BB00179: Ziyarat for the first to be martyred among the Letters of the Living

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the Most Compassionate

O Lord! I beseech Thee by Thy Name—O God, O All-Merciful, O All-Compassionate, O Lord, O Sovereign, O All-Encompassing, O All-Powerful, O All-Knowing, O All-Glorified, O All-Wise, O Oft-Turning, O Maker, O Protector, O Succourer, O All-Bounteous, O Originator, O All-Hearing, O All-Mighty, O All-Wise, O One, O All-Forgiving, O Nigh, O Answerer, O Most Stern, O Most Swift, O All-Tender, O Forbearing, O All-Seeing, O All-Aware, O He, O Ever-Living, O Self-Subsisting, O Most High, O Most Great, O All-Sufficing, O All-Praised, O Bestower, O Witness, O Master, O Helper, O Reckoner, O Guarantor, O All-Pardoning, O …, O All-Thankful, O All-Knowing, O Subduer, O Able, O Intercessor, O Cleaver, O Creator, O Subtle, O Preserver, O Chastiser, O …, O Deliverer, O Most Strong, O Keeper, O Sought-For Help, O Prevailing, O All-Compelling, O Originator, O Most Exalted, O Refuge, O All-Determining, O …, O All-Forgiving, O King, O Truth, O Doer, O Recorder, O Light, O Guide, O Most Generous, O Opener, O …, O …, O Speaker, O Most Lofty, O All-Grateful, O Provider, O …, O Sovereign, O First, O Last, O Manifest, O Hidden, O King, O Most Holy, O Peace, O Faithful, O Guardian, O All-Mighty, O All-Subduing, O Possessor of Majesty, O Fashioner, O Supreme Ruler, O …, O All-Loving, O Most Exalted, O One, O Self-Sufficient, O God—to send down Thy blessings upon the Tree of Sinai and upon what Thou didst bring forth from the letters of His Self, the branches of His bounty, and the leaves of His exposition.

For Thou, O my God, hast ever been, and shalt forever remain, One Who bringeth forth wondrous breaths and calleth into being ever-new manifestations, distinguishing therewith the Dawning-Places of Thy Command and conferring thereby upon whomsoever Thou wilt among the Daysprings of Thy might.

Thou hast beheld the decree of a calamity—how great in the Bayan before Thee, and how momentous, long aforetime, in the Furqan before Thee! I, therefore, entreat Thee, O my God, by that sublime affliction—mighty, august, exalted and uplifted—whose burden ascended and was borne aloft, even unto the seat whereunto none hath been preferred, nor shall any be joined thereafter, save if Thou shouldst will it: send Thou down upon those hearts and spirits and souls and bodies that whereby Thy ipseity may glorify Thy Ipseity, Thy essence praise Thy Essence, Thy selfhood confess Thy Selfhood, and Thy identity magnify Thy Identity.

And upon such as knew not the right of those beloved Manifestations, from the billows of the Most High unto the lowest atom, and the purposed Dawning-Places, in the world to come and in this first life—send down what beseemeth the deserts of each in Thy sight. For Thou art the Possessor of dread chastisement against such as know Thee not, and the Ordainer of unerring retribution against those who love not them that have believed in Thee and in Thy signs.

Do Thou, then, O God, by Thy power, distinguish in truth between negation and affirmation; for Thou art, over whatsoever Thou willest, supremely potent, and unto whatsoever Thou desirest, all-subduing and most swift to accomplish.

Then turn thou toward Him Who is seated upon the throne of His majesty and established upon the couch of His exaltation, and say: Verily, the Most Glorious, the All-Glorious; the most exalted praise be upon thee—thou whom God singled out aforetime in the Furqan, and after that in the Bayan; He chose thee that thou mightest hearken, before all things, unto the signs of His sovereignty and the manifestations of His power—signs which those in the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth and what lieth between them have been powerless to comprehend, and which none in the realms of Command and Creation and what is below them can produce the like thereof. How exalted were Thy Names aforetime and hereafter! How have Thy manifestations been established in heaven and on earth!

