April 21, 2013

Surih-i-Sabr, or Lawh-i-Ayyub (Surih of Patience) - by Baha'u'llah

--- Provisional translation by Khazeh Fananapazir

[“… revealed as far back as the year 1863, on the very first day of His arrival in the garden of Ridvan … (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah) “… the ‘Suriy-i-Sabr’ (Surih of Patience), revealed on the first day of Ridvan which extols Vahid and his fellow-sufferers in Nayriz …” (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By)]

This is the City of Patience. Strive ye to enter it, O concourse of the patient ones!

In His name, the Exalted One, He Who is the Most Exalted.

This is the remembrance of God in the City of Patience regarding Job, Our servant, Whom We sheltered under the shade of that Holy Tree planted in His heart, to Whom We demonstrated the fire ignited in His Own Essence, and to Whose Self We revealed Our Own Self by His Own Self. We called Job from this sacred Spot whose environs are sanctified with this call, "Verily, He is God, Thy Lord and the Lord of all things. He is All-Powerful over all things, the Self-Subsisting One." When Job's face was illumined by the fire burning in the sacred Tree, We clothed Him with the garment of Prophethood and commanded Him to instruct men in the essence of graciousness and bounty and to invite the people to the holy and beloved Shore. We established Job on earth and caused the waters of divine munificence to descend on Him so that through riches He became independent of all the inhabitants of the earth. We conferred on Him a bounteous fortune and made Him very wealthy in the kingdom. We caused Him to receive a portion of all wealth and strengthened His back with great power. We gave Him sons from his loins and established an exalted station for Him in all the lands.