Fire and Vengeance, Light and Mercy, Part Three

Baha'u'llah teaches that tests and difficulties are a gift from God, designed to further our spiritual growth in a most efficient manner, and to teach us what we most need and desire to learn as fundamentally spiritual beings. It takes a lot of trust to believe that we will be taken care of, even as the maelstrom of tests swirl around us.

Baha'u'llah, as the Founder of a new Faith in the 1800's in Iran, was not a popular figure with either the Shah of Iran or with the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Between them, with encouragement from many enemies of the Faith, they conspired to imprison Baha'u'llah and exile Him and His family from Tehran, to Baghdad, to Adrianople [Edirne] and to Akka, near Haifa, Palestine. This treatment engendered an enormous amount of suffering over a forty-year period.

At one time Baha'u'llah revealed a long and intense prayer named the "Fire Tablet." There are multiple layers of meaning, inner and outer meanings, in everything Baha'u'llah reveals. He writes,

"In the Name of God, the Most Ancient, the Most Great.
"Indeed the hearts of the sincere are consumed in the fire of separation: Where is the gleaming of the light of Thy Countenance, O Beloved of the worlds? . . . Where is the shining of the Morn of Thy reunion, O Desire of the Worlds?" *

After a long and beautiful series of verses, God answers Baha'u'llah:
"Were it not for the cold, how would the heat of Thy words prevail, O Expounder of the worlds?"
"Were it not for calamity, how would the sun of Thy patience shine, O Light of the worlds?" . . .
"by Thy banishment the land of Unity was adorned. Be patient, O Thou Exile of the worlds." *

Then Baha'u'llah responds:
"When the swords flash, go forward! When the shafts fly, press onward! O Thou Sacrifice of the Worlds." * and,

"Verily I have heard Thy Call, O All-Glorious Beloved; and now is the face of Baha flaming with the heat of tribulation and with the fire of Thy shining word, and He hath risen up in faithfulness . . ." *

And we wonder if we are loved! But this is what we must do: rise up in the midst of our difficulties, and turn to God.


*All quotes copyright by the Baha'i Publishing Trust.