BB00190: Du’a’ li-avvali man amana bi’llah va man qad sa’ida bihi ila’llah

In the Name of God, the Most Inaccessible, the Most Holy

Glorified art Thou, O my God! I bear Thee witness—yea, and all things bear Thee witness—that Thou art God: there is none other God but Thee, the One, the Single, the Self-Subsisting, the Peerless, the Living, the Ever-Abiding, the All-Relied-Upon; Thou begettest not, nor wast Thou begotten; for Thee there is no equal, no likeness, no peer, no mate, no exemplar. Thou hast been alone, by the loftiness of Thine eternal being, exalted above all things; by the sublimity of Thine Essence uplifted above the sublimity of all things; by the simple purity of Thy reality raised above all things; by the snow-white holiness of Thy abstraction sanctified above the height of all things; and by the sovereignty of Thy self-subsistence exalted above all things.

Thou art He beside Whom there hath been naught; Thou art the Maker at Whose degree there standeth naught. Thou art the Most High, Who by Thy Will hast called all things into being; the Most Exalted, Who by Thy Purpose hast brought forth all things; the Inaccessible, Who by Thy Decree hast originated all things. Hath any power apart from Thee, O my God? Hath any independence save through Thee? Is there for aught beside Thee a sign or proof of self-subsistence? Nay, by Thy might! All are upheld by Thee and by Thy power; and whatever is ascribed unto Thee they know only by themselves upon the earth. But should the relation unto Thee be severed from their souls, they possess nothing; and though they be not true in their claim to Thee, never dost Thou, O my God, confirm their claim unto Thyself.

Glorified art Thou above desiring that there be ascribed unto Thee one who worshippeth Thee not, boweth not down before Thee, confesseth not Thy oneness, submitteth not to the dominion of Thy unity, or humbleth not himself before the kingship of Thy sanctified oneness. Exalted art Thou above accepting the name of Islam—or those numbered therein—as related unto Thee after their hands have wrought what they have wrought; though by that attribution they bear the burden of their own deeds. Thou wilt assuredly set Thy seal upon their hands, take hold of them, and cause them to behold themselves and their works as are those who worship Thee not and claim no relation unto Thee.

Swift to seize and quick to requite is only he who feareth lest aught escape his dominion; and harsh in chastisement and destruction is only he who dreadeth loss within his kingdom. But, by Thy might! All are within Thy grasp; who hath power to flee Thy ruling sovereignty, which is lifted up above every atom? Who can turn aside from the ordinances of the King of Thy self-subsistence, which are unassailable above all possibilities?

Thou art the Most Lofty—no decline toucheth Thy glory and Thy height. Thou art the Most Exalted—no independence is save through Thy grandeur and Thy sublimity. Thou hast prevailed over all things until the might of every potentate is Thine; Thou hast towered above all things until the necks of every king are humbled by Thy power. Thou art the Subduer—before Thy Will all prostrate; Thou art the Manifest—beneath Thy Purpose all are humbled.

Hallowed be Thou, O my God! I have borne witness to what never was witnessed in the realm of origination before this, and I have numbered what no counting had encompassed in the world of invention. Can a heart that hath lived but a year… hearken, in the path of Thy guardianship, to the grief of a people?—how, then, to slay one whose testimony hath been that none in the heavens or on the earth or between them possess aught, while they—types and peers—stand cut off unto Thee, exalted in Thy presence, guarded with Thee, and rejoicing before Thee?

Glorified art Thou, O my God! Thou judgest over all things; Thou hast manifested Thy sovereignty above all things; Thou hast caused the measures of Thy decrees to run through all things; and the modes of Thy power are lifted above all things. Do Thou, then, judge, O my God, as Thou didst judge between fire and light; and make swift, O my God, what Thou didst ordain between negation and affirmation.

