BB00508: Ziyarat for the ten letters

Verily, the glory (Bahá) is from God, and then from every soul that hath believed in God and in His signs. Upon you, O ye ten Letters, and upon all who have ascended unto God together with you, whether of the former or of the latter generations, whether of the seen or of the unseen, be the glory of God.

Unceasingly hath God caused to descend upon you, from every splendour, its most splendid; and from every majesty, its most majestic; and from every beauty, its most beauteous; and from every greatness, its most great; and from every light, its most luminous; and from every mercy, its most expansive; and from all words, their most perfect; and from all Names, their mightiest; and from every might, its mightiest; and from every will, its most effectual; and from every knowledge, its most penetrating; and from every power, its most potent; and from every utterance, that which is most acceptable; and from every supplication, that which is most beloved; and from every sovereignty, its most enduring; and from every glory, its most glorious; and from every exaltation, its most exalted.

That which ye have borne in the path of God is better for you, in the sight of God and of those who know you, than were the dominion of the earth and whatsoever is upon it—yea, and the dominion of such as possess it. For after your passing to your winding-sheets there descended not upon them the succouring hosts of the glorifiers, the sanctifiers, the cherubim, the rank-and-file of the near ones.

But now do they verily descend upon your courts and call down blessings upon you at your tombs; and ye shall return, on the Day of Resurrection, whensoever God, your Lord, shall will, and ye shall assuredly inherit the earth and whoso is upon it whenso God, its Fashioner, shall desire. And ye—ye are, in the loftiness of Paradise, before your Lord, exhilarated with joy; and in the heaven of holiness, before God, do ye celebrate His praise.

What ye have with your Lord, in His knowledge, is greater than that which ye have acquired; for when ye behold, in the life to come, that which ye beheld in the former life, then shall it be manifest. And for such as wrought that deed against you there shall be, as their recompense, no fire more burning than the very work they have accomplished; and what they shall witness after their death shall be naught but the fruit of that same act.

Blessed are ye, and blessed is that which ye have earned in the path of God in every condition. The eyes of them that love you, at what hath befallen you, are as an ocean ever-flowing; and the hearts of your well-wishers, at what ye have endured in the path of God, are as leaves of the olive-tree, all consumed. And naught hath God created in Paradise, as a joy and a delight, to surpass the burning of those hearts in your afflictions and the outpouring of those oceans of blood in your calamity.

Ever do your hearts glorify God in the highest Paradise; your spirits, in the holiness of God, are in the cloud of sanctity; your souls confess the oneness of God upon the pinnacle of nearness and intimacy; and your bodies magnify God in the furthermost pavilion of holiness. How exalted is your tribulation in the realm of origination! For it hath no equal; from the “first” which hath no beginning down to that very hour, and from that same hour onward unto the “last” which hath no end.

And there is no soul that maketh mention of your calamity, and letteth the tears flow down upon his cheeks by reason of the loftiness of your affliction, but that God forgiveth him all that His knowledge embraceth: He, verily, is the Lord of surpassing bounty, the Most Generous. And there is no soul that cometh on pilgrimage unto your exalted ranks, and acknowledgeth your right, and then calleth down blessings upon you, but that God shall, of a certainty, gather him and me together in the highest Paradise. He, verily, is the Lord of surpassing bounty, the All-Glorious, the Most Great.