Hidden Word, Arabic 1: A Pure, Kindly and Radiant Heart

Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Hidden Words in Baghdád in the year 1274 A.H. (1857–58), partly in Arabic and partly in Persian. Shoghi Effendi writes in *God Passes By* that Bahá'u'lláh was inspired with them "as He paced, wrapped in His meditations, the banks of the Tigris." The book has 71 short passages in Arabic and 82 in Persian.

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In its opening words Bahá'u'lláh says that He has taken the inner essence of what was revealed to the Prophets of old "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."

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This is the first of the Arabic Hidden Words:

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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.

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*From **The Hidden Words** of Bahá'u'lláh (Arabic, no. 1), translated by Shoghi Effendi. The account of its revelation is from Shoghi Effendi's **God Passes By**.*

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