t Thou hast Thyself
announced this Revelation unto them in the Scrolls of Thy commandment and
the Tablets of Thy decree, and hast covenanted with them concerning this
youth in every word sent down by Thee unto Thy creatures and Thy people.

I am bewildered, therefore, O my God, and know not how to act toward them.
Every time I hold my peace, and cease to extol Thy wondrous virtues, Thy
Spirit impelleth me to cry out before all who are in Thy heaven and on Thy
earth; and every time I am still, the breaths wafted from the right hand
of Thy will and purpose pass over me, and stir me up, and I find myself to
be as a leaf which lieth at the mercy of the winds of Thy decree, and is
carried away whithersoever Thou dost permit or command it. Every man of
insight who considereth what hath been revealed by me, will be persuaded
that Thy Cause is not in my hands, but in Thy hands, and will recognize
that the reins of power are held not in my grasp but in Thy grasp, and are
subject to Thy sovereign might. And yet, Thou seest, O my God, how the
inhabitants of Thy realm have arrayed themselves against me, and inflict
upon me every moment of my life what causeth the realities of Thy chosen
ones and trusted ones to tremble.

I entreat Thee, therefore, O my God, by Thy Name through which Thou hast
guided Thy lovers to the living waters of Thy grace and Thy favors, and
attracted them that long for Thee to the Paradise of Thy nearness and Thy
presence, to open the eyes of Thy people that they may recognize in this
Revelation the manifestation of Thy transcendent unity, and the dawning of
the lights of Thy countenance and Thy beauty. Cleanse them, then, O my
God, from all idle fancies and vain imaginations, that they may inhale the
fragrances of sanctity from the robe of Thy Revelation and Thy
commandment, that haply they may cease to inflict upon me what will
deprive their souls of the fragrances of the manifold tokens of Thy mercy,
that are wafted in the days of Him Who is the Manifestation of Thyself,
and the Day-Spring of Thy Cause, and that they may not perpetrate what
will call down Thy wrath and anger.

Thou well knowest, O my God, that I was regarded as one of the people of
the Bayan, and consorted with them with love and fellowship, and summoned
them to Thee in the daytime and in the night season, through the wonders
of Thy Revelation and Thine inspiration, and sustained at their hands what
the inmates of the cities of Thine inve