This Prison Is My Supreme Paradise

O ye who are sincere! O ye who are attracted! O ye who are yearning! O ye who are arising for service to the Cause of God, for the promotion of the Word of God and the spreading of the Fragrances of God!

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Verily, I read your excellent letter, its beautiful composition, eloquent words and deep meanings. I praised God and gave glory to Him for that He hath strengthened you and confirmed you in serving His glorious vineyard. Your faces shall be enlightened with the radiance of supplication to God, invocation to Him, Humbleness and submissiveness to the friends (believers), and your assembly will be made a magnet for the lights of assistance from His Great Kingdom.

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It is incumbent upon you to commemorate and ponder upon the signs of God, to implore to God and to be evanescent and subservient in the Cause of God. This is what makes you the signs of guidance among the people, stars shining in the supreme horizon and thriving trees in the Paradise of El-Abha.

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Then know ye that Abdul-Baha is in cheerfulness and joy and in the happiness of great glad-tidings through being in this far distant prison. By the life of El-Baha! —this prison is my supreme paradise, my utmost desire, the joy of my heart and the dilation of my breast, my shelter, my asylum, my inaccessible cave and my high protection. By it I glory among the angels of heaven and the Supreme Concourse.

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Be rejoiced, O friends of God, with this confinement which is a cause of freedom, this prison which is a means of salvation (to many) and this suffering which is the best cause of great comfort. Verily, by God, I would not change this prison for the throne of the command of the horizons and would not exchange this confinement for all excursions and enjoyments in the gardens of the earth.

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Verily, I hope, through the kindness of my Lord and His mercy, bounty and generosity, to be suspended in the air in His path and that my breast may become the target to be pierced by thousands of bullets; or that I may be cast into the bottomless seas, or thrown into the wilderness and plains of barrenness. This is my utmost aim, my supreme desire, the animation of my spirit, the healing of my bosom and the sight of my eyes.

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As to you, O friends of God: Make firm your feet in the Cause of God with such firmness as cannot be shaken by the most great disasters of this world. Be not troubled by anything under any condition. Be as lofty mountains, dawning stars from the horizon of existence, brilliant lamps in the assemblies of oneness and lowly souls, pure hearted, with the friends.

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Be signs of guidance; lights of piety; severed from the world, holding fast to the firm rope; spreaders of the spirit of life; abiders in the ark of safety; manifestations of mercy; dawning-stars of the mysteries of existence; points of revelation; day-springs of light; strengthened by the Holy Spirit; attracted toward God; sanctified from all things and from the (natural) qualities of people, and characterized with the attributes of the angels of heaven—so ye may attain to the greatest gift in this great century and new age.

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By the life of El-Abha! No one will obtain this great favor save he who cuts himself from this world, being attracted by the love of God, who is dead to the desires and appetites of self, sincere to God in all things and meek, humble, imploring, pleading and lowly before God.

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