Chapter C19
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The Deathless Tree (Burning Bush) -- the Revelation of God.

1)
The breezes of the Most Merciful have passed over all created things; happy the man that hath discovered their fragrance, and set himself towards them with a sound heart. Attire thy temple with the ornament of My Name, and thy tongue with remembrance of Me, and thine heart with love for Me, the Almighty, the Most High. We have desired for thee naught except that which is better for thee than what thou dost possess and all the treasures of the earth. Thy Lord, verily, is knowing, informed of all. Arise, in My Name, amongst My servants, and say: `O ye peoples of the earth! Turn yourselves towards Him Who hath turned towards you. He, verily, is the Face of God amongst you, and His Testimony and His Guide unto you. He hath come to you with signs which none can produce.' The voice of the Burning Bush is raised in the midmost heart of the world, and the Holy Spirit calleth aloud among the nations: `Lo, the Desired One is come with manifest dominion!'
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Proclamation of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 18-19


2)
Lauded be Thy name, O my God! This is the hour when Thou hast unlocked the doors of Thy bounty before the faces of Thy creatures, and opened wide the portals of Thy tender mercy unto all the dwellers of Thine earth. I beseech Thee, by all them whose blood was shed in Thy path, who, in their yearning over Thee, rid themselves from all attachment to any of Thy creatures, and who were so carried away by the sweet savors of Thine inspiration that every single member of their bodies intoned Thy praise and vibrated to Thy remembrance, not to withhold from us the things Thou hast irrevocably ordained in this Revelation--a Revelation the potency of which hath caused every tree to cry out what the Burning Bush had aforetime proclaimed unto Moses, Who conversed with Thee, a Revelation that hath enabled every least pebble to resound again with Thy praise, as the stones glorified Thee in the days of Muhammad, Thy Friend.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and Meditations, p. 144


3)
O ye kinsmen of the Most Great Remembrance! This Tree of Holiness, dyed crimson with the oil of servitude, hath verily sprung forth out of your own soil in the midst of the Burning Bush, yet ye comprehend nothing whatever thereof, neither of His true, heavenly attributes, nor of the actual circumstances of His earthly life, nor of the evidences of His powerful and unblemished behaviour.
-- The Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 52


4)
O ye that circle the throne of glory! Hearken unto My Call which is raised from the midst of the Burning Bush, `Verily I am God and there is none other God but Me. Hence worship Me, and for the sake of Him Who is the Most Great Remembrance, offer ye prayers, purged from the insinuations of the people, for verily your Lord, the One true God, is none other than the Sovereign Truth. Indeed such as invoke others besides Him are deservedly numbered among the inmates of the fire, while He Who is the Remembrance of God verily abideth, firm and undeviating, on the Path of Truth amidst the Burning Bush.'...
-- The Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 69


5)
"Call out to Zion, O Carmel, and announce the joyful tidings: He that was hidden from mortal eyes is come! His all-conquering sovereignty is manifest; His all-encompassing splendor is revealed. Beware lest thou hesitate or halt. Hasten forth and circumambulate the City of God that hath descended from heaven, the celestial Kaaba round which have circled in adoration the favored of God, the pure in heart, and the company of the most exalted angels. Oh, how I long to announce unto every spot on the surface of the earth, and to carry to each one of its cities, the glad-tidings of this Revelation--a Revelation to which the heart of Sinai hath been attracted, and in whose name the Burning Bush is calling: `Unto God, the Lord of Lords, belong the kingdoms of earth and heaven.' Verily this is the Day in which both land and sea rejoice at this announcement, the Day for which have been laid up those things which God, through a bounty beyond the ken of mortal mind or heart, hath destined for revelation. Ere long will God sail His Ark upon thee, and will manifest the people of Bahá who have been mentioned in the Book of Names."
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 16

6)
He is the Gracious, the Well-Beloved!
O Holy Mariner! Bid thine ark of eternity appear before the Celestial Concourse,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Launch it upon the ancient sea, in His Name, the Most Wondrous,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
And let the angelic spirits enter, in the Name of God, the Most High.
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Unmoor it, then, that it may sail upon the ocean of glory,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Haply the dwellers therein may attain the retreats of nearness in the everlasting realm.
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Having reached the sacred strand, the shore of the crimson seas,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Bid them issue forth and attain this ethereal invisible station,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
A station wherein the Lord hath in the Flame of His Beauty appeared within the deathless tree;
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Wherein the embodiments of His Cause cleansed themselves of self and passion;
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Around which the Glory of Moses doth circle with the everlasting hosts;
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Tablet of the Holy Mariner, Compilations, Baha'i Prayers, p. 220

7)
Moreover, in the traditions the terms "sun" and "moon" have been applied to prayer and fasting, even as it is said: "Fasting is illumination, prayer is light." One day, a well-known divine came to visit Us. While We were conversing with him, he referred to the above-quoted tradition. He said: "Inasmuch as fasting causeth the heat of the body to increase, it hath therefore been likened unto the light of the sun; and as the prayer of the night-season refresheth man, it hath been compared unto the radiance of the moon." Thereupon We realized that that poor man had not been favoured with a single drop of the ocean of true understanding, and had strayed far from the burning Bush of divine wisdom. We then politely observed to him saying: "The interpretation your honour hath given to this tradition is the one current amongst the people. Could it not be interpreted differently?" He asked Us: "What could it be?" We made reply: "Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets, and the most distinguished of God's chosen Ones, hath likened the Dispensation of the Qur'án unto heaven, by reason of its loftiness, its paramount influence, its majesty, and the fact that it comprehendeth all religions. And as the sun and moon constitute the brightest and most prominent luminaries in the heavens, similarly in the heaven of the religion of God two shining orbs have been ordained--fasting and prayer. `Islám is heaven; fasting is its sun, prayer, its moon.'"
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 39-40



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