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Provisional Translation
- O ye faithful friends of the Blessed Beauty!
- Although the affliction suffered by the friends in Nayriz was actually their resurrection,
- it appeared as though it was their destruction like in an ancient legend.
- The banquet table of affliction was embellished to the utmost.
- The music of their sacrifice reached the pinnacle and filled the valley!
- On one hand, the cup of the greatest martyrdom went round,
- On the other hand plunder and pillaging took place,
- Still on the other hand destruction appeared
- until finally the homelessness of the beloved refugees was evident.
- Every sacrificial food was present on this table of devotion.
- This altar of sacrifice was both the image
- and the embodiment of the field of calamity,
- like the battlefield of Karbala.
- No matter how much ‘Abdu’l-Bahá cries, laments or wails,
- still, He finds no consolation
- since the eyes of the Celestial Concourse are filled with tears
- and the hearts of the people of the Abha Kingdom are burning.
- In the Courts of Oneness
- which are free from sadness and sorrow,
- there is also great mourning.
- The birds of the shade trees in the Holy Gardens
- are sighing,
- moaning
- and expressing grief through their sad melodies
- because of this greatest of calamities.
- Consequently, this pen is unable to write
- and this tongue is unable to recount.
- What should I write ?
- What should I say
- to describe these afflictions and sorrows?
- If I should cry for years and ages,
- nothing can give me consolation!
- However,
- because this sacrificial death,
- this martyrdom,
- this calamity,
- this self-sacrifice,
- was suffered in the Path of the Divine Beloved,
- mourning becomes a feast of joy.
- The field of martyrdom becomes the banquet of victory.
- Pillaging and plundering becomes lasting treasure and endless wealth.
- Captivity and distress becomes sovereignty and success.
- Wandering becomes freedom.
- Homelessness becomes a divine gift.
- Regret becomes joy.
- Poverty becomes affluence.
- Difficulty becomes blessing.
- Despair becomes hope,
- Destruction becomes construction.
- Our days are passing.
- This life shall come to an end.
- Poverty and prosperity shall disappear.
- There shall be no joy, nor sorrow.
- Gladness and grief shall go away.
- Palaces shall turn to graves.
- Respect.
- Rejection.
- Both will end!
- There shall be no success nor failure.
- The wronged ones and the wrong doers,
- both in the end
- shall be covered by layers of dust.
- But the difference is this:
- Those who used to drink nectar
- shall finally taste bitterness.
- Those who were honored in this world
- shall become wretched in the next.
- Those who used to sleep on soft beds
- in the end
- shall be buried beneath the dust.
- High palaces
- shall turn into lowly graveyards.
- Secure fortresses
- shall turn into imprisoning cemeteries.
- Hopeless people and the injured in this world
- shall reside in layers of dust.
- But the Divine Friends -
- those who have partaken of the cup of afflictions
- in the Path of God,
- those who have spent their life in unexpected calamities and distress
- and calamities bearing immense hardships
- shall become cheerful and ecstatic
- as the result of their having suffered disappointments.
- They realized an opportunity to seek out the ultimate gift.
- They rushed from prison to palace to have their souls united with the Beloved.
- Devotees of the Glorious Beauty,
- they were accepted at the Divine Threshold.
- They desired to be sacrificed in the Field of Afflictions
- and hastened therefore to the World Above.
- So myriad gratitude should be offered with every breath
- as the Hand of Generosity
- presented this cup and filled it with such wine
- that this particular goal was attained
- and this specific victory was achieved.
- Verily in truth,
- to everyone who is most favored at this feast,
- is given a greater measure from the Cup of Afflictions.
- When Bahá’u’lláh was in Iraq,
- Mirza Mohit, a famous sheikh,
- sent prince Keivan Mirza, the grandson of Farmanfarma,
- to act as an intermediary, to ask Him for a visit
- to take place in secret in the middle of the night
- under one particular condition:
- that none but the mentioned prince knew of it.
