It was in Adrianople that Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet the
significance of which cannot be over-estimated. That Tablet was the
Suriy-i-Ghusn (Surih of the Branch) addressed to Mirza 'Ali-Riday-i-Mustawfi, a
Bahá'í of Khurasan --that province in eastern Persia famed in the Bábí
Dispensation and to which some momentous prophecies of Bahá'u'lláh specifically
apply. Mirza 'Ali-Rida was a high-ranking official in the service of the
government, and his brother, Mirza Muhammad-Rida …also a follower of
Bahá'u'lláh, was the Vizier of Khurasan. In the Suriy-i-Ghusn, Bahá'u'lláh thus
extols His eldest Son:
“There hath branched from the Sadratu'l-Muntaha this sacred
and glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that hath
sought His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow. Verily the Limb of the Law
of God hath sprung forth from this Root which God hath firmly implanted in the
Ground of His Will, and Whose Branch hath been so uplifted as to encompass the
whole of creation. Magnified be He, therefore, for this sublime, this blessed,
this mighty, this exalted Handiwork I . . . A Word hath, as a token of Our
grace, gone forth from the Most Great Tablet -- a Word which God hath adorned
with the ornament of His own Self, and made it sovereign over the earth and all
that is therein, and a sign of His greatness and power among its people . . .
Render thanks unto God, O people, for His appearance; for verily He is the most
great Favour unto you, the most perfect bounty upon you; and through Him every
mouldering bone is quickened. Whoso turneth towards Him hath turned towards
God, and whoso turneth away from Him hath turned away from My Beauty, hath
repudiated My Proof, and transgressed against Me. He is the Trust of God
amongst you, His charge within you, His manifestation unto you and His
appearance among His favoured servants . . . We have sent Him down in the form
of a human temple. Blest and sanctified be God Who createth whatsoever He
willeth through His inviolable His infallible decree. They who deprive
themselves of the shadow of the Branch, are lost in the wilderness of error are
consumed by the heat of worldly desires, and are of those who will assuredly
perish.” (Baha’u’llah, quoted by Shoghi Effendi in The Dispensation of
Baha’u’llah)
- Balyuzi (‘Abdu'l-Baha - The Centre of the Covenant’)
