33. Part Two — 13

1The same people, notwithstanding these limited veils and above-mentioned customs, as soon as they drank the choice wine of Faith from the chalice of Assurance in the hands of the Manifestations of the Praised One, were so transformed that they would abandon wives, children, property, incumbrances, life and belief, yea, all else save God. They were so overcome by excess of longing for God, and by ecstasies of eternal joy, that they would not value the world and all therein as a wisp of straw. Can they not be declared as of "new creation" and "return?" Like wise it was witnessed that these souls, before attaining to the wonderful and new favor of God, would protect their lives with a hundred thousand plans and schemes from threatenings of destruction, until for instance, they would flee from a fox and avoid a thorn. But after being honored with the Mighty Security and Great Providence, they would voluntarily expend a hundred thousand lives; nay rather, their blessed souls despised the cage of the body, and a single one of these hosts would fight against a multitude. If these souls were the same former souls, how could such things contrary to human tendencies and opposed to bodily desire proceed from them?

2To resume: The fact is clear that it is impossible for such deeds and actions which have no similitude to former deeds and actions, to appear and be witnessed in the realm of existence, without a Divine change and transformation; for their agitation was changed to composure, their doubt turned to assurance, and their fear transformed into courage. This is the virtue of the Divine Elixir which transforms the servants in an instant.

3For instance, consider the substance copper; which if it is protected in its own mine from superabundance of dryness, will in seventy years attain to the state of gold although some consider copper itself to be gold, which through superabundance of dryness, hath become disordered and hath not reached its own state.

4To be brief: a perfect elixir however will cause the substance copper to attain the state of gold in an instant and to traverse the seventy-year stages in a moment. Could it be said that this gold is copper or that it hath not attained the condition of gold, while the test is at hand to differentiate and distinguish the qualities of gold from those of copper?

5Likewise these souls have traversed the earth-world in an instant through the Divine Elixir, entered the worlds of sanctity, and in one step reached the Divine Placeless from the limited world of place. An effort is needed that thou mayest attain this Elixir which in an instant causes the west of ignorance to reach the east of Knowledge, makes the gloominess of the dark night attain to the brilliant morning, guides the remote one in the wilderness of doubt to the fountain of nearness and assurance, and directs the mortal temples to the Rizwan of immortality. Now if it be true to declare this gold copper, it will also be true and justifiable to declare these servants to be the same as before they had attained to the Faith.

6O brother, through these clear, perfect and complete explanations, the mysteries of "new creation," "revival," and "resurrection" are manifest and evident without veil and covering. If it please God, thou wilt cast off the old garment from body and soul through the unseen confirmations, and be honored with the new and immortal robe.

7Therefore in every succeeding Manifestation, those souls who preceded all in the earth in faith, drank the clear water of Knowledge from the Beauty of Oneness, and ascended to the loftiest summits of faith, assurance and severance can be declared to be the return of the former persons who in name, office, deed, word and condition had attained to these states in the preceding Manifestation. For that which appeared from the former servants, appeared and became manifest in the subsequent ones. If, for example, a garden of roses be in the east of the earth, and that kind of rose also cometh forth from another branch in the west, the name "rose" is applied to it. In this case it is not in respect to the limitations of the branch and its form, but on account of the fragrance and odor which are manifest in both. Consequently sanctify and purify thy gaze from outward limitations, that thou mayest behold them all in one name, one office, one essence, and one truth, and that thou mayest perceive the mysteries of the "return" of the Words in the revealed Words. Reflect a little upon the companions at the time of the Point of the Koran; how they cut themselves from the whole world, were purified, sanctified and severed from all human tendencies and selfish desires through the pure fragrances of His Holiness, and preceded all the people of the earth in attaining the honor of Meeting, which was identical with the Meeting of God. For ye have heard how they sacrificed life before that Manifestation of the Glorious One.

8Behold the return of the same firmness, steadfastness and severance in the companions of the Point of the Beyan, for ye have witnessed how these companions have hoisted the banner of Severance upon the summit of Inaccessibility, through the wonders of the generosity of the Lord of Lords.

9To be brief: These lights have appeared from one lamp and these fruits have grown from one tree. In reality no difference is perceived and no change is visible. "All this is from the bounty of God; He bestoweth it upon whomsoever of His creatures He wisheth." God willing, we will avoid the land of negation and reach the sea of affirmation, so that we may perceive the worlds of union, division, oneness, separation, limitation and Divine abstraction with an eye sanctified from elements and opposites, and soar upward to the highest horizon of the nearness and sanctity of the significances.