Thou didst wish to celebrate the Day of Ridván with a feast,
and to have those present on that day engage in reciting Tablets with delight
and joy, and thou didst request me to send thee a letter to be read on that
day. My letter is this:
O ye beloved, and ye handmaids of the Merciful! This is the
day when the Day-Star of Truth rose over the horizon of life, and its glory
spread, and its brightness shone out with such power that it clove the dense
and high-piled clouds and mounted the skies of the world in all its splendour.
Hence do ye witness a new stirring throughout all created things.
See how, in this day, the scope of sciences and arts hath
widened out, and what wondrous technical advances have been made, and to what a
high degree the mind’s powers have increased, and what stupendous inventions
have appeared.
This age is indeed as a hundred other ages: should ye gather
the yield of a hundred ages, and set that against the accumulated product of
our times, the yield of this one era will prove greater than that of a hundred
gone before. Take ye, for an example, the sum total of all the books that were
ever written in ages past, and compare that with the books and treatises that
our era hath produced: these books, written in our day
alone, far and away exceed the total number of volumes that have been written
down the ages. See how powerful is the influence exerted by the Day-Star of the
world upon the inner essence of all created things!
But alas, a thousand times alas! The eyes see it not, the
ears are deaf, and the hearts and minds are oblivious of this supreme bestowal.
Strive ye then, with all your hearts and souls, to awaken those who slumber, to
cause the blind to see, and the dead to rise.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from
the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha)
