Baha’u’llah’s station & sufferings: “But for Thee the Scriptures would have remained unrevealed, and the Prophets unsent.”

Thou seest Thy dear One, O my God, lying at the mercy of Thine enemies, and hearest the voice of His lamentation from the midst of such of Thy creatures as have dealt wickedly in Thy sight. He it is, O my Lord, through Whose name Thou didst beautify Thy Tablets, and for Whose greater glory Thou didst send down the Bayán, and at Whose separation from Thee Thou didst weep continually. Look Thou, then, upon His loneliness, O my God, and behold Him fallen into the hands of them that have disbelieved in Thy signs, have turned their backs upon Thee, and have forgotten the wonders of Thy mercy.

He it is, O my God, about Whom Thou hast said: “But for Thee the Scriptures would have remained unrevealed, and the Prophets unsent.” And no sooner had He, by Thy behest, been manifested and spoken forth Thy praise, than the wicked doers among Thy creatures compassed Him round, with the swords of hate drawn against Him, O Thou the Lord of all names! Thou well knowest what befell Him at the hands of such as have rent asunder the veil of Thy grandeur, and cast behind their backs Thy Covenant and Thy Testament, O Thou Who art the Maker of the heavens! He is the One for Whose sake Thou (the Báb) hast yielded Thy life, and hast consented to be touched by the manifold ills of the world that He may manifest Himself, and summoned all mankind in His name. As soon as He came down, however, from the heaven of majesty and power, Thy servants stretched out against Him the hands of cruelty and sedition, and caused Him to be afflicted with such troubles that the scrolls of the world are insufficient to contain a full recital of them.  

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u’llah’)

‘Abdu’l-Baha has “‘no parallel’ in past Dispensations”

'Abdu'l-Bahá's position in the Faith is one for which we find "no parallel" in past Dispensations. For example, Bahá'u'lláh, in addition to His reference to the Centre of His Covenant as the "Mystery of God", states that 'Abdu'l-Bahá should be regarded as God's "exalted Handiwork" and "a Word which God hath adorned with the ornament of His Own Self, and made it sovereign over the earth and all that there is therein..." And from Shoghi Effendi we have the incontrovertible statement that the Guardian of the Faith while "overshadowed" by the "protection'' of Bahá'u'lláh and of the Bab, "remains essentially human", whereas in respect of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Shoghi Effendi categorically states that "in the person of 'Abdu'l-Bahá the incompatible characteristics of a human nature and superhuman knowledge and perfection have been blended and are completely harmonized." 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a letter dated 3 June 1982 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)

“Ponder this in your hearts”: “In the East the light of His Revelation hath broken; in the West have appeared the signs of His dominion.”

In the East the light of His Revelation hath broken; in the West have appeared the signs of His dominion. Ponder this in your hearts, O people, and be not of those who have turned a deaf ear to the admonitions of Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Praised.... Should they attempt to conceal its light on the continent, it will assuredly rear its head in the midmost heart of the ocean, and, raising its voice, proclaim: 'I am the life-giver of the world!' 

- Baha’u’llah  (Quoted by Shoghi Effendi in ‘The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh: Selected Letters’)

To “study with deep insight God’s holy Words and ponder them in his heart”

Were man to study with deep insight God’s holy Words and ponder them in his heart, he will surely realize that their one aim is to so unite the world that the divers peoples on earth may be regarded even as one soul, that the seal of “Unto God is all dominion” may be stamped upon the tablet of every heart and that the splendors of loving kindness, of grace and mercy may be shed upon all mankind.

- Baha’u’llah  (From a Tablet, Baha’i News no. 49, March 1931)

Baha’u’llah’s readiness for martyrdom; Baha’u’llah’s obedience to God’s bidding; “With Thy [God’s] love in My heart nothing can ever alarm Me”; “in the path of Thy [God’s] good pleasure all the world’s afflictions can in no wise dismay Me.”

Glorified art Thou, O Lord My God! Thou well knowest that Mine heart hath melted in Thy Cause, and that My blood so boileth in My veins with the fire of Thy love that every drop of it proclaimeth with its inner tongue: “Grant that I may be spilt upon the ground for Thy sake, O my Lord, the Most High, that from it there may spring forth that which Thou hast purposed in Thy Tablets and hast hidden from the eyes of all, except such servants as have tasted of the crystal stream of knowledge from the hands of Thy grace and quaffed the soft-flowing waters of understanding from the cup of Thy bestowal.”

Thou knowest, O My God, that in all Mine affairs I have sought only to obey Thy bidding, that in Mine every utterance I have wished only to extol Thy praise, and that in whatsoever hath proceeded from My Pen I have purposed only to win Thy good pleasure and to reveal that which Thou hast enjoined upon Me through Thy sovereignty.

Thou beholdest Me, O My God, as one bewildered in Thy land. Whensoever I make mention of that which Thou hast enjoined upon Me, Thy creatures cavil at Me; yet were I to neglect that which Thou hast bidden Me observe, I would deserve the scourge of Thine anger and would be far removed from the meadows of Thy nearness. Nay, by Thy glory! I have set My face towards Thy good pleasure, and turned away from the things whereon Thy servants have set their affections. I have embraced all that is with Thee, and forsaken all that might lead Me away from the retreats of Thy nearness and the heights of Thy glory. I swear by Thy might! With Thy love in My heart nothing can ever alarm Me, and in the path of Thy good pleasure all the world’s afflictions can in no wise dismay Me. All this, however, proceedeth from Thy power and Thy might, from Thy bounty and Thy grace, and is not of Mine own deserving. 

- Baha'u'llah  (From a Tablet to Nasiri’d-Din Shah, Suriy-i-Haykal [Tablet of Temple]; ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)

“ponder the ways and words of Him Who is the Manifestation of His ancient Being”

Tread ye in the path of the one true God and ponder the ways and words of Him Who is the Manifestation of His ancient Being, that perchance ye may attain unto the Wellspring of the living waters of the All-Glorious. Were believers and non-believers to occupy the same station, were the worlds of God to be confined to this ephemeral plane, never would My previous Manifestation have surrendered Himself into the hands of His foes or laid down His life as a sacrifice. I swear by the dawning-light of this Cause that were the people to grasp the barest intimation of the fervour and longing which overcame that sovereign Beauty when His celestial Temple was suspended in the air, all would, in the intensity of their own yearning, offer up their souls in the path of this Manifestation of supernal glory. Indeed, sugar is the portion of the parrot, while dung is the share of the beetle; the crow hath no part in the warbling of the nightingale, and the bat fleeth the rays of the sun.

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Days of Remembrance’)