BB00313: Answer to one of the believers

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Praise be to God, Who hath sent down the Milky Way for the resplendent rising of the Sun of Mercy, that it might disclose whatsoever lieth in those dense, deaf, and sightless darknesses, through the praise of the Rising of the Court of Lordship in the form of descent and the effulgence divine, the Eternal Leaf and the mystery lordly—by the praise of His own Self: His Spirit expounding His Spirit, His Essence expounding His Essence—according to what God hath brought forth, within its degree, of the essential realities and existential quiddities of the theophanies of Lahut; of the intrinsic modes and prerogatives of the realm of Jabarut; and of the material identities and embodiments of Mulk and Malakut. There glitter the flashing shards of ruby Tablets upon the soil of Nasut. This is, indeed, of the bounty of God—He bestoweth it upon whomsoever He willeth—and there is none other God but He, the Ancient of Bounty.

To continue: O thou who art ascending unto the heights of verification, who hast cast from thy hands, to right and to left, the mists of over-scrutiny! I have beheld, in the intimations of thy words, a limpid spring—wine of love in the goblet of tokens and allusions—whose inebriation maketh the drinker to speak forth as a niche wherein is a lamp, the lamp within glass: from each side it rehearseth a Light without shadow and an oil without smoke, even as it shone and spoke after it flashed forth—and speaketh yet—through the mirrors of thy epiphanies, that which thou didst intend in thy Book. For judgment belongeth unto God, and He hath decreed what He hath decreed in night after night, beyond the reach of any seal set upon its dawnings. I knew it not; yet the path for one such as thee is open. I supplicate God to bring me and those who follow me together with thee in a land of established justice.

Say to whomsoever desireth remembrance: read, at the line of noonday, the Word of Sanctification one hundred and ten times, and teach whom thou wilt of the whispered prayers; for thereby are hearts made steadfast, and God strengtheneth with His victory whomsoever He willeth. Naught escapeth His knowledge; verily He is the All-Powerful, the All-Glorious.

As to that which thou didst inquire concerning the man: I sought an augury in the Book of God, and there shone and flashed for me that sacred verse of the Qur’an at the first line:

“Shall we call on aught beside Thee?—Say unto them the word: verily, ye are liars.”

And because I longed for the greening of thy rising, yet the veils, wrought by the folk of splendors, encompassed me, I stilled my heart with a drop of oil within a glass—oil pressed from the leaves of the gardens of sweet basil from the Aḥmadic Tree, fixed in the reeds of the hamlet of Jabarut, in the degree of vicegerency—radiant, refulgent, scintillant, manifest, hallowed, and sanctified—which, in the worlds of Nasut, rehearseth the Rising of the Court of Oneness made manifest in Lahut.

If thou desirest to repose upon the throne of praise, none shall hinder one such as thee; yet know that discerning the directions of temptation is truth. I entreat God to lift away those accidental falsehoods by His grace—for He is the Lord of laudable bounty and sanctification. Purify, then, the heart of my beloved—one such as thee—that there alight not upon thy mind aught of what thou hast set forth in thy Book or made to shine in thy discourse. Far be it from thyself to surmise that I would abase thee at Thy threshold; such a thing accordeth neither with thy splendor nor with the quietude of thy heart. Far, far from thee be such a supposition, and far from what is known of thy favor!

By Thy might! I spoke not of thee between thy risings; that mention pertained to another. How, then, should I point unto thy Presence? If thou wert to give me, from thine own hand, a cup of poison, it would be dearer to me than the intoxication of any other; for my love for thee is thy love within my heart, born of thine own inmost soul. As for ascribing constraint to thee—it is for thee as gladness is with thee—according to what God hath sent down in the Book of His Prophet: “It is but Thy trial.” Recline, then, upon the couches at thy borders; sorrow not for what thou didst intimate aforetime in certain of thy words. God shall succor thee—by thy very words. If thou behold abasement in His path, it is the wont of thy Lord; thou art not, in thine own soul, more exalted than the near ones who came before thee. Neither did thy Lord’s radiance forsake thee on such account; for all stand in awe of thee, even as thou standest in awe of thy Lord; and their faction is weaker before thee than a spider’s house within thy house. Put, then, thy trust in God, thy Lord, for He will confirm thee in His Cause.

I have also seen what descended from thy presence of the green first-fruits of thy love; and I cherish them for thee, for they are early ripenings—though thou didst not know it. The likeness of them in thy Book is the word of al-ʿAskari—peace be upon him—addressed unto thee: “The Holy Spirit, in the gardens of crystal, tasted of Our primest orchards.” I, for my part, ask forgiveness of God, thy Lord, should aught arise within thy heart; may He lift it by His pardon, and mayest thou say: “Glorified be thy Lord, the Lord of Might, above that which they ascribe!”—and at the end: “And peace be upon the Messengers; and praise be to God, the Lord of all the worlds.”