A Tablet by Baha’u’llah to the Persian Zoroastrian Baha’is. Revealed in the purest Persian language, without any Arabic words.

-- provisional translation by Ahmad Sohrab

In the Name of God the Peerless!

Glory is due unto God, the Discoverer, who, through one shower of the ocean of His Generosity, expanded the firmament of existence, begemmed it with the stars of knowledge and summoned the people to the most high court of perception and understanding!

This shower, which is the Primal Word of the Almighty, is sometimes called the Water of Life, for it quickens the dead souls in the desert of ignorance with the spring of intelligence. Sometimes it is called the First Emanation which appears from the Sun of Wisdom, and when it began to shine the first movement became manifest and known; then phenomena stepped into the arena of existence and these appearances were through the generosity of the Incomparable, the Wise One. He is the Knower, the Giver! He is sanctified and holy above every statement and attribute! The seen and the unseen fail to attain the measure of His understanding. The world of being and whatever has issued from it bears witness to this utterance.

Therefore, it has become known that the First Bestowal of the Almighty is the Word. The receiver and acceptor of it is the understanding. It is the First Instructor in the University of Existence and it is the Primal Emanation of God. Whatever has appeared is through the reflection of Its Light and whatever is manifested is the appearance of Its Wisdom. All the names originate in His Name and the beginnings and endings of all affairs are in His Hand.

Two Excerpts from Star of the West – by Baha’u’llah

O friends! in this day the door of heaven is opened by the key of the godly Name, the ocean of generosity is manifested and is rolling, before your faces, and the Sun of Providence is shining, and gleaming. Do not be exclusive nor destroy your most precious time through the speech of this or that person. Gird up the loins of endeavor and do your best in training, the people of the world. Do not imagine that the Cause of God is a cause of opposition, hatred or wrath. The Sun of Greatness hath said, that which is revealed from the Heaven of Will in this Supreme Manifestation is to unite the people with love and friendship towards all. The people of' Baha, who have drunk of the pure wine of reality, must associate with all the world with a perfect spirit of joy and fragrance, and remind them of that which is for the benefit of all. This is the Commandment of the Wronged One to his saints and sincere ones. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Star of the West, vol. 6, no. 1, March 21, 1915)

O people the earth! Make not the religion of God a cause of variance among you. Verily of a truth, it was revealed for the uniting of the whole world. Blessed is he who loves the world simply for the sake of the Face of his Generous Lord. With perfect compassion and mercy have we aided and directed the people of the world to that whereby their souls shall be profited. I declare by the Sun of Truth and which hath shown forth from the highest Horizon of' the world, that the people of Baha had not and have not any aim save the prosperity and reformation of the world and the purifying, of the nations. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Star of the West, vol. 6, no. 1, March 21, 1915)

Law-i-Liqá’ (Tablet of the Divine Presence) – by Baha’u’llah

-- provisional translation by  Nima Rafiei

He is the Eternal! Lo, We made this epistle to be the attainment of Our presence for such as have turned unto God in these days, wherein the nations have been made to tremble. Whosoever gazeth upon that which hath been sent down from the Throne of glory in this Tablet and findeth himself in doubt as to whether he hath attained the presence of his Lord, he is of them who have turned away from God, the One Who causeth the dawn to break.

O ye birds of the most exalted paradise! Give ear unto the call of the Beloved in these days wherein the feet of men have slipped. The Concourse on high have rejoiced by reason of your acceptance of this Cause, and the voice of the denizens of the cities of eternity hath been raised aloud in grief and lamentation by virtue of your remoteness from Him and your burning thirst, notwithstanding your nearness to the Ocean of His presence!

O how glorious is this blissful joy, this bitter anguish! Methinks both have embraced in the Day of God, the Powerful, the Almighty, and the Omnipotent!

The hearts of the infidels have been set ablaze by that which We have revealed aforetime, and still they plot against Me day and night! Blessed are ye for having entered the city and attained unto that which hath been ordained by your Lord, the Mighty, and the Bestower. It behooveth you to show forth from your countenances utmost joy and bliss that all may discern in you the tokens of resignation and submission. Thus hath it been decreed by the pen of Glory; verily, your Lord is the Most Merciful, the Knower of the unseen and the seen.

O men of insight! Ye are beneath the shadow of My loving kindness and the canopy of My mercy, thus is the gaze of God fixed upon you. Blessed are ye and whosoever loveth you and turneth unto you wholly for the sake of God, the Almighty, the All-Compelling. God and such as have circled round the Throne bear witness that ye have attained unto His presence, circumambulated the Kaaba of His command, and beheld His countenance. Potent is He over whatsoever He willeth. No God is there but Him, the Mighty, the Munificent!

By My life! We have granted that which ye have desired, and We are with you at all times. The glory of Him Who is the Almighty and the Helper rest upon you!

(source: Baha’i Library Online)

Súrat al-A'ráb (The Súrah of the Arabs) – by Baha’u’llah

-- provisional translation by Joshua Hall

This is the Súrah of the Arabs which has been revealed by One Who is the Revealer, the Ancient of Days

He is the Sanctified, the Transcendent, the Exalted, the Most Effulgent

These are the verses of God which have been sent down from the heaven of wondrous glory, and which God has made to be a proof and testament from Him unto the worlds. Within it are mentioned the servants of God who recognized God in His own Self, who were not shut out as by a veil on account of the outcry of the idolators, who entered the shelter of His loving providence and reposed in the precincts of His mercy which surpasses all contingent things – this, indeed, is a great bounty.

These are they upon whom the heavenly concourse pronounce their blessings, as well as the angels that have drawn nigh. These are they who fell on their faces in prostration before God, the Exalted, the Sublime, when the Everlasting Sun once again shed Its effulgence upon them from the Most High Horizon.

