Hidden Word, Persian 3: O Friend, In the Garden of Thy Heart

The third Hidden Word in Persian is among the most beloved images in the entire collection. It is read often at marriages, at the welcoming of new believers, and at quiet moments of personal devotion. The image is unforgettable.

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> O FRIEND! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the > rose of love, and from the nightingale of affection and desire > loosen not thy hold. Treasure the companionship of the > righteous and eschew all fellowship with the ungodly.

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The garden is the heart. The gardener is the believer. The work of the spiritual life is the work of horticulture: the discrimination of which seeds shall be sown in the chamber of the heart, the patient watering, the daily weeding, the long season of waiting before the bloom.

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The Hidden Word names what shall be planted: *the rose of love.* Bahá'u'lláh does not say *only the rose of theology* or *only the rose of obedience.* He says *the rose of love.* Love is the seed; love is the bloom; love is the fragrance carried out into the world. Everything else flowers from this single planting.

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The companion image is the *nightingale of affection and desire.* In Persian poetry, the nightingale is the lover that sings unceasingly to the rose. The Hidden Word warns the believer: do not loosen the hold of that bird. The faculty of desire — when it has been properly trained on its proper object — is not the soul's enemy. It is the soul's instrument of flight. Without the nightingale's longing, the rose of the heart is only a botanical fact.

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The closing pair of injunctions is practical. *Treasure the companionship of the righteous and eschew all fellowship with the ungodly.* The garden of the heart is permeable. The company the soul keeps is, at length, the soil the heart is rooted in. To plant the rose of love and to surround oneself with the company of love-haters is to do contradictory work. The Hidden Word asks the believer to align the inner planting and the outer companionship.

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