BB00337: Ziyarat

Date: 1262 ? [1845-1846]

I bear witness that there is no God but God, alone without partner, even as His Essence hath testified unto His Essence that there is no God but Him, the Mighty, the All-Wise. And I bear witness that Muhammad is Thy servant whom Thou didst choose for Thyself, and didst fashion for Thy Cause, and didst select for Thy good pleasure, and didst make him to stand in Thy stead in both initiation and response, for Thine Essence transcendeth all description of substance, and Thy Reality surpasseth all material knowledge. Verily Thou art God, the Mighty, the Bestower.

Peace be upon you, O essence and core of religion, ultimate goal and reality of the Cause, fruit and quintessence of creation, secret and reality of invention, and the mercy of God and His blessings.

O Family of Mercy and Letters of the Word! I cannot reckon your praise nor can I comprehend the description of your power, for all attributes fall short before the court of your nearness and all descriptions are false before the might of your sanctified being. If I say you are unity itself and the signs of abstraction, I have only described my own state and testified to my heart’s incapacity, for your reality ever transcends mention of names and attributes, and your being has always surpassed reference to similitudes and essences. Too glorious is the majesty of your reality for me to indicate it through created attributes, too lofty the elevation of your being for me to compare it to existential descriptions.

I beseech God to raise me to the summit of detachment through nearness to your countenance, to grant me perpetual connection to your service, engagement in what draws me closer to you, contentment with what descends from the clouds of your power, certitude in what God has revealed in the Qur’an concerning your station, acceptance of what the transmitters of your traditions have spoken about you, drawing near to your friends and dissociating from your enemies—those who would deceive God and His chosen ones, and from what God has decreed concerning them.

I call God, His angels, His Prophets and His Messengers to witness that when you will, the Will manifests by God’s leave among all wills, when you intend, intention dissolves into its goals, when you determine, things are determined in the kingdom of names and attributes. No decree is established except through your sanction, no erasure occurs except through your alteration. So glory be to God your Creator! None knows your measure for it is God’s measure, nor your station for it is God’s station. None can encompass your description for it is God’s description, nor your attributes for they are God’s attributes. Glory be to God your Fashioner! Whoever knows His oneness bows before your countenance, whoever recognizes Him submits at your gate, whoever stands firm upon His holy carpet humbles himself before your command, whoever acknowledges His justice and grace bears witness to your deed.

For those sheltered beneath the dark shadows of Paradise and those reclining upon whitened thrones in the gardens of Paradise, when they reached the depths of majestic justice and drank from the spring of pure water and became detached unto the nearness of beauty’s countenance, they bore witness through you to the praise of your power, even as the angels and those possessed of knowledge among God’s servants bore witness to Him in the primal scene. Glory be to God! None knows what He has bestowed upon you save Him, none can describe you save Him. Here I stand in this station bearing witness to what God has ordained concerning you of the signs of power and divinity and unity and might and grandeur and sovereignty and glory and dominion, and that which none save Him can encompass in knowledge.

I seek forgiveness of God, my Lord and your Lord, for my shortcomings in knowing you and my soul’s remoteness from the nearness of your presence, and for what your knowledge encompasses of my transgressions which none knows save you and none can alter save you. I turn unto God in repentance from my existence and what I have acquired before you, certain that after my confession of incapacity I shall not be questioned about any sin.

Therefore I say: Glory be to God, Lord of the Throne, above what they describe! Peace be upon the Messengers! Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds!