Hidden Word, Arabic 4: Love Me, that I May Love Thee

The fourth Hidden Word in Arabic is among the briefest and among the most often quoted utterances in the entire book. It is two short reciprocal sentences, addressed — like the first three — to the human soul.

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> O SON OF MAN! Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me > not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.

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The structure is a perfect mirror. *Love Me* — *that I may love thee.* The order matters. The Hidden Word does not say *I love thee, therefore love Me.* It says: love is a circuit that runs in only one direction at a time, and the human soul must close the circuit at its own end first. Until the soul opens its love toward God, the love that God always already pours toward the soul has nowhere to alight.

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This is consequential. It means that the experience of God's absence is not God withdrawing from the soul, but the soul withdrawing from God. The bounty has not been suspended. The window has been closed.

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The closing imperative — *Know this, O servant* — is unusual. Most of the Hidden Words close with an address or a benediction. This one closes with a command to know. Bahá'u'lláh wants this particular truth lodged in the human knowledge before any of its many implications be drawn out. The soul that intellectually grasps that the love of God is conditioned upon the soul's reciprocation is given the entire spiritual responsibility of its own life.

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Across the Bahá'í community this Hidden Word is among the first that children memorise. Devotional gatherings begin with it. Marriages are framed around it. Memorial services close with it. It is short enough to be carried in the pocket of memory, and deep enough to last a lifetime of unfolding.

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