Praise be unto Thee, O my God! Thanks be unto Thee O my
Beloved! Glory be unto Thee, O my Lord! for that which Thou hast bestowed,
favored, conferred and granted. For Thou hast chosen sincere servants from
among Thy people to serve Thy Religion. Thou hast elected them to draw
inspiration from Thy Manifest Light, attraction from Thy Luminous Beauty and to
walk in Thy straight path.
O my Lord! Verily the souls are heedless of Thy mentioning
and hearts deprived of Thy love, the eyes veiled from beholding the Kingdom of
Thy Beauty and the intellects wandering away from the Centre of Thy Glory,
except those who are firm in Thy Covenant, free from dissension, attracting the
rays of the Sun of Truth, detaching themselves from inharmony, arising in the
service of Thy Cause amongst Thy people and exhilarated from the pure wine of
Thy Kingdom. Bestow upon them unlimited blessing and creative good from the
never-ending Bounty, and pour upon them with great abundance, from the Cloud of
Thy Majesty, the rain of Thy Grace, the water of Thy Generosity and the
Universal Favor.
O Lord, suffer them to become the signs of Thy Guidance, the standards of the
Realm of Might, the words of virtue, the army of the Supreme Concourse and the
angels of heaven, so that through them the East and the West of the earth may
become Illumined, Thy Name be mentioned in the North and South, that they may
educate all races and communities and clothe them with the garment of the
comely names and the perfect example in this realm of existence.
O my Lord, reveal through them the ensign of Unity among mankind and the flag of Love between nations, so that multiplicities may converge into the centre of oneness and harmony, the veils of hatred be rent asunder, the conditions of discord pass away and enmity and rancor vanish from the world of man. So that after disunion the Beloved of Union shall unveil her countenance, animosity be changed into affection, the reign of faction and feud come to an end, and success and prosperity be attained.
O my Lord, strengthen their backs in their service, gird up
their loins in their adoration, dilate their breasts with the light of Thy
Knowledge, illumine their eyes by beholding Thy Face, gladden their spirits by
the significances of thy Providence and purify their souls by the appearance of
Thy Compassion.
Verily Thou art the Merciful, the Clement, the Almighty, the
Bestower, the Unconstrained! There is no God but Thee, the Giver, the Pardoner,
the Hidden, the Manifest and the Source of Bounties!
- ‘Abdu'l-Baha (Star of the West, Vol. 1, no. 3, April 28,
1910)
