The Epistle's Counsels on Trustworthiness

In the *Epistle to the Son of the Wolf*, one of the last major works revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, about 1891, trustworthiness is praised again and again. "Say: O people of God!" He writes. "Adorn your temples with the adornment of trustworthiness and piety. Help, then, your Lord with the hosts of goodly deeds and a praiseworthy character."

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The most striking of these passages is a vision. Bahá'u'lláh describes a day on which He repaired to "Our Green Island," where He beheld "its streams flowing, and its trees luxuriant, and the sunlight playing in their midst." Turning to the left, He gazed on "one of the Beauties of the Most Sublime Paradise, standing on a pillar of light," calling aloud to the inmates of earth and heaven. It was Trustworthiness itself:

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> By God, the True One! I am Trustworthiness and the revelation thereof, and > the beauty thereof. I will recompense whosoever will cleave unto Me, and > recognize My rank and station, and hold fast unto My hem. I am the most > great ornament of the people of Bahá, and the vesture of glory unto all who > are in the kingdom of creation. I am the supreme instrument for the > prosperity of the world, and the horizon of assurance unto all beings.

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Elsewhere in the Epistle, Bahá'u'lláh repeats earlier counsels to His followers: "Deal not treacherously with the substance of your neighbor. Be ye trustworthy on earth, and withhold not from the poor the things given unto you by God through His grace." And He ties the quality to the standing of the believers before the rulers of their land.

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Writing of the Bahá'ís of Persia, He pledges "before the Divine Kaaba, that, apart from truthfulness and trustworthiness, this people will show forth nothing that can in any way conflict with the world-adorning views of His Majesty." Of Himself He writes: "The eyes of this Wronged One are turned towards naught save trustworthiness, truthfulness, purity, and all that profiteth men."

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*A retelling based on the **Epistle to the Son of the Wolf**. For the fuller account, see the original.*

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