- Bahá’u’lláh replied:
- When I was in Kurdistan,
- I composed a poem, including these verses:
- If you are concerned about your life,
- do not come here!
- If you want to sacrifice your heart and soul,
- come and bring them!
- This is the path if you seek the Presence of Baha.
- And if thou art not man enough
- And ready for this journey,
- then go away and don’t bother!
- When the unfortunate man received this reply, because he was afraid,
- he did not go to visit Bahá’u’lláh instead Mirza Mohit returned to Karbala
- immediately, and as soon as he arrived, he was afflicted by a severe fever and died.
- The time between His blessed reply and the unblessed death was only seven days.
- I want to say that what is worthy of the love of God
- is sacrificing and giving up of one’s life.
- The Friends should consider an example from the first centuries of Islam:
- Know that as the feasting of Yazid and the suffering of the pious Imam Hussein,
- both came to an end, so too, the mourning of the Master, of His Excellency,
- the martyr Hussein ended.
- That seeker of self-gratification lost his sovereignty and suffered everlasting misery.
- And this stainless soul enjoyed the pure and choice wine.
- One left with an everlasting curse and the other achieved permanent glory.
- One rushed to the divine feast and the other burned like copper
- in the battle of carnal desire.
- One raised his banner on the summit of the heavens
- and the other remained in the abyss of this world.
- One shone from the horizon of everlasting life
- and the other was ensnared in the depth of everlasting death.
- Behold how different is one path from another.
- In short, O ye radiant friends!
- Rejoice in your homelessness!
- You are astounded by His abode,
- agitated and discomforted due to His Beauty.
- This is the greatest aspiration of the favored ones!
- This is the ultimate wish of the pure ones!
- As the Arab poet has said:
- “The decree of God materializes when my death appears.
- And this is the least of my wishes.”
- It means that Divine Beloved has decreed sacrifice for me
- because that is my wish.
- Now I swear by that Heavenly Beauty:
- you cannot befittingly thank Him for this bounty of homelessness,
- if you were to thank him a thousand times.
- Consider that the Ultimate Wish of The Diving Being
- The Spiritual Truth,
- The Sun of The Divine Horizon
- The Radiant Sun of The Divine Truth,
- The Primal Point,
- His Holiness The Supreme Lord,
- May my life be given up for Him,
- was to drink from the Cup of Sacrifice
- He addressed the Blessed Beauty and said:
- O My Greatest Lord!
- I sacrificed Myself completely for Thee
- and desire naught but being martyred in Thy Path
- and being insulted for Thy sake.
- That Secret of Being, That Lord of The Visible and The Invisible
- made such a wish!
- What he wished for was realized.
- His body became the target of one thousand leaden bullets.
- Now how should we who are particles of dust at His Threshold,
- dust before the feet of Its guard,
- make a heartfelt and a conscious wish?
- The Friends of Nayriz drank the Wine of Loyalty,
- hastened to the Field of Fidelity,
- wrote the Verses of Contentment
- with their blood in the Presence of the One God,
- willingly presented their lives,
- their hearts,
- their land,
- their water,
- their homes
- and their furnishings
- to be looted and plundered.
- They were the champions in this field
- and they opened this door to this blessing.
- They showed true devotion at the Threshold
- and proved their claim.
- We are deprived!
- They are cherished!
- We are hopeless!
- They are hopeful!
- May they enjoy this overflowing cup of divine bounty and generosity.
- Blessed are they, who attain such a station,
- which is radiating with the Light of Divine Love.
- I give them the Glad Tidings of this purifying grace and favor
- whose light illuminates every dark corner.
- Upon them be the Glory of Glories!
-
'Abdu’l-Bahá
During the same time, ‘Abdu’l-bahá also revealed a special prayer of pilgrimage
for the friends to recite on His behalf in the resting place of the martyrs.
Tablets to the Bahá'ís of Nayríz
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