For One Who Travels to Herald Thy Name

O God! O thou Attracted of the hearts of the favored ones toward the Manifest Horizon!

Verily, Thou art witnessing that the fire is ablaze in the breasts, the tears are streaming from the eyes and the period of patience and silence hath come to an end. The eyes of the beloved ones, O my God, are swimming in tears; the hearts of the yearning ones, O my Beloved, are wandering in the wilderness of Thy mercifulness; and the souls of the attracted ones, O my Desires, are afflicted with anguish on account of Thy separation!

Verily, they have heard Thy universal proclamation, O my God, and what Thou has revealed in the Koran: “Say! travel ye on earth, so that ye may behold the signs of the mercy of God.” thereupon, after Thy ascension, the people of faithfulness have arisen, traveling to distant lands and hastening to far and remote regions of the world, in order to cry out Thy Name, to remind the souls of the arrival of Thy days, to lead the minds to the fountain of Thy signs, to demonstrate to all the inhabitants of the world Thy proof and Thy religion, to guide the truth seekers to the right path and to indicate the straight highway to the strivers. From among them is Thy servant ... who is firm in the Ancient Covenant, fleeing from the people of darkness, drinking from the water of eternal life and intoxicated with the wine which is overflowing from the divine cup. Verily, he hath left his native abode, waved the hand of farewell to his relatives, forsaken ease and comfort, hastened to strange and unknown kingdoms and accepted hardship and adversities while heralding Thy Name, commemorating Thy glorification, attracted to Thy beauty, stirred by the fragrances of Thy holiness, speaking Thy praises, voicing Thy Cause, guiding others to Thee, proving Thy religion, demonstrating Thy irrefutable truth, becoming an answerer to every questioning one and a guide to every one held in error!

O my Lord! O my Lord! Verily, he endured every affliction in Thy path and bore patiently every hardship and adversity in Thy love. A breath of rest hath he not breathed, neither hath he sought after any favor, abode or habitation in this world; nay, rather hath he walked in the footsteps of Thy most exalted Word, His Highness Christ, for he hath taken the stars for his lamp, the earth for his bed and the herbs for his food. Notwithstanding this, his cry was raised in the assemblages and his voice was heard in the meetings. The seekers flowed toward him and the thirsty ones hastened to drink from the water of his utterance. O my God! This is no other than through Thy generosity, Thy beneficence, Thy mercy and Thy favors. O my God! Help him by the hosts of the approximate angels, assist him by the cohorts of the Supreme Concourse amid Thy creatures, make him a lamp of guidance in that distant part of the earth and a luminary shining and sparkling from the dawning-place of faithfulness, in order that he may serve Thy holy threshold, falling prostrate upon the ground thanking and praising for Thy bounty, liberality and gifts to him; girding up his loins of endeavor in Thy service and becoming reinforced and empowered in Thy adoration!

O my Lord! O my Lord! Assign for him every bounty and suffer him to become the sign of Thy gifts amid Thy people. Then have pity upon me, forgive me, show me Thy mercy and make me a sharer in his services, a partner in his adversities and a companion in his loneliness.

Verily Thou art the Confirmer, the Assister, the Mighty, the Generous, the Compassionate and the Merciful!

Source: 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbas (1909). Public domain text from Project Gutenberg eBook #19312.

'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1909). *Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbas*. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19312/pg19312-images.html