What follows is my provisional translation (in other words, not official or authorized; see here for more) of a Tablet of ʻAbduʼl-Bahá, the original text of which is published in Bisháratu’n-Núr, pp. 285–86.
He is God
O friends of ʻAbdu’l-Bahá! With boundless joy, sanctified souls from among the believers hastened to the field of sacrifice and hoisted the banner of the most great martyrdom. They raised a clamor throughout the world, melting the pure hearts with a devouring fire. They have opened the book of love and appended the signatures of everlasting sovereignty thereto. They have recited from the unrolled scroll of celestial glory, and have written, with their own blood, the verses of servitude upon the pages of the universe. They have excelled and won the ultimate bestowal.
We, however, are hapless. Fallen and useless are we—disturbed, defiled, and dispirited—for we have been kept back from that field. They have winged their flight from the contingent plane to the midmost heart of the placeless realm—where they commune with the birds of holiness in the Kingdom of Abhá, crying out in ringing tones, “O would that my people knew!”*—while we in this narrow and gloomy world are the captives of its fleeting beauties, preoccupied with matters of self and stranger. What a bounty is the one, and what a hardship the other! How lofty is the pinnacle of the former, and how low the depth of the latter! One is an exalted heaven, and the other a valley of hell. Theirs is indeed a radiant realm, and ours in truth a darksome dominion. Take good heed, then, O ye endued with perception! Be ye vigilant, O people of understanding! Ponder this, O possessors of insight!
Salutations and praise be upon you.
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* Qurʼán 36:26.
A typescript of the original Persian text of this Tablet appears below.
Adib Masumian 