BB00208: Li-Validay man yaktub bayna yadi’llah

In the name of God, the Most Unapproachable, the Most Holy!

Glorified art Thou, O my God! I and all created things bear witness that Thou art God, that there is no God but Thee, alone with no partner. Thine is the kingdom and the dominion, Thine the might and the omnipotence, Thine the power and divinity, Thine the strength and glory, Thine the sovereignty and the earthly realm, Thine the majesty and grandeur, Thine the countenance and beauty, Thine the direction and perfection, Thine the mercy and bounty, Thine the authority and justice, Thine the likeness and paragon, Thine the stations and glory, Thine the greatness and independence, Thine the power and sublimity, Thine the might and inapproachability, Thine the force and exaltation, Thine the joy and gladness, Thine the likeness and paragon, Thine the sovereignty and dominion.

Thou hast ever been one God, single, eternal, self-subsisting, ever-living, self-sustaining, sovereign, all-encompassing, holy. Thou hast taken neither consort nor son, and Thou hast no partner in what Thou hast created, nor any protector in what Thou hast fashioned. Thou hast created all things by Thy power and ordained them by Thine ordinance, and Thou hast formed all things by Thy will and fashioned them by Thy forming. Thou dost ever give life and cause death, then cause death and give life. Verily Thou art the Ever-Living Who dieth not, the Sovereign Who passeth not away, the Just Who wrongeth not, the King Who changeth not, the Single One Who escapeth not from anything, whether in the heavens or on the earth or between them. Thou createst what Thou willest by Thy command. Verily, Thou art powerful over all things.

Glorified art Thou, O my God! Sanctified be Thy names and exalted be Thy parables. Thou hast ever been unique in might and grandeur, and singular in countenance and beauty. How lofty is Thy station and how resplendent Thy summit! Thou hast created all things by Thy power, sustained all things by Thy mercy, perpetuated all things by Thy might, encompassed all things by Thy sovereignty, and remembered whom Thou willest of Thy creation through the sovereign craft of Thy Lordship. I shall not sanctify Thee save by what sanctifieth Thee, nor glorify Thee save by what glorifieth Thee, nor unite Thee, nor magnify Thee, nor exalt Thee, nor sovereign Thee save by what becometh the loftiness of Thy Being and the sublimity of Thy glory.

Glorified and exalted art Thou! Sanctified be Thy names and exalted be Thy parables. All worship Thee according to Thy true unity, all sanctify Thee according to Thy true eternality, all remember Thee according to the truth of Thy sovereign self-subsistence. Thou hast breathed the spirit of Thy command into the temples of Thy creation, whereupon all have ascended, through what they have known of Thy remembrance, unto what Thou hast of Thy grace. Glorified and exalted art Thou! All these are manifestations of Thy power from Thy Will and revelations of Thy might from Thy Purpose. Thou art the One existing before all things, Thou art the Maker of all things, Thou art the Being above all things, Thou art the Essence after all things, Thou art the Creator in the heights of all things. Voices are humbled before the sovereignty of Thy might, and faces prostrate at the appearance of Thy countenance. Thou art He Who hath caused all things to worship Thee, and all are Thy worshippers. Thou art He Who hath caused all things to prostrate to Thee, and all are prostrate before Thee, [though?] these befit not Thy exalted Being and Thy transcendent Self.

When I behold, O my God, Thy manifestation aforetime in the Furqan, had Thy Beloved not mentioned aught save what was revealed unto him—“Verily I am God, there is no God but Me, therefore worship Me”—then nothing else would have been mentioned. How could anything be created, neither His Self Who is the First of Thy creation, nor those beneath His Self who are witnesses by His command, nor any aspect of His religion, nor any element of His Cause? Thus all are effaced before Thy good-pleasure and overwhelmed before Thy decree in that thing. I know not, O my God, whether its descent from its heights and its mention of all things is more precious to Thee than the creation of all things, or whether that thing remained unmentioned, steadfast in the remembrance of Thy Self and speaking in praise of Thy Being. Glorified and exalted art Thou! I seek Thy forgiveness for every descent of the Will from that station wherein something mentioned His Self, Who is the First of Thy creation, and I turn in repentance unto Thee from…

…hath ever been and shall ever be worthy to remember Thee through Thy remembrance of Thyself, even were nothing created, no Prophet, no Successor, no Proof, no Path and no Guide. But since Thou hast named Thyself the All-Forgiving, It descended from Its heights to call upon Thee in Its lowliness and to populate the kingdoms of Thy heaven and earth with the emanations of Its Self, for Its essence, as Thou didst create it, indicateth none but Thee and mentioneth none but Thee. And whatever is mentioned of Thy Messenger, or the witnesses of Thy Messenger, or the gates of Thy glory, or the paths of Thy religion, or the manifestations of Thy love, or that which Thou lovest not—all of this is within Thy dominion and Thou rulest over it by Thy leave, exalting the conditions of Thy unity and bestowing favor upon the dawning-places of Thy will. It is all the same to It whether It speaketh from Thy presence or speaketh from clay, the lowest of Thy creation. Glorified and exalted art Thou!

Therefore, O God, send down upon the parents of him who standeth before Thee and writeth Thy verses by night and by day that which will satisfy them concerning their child on the Day of Resurrection in Thy presence, and comfort their eyes through what Thou hast caused to reach from what Thou didst create through them unto the source of Thy good-pleasure and Thy remembrance. For all, O my God, exchange Thee for clay and return to clay. How blessed is he whose remembrance endureth between the two clays and who pleaseth Thee between the two inanimate states. By Thy might, I seek protection with Thee and with all Thy names from anyone acquiring between the two clays that which Thou lovest not, for without doubt all return to that just as all began from this, and there remaineth not in this world the mention of Thy good-pleasure concerning it, and beneath it and beneath that world what Thou hast charged anyone with, for Thou art too exalted and glorious to command Thy creation with what they cannot comprehend or to burden them with what they cannot encompass.

Without doubt Thou hast ordained for every soul after its death in Thy paradise that which none of Thy creation can comprehend, and if it be not a believer, then in Thy fire with that which none of Thy creation can comprehend. But Thou hast made the pivot of what comes after death the conditions before it in that world. Glorified art Thou, there is no God but Thee! Send down upon all who have believed in Thee and will believe what befitteth Thee through Thy grace and bounty. Verily Thou art the All-Bestowing, the Subtle, and verily Thou art the Generous, the Bountiful.