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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
By Bahá'u'lláh · 1858 · Bahá'í Publishing Trust
Bahá'u'lláh's ministry (1853–1892) · public domain
Mystical aphorisms revealed in Baghdád.
About Bahá'u'lláh
Founder of the Bahá'í Faith. Imprisoned and exiled successively from Persia to Baghdád, Constantinople, Adrianople, and finally 'Akká, where He revealed the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and the bulk of His Writings.
1817–1892 · Founder
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“O SON OF SPIRIT! My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.”
From Hidden Word, Arabic 1: A Pure, Kindly and Radiant Heart
“as He paced, wrapped in His meditations, the banks of the Tigris.”
From Hidden Word, Arabic 1: A Pure, Kindly and Radiant Heart
“and clothed it in the garment of brevity, as a token of grace unto the righteous, that they may stand faithful unto the Covenant of God.”
From Hidden Word, Arabic 1: A Pure, Kindly and Radiant Heart
“O SON OF SPIRIT! Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created.”
“as He paced, wrapped in His meditations, the banks of the Tigris.”
The first of the Arabic Hidden Words, revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád, gives His first counsel: to possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart.
The twelfth Hidden Word in Arabic — Bahá'u'lláh's reminder that the soul was made with the hands of power, and that within it He has placed the essence of His light.
The twenty-second Arabic Hidden Word tells the soul that it was created noble yet has abased itself, and calls it to rise unto that for which it was created.
The second Hidden Word in Arabic names justice — *the best beloved of all things in My sight* — and explains it not as rule of law but as the soul's capacity to see with its own eyes and know with its own knowledge.
The third Hidden Word in Arabic — Bahá'u'lláh's word that the human soul was created out of His love, engraved with His image and shown His beauty.
The fortieth Hidden Word in Arabic — Bahá'u'lláh's image of the soul's rest: that no journey through space and no traversal of the heavens can bring it, save submission to His command and humbleness before His Face.
The fifth Hidden Word in Arabic — Bahá'u'lláh's brief reciprocal of love between God and the soul.
In the fifty-ninth Arabic Hidden Word, the Voice of God calls the human heart His home and bids that it be sanctified for His descent.
The sixty-fourth Hidden Word in Arabic — Bahá'u'lláh's word that He has created His eternity and wrought His unity for the soul, and His call to the soul to clothe itself therewith.
The sixty-third Hidden Word in Persian — Bahá'u'lláh's warning to the peoples of the world that their deeds have not been effaced in His sight, but are graven upon tablets of chrysolite.
The third Hidden Word in Persian — Bahá'u'lláh's tender injunction that the believer plant naught but the rose of love in the garden of the heart, hold fast to the nightingale of affection and desire, and treasure the companionship of the righteous.
The sixty-ninth Persian Hidden Word — Bahá'u'lláh's call that holy words and pure and goodly deeds ascend unto the heaven of celestial glory, and that deeds be cleansed from the dust of self and hypocrisy.
The fifth Hidden Word in Persian — Bahá'u'lláh's warning that the most negligent of men is he that disputeth idly and seeketh to advance himself over his brother, and His counsel: Let deeds, not words, be your adorning.
The forty-fourth Persian Hidden Word — Bahá'u'lláh's counsel to hear, see and speak no evil, to magnify not the faults of others, and to live the fleeting days of this life with a stainless mind and a sanctified nature.
The ninth Hidden Word in Arabic — Bahá'u'lláh's image of His love as a stronghold: he that entereth therein is safe and secure, and he that turneth away shall surely stray and perish.
The seventy-third Persian Hidden Word — Bahá'u'lláh's testimony that the soul is the daystar of the heavens of His holiness, and His call to let not the defilement of the world eclipse its splendor but to rend asunder the veil of heedlessness.
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