O Beloved of God from amongst the Arabs! Give ear unto the call of God proceeding from this Tree upraised in truth, all of Whose leaves speak forth in all things: “I am God; none other god is there beside Him, the Sanctified, the Almighty, the Munificent”.

O people, hasten unto the Sidrah [1] of God and take shelter beneath Its shade. By the One True God! Were you to search all the climes of the earth and the expanse of the heavens, never would you find an abode of safety save beneath the shade of this Tree which overshadows the worlds. From amidst Its leaves the sweet-scented breeze of the Lord is wafted, giving life to every moldering bone. Turn unto It and partake of Its fruits, that your hearts may be purified thereby of the suggestions of every wretched deceiver.

Dalá’il-i-Sab’ih (The Seven Proofs) – by the Báb

[The Dala'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs), the most important of the polemical works of the Báb, was revealed during that same period [Mah-Ku]. Remarkably lucid, admirable in its precision, original in conception, unanswerable in its argument, this work, apart from the many and divers proofs of His mission which it adduces, is noteworthy for the blame it assigns to the "seven powerful sovereigns ruling the world" in His day, as well as for the manner in which it stresses the responsibilities, and censures the conduct, of the Christian divines of a former age who, had they recognized the truth of Muhammad's mission, He contends, would have been followed by the mass of their co-religionists. (Shoghi Effendi, 'God Passes By')]

-- Provisional English translation from the French of Nicolas – by Peter Terry

In the Name of God, the Only Unique, the Only Unique. [60] Praises be to God, for there is none other God but He, the Only Unique, the Only Unique. All splendor [61] comes from God, upon the 'Man Yuzhiruhu'llah' [62] and upon His Apostles even until the eternity of eternities.

And following:

We have examined the letter which was written to us: if one were to desire a detailed explanation of the proofs establishing the truth of this Manifestation [63], this one [such an explanation] would be too long and the tablets of the world of existence and of possibilities [64] would not be sufficient for this. [65]

But, the essence of this discourse and the pearl of this aim [66] are that there never has been and there is now no doubt that the Eternal God has always been immovable in the Loftiness of His Divinity, in the sublimity of His Pure Attributes, and that He will remain always in the Splendor and the immutability of His Infinite Grandeur. Nothing has known Him as He should be known and the praises which have been made of Him have remained below Him. He is Pure of all names, Free from all semblances. [67] Everything is known to Him and His Grandeur resides in this that He remains unknown to all. His Creation has never had a commencement and will never have an end as then there would have been or there would be a necessary stoppage to [interruption in] His kindnesses. [68] All the times that it has been found useful in this world of Possibilities [69], He has sent Prophets and has made descend from the Heaven the Books of the Law: He will do so again when the need will make itself felt. [70]

Lawh-i Haqqu’n-Nas (Tablet of the Right of the People) - by Baha’u’llah

Original

-- provisional translation by Mehran Ghasempour

In the Name of God, the Beneficient, the Merciful

Praise be to God Who fulfilled what He revealed to all His Prophets and Messengers and gave to all the tidings of His days. And of them is the Day which He promised us in His Mighty Book through His saying, exalted be His dominion: on that day "God will enrich everyone out of His abundance." [Qur’an 4:130] And this, truly, is our Day, when I behold Him enriching all who enter in His shadow from the abundance of His knowledge and command, inasmuch as on this Day He hath placed the reins of knowledge in the grasp of His lowliest servant and in the possession of His most insignificant subject who hath held fast to the cord of His Love in the days of His manifestation.

And praise be to God who inspireth whom He wisheth with the hosts of His revelation and "casteth the light of His knowledge into the heart of whom He willeth." [Islamic Hadíth] There is no God but Him Who is manifest through the manifestation of His own Self, inasmuch as there remains no veil for Him but the light of His Beauty, and no cloud but the abundance of His manifestation.

Blessing and peace be upon the noblest of His Chosen Ones, and the most distinguished of His creation, and upon His kindred, and upon His family, and upon His saints who stood firm in His Cause and continued steadfast in His love.

Risáliy-i-Síyásíyyih (A Treatise on Statesmanship) – by ‘Abdu’l-Baha, 1893

Original

-- provisional translation

He is God

Praise and benediction are owed to the pure Lord, who made the appearance of the sacred perfections of the human realm the foundation for his creation. Thus might the invisible Essence become visible in the court of perception by means of modalities, effects, laws, deeds, essences and mysteries. And thus might the lights of the reality of the saying, “I was a hidden treasure and loved to be known” become apparent from the dawning-place of the morn of vision.

Praise and glorification are also due to the complete individual reality of the great one, who is the sun of the reality of the divine world, the most great luminary of the human realm, the center of the divine self-disclosure, and the dawning-place of the attributes of the one true Lord. By means of his appearance, the secret of “thus I created the creation, so that I might be known” became a reality. “And thou beholdest the earth blackened, then, when We send down water upon it, it quivers, and swells, and puts forth herbs of every joyous kind.” (1)

In these days and times, events contrary to all religious laws and destructive of both human society and of the divine foundation have occurred as a result of the actions of some ignorant, unwise insurgents and fomenters of turmoil. They made the perspicuous divine religion a pretext, and by their sedition and clamor they have brought shame upon the people of Iran before the nations of the world, whether they be friends or strangers. Praise be to God! They claim to be shepherds, but they bear the characteristics of wolves. They read the Qur’an, but they desire to behave like rapacious beasts. They have a human form, but they approve of bestial conduct. “When it is said to them, ‘Do not corruption in the land,’ they say, ‘We are only ones that put things right.’ Truly, they are the workers of corruption but they are not aware.”(2) It has therefore become imperative that a brief discourse be delivered concerning the foundation stone of the divine religion, and to alert the friends to be wise and awake.