God

and all their glory, or the revealers of His attributes and their

dominion? Behold, how, as soon as I revealed Myself, ye have rejected My

truth and turned away from Me, and been of them that have regarded the

signs of God as a play and pastime!



By My Beauty! Nothing whatsoever shall, in this Day, be accepted from you,

though ye continue to worship and prostrate yourselves before God

throughout the eternity of His dominion. For all things are dependent upon

His Will, and the worth of all acts is conditioned upon His acceptance and

pleasure. The whole universe is but a handful of clay in His grasp. Unless

one recognize God and love Him, his cry shall not be heard by God in this

Day. This is of the essence of His Faith, did ye but know it.



Will ye be content with that which is like the vapor in a plain, and be

willing to forgo the Ocean Whose waters refresh, by virtue of the Will of

God, the souls of men? Woe unto you, for having repaid the bounty of God

with so vain and contemptible a thing! Ye are, indeed, of them that have

rejected Me in My previous Revelation. Would that your hearts could

comprehend!



Arise, and, under the eyes of God, atone for your failures in duty towards

Him. This is My commandment unto you, were ye to incline your ears unto My

commandment. By Mine own Self! Neither the people of the Qur'an, nor the

followers of either the Torah or the Evangel, nor those of any other Book,

have committed that which your hands have wrought. I, Myself, have

dedicated My whole life to the vindication of the truth of this Faith. I,

Myself, have announced, in all My Tablets, the advent of His Revelation.

And yet, no sooner did He manifest Himself, in His subsequent Revelation,

clothed in the glory of Baha and arrayed in the robe of His grandeur, than

ye rebelled against Him Who is the supreme Protector, the Self-Subsisting.

Beware, O people! Be ye ashamed of that which hath befallen Me at your

hands in the path of God. Take heed that ye be not of them that have

rejected that which hath been sent down unto them from the Heaven of God's

transcendent glory.



Such, O Letter of the Living, are the words which thy Lord hath spoken,

and addressed unto thee from the realms above. Proclaim the words of thy

Lord unto His servants, that perchance they may shake off their slumber,

and ask pardon of God, Who hath formed and fashioned them, and sent down

unto them this most effulgent, this most holy, and manifest Revelation of

His Beauty.