ʻAbdu'l-Bahá

“ Praise be unto thee! Exaltation be unto thee! Faithfulness be unto thee! O thou sign of guidance and thou standard of great martyrdom!
O that the bullets which shot thee were shot at the breast of Abdul-Baha! O that the darts which pierced thee would strike the heart of Abdul-Baha! By the might of my Lord, afflictions are much more favored by Abdul-Baha than the honey of life, inasmuch as this cup is overflowing with the gift of God.
Blessed is the one who attaineth to visit thy grave! Blessed is the forehead which is set against thy tomb! Blessed is the man who serves thy sepulchre! ”

“ Be ye a rich treasure to every indigent one; consider love and union as a delectable paradise, and count annoyance and hostility as the torment of hell-fire. Exert with your soul; seek no rest in body; supplicate and beseech with your heart and search for divine assistance and favor, in order that ye may make this world the Paradise of ABHA and this terrestrial globe the arena of the Supreme Kingdom. If ye make an effort, it is certain that these lights will shine, this cloud of mercy shall rain, this soul-nourishing breeze shall waft, and the scent of this most fragrant musk be diffused. ”

“ Pray in behalf of all and entreat God for forgiveness and bounty for all. Beware, beware that any soul take revenge or retaliate over another even if he be a bloodthirsty enemy. Beware, beware that any one rebuke or reproach a soul, though he may be an ill-wisher and an ill-doer. Do ye not look upon the creature, advance ye toward the Creator. Behold ye not the rebellious people, turn your faces toward the Lord of Hosts. Look ye not upon the ground, raise your eyes to the world-illuminating Sun, which hath transformed every atom of the gloomy soil into bright and luminous substance. ”

“ These souls are Thy friends and this gathering is longing for Thee. They are captives of the lights of Thy Beauty and ecstatic by Thy musk-scented locks. Their hearts are Thine; they are Thy poor, humble and homeless; they have severed themselves from relative and stranger and have established the relationship of unity with Thee. They have adored Thee. They were sons of earth; Thou hast made them new fruits of the Kingdom. They were plants of the desert of bereavement; Thou hast made them trees of the rose-garden of knowledge. ”

“ The joy and happiness of the heart of Abdul-Baha depends upon the stability and constancy of the believers. For they must live and act in accord with the divine advices and exhortations and show forth to each other the power of the perfection of love with infinite accord and unity, so that they may become the embodiment of one existence, the waves of ones sea, the myrtles of one rose-garden, the rays of one sun, the stars of one horizon, the fruits of one tree and the birds of one meadow. ”

“ Follow this and thy heart will become as beautiful as a garden, thine eyes bright, thy spirit happy and thy thought a comfort to souls.
Be a well-wisher of humanity and a servant of mankind. Thus the strength of the Kingdom will uphold thee and the avenues of revelation open to thee. Because today every servant is served and is an honorable lord and every maid-servant the queen of horizons. Grow in humility and meekness daily, until thou attainest eternal glory and everlasting grace. ”

“ It is the early dawn and the soul-refreshing breeze of the Paradise of Abha is wafting upon all the contingent beings, but it displays the effect only in pure hearts and perfumes only the healthy mind. A seeing eye beholdeth the splendors of the sun and a hearing ear listeneth to the melody of the Supreme Concourse. Although the mercy of the vernal shower and the heavenly outpouring descend upon all the earth, yet only from a virgin soil vegetation groweth while the brackish ground is deprived and unproductive, for the traces of the outpouring are not evident and manifest. ”

“ This is the century of the Manifestation, the age of the Sun of the Horizons and the beautiful springtime of His Holiness the Eternal One!
The earth is in motion and growth; the mountains, hills and prairies are green and pleasant; the bounty is overflowing; the mercy universal; the rain is descending from the cloud of mercy; the brilliant Sun is shining; the full moon is ornamenting the horizon of ether; the great ocean-tide is flooding every little stream; the gifts are successive; the favors consecutive; and the refreshing breeze is blowing, wafting the fragrant perfume of the blossoms. ”

“ Verily I supplicate God in heart and spirit to make you signs of guidance, standards of sanctity and fountains of knowledge and understanding, that through you He may guide the seekers unto the Straight path and lead them unto the Mighty Way in this Great Cycle.
O beloved of God! Know ye that the world is like unto a mirage which the thirsty one thinks to be water; its water is a vapor; its mercy a difficulty; its repose hardship and ordeal; leave it to its people and turn unto the Kingdom of your Lord the Merciful. ”

“ To me prison is freedom; to me incarceration is an open court; to me humility is identical with glory; to me adversity is a gift and death is life. I hope that thou wilt also take a portion from this sea and seek a reflection from these lights, becoming and ignited lamp so that the winds of contradiction will not blow it out, and day by day more revelation and vision may descend, and thou be enkindled more than before with the fire of the love of God. ”

“ The garden of being will lose its freshness and fragrance, the orchard of mirth will miss its joy and beauty. The spring of life will change into the autumn of death, the joy of happiness of the palaces will change into the gloomy darkness of the grave. Therefore, it is not worth attachment and the wise person will not set his heart thereon. The wise and great man seeketh heavenly glory and divine might, desireth eternal life and seeketh nearness to the Threshold of God. ”

“ But those who have advanced to the Kingdom of God have assuredly advanced to a sea of clear and limpid water and thus have attained unto the greatest bounty, the perfect rest and the eternal life to which there is no abrupt end. Their faces have shined with joy, their souls delighted with pleasure, their hearts illumined and their cups overflowed with abundance. Their edifice hath risen high, their palaces have been adorned, their suns shone, their stars gleamed and their diadems radiated with a dazzling light. ”

“ Therefore, know thou that the True One possesseth invisible worlds which human meditation is unable to comprehend and the intellect of man hath no power to imagine. When thou wilt purify and clarify thy spiritual; nostrils from every worldly moisture, then thou wilt inhale the holy fragrances diffusing from the merciful gardens of these worlds.
El-Abha be upon thee and upon all those who are gazing and turning unto the Kingdom of El-Baha, which God hath sanctified above the understanding of the heedless souls and from being perceived by the eye of those who deny! ”