Unveiled and unconcealed, this Wronged One hath, at all times, proclaimed before the face of all the peoples of the world that which will serve as the key for unlocking the doors of sciences, of arts, of knowledge, of well-being, of prosperity and wealth.  Neither have the wrongs inflicted by the oppressors succeeded in silencing the shrill voice of the Most Exalted Pen, nor have the doubts of the perverse or of the seditious been able to hinder Him from revealing the Most Sublime Word.  I earnestly beseech God that He may protect and purge the people of Baha from the idle fancies and corrupt imaginings of the followers of the former Faith.

O people of God!  Righteous men of learning who dedicate themselves to the guidance of others and are freed and well guarded from the promptings of a base and covetous nature are, in the sight of Him Who is the Desire of the world, stars of the heaven of true knowledge.  It is essential to treat them with deference.  They are indeed fountains of soft-flowing water, stars that shine resplendent, fruits of the blessed Tree, exponents of celestial power, and oceans of heavenly wisdom.  Happy is he that followeth them.  Verily such a soul is numbered in the Book of God, the Lord of the mighty Throne, among those with whom it shall be well.

The glory which proceedeth from God, the Lord of the Throne on High and of the earth below, rest upon you, O people of Baha, O ye the companions of the Crimson Ark, and upon such as have inclined their ears to your sweet voices and have observed that whereunto they are bidden in this mighty and wondrous Tablet.

ISHRAQAT (SPLENDOURS)

This is the Epistle of God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting

He is God, exalted is He, the Lord of wisdom and utterance.

PRAISE be unto God, incomparable in majesty, power and beauty, peerless in glory, might and grandeur; too high is He for human imaginations to comprehend Him or for any peer or equal to be ascribed unto Him.  He hath clearly set forth His straight Path in words and utterances of highest eloquence.  Verily He is the All-Possessing, the Most Exalted.  When He purposed to call the new creation into being, He sent forth the Manifest and Luminous Point from the horizon of His Will; it passed through every sign and manifested itself in every form until it reached the zenith, as bidden by God, the Lord of all men.

This Point is the focal centre of the circle of Names and marketh the culmination of the manifestations of Letters in the world of creation.  Through it have appeared indications of the impenetrable Mystery, the adorned Symbol, He Who standeth revealed in the Most Great Name—­a Name which is recorded in the luminous Tablet and is inscribed in the holy, the blessed, the snow-white Scroll.  And when the Point was joined to the second Letter(25) which appeareth in the beginning of the Mathani,(26) it