Postby Dorumerosaer » Wed Aug 23, 2006 10:59 pm
It was God's way of bringing one of the holiest Beings to ever walk the face of the earth. If you study the Bab's Writings, His life, and especially, I hope that one day you will have the privilege of walking in the gardens surrounding His Shrine; of circumambulating His sacred Shrine, the holiest act I have ever had the privilege to perform; and of praying in his Shrine and resting your forehead on that sacred Threshold. I hope you will do these things so that you taste of the refined, exalting Spirit that flows out to the earth through the one known as The Exalted One.
Here is a prayer Shoghi Effendi composed about the Shrine of the Bab, and addressed to it. This prayer, or ode to the Shrine of the Bab is a part of his Naw-Ruz 1955 Message to the Baha'is of Persia. The translation was authorized by the Universal House of Justice, and excerpts from it are included in Hand of the Cause Khadem's article, "The Mountain of God and the Tablet of Carmel" published in U.S. Baha'i News in August, 1975. The article is included as an appendix to Javidukht Khadem's "Zikrullah Khadem, The Itinerant Hand of the Cause of God," (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1990) pp. 282-286.
This magnificent Edifice stands facing Baha'u'llah's Most Great Prison, extolled by the Pen of Glory as the "Heaven of heavens," and looks toward the Qiblih of the people of Baha, that Spot within the Vale of Security and Peace, the Plain of `Akka, round which circle in adoration the Concourse on high. To her right are the hills of Galilee in which nestles the childhood home of the beautiful Christ, and the locality by the banks of the Jordan River where He who is the Spirit [Jesus] was called to prophethood; and on her left, on the crest of Carmel, are to be found the Cave of Elijah and the exalted Spot which was blessed by the footsteps of the Most Holy Abha Beauty and was ennobled through the revelation of the Tablet of Carmel from the treasury of the Pen of Glory....
High, immeasurably high is this Shrine, the lofty, the most great, the most wondrous. Exalted, immeasurably exalted is this Resting-place, the fragrant, the pure, the luminous, the transcendent. Glorified, immeasurably glorified is this Spot, the most august, the most holy, the most blessed, the most sublime....
Upon thee, O Queen of Carmel, be the purest, the most tender salutations, the fairest, the most gracious blessings! Glorified is He Whose footsteps have ennobled the spot whereon thou standest, Who ordained thy Seat, and Who extolled thee in His Tablet and Book. How great is the potency of thy might, a might which has bewildered the souls of the favored ones of God and His Messengers.
Methinks I behold thee in my dreams established upon thy glorious throne, attired in thy white raiment, crowned with thy golden crown, resplendent with the lights shining within thee and around thee, calling aloud in ringing tones and raising thy voice between earth and heaven.
Methinks I perceive the souls of the holy ones and of the dwellers of the realms above hastening toward thee with utmost joy, eagerness and ecstasy, pointing to thee, circling round thee, inhaling the perfume of thy flowers and roses, seeking blessing from the earth of thy precincts, bowing their foreheads to the ground before thee in recognition of the majesty and glory which surround the Holy Dust reposing within thee, the Pearl which is enshrined in thy bosom.
Blessed, immeasurably blessed is the person who visits thee and circles around thee, who serves at thy threshold, waters thy flowers, inhales the fragrance of holiness from thy roses, celebrates thy praise and glorifies thy station for the love of God, thy Creator, in this hallowed and radiant, this great, august and wondrous age.