17 October ― 2 ‘Ilm

Breathe the air of purity. May you each and all share in the Divine Bounties of the Kingdom of Heaven. May the world be for you no obstacle hiding the truth from your sight, as the human body of Christ hid His Divinity from the people of His day. May you receive the clear vision of the Holy Spirit, so that your hearts may be illumined and able to recognize the Sun of Truth shining through all material clouds, His splendour flooding the universe.

Let not the things of the body obscure the celestial light of the spirit, so that, by the Divine Bounty, you may enter with the children of God into His Eternal Kingdom.

This is my prayer for you all.

Paris Talks, p. 46

His Holiness ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá v2, p. 411

MORNING:

We have, under all circumstances, enjoined on men what is right, and forbidden what is wrong. He Who is the Lord of Being is witness that this Wronged One hath besought from God for His creatures whatever is conducive to unity and harmony, fellowship and concord. By the righteousness of God! This Wronged One is not capable of dissimulation. He, verily, hath revealed that which He desired; He, truly, is the Lord of strength, the Unrestrained.

His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh

Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 38

EVENING:

Sanctify your souls from whatsoever is not of God, and taste ye the sweetness of rest within the pale of His vast and mighty Revelation, and beneath the shadow of His supreme and infallible authority. Suffer not yourselves to be wrapt in the dense veils of your selfish desires, inasmuch as I have perfected in every one of you My creation, so that the excellence of My handiwork may be fully revealed unto men. It follows, therefore, that every man hath been, and will continue to be, able of himself to appreciate the Beauty of God, the Glorified. Had he not been endowed with such a capacity, how could he be called to account for his failure? If, in the Day when all the peoples of the earth will be gathered together, any man should, whilst standing in the presence of God, be asked: “Wherefore hast thou disbelieved in My Beauty and turned away from My Self,” and if such a man should reply and say: “Inasmuch as all men have erred, and none hath been found willing to turn his face to the Truth, I, too, following their example, have grievously failed to recognize the Beauty of the Eternal,” such a plea will, assuredly, be rejected. For the faith of no man can be conditioned by any one except himself.

His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh

Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 143

FROM THE CENTRE OF THE COVENANT OF GOD ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ:

“Hasten, hasten to the fountain of the mercy of God! Hasten, hasten to enter into the Kingdom of God! Hasten, hasten, to the effulgence which is shining like unto the sun from the Supreme Horizons throughout ages and cycles!

“O beloved of God and His maid-servants! Verily the Beauty of El-Abhá hath endured every hardship, calamity and great affliction in love for you, so that ye may be directed by the lights of the Kingdom unto the King of the Realm of Might, and be shining as a brilliant light in the glass of the contingent world. Hasten to avail yourselves of the opportunity to enter the protection of the inaccessible Cause and lofty Shelter!

Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá v2, p. 411