Hidden Word, Arabic 3: The Most Luminous Word

The third Hidden Word in Arabic completes the foundational triad that opens the collection. The first counsel called the soul to purity of heart. The second named justice as the most beloved quality. The third turns to love itself.

O SON OF MAN! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.

The opening sentence names the origin of every human soul. It was made out of love — out of a love that was immemorial, that was eternal in the very essence of God. The soul was not a calculation or an experiment. It was an expression of the divine love before there was a sun or a moon to be loved beneath.

The Hidden Word continues by tying that origin to the soul's purpose.

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 moulded 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.

This counsel — sometimes numbered as the thirteenth Arabic Hidden Word — names the fundamental misalignment of human life: the soul, made rich by God, busying itself with poverty. The counsel does not call the soul to acquire something it lacks. It calls the soul to recognise something it already has. Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee.

These early Hidden Words are read most often at devotional meetings, during quiet hours of personal prayer, and in study classes where the believers consider the foundations of the spiritual life. Each is a single small door. Each opens onto the same wide country.

Source: Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words (Bahá'í Publishing Trust). Public domain text from the Bahá'í Reference Library.

Bahá'u'lláh. (1858). *The Hidden Words*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/hidden-words/