s among Thy creatures compassed Him round,
with the swords of hate drawn against Him, O Thou the Lord of all names!
Thou well knowest what befell Him at the hands of such as have rent
asunder the veil of Thy grandeur, and cast behind their backs Thy Covenant
and Thy Testament, O Thou Who art the Maker of the heavens! He is the One
for Whose sake Thou (the Bab) hast yielded Thy life, and hast consented to
be touched by the manifold ills of the world that He may manifest Himself,
and summoned all mankind in His name. As soon as He came down, however,
from the heaven of majesty and power, Thy servants stretched out against
Him the hands of cruelty and sedition, and caused Him to be afflicted with
such troubles that the scrolls of the world are insufficient to contain a
full recital of them.

Thou seest, therefore, O Thou Beloved of the world, Him Who is dear to
Thee in the clutches of such as have denied Thee, and beholdest Thy
heart's desire under the swords of the ungodly. Methinks He, from His most
exalted station, saith unto me: "Would that my soul, O Prisoner, could be
a ransom for Thy captivity, and my being, O wronged One, be sacrificed for
the adversities Thou didst suffer! Thou art He through Whose captivity the
standards of Thine almighty power were hoisted, and the day-star of Thy
revelation shone forth above the horizon of tribulation, in such wise that
all created things bowed down before the greatness of Thy majesty.

"The more they strove to hinder Thee from remembering Thy God and from
extolling His virtues, the more passionately didst Thou glorify Him and
the more loudly didst Thou call upon Him. And every time the veils of the
perverse came in between Thee and Thy servants, Thou didst shed the
splendors of the light of Thy countenance out of the heaven of Thy grace.
Thou art, in very truth, the Self-Subsisting as testified by the tongue of
God, the All-Glorious, the one alone Beloved; and Thou art the Desire of
the world as attested by what hath flowed down from the Pen of Him Who
hath announced unto Thy servants Thy hidden Name, and adorned the entire
creation with the ornament of Thy love, the Most Precious, the Most
Exalted.

"The eyes of the world were gladdened at the sight of Thy luminous
countenance, and yet the peoples have united to put out Thy light, O Thou
in Whose hands are the reins of the worlds! All the atoms of the earth
have celebrated Thy praise, and all created things have been set abl