Praise be unto Thee, O my God! Thanks be unto Thee O my Beloved! Glory be unto Thee, O my Lord! for that which Thou hast bestowed, favored, conferred and granted. For Thou hast chosen sincere servants from among Thy people to serve Thy Religion. Thou hast elected them to draw inspiration from Thy Manifest Light, attraction from Thy Luminous Beauty and to walk in Thy straight path.
O my Lord! Verily the souls are heedless of Thy mentioning and hearts deprived of Thy love, the eyes veiled from beholding the Kingdom of Thy Beauty and the intellects wandering away from the Centre of Thy Glory, except those who are firm in Thy Covenant, free from dissension, attracting the rays of the Sun of Truth, detaching themselves from inharmony, arising in the service of Thy Cause amongst Thy people and exhilarated from the pure wine of Thy Kingdom. Bestow upon them unlimited blessing and creative good from the never-ending Bounty, and pour upon them with great abundance, from the Cloud of Thy Majesty, the rain of Thy Grace, the water of Thy Generosity and the Universal Favor.
O Lord, suffer them to become the signs of Thy Guidance, the standards of the Realm of Might, the words of virtue, the army of the Supreme Concourse and the angels of heaven, so that through them the East and the West of the earth may become Illumined, Thy Name be mentioned in the North and South, that they may educate all races and communities and clothe them with the garment of the comely names and the perfect example in this realm of existence.
O my Lord, reveal through them the ensign of Unity among mankind and the flag of Love between nations, so that multiplicities may converge into the centre of oneness and harmony, the veils of hatred be rent asunder, the conditions of discord pass away and enmity and rancor vanish from the world of man. So that after disunion the Beloved of Union shall unveil her countenance, animosity be changed into affection, the reign of faction and feud come to an end, and success and prosperity be attained.
O my Lord, strengthen their backs in their service, gird up their loins in their adoration, dilate their breasts with the light of Thy Knowledge, illumine their eyes by beholding Thy Face, gladden their spirits by the significances of thy Providence and purify their souls by the appearance of Thy Compassion.
Verily Thou art the Merciful, the Clement, the Almighty, the Bestower, the Unconstrained! There is no God but Thee, the Giver, the Pardoner, the Hidden, the Manifest and the Source of Bounties!
- ‘Abdu'l-Baha (Star of the West, Vol. 1, no. 3, April 28, 1910)