over all such of His creatures as have set themselves
towards Him!"

Thou seest, O my Lord, how Thy servants are held captive by their own
selves and desires. Redeem them from their bondage, O my God, by the power
of Thy sovereignty and might, that they may turn towards Thee when He Who
is the Revealer of Thy names and attributes is manifested unto men.

Cast upon this poor and desolate creature, O my Lord, the glance of Thy
wealth, and flood his heart with the beams of Thy knowledge, that he may
apprehend the verities of the unseen world, and discover the mysteries of
Thy heavenly realm, and perceive the signs and tokens of Thy kingdom, and
behold the manifold revelations of this earthly life all set forth before
the face of Him Who is the Revealer of Thine own Self. Direct, then, his
eyes, O my God, towards the horizon of Thy loving-kindness, and make
steadfast his heart in its attachment to Thee, and unloose his tongue to
praise Thee, and make him able to hold fast the cord of Thy love, and to
cling to the hem of Thy bounteousness, and to proclaim Thy name amidst Thy
creatures, and to recount Thy virtues throughout Thy realm, in such wise
that no obstacle will deter him from turning to Thy name, the
All-Bountiful, and no veil shut him out from Thee, in Whose hand is the
dominion of utterance and the kingdom of all names and attributes!

Hold Thou the hand of this seeker who hath set his face towards Thee, O my
Lord, and draw him out of the depths of his vain imaginations, that the
light of certainty may shine brightly above the horizon of his heart in
the days whereon the sun of the knowledge of Thy creatures hath been
darkened through the shining of the Day-Star of Thy glory; the days
whereon the moon of the world's wisdom hath been eclipsed through the
appearance of Thy hidden knowledge, and the manifestation of Thy
well-guarded secret, and the revelation of Thine enshrined mystery; the
days whereon the stars of men's doings have fallen through the rising of
the orb of Thy unity and the shedding of the radiance of Thy transcendent
oneness.

I beg of Thee, O my God, by Thy most exalted Word which Thou hast ordained
as the Divine Elixir unto all who are in Thy realm, the Elixir through
whose potency the crude metal of human life hath been transmuted into
purest gold, O Thou in Whose hands are both the visible and invisible
kingdoms, to ordain that my choice be conformed to Thy choice and my wish
to Thy wish, that