O ye close and dear friends of 'Abdu'l-Baha!
In the Orient scatter perfumes,
And shed splendours on the West.
Carry light unto the Bulgar,
And the Slav with life invest.
One year after the ascension of Baha'u'llah, there came this verse from
the lips of the Centre of the Covenant. The Covenant-breakers found it
strange indeed, and they treated it with scorn. Yet, praised be God, its
effects are now manifest, its power revealed, its import clear; for by
God's grace, today both East and West are trembling for joy, and now, from
sweet waftings of holiness, the whole earth is scented with musk.
The Blessed Beauty, in unmistakable language, hath made this promise in
His Book: 'We behold you from Our realm of glory, and shall aid whosoever
will arise for the triumph of Our Cause with the hosts of the Concourse on
high and a company of Our favoured angels.'(73)
God be thanked, that promised aid hath been vouchsafed, as is plain for
all to see, and it shineth forth as clear as the sun in the heavens.
Wherefore, O ye friends of God, redouble your efforts, strain every nerve,
till ye triumph in your servitude to the Ancient Beauty, the Manifest
Light, and become the cause of spreading far and wide the rays of the
Day-Star of Truth. Breathe ye into the world's worn and wasted body the
fresh breath of life, and in the furrows of every region sow ye holy seed.
Rise up to champion this Cause; open your lips and teach. In the meeting
place of life be ye a guiding candle; in the skies of this world be
dazzling stars; in the gardens of unity be birds of the spirit, singing of
inner truths and mysteries.
Expend your every breath of life in this great Cause and dedicate all your
days to the service of Baha, so that in the end, safe from loss and
deprivation, ye will inherit the heaped-up treasures of the realms above.
For the days of a man are full of peril and he cannot rely on so much as a
moment more of life; and still the people, who are even as a wavering
mirage of illusions, tell themselves that in the end they shall reach the
heights. Alas for them! The men of bygone times hugged these same fancies
to their breasts, until a wave flicked over them and they returned to
dust, and they found themselves excluded and bereft--all save those souls
who had freed themselves from self and had flung away their lives in the
pathway of God. Their bright star shone out in the skies of ancient glory,
and the handed-down memories of all the ages are the proof of what I say.
Wherefore, rest ye neither day nor night and seek no ease. Tell ye the
secrets of servitude, follow the pathway of service, till ye attain the
promised succour that cometh from the realms of God.
O friends! Black clouds have shrouded all this earth, and the darkness of
hatred and malice, of cruelty and aggression and defilement is spreading
far and wide. The people, one and all, live out their lives in a heedless
stupor and the chief virtues of man are held to be his rapacity and his
thirst for blood. Out of all the mass of humankind God hath chosen the
friends, and He hath favoured them with His guidance and boundless grace.
His purpose is this, that we, all of us, should strive with our whole
hearts to offer ourselves up, guide others to His path, and train the
souls of men--until these frenzied beasts change to gazelles in the meadows
of oneness, and these wolves to lambs of God, and these brutish creatures
to angelic hosts; till the fires of hatred are quenched, and the flame
coming out of the sheltered vale of the Holy Shrine doth shed its
splendours; till the foul odour of the tyrant's dunghill is blown away,
and yieldeth to the pure, sweet scents that stream from the rosebeds of
faith and trust. On that day will the weak of intellect draw on the bounty
of the divine, Universal Mind, and they whose life is but abomination will
seek out these cleansing, holy breaths.
But there needs must be souls who will manifest such bestowals, there
needs must be husbandmen to till these fields, gardeners for these
gardens, there needs must be fish to swim in this sea, stars to gleam in
these heavens. These ailing ones must be tended by spiritual physicians,
these who are the lost need gentle guides--so that from such souls the
bereft may receive their portion, and the deprived obtain their share, and
the poor discover in such as they unmeasured wealth, and the seekers hear
from them unanswerable proofs.
O my Lord, my Defender, my Help in peril! Lowly do I entreat Thee, ailing
do I come unto Thee to be healed, humbly do I cry out to Thee with my
tongue, my soul, my spirit:
O God, my God! The gloom of night hath shrouded every region, and all the
earth is shut away behind thick clouds. The peoples of the world are sunk
in the black depths of vain illusions, while their tyrants wallow in
cruelty and hate. I see nothing but the glare of searing fires that blaze
upward from the nethermost abyss, I hear nothing save the thunderous roar
that belloweth out from thousands upon thousands of fiery weapons of
assault, while every land is crying aloud in its secret tongue: 'My riches
avail me nothing, and my sovereignty hath perished!'
O my Lord, the lamps of guidance have gone out. The flames of passion are
mounting high, and malevolence is ever gaining on the world. Malice and
hate have overspread the face of the whole earth, and I find no souls
except Thine own oppressed small band who are raising up this cry:
Make haste to love! Make haste to trust! Make haste to give! To guidance
come!
Come ye for harmony! To behold the Star of Day! Come here for kindliness,
for ease! Come here for amity and peace!
Come and cast down your weapons of wrath, till unity is won! Come and in
the Lord's true path each one help each one.
Verily with exceeding joy, with heart and soul, do these oppressed of
Thine offer themselves up for all mankind in every land. Thou seest them,
O my Lord, weeping over the tears Thy people shed, mourning the grief of
Thy children, condoling with humankind, suffering because of the
calamities that beset all the denizens of the earth.
O my Lord, wing them with victory that they may soar upward to salvation,
strengthen their loins in service to Thy people, and their backs in
servitude to Thy Threshold of Holiness.
Verily Thou art the Generous, verily Thou art the Merciful! There is none
other God save Thee, the Clement, the Pitiful, the Ancient of Days!