I testify that through thee the true believers enter into the presence of God, both before and after; that those assured of the signs of God prostrate themselves in the heavens and on the earth; and that no worshipper in heaven or on earth but must needs confess, before Thee, Thy right over all things. For, next to the right of God, there hath never appeared, in the realm of origination, a right like unto thine. Through thee did God unlock whatsoever He unlocked; through thee did God bring into being whatsoever He brought into being; through thee did God send down whatsoever He sent down; through thee did God inaugurate whatsoever He inaugurated; and through thee did God ordain whatsoever He ordained. Blessed, then, is he who knoweth that his very self is thy self, and through thee turneth unto God, thy Lord—though thy calamity kindle fire within the hearts and melt the livers and the souls.

Yet that which God hath decreed for thee—of the loftiest heights of Guardianship and the most sublime …—He hath engraved upon thy heart, thy spirit, thy soul, and thy body: it exalteth the servant, even as it grieveth him. This exalteth—and this afflicteth—until the Day whereon God shall restore thee unto the first life and shall, from the treasuries of His command, vouchsafe thee what thou lovest and desirest. Ever have those under the Furqan been cast into mourning …; and those under the Bayan have let tears flow upon their cheeks because of Thy decree.

I bear God—and every soul—witness that martyrdom hath been ennobled through thee and uplifted by reason of thy acceptance thereof, for the exaltation of the oneness of thy Lord and the inviolability of the sanctity of thy Fashioner. Ever will God—glorified be His majesty—remember thee; nor will thy Lord, the All-Merciful, cease … For this is of those things for which there is no equal in origination nor likeness in invention.

Make mention, then, of those who were present with thee there, who are sustained before thee in the presence of God, thy Lord; and give them glad-tidings of what God hath bestowed upon them of His bounty, that they shall be returned—and He shall surely grant them that for which they supplicate of His grace; with Him they are neither … nor powerless. There is no power nor might save in God: His is the creation and the command, before and after; and unto Him do all return.

I therefore beseech Thee, O my God, by the Names which Thou didst aforetime send down upon Thy Beloved in the Qur’an, and didst single Him out therewith above all men in the Bayan, that with every Name Thou hast sent down Thou wouldst cause hosts of angels to descend—the most high, the celebrating, the cherubic, the sanctified, the unifiers, the magnifying, the exalting, the venerating, the honouring, and the ranged in ranks before Thy Beloved—first upon Him whom Thou didst adorn with it in His very self, and upon the branches, leaves, and fruits of the Tree of His Guardianship.

For Thou, O my God, art too exalted, too lofty, too mighty, too holy, and too resplendent for me to mention the Point within the Tree of Affirmation; for Thou hast made it the Tree Thou hast set up and appointed as Thy Paradise for the people of Thy knowledge. It is the mirror of Thy Self, wherein none is seen but Thee and aught beside Thee is but Thy creation.

I beseech Thee, O my God, by that whereby Thou hast distinguished Thy creatures—by negation and affirmation, by fire and by light—and hast made the first who bowed down before Thee to be the Tree of Affirmation; and Thou didst seize, from the first of all things, him who turned away from Thee, causing him to vanish in the nothingness of his own self before Thee: send Thou down every chastisement Thou hast originated upon the Tree of Negation, that unto it may revert what is its final home and destined end. And send Thou down all Thy mercies and Thy bounties and Thy grace and Thy blessings and Thy care and the manifestations of Thy sovereignty upon the Tree of Affirmation—its root and its branch, its boughs and its leaves and its fruits—until Thou makest me to witness, O my God, that from me Thou hast averted every seizure and vengeance meant for it, and upon whomsoever turneth toward me and is related unto me Thou hast poured Thy blessings and the forthshinings of Thy might. This is that which Thou lovest to behold; for I have no love but Thy love, no mention but Thy mention, no praise but Thy praise, no command but Thy command, no act but Thy act.

Thou hast ever decreed what Thou willedst, how Thou willedst, by what Thou willedst, when Thou willedst; and Thou wilt ever accomplish what Thou desirest, how Thou desirest, by what Thou desirest, when Thou desirest, for whom Thou desirest. Verily, Thou art powerful over all things.

Send down then, O God, upon the Tree of Negation what it deserveth at Thy taking; and upon the Tree of Affirmation what it deserveth, through Thy bounty and Thy grace—what beseemeth Thy mercy and the tenderness of Thy Lordship. Verily, Thou art the best of the merciful!