Selections From the Writings of the Báb | Page 6

His signs; I am the One Who divulgeth
and proclaimeth the Truth and I have been invested with every
excellent title of God, the Mighty, the Incomparable. Verily I have
attained the Day of the First Manifestation and by the bidding of the
Lord and as a token of His grace, I shall attain the Day of the Latter
Manifestation. There is no God but Him and at the appointed hour
everyone shall bow down unto Him in adoration.
I render thanks and yield praise unto God for having been chosen by
Him as the Exponent of His Cause in bygone days and in the days to
come; there is none other God save Him, the Glorified, the All-Praised,
the Ever-Abiding. Whatever is in the heavens and on the earth is His
and through Him are we guided aright.
O people of the Bayán! Those who embrace the Truth must turn unto
Me, as ordained in the Book and divine guidance will be vouchsafed to
whosoever attaineth My presence.

Extracts From An Epistle To Muhammad Sháh
The substance wherewith God hath created Me is not the clay out of
which others have been formed. He hath conferred upon Me that which
the worldly-wise can never comprehend, nor the faithful discover ... I
am one of the sustaining pillars of the Primal Word of God. Whosoever
hath recognized Me, hath known all that is true and right, and hath
attained all that is good and seemly; and whosoever hath failed to
recognize Me, hath turned away from all that is true and right and hath
succumbed to everything evil and unseemly.
I swear by the righteousness of Thy Lord, the Lord of all created things,
the Lord of all the worlds! Were a man to rear in this world as many
edifices as possible and worship God through every virtuous deed
which God's knowledge embraceth, and attain the presence of the Lord,
and were he, even to a measure less than that which is accountable
before God, to bear in his heart a trace of malice towards Me, all his
deeds would be reduced to naught and he would be deprived of the

glances of God's favour, become the object of His wrath and assuredly
perish. For God hath ordained that all the good things which lie in the
treasury of His knowledge shall be attained through obedience unto Me,
and every fire recorded in His Book, through disobedience unto Me.
Methinks in this day and from this station I behold all those who
cherish My love and follow My behest abiding within the mansions of
Paradise, and the entire company of Mine adversaries consigned to the
lowest depths of hell-fire.
By My life! But for the obligation to acknowledge the Cause of Him
Who is the Testimony of God ... I would not have announced this unto
thee... All the keys of heaven God hath chosen to place on My right
hand, and all the keys of hell on My left...
I am the Primal Point from which have been generated all created
things. I am the Countenance of God Whose splendour can never be
obscured, the Light of God Whose radiance can never fade. Whoso
recognizeth Me, assurance and all good are in store for him, and whoso
faileth to recognize Me, infernal fire and all evil await him...
I swear by God, the Peerless, the Incomparable, the True One: for no
other reason hath He--the supreme Testimony of God--invested Me
with clear signs and tokens than that all men may be enabled to submit
to His Cause.
By the righteousness of Him Who is the Absolute Truth, were the veil
to be lifted, thou wouldst witness on this earthly plane all men sorely
afflicted with the fire of the wrath of God, a fire fiercer and greater than
the fire of hell, with the exception of those who have sought shelter
beneath the shade of the tree of My love. For they in very truth are the
blissful...
God beareth Me witness, I was not a man of learning, for I was trained
as a merchant. In the year sixty(3) God graciously infused my soul with
the conclusive evidences and weighty knowledge which characterize
Him Who is the Testimony of God--may peace be upon Him--until
finally in that year I proclaimed God's hidden Cause and unveiled its
well-guarded Pillar, in such wise that no one could refute it. 'That he

who should perish might perish with a clear proof before him and he
who should live might live by clear proof.'(4)
In that same year [year 60] I despatched a messenger and a book unto
thee, that thou mightest act towards the Cause of Him Who is the
Testimony of God as befitteth the station of thy sovereignty. But