O Divine Providence! Lift to Thy lovers’ lips a cup brimful
of anguish. To the yearners on Thy pathway, make sweetness but a sting, and
poison honey-sweet. Set Thou our heads for ornaments on the points of spears.
Make Thou our hearts the targets for pitiless arrows and darts. Raise Thou this
withered soul to life on the martyr’s field, make Thou his faded heart to drink
the draught of tyranny, and thus grow fresh and fair once more. Make him to be
drunk with the wine of Thine Eternal Covenant, make him a reveller holding high
his cup. Help him to fling away his life; grant that for Thy sake, he be
offered up.
Thou art the Mighty, the Powerful. Thou art the Knower, the
Seer, the Hearer.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’)
