Hidden Word, Arabic 22: Noble Have I Created Thee

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."

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This is the twenty-second of the Arabic Hidden Words:

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> O SON OF SPIRIT! Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created.

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The same thought appears as a question in the thirteenth Arabic Hidden Word:

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> O SON OF SPIRIT! I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? Out of the essence of knowledge I gave thee being, why seekest thou enlightenment from anyone beside Me? Out of the clay of love I molded thee, how dost thou busy thyself with another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting.

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*From **The Hidden Words** of Bahá'u'lláh (Arabic, nos. 22 and 13), translated by Shoghi Effendi. The account of their revelation is from Shoghi Effendi's **God Passes By**.*

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