He is God!
Thou seest me, O my God, on this lofty mountain; the sublime and supreme threshold; the shelter of every great one and the refuge of all the glorious and noble.
Verily, the youths whose hearts were burning with the fire of the love of God in the past ages have taken shelter therein—the meeting place of the prophets, the refuge of his holiness Elijah, the shelter of Isaiah. The spirit of God, Jesus, the Christ—upon Him be greeting and praise!—passed over it, and in the Supreme Threshold, pressed by the feet of the Lord of Hosts.
O Lord, this is a mountain to which Thou hast given the name Carmel in the Torah. And thou hast attributed it to Thyself in the innermost heart of the tablets and scriptures.
O Lord, verily, I invoke Thee in this Supreme Threshold, under the wing of the gloomy nights; pray to Thee with throbbing heart and flowing tears, imploring Thee, supplicating between Thy hands and cry, O my Lord, verily, the fire of battles is raging in the valleys, hills and streams, and the fire of war is burning even under the seas and high in the air, in destruction and devastation. The earth is enveloped by its own fires and the seas are encompassed by its storms, thunderbolts and floods.
O Lord, the souls are stifling, the death rattle is in their throats, the earth quakes and has become so small that even the birds are frightened in their nests and the animals terrified in their lairs and caves.
We hear only the sighs of the maidens and the cries of the orphans, the moaning of the mothers, the tears of the fathers because of false reports. We see only tears flowing from every bereaved mother and the heart of every father, bereft of sons, burning. Towns are being devastated, people are perishing, the children are made orphans and the women are becoming widows. And this is only because of our heedlessness of Thy commemoration and our deprivation of Thy love. Verily, we have been occupied with ourselves. The intoxication of passion seized us; we have taken the road of heedlessness and blindness; have abandoned the path of guidance and have chosen the path of obstinacy and forgotten the commandments of the ancient scriptures. We have forsaken the exhortations in the preserved tablets and parchments—the great verses.
O my Lord! O my Lord! I confess and acknowledge the sins. Verily every dark calamity and every hard ordeal has surrounded us by our own hands, in this transient world. O Lord, verily, the minds are astounded, the souls are repelled. And there remain only darkened faces, deaf ears, speechless tongues and hearts heedless of thy commemoration, filled with human passions and desires.
O Lord, Thou hast said in Thy manifest book and in thy great glad tidings, with explicit statement, "‘God does not change that which a people have, until they change what is within themselves.” "And when they forgot God, He made them forget themselves.”
O my Lord, verily, the nations have gone too deep into the fields of battle and struggle. Nothing will check this sweeping torrent and this grinding war but Thy mercy, which has encompassed that which was and is.
O Lord, do not deal with us according to our offenses and forgive our sins and trespasses. Imperfections are the characteristic of everything possible of creation in the arena of Thy world. And to Thy forgiveness and pardon Thou hast accustomed everyone in existence.
O my Lord, only favor and mercy to every sinner, who has fallen into the pit of degradation and wretchedness, is befitting to divinity and only by the imperfections of servitude will the perfections of divinity become manifest. O Lord, verily, the brilliant rays of the Sun of Reality are the removers of the utter darkness and the pure water cleanses the foulness and the sorrow of the world.
O my Lord, verily, the sins are bubbling foam and a full ocean is Thy mercy. Trespasses are bitter trees and Thy pardon is a fire whose flame is intense.
O my Lord, remove the veil, scatter this dense cloud on the
horizon, extinguish these fires, subdue this flood, in order to stanch the
bloodshed, as compassion to the widows and mercy to the orphans, that these
hurricanes may cease, the thunderbolts be extinguished, the torrents quelled,
the land become visible, the souls find composure, and the breasts be dilated.
And we will thank Thee for Thy abundant favor, O Thou dear! O Thou forgiver!
O my Lord, verily, thou hast clearly stated in the tablets and scriptures, that, had the ordinances fallen on solid rock, rivers would have gushed forth and it had crumbled to pieces from fear of the Dear, the Powerful. But the hearts are harder than the rocks. And the souls are in heedlessness and pride. The people of heedlessness do not profit by the verses and exhortations.
O my Lord, verily, Thy exhortations are celebrated and have been spread broadcast, in the east and the west of the earth. Thou hast called all to love and harmony and to forsake discord in all regions, so that the east of the earth may embrace the west; the people of the desert may embrace the people of the city; their scattered members become reunited and the lost ones be gathered together; that the darkness of the earth may pass away and its lights shine forth. But the eyes and the inner sight have become blind, the ears deaf, the hearts hardened and the susceptibilities like rocks and stones. The minds and intellects are being confused. Souls have forgotten the explicit teachings of the Book, wherein Thou hast warned them of punishment. Thus they have merited severe punishment and deserved the sentence of torment.
O Lord, forgive our sins and stumbling. Make us not an example for the possessors of insight. Guide us to the straight path, so that we may awake from the slumber of passion and be saved from heedlessness and blindness. Deliver us, O Lord of Verses, from the abyss of passions and preserve us from errors.
O my Lord, verily, we have forgotten faithfulness and are reveling in unfaithfulness. With the people of oppression and vice we are associating. There is no deliverer for us save Thee. There is no answerer save Thee. There is no refuge save Thee. Verily, we have trusted in Thee and we lay our affairs in Thy hands. Deal with us according to Thy favor and pardon and punish us not according to Thy justice and wrath. Verily, Thou art the compassionate. Verily, thou are the pardoner and, verily, thou art the forgiver.
O my Lord, verily, the people of righteousness and goodness and the communities of freedom in every country are turning to thee, at dusk and dawn supplicating between Thy hands during the wing of the night and in the dew of the morn, lamenting as a bereaved mother laments during the grievous nights, burning with the fire of sorrow, yearning and separation. They are longing for Thy meeting even with rending of soul, as they traverse the dunes and the hills and cross the valleys and the heights. But these wars that demolish mountains have interfered so that news has ceased and the doors are closed.
O Lord, comfort them in their loneliness; deliver them from their terror and guide them in their affairs.
O my Lord, Thou knowest my sighs, my cries and my anguish, the burning pain because of their separation; my great longing for their meeting, my yearning for their love, my desire for their remembrance and my anxiety to see them. Day and night their remembrance is my treasure and my roses. When night comes my heart loves the memory of their illumined faces. I yearn for them as the nightingale yearns for the beautiful meadows.
O my Lord, O my Lord, open the doors; prepare for us the means; render the path safe and pave the way so that the sincere ones may be reunited in the lofty meetings; the attracted ones gathered together in Thy commemoration in the great assemblies, to speak among the people of Thy bestowals, taste of the honeycomb of Thy meeting. Then the breezes of acceptance will reach them and they will be swayed thereby as if intoxicated by wine.
Verily, Thou art the Powerful, the Dear, the Giver and, verily. Thou art the Generous, the Compassionate, the Chosen One.
(Signed) ‘Abdu’l-Baha Abbas
(Star of the West, vol. 8, no. 14, November 23, 1917)