For I, O my God, beheld with mine eyes one who, ere this, drew nigh unto Thy Beloved; though in his lifetime he rendered not, in the path of that love, what befitteth the loftiness of His majesty and the sublimity of His exaltation. Yet, after he ascended, Thou didst raise his seat and didst expend, from what Thou hadst entrusted to His friends, in the path of His love, until—by Thy wealth—he was made independent of all … So high didst Thou exalt him that none may lay claim over him—not even a sovereign—though they possess what they possess; for over them, too, is Thy decree…

What is related unto Thee endureth—even unto the Day of Resurrection—by the mention of his exaltation and by what of Thy dominion Thou didst bestow upon him. O Thou whose relation is lofty and uplifted; whose will is over-ruling and unassailable! Exalt, O God, the seat of the first who bowed down before Thee at the Point—Thy servant made pure for Thy sake alone, who sought none but Thee, severed himself from all save Thee, and was veiled by naught of the manifestations of Thy kingdom—until he mounted above the ascent of the former generations and towered above the eminence of the latter times.

Send down then, O my God, upon the Tree of Oneness—and upon all who take shelter in its shade among former and latter, outward and inward—what beseemeth the height of Thy transcendence and the majesty of Thy power, until the hour Thou shalt restore me. And if aught be cut off from that Tree, then cut it off, at what Thou hast decreed of good, for Thou art swift to seize and strong to succour. Thy ordinances are exalted from resurrection to resurrection; Thy decrees are inaccessible from hour to hour. Thou alone encompassest the Hour—none knoweth it save Thee—and Thou art powerful to bring forth the Resurrection, whereunto none attaineth but Thee.

Cause Thou, then, to descend, in that moment, upon the first of the Letters of the Bayan—the proofs of Thy Name “In the Name of God, the Most Inaccessible, the Most Holy”—unto the last of the Letters of the Exalted Ones in Thy Book, what befitteth the loftiness of Thy majesty and the sublimity of Thy might. And send Thou down upon the nineteen gates of the fire—opened beneath the shade of the Letters of the First, “In the Name of God, the Most Inaccessible, the Most Holy”—and upon every letter that Thou didst reveal short of the Letters of the Exalted Ones, as Thou numberest, what beseemeth the height of Thy seizing, Thy might, Thy vengeance and Thy bounty. For Thy mercy hath been perfected and fulfilled towards the people of the Exalted Ones; and Thy vengeance hath appeared and been intensified upon the people of the fire.

For Thou, O my God, art the Creator of fire and light: Thou createdst not the fire for itself, save on account of its arrogance toward the dawning-places of Thy light—otherwise Thou hadst neither created it, nor sent down a single letter regarding it in the Bayan. Then, in that hour, shall I behold that whatsoever hath been decreed aforetime of the mention of the people of the fire is but for the exaltation, before Thee, of the mention of the people of light—even wert this but the remembrance vouchsafed them in the Book.

Exalted, then, O my God, is Thy proof over all possibilities! Magnified is Thy favour upon all created things! The people of the fire shall take possession of a scant portion of what Thou hast not made lawful for them, and Thou shalt seize them by their own hands whence they know not; while those in Paradise, by their attribution unto Thee, shall possess what Thou hast made lawful for them, without exhaustion and without end; and Thou shalt recompense them by their own hands, though they comprehend it not—for all things return unto man.

And that frame (of man) is never void of a twofold mention: either he is mentioned in negation—or …—or in affirmation. If he be mentioned in the former, he hath, in Thy sight, naught; he is mentioned only that Thou mayest therewith make mention of those in Thy Paradise. He is one of those whose name Thou lovest not to be named in the Book among the modes of the fire and its people. But if he be of the Letters of Affirmation, then is he of the angels of Ridvan; unto him belongeth every good by Thy bounty—and he is of the angels of the All-Merciful.

I therefore beseech Thee … to guard me from every fire and its people, and to provide for me of every Paradise and what Thou hast created therein; and to send down upon every heart that hath ascended unto Thee, upon every spirit that hath mounted up, upon every soul enraptured, and upon every body severed for Thy sake, what beseemeth the height of Thy glorification, the sublimity of Thy praise, the exaltation of Thy unity, and the inviolability of Thy magnification. None can compass this save Thee; verily, Thou hast ever been powerful over all things. There is no power nor strength save in Thee; and Thou art, in truth, the Lord of bounteous grace.