BB00666: Ziyarat for the first [to believe]

Visitation Tablet for the first [to believe], upon Him be the Glory of God, the King of Eternity

In the Name of God, the Most Glorious, the Most Glorious

Verily, I am God! There is no God but Me, and all else is My creation. Say: O My creation! Worship ye Me alone. Verily, I am God! There is no God but Me. I have been from all eternity, and before and after all things, all seek Me out.

Verily, I am God! There is no God but Me. I was pure and ethereal before and after all things, and all worship Me. There was no beginning to what I have created, nor any end. All within the bounds of their creation, by My command, before and after, make mention of Me.

I made Myself known on the Day of Resurrection through My verses. The first to know Me was He of the Seven Letters [ʿAli Muhammad, the Bab], mighty and glorious; then He of the Eight Letters [Mulla Husayn], powerful and inaccessible; then the Guides of the Most Glorious in God’s Book; then whosoever entereth the Bayan until such time as shall be raised up unto Me from the Manifestation of My Self. All are guides unto Him of the Eight Letters, and all through Him turn unto Me.

This is the Essence I have chosen from among all My servants. O all things! Ye shall make mention of Her. This is the Pure One I have selected for Myself. O all things! Ye shall remember Her. This is the Pristine One I have chosen for Myself. O all things! Ye shall commemorate Her. This is the Ethereal One I have elected for Myself. O all things! Ye shall call Her to mind.

He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden. Through Him do all fulfill their duty unto Me. Were it not for His presence before Me, I would not have made Myself known through any other, and this sufficeth as My testimony unto Myself. Thus have We ever been witnesses.

Through Him was the Bayan revealed, and We were indeed cognizant thereof. After I made Myself known to Him and established Him as the Manifestation of My Self—there is no God but I, and all worship Me—I made Him the Gate of My knowledge for whosoever desireth to believe in Me and in My verses, that all who are created and shall be created might through Him be brought before Me.

From the first day I created Him until the last mention shall be made, I have witnessed naught but the remembrance of My Self—verily, there is no God but I, the Protector, the Self-Subsisting. After I made Myself known to Him, He delivered the messages of His Lord unto all the worlds. He endured in the Cause of God what He witnessed from those who were given the Book aforetime, though all were but as scattered dust within His grasp.

When He saw that all were veiled from the presence of their Lord, though all stood firm by His command and all sought other than Me—they knew Me yet wished not to recognize Me—His Being could not bear to see any upon the earth veiled from the knowledge of their Lord. Thus did He strive against those who through Him had turned unto Me. They knew not God, their Lord, they who fought against Him, else they would not have shown pride toward Him. Had they known Him, they would have prostrated themselves before Him as they prostrate themselves night and day.

Until He was martyred in My path, along with those who were with Him among the guides of His Self, and all returned to that from which they were created by their Lord’s command, and all at that moment rejoice in My knowledge. Before them is whatsoever they desire—therein are maidens fair as hidden pearls, therein are youths like treasured crimson rubies, therein are all manner of noble garments they don with pride, therein is every bounty they desire, say what they will therein, and they do naught but glorify. At all times do they sanctify, at all times do they magnify, at all times do they extol, and at all times do they revere. My wrath hath descended upon those who knew them not, and in the fire shall they abide forever. God will visit His retribution upon them by their own hands and the hands of all the believers together, and they shall take vengeance upon themselves by their own selves, and curse themselves with names from before them from their own midst, yet they perceive not.

It behooveth everyone on earth to seek shelter beneath the shadow of him who hath believed in Me, even though all be veiled. But those who are in Islam, they believe in Him. He it is Who hath appointed for you this religion and hath commanded you therein that ye judge not against Me, for I am a Messenger from the Lord of the worlds. Thus are ye tested in the Day of Resurrection in the manifestation of My Self. He it is Who hath appointed for you your religion that ye may not be veiled from Him on the day of the appearance of the Truth.

And verily I shall send blessings upon thee, O My Splendor, then upon all things, a revelation from the Lord of the worlds. And verily I shall send blessings upon thee, O My Glory, then upon all things, a revelation from the Lord of the worlds. And verily I shall send blessings upon thee, O My Beauty, then upon all things, a revelation from the Lord of the worlds. And verily I shall send blessings upon thee, O My Grandeur, then upon all things, a revelation from the Lord of the worlds. And verily I shall send blessings upon thee, O My Light, then upon all things, and thy light shall not be extinguished in the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what lieth between them until the Day of Resurrection. This is what hath been ordained by God, the Supreme, the Self-Subsisting.

And verily I shall send blessings upon thee and upon all who seek shelter beneath thy shadow, of the first and the last, the manifest and the hidden. These are the gems of the Qur’an which We have sent down therein upon thee, for We were indeed cognizant thereof. Thus have We returned them unto thee even as We began them from thee, for We have power over all things.

O ye who are in Islam! This sufficeth you that ye have slain Him Who ordained your religion for you and then the martyrs of His Cause, and this disgrace shall not leave you until the Day of Resurrection, and in that fire shall ye abide forever, except if ye return unto God, your Lord. Then when what your hands have wrought shall be struck upon your faces, those in Paradise shall be distinguished from those in the fire, and soon shall ye yourselves know—before your death or after your death or in your transformation—and ye shall surely receive from God the recompense of what ye have earned.

Ye were naught on earth but perishing ones; nay, the very letters of annihilation are ashamed to be associated with you, for ye have committed deeds such that annihilation itself disdaineth to mention you. O people of the Bayan! Are ye not ashamed? Slay no one ever, for whoso slayeth a soul, it is as though he hath slain all mankind, and whoso giveth life to a soul, it is as though he hath given life to all mankind.