O ye sincere ones, ye longing ones, ye who are drawn as if magnetized, ye
who have risen up to serve the Cause of God, to exalt His Word and scatter
His sweet savours far and wide! I have read your excellent letter,
beautiful as to style, eloquent as to words, profound as to meaning, and I
praised God and thanked Him for having come to your aid and enabled you to
serve Him in His widespreading vineyard.
Erelong shall your faces be bright with the radiance of your supplications
and your worship of God, your prayers unto Him, and your humility and
selflessness in the presence of the friends. He will make of your
assemblage a magnet that will draw unto you the bright rays of divine
confirmations that shine out from His kingdom of glory.
It is incumbent upon you to ponder in your hearts and meditate upon His
words, and humbly to call upon Him, and to put away self in His heavenly
Cause. These are the things that will make of you signs of guidance unto
all mankind, and brilliant stars shining down from the all-highest
horizon, and towering trees in the Abha Paradise.
Know ye that 'Abdu'l-Baha dwelleth in continual delight. To have been
lodged in this faraway prison is for me exceeding joy. By the life of
Baha! This prison is my supernal paradise; it is my cherished goal, the
comfort of my bosom, the bliss of my heart; it is my refuge, my shelter,
my asylum, my safe haven, and within it do I exult amid the hosts of
heaven and the Company on high.
Rejoice in my bondage, O ye friends of God, for it soweth the seeds of
freedom; rejoice at my imprisonment, for it is the well-spring of
salvation; be ye glad on account of my travail, for it leadeth to eternal
ease. By the Lord God! I would not exchange this prison for the throne of
the whole world, nor give up this confinement for pleasures and pastimes
in all the fair gardens on earth. My hope is that out of the Lord's
abundant grace, His munificence and loving-kindness, I may, in His
pathway, be hanged against the sky, that my heart may become the target
for a thousand bullets, or that I may be cast into the depths of the sea,
or be left to perish on desert sands. This is what I long for most; this
is my supreme desire; it refresheth my soul, it is balm for my breast, it
is the very solace of mine eyes.
As for you, O ye lovers of God, make firm your steps in His Cause, with
such resolve that ye shall not be shaken though the direst of calamities
assail the world. By nothing, under no conditions, be ye perturbed. Be ye
anchored fast as the high mountains, be stars that dawn over the horizon
of life, be bright lamps in the gatherings of unity, be souls humble and
lowly in the presence of the friends, be innocent in heart. Be ye symbols
of guidance and lights of godliness, severed from the world, clinging to
the handhold that is sure and strong, spreading abroad the spirit of life,
riding the Ark of salvation. Be ye daysprings of generosity,
dawning-points of the mysteries of existence, sites where inspiration
alighteth, rising-places of splendours, souls that are sustained by the
Holy Spirit, enamoured of the Lord, detached from all save Him, holy above
the characteristics of humankind, clothed in the attributes of the angels
of heaven, that ye may win for yourselves the highest bestowal of all, in
this new time, this wondrous age.
By the life of Baha! Only he who is severed from the world shall achieve
this ultimate grace, he who is a captive of divine love, empty of passion
and self, from every aspect true unto his God, humble, lowly,
supplicating, in tears, submissive in the presence of the Lord.