Unto Thee be praise, O Lord my God! I testify that Thou art God, and that
there is none other God besides Thee. Thou hast from eternity been
immeasurably exalted above the praise of any one except Thee, and far
above the description of any of Thy creatures. All created things have
borne witness to Thy unity, and every dweller in Thy kingdom hath
confessed Thy oneness. The essence of the apprehension of the assured
among Thy creatures can never attain unto Thee, and the gem-like
utterances with which Thy people have praised and glorified Thee can never
hope to ascend unto the atmosphere of Thy holiness. For men's apprehension
of Thee is but the apprehension of Thine own creation; how can it reach up
to Thee? And all human praise and glorification of Thee pertain unto Thy
servants; how can they be deemed worthy of the court of Thy oneness?
I swear by Thy glory! The quintessence of knowledge is powerless to
comprehend Thy nature, and the inmost reality of every praise of Thee
falleth short of the seat of Thy great glory and of Thine all-compelling
power. Every utterance that seeketh to describe Thee, and every knowledge
that attempteth to comprehend Thee, is but an expression of Thine own
creating, and is begotten by Thy will, and fashioned in conformity with
Thy purpose.
I implore Thee, O Thou Who art inscrutable to all except Thee, and can be
comprehended through naught else save Thyself, by the wrongs which He Who
is the Day-Spring of Thy Cause hath suffered at the hands of the ignoble
among Thy creatures, and by what hath befallen Him in Thy path, to grant
that I may, at all times, be wholly dissolved in Thee, and fix my gaze
upon the horizon of Thy will and be steadfast in Thy love.
I have, O my Lord, turned unto Thee according to what Thou hast commanded
me in Thy Book, and have set my face towards the horizon of Thy
loving-kindness even as Thou hast permitted me in Thy Tablets. Cast me not
out of the door of Thy grace, I beseech Thee, and write down for me the
recompense destined for him who hath entered Thy presence, and hath risen
to serve Thee, and hath been carried away by the drops sprinkled upon him
from the Ocean of Thy favors in Thy days, and by the splendors of the
Day-Star of Thy gifts that have been shed upon him at the revelation of
the light of Thy countenance.
Potent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. No God is there save Thee, the
Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.