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“These are, O my God, the days whereon Thou…” 247 |
These are, O my God, the days whereon Thou
didst enjoin Thy servants to observe the
fast. With it Thou didst adorn the preamble of the
Book of Thy Laws revealed unto Thy creatures,
and didst deck forth the Repositories of Thy commandments
in the sight of all who are in Thy
heaven and all who are on Thy earth. Thou hast
endowed every hour of these days with a special
virtue, inscrutable to all except Thee, Whose
knowledge embraceth all created things. Thou
hast, also, assigned unto every soul a portion of
this virtue in accordance with the Tablet of Thy
decree and the Scriptures of Thine irrevocable
judgment. Every leaf of these Books and Scriptures
Thou hast, moreover, allotted to each one of
the peoples and kindreds of the earth.
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For Thine ardent lovers Thou hast, according
to Thy decree, reserved, at each daybreak, the cup
of Thy remembrance, O Thou Who art the Ruler
of rulers! These are they who have been so inebriated
with the wine of Thy manifold wisdom that
they forsake their couches in their longing to celebrate
Thy praise and extol Thy virtues, and flee
from sleep in their eagerness to approach Thy
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presence and partake of Thy bounty. Their eyes
have, at all times, been bent upon the Dayspring
of Thy loving-kindness, and their faces set towards
the Fountainhead of Thine inspiration. Rain
down, then, upon us and upon them from the
clouds of Thy mercy what beseemeth the heaven
of Thy bounteousness and grace.
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Lauded be Thy name, O my God! This is the
hour when Thou hast unlocked the doors of Thy
bounty before the faces of Thy creatures, and
opened wide the portals of Thy tender mercy unto
all the dwellers of Thine earth. I beseech Thee, by
all them whose blood was shed in Thy path, who,
in their yearning over Thee, rid themselves from
all attachment to any of Thy creatures, and who
were so carried away by the sweet savors of Thine
inspiration that every single member of their
bodies intoned Thy praise and vibrated to Thy remembrance,
not to withhold from us the things
Thou hast irrevocably ordained in this Revelation—a Revelation the potency of which hath
caused every tree to cry out what the Burning
Bush had aforetime proclaimed unto Moses, Who
conversed with Thee, a Revelation that hath enabled
every least pebble to resound again with
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Thy praise, as the stones glorified Thee in the days
of Muḥammad, Thy Friend.
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These are the ones, O my God, whom Thou
hast graciously enabled to have fellowship with
Thee and to commune with Him Who is the Revealer
of Thyself. The winds of Thy will have
scattered them abroad until Thou didst gather
them together beneath Thy shadow, and didst
cause them to enter into the precincts of Thy court.
Now that Thou hast made them to abide under
the shade of the canopy of Thy mercy, do Thou
assist them to attain what must befit so august a
station. Suffer them not, O my Lord, to be numbered
with them who, though enjoying near access
to Thee, have been kept back from recognizing
Thy face, and who, though meeting with
Thee, are deprived of Thy presence.
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These are Thy servants, O my Lord, who have
entered with Thee in this, the Most Great Prison,
who have kept the fast within its walls according
to what Thou hast commanded them in the Tablets
of Thy decree and the Books of Thy behest.
Send down, therefore, upon them what will thoroughly
purge them of all that Thou abhorrest,
that they may be wholly devoted to Thee, and
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may detach themselves entirely from all except
Thyself.
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Rain down, then, upon us, O my God, that
which beseemeth Thy grace and befitteth Thy
bounty. Enable us, then, O my God, to live in
remembrance of Thee and to die in love of Thee,
and supply us with the gift of Thy presence in Thy
worlds hereafter—worlds which are inscrutable
to all except Thee. Thou art our Lord and the Lord
of all worlds, and the God of all that are in heaven
and all that are on earth.
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Thou beholdest, O my God, what hath befallen
Thy dear ones in Thy days. Thy glory beareth me
witness! The voice of the lamentation of Thy
chosen ones hath been lifted up throughout Thy
realm. Some were ensnared by the infidels in Thy
land, and were hindered by them from having
near access to Thee and from attaining the court of
Thy glory. Others were able to approach Thee,
but were kept back from beholding Thy face. Still
others were permitted, in their eagerness to look
upon Thee, to enter the precincts of Thy court,
but they allowed the veils of the imaginations of
Thy creatures and the wrongs inflicted by the oppressors
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among Thy people to come in between
them and Thee.
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This is the hour, O my Lord, which Thou hast
caused to excel every other hour, and hast related
to the choicest among Thy creatures. I beseech
Thee, O my God, by Thy Self and by them, to ordain
in the course of this year what shall exalt Thy
loved ones. Do Thou, moreover, decree within
this year what will enable the Daystar of Thy
power to shine brightly above the horizon of Thy
glory, and to illuminate by Thy sovereign might,
the whole world.
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