Thou art aware, O My God, that since the day Thou didst call
Me into being out of the water of Thy love till I reached fifteen years of age
I lived in the land which witnessed My birth [Shíráz]. Then Thou didst enable
Me to go to the seaport [Búshihr] where for five years I was engaged in trading
with the goodly gifts of Thy realm and was occupied in that with which Thou
hast favoured Me through the wondrous essence of Thy loving-kindness. I
proceeded therefrom to the Holy Land [Karbilá] where I sojourned for one year.
Then I returned to the place of My birth. There I experienced the revelation of
Thy sublime bestowals and the evidences of Thy boundless grace. I yield Thee
praise for all Thy goodly gifts and I render Thee thanksgiving for all Thy
bounties. Then at the age of twenty-five I proceeded to thy sacred House
[Mecca], and by the time I returned to the place where I was born, a year had
elapsed. There I tarried patiently in the path of Thy love and beheld the
evidences of Thy manifold bounties and of Thy loving-kindness until Thou didst
ordain for Me to set out in Thy direction and to migrate to Thy presence. Thus
I departed therefrom by Thy leave, spending six months in the land of Sád [Iṣfáhán]
and seven months in the First Mountain [Mákú], where Thou didst rain down upon
Me that which beseemeth the glory of Thy heavenly blessings and befitteth the
sublimity of Thy gracious gifts and favours. Now, in My thirtieth year, Thou
beholdest Me, O My God, in this Grievous Mountain [Chihríq] where I have dwelt
for one whole year.
Praise be unto Thee, O My Lord, for all times, heretofore
and hereafter; and thanks be unto Thee, O My God, under all conditions, whether
of the past or the future. The gifts Thou hast bestowed upon Me have reached
their fullest measure and the blessings Thou hast vouchsafed unto Me have
attained their consummation. Naught do I now witness but the manifold evidences
of Thy grace and loving-kindness, Thy bounty and gracious favours, Thy
generosity and loftiness, Thy sovereignty and might, Thy splendour and Thy
glory, and that which befitteth the holy court of Thy transcendent dominion and
majesty and beseemeth the glorious precincts of Thine eternity and exaltation.
- The Báb (‘Selections from the Writings
of the Báb)
