Inspiring quotes

"It is incumbent on these servants that they cleanse the heart--which is the wellspring of divine treasures--from every marking, and that they turn away from imitation, which is following the traces of their forefathers and sires, and shut the door of friendliness and enmity upon all the people of the earth."

"Whoso seeketh out a thing with zeal shall find it."
(the Valley of Search)

"Kindle the fire of love and burn away all things, Then set thy foot into the land of the lovers."
(the Valley of Love)

"Knowledge is a single point, but the ignorants have multiplied it."

"In thy soul of love build thou a fire, And burn all thoughts and words entire."
(the Valley of Knowledge)

"Cleanse thou the rheum from out thine head And breathe the breath of God instead."

"Should God punish men for their perverse doings, He would not leave on earth a moving thing! But to an appointed term doth He respite them...."

"O My Brother! A pure heart is as a mirror; cleanse it with the burnish of love and severance from all save God, that the true sun may shine within it and the eternal morning dawn. Then wilt thou clearly see the meaning of "Neither doth My earth nor My heaven contain Me, but the heart of My faithful servant containeth Me."

"His Essence, holy above ascent and descent, entrance and exit; He hath through all eternity been free of the attributes of human creatures, and ever will remain so. No man hath ever known Him; no soul hath ever found the pathway to His Being. Every mystic knower hath wandered far astray in the valley of the knowledge of Him; every saint hath lost his way in seeking to comprehend His Essence. Sanctified is He above the understanding of the wise; exalted is He above the knowledge of the knowing! The way is barred and to seek it is impiety; His proof is His signs; His being is His evidence.
(the Valley of Unity)

"Only heart to heart can speak the bliss of mystic knowers; No messenger can tell it and no missive bear it."

"I am silent from weakness on many a matter, For my words could not reckon them and my speech would fall short."
(the Valley of Contentment)

"Dost thou reckon thyself only a puny form, When within thee the universe is folded?"
(the Valley of Wonderment)

"When the qualities of the Ancient of Days stood revealed, Then the qualities of earthly things did Moses burn away."

"The Beloved shineth on gate and wall Without a veil, O men of vision."

"Even as the sun, bright hath He shined, But alas, He hath come to the town of the blind!"

"Free thyself from that which thy passion desireth; then advance unto thy Lord."

"Purify thyself from all else save Him, that thou mayest surrender thy life in His love."

"Thank thy Lord on His earth that He may bless thee in His heaven; albeit in the world of oneness, this heaven is the same as His earth."

"Take off from thyself the wrappings of limitations, that thou mayest come to know what thou hast not known of the states of Sanctity."
(the Valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness)

~ Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys


"There was once a lover who had sighed for long years in separation from his beloved, and wasted in the fire of remoteness. From the rule of love, his heart was empty of patience, and his body weary of his spirit; he reckoned life without her as a mockery, and time consumed him away. How many a day he found no rest in longing for her; how many a night the pain of her kept him from sleep; his body was worn to a sigh, his heart’s wound had turned him to a cry of sorrow. He had given a thousand lives for one taste of the cup of her presence, but it availed him not. The doctors knew no cure for him, and companions avoided his company; yea, physicians have no medicine for one sick of love, unless the favor of the beloved one deliver him.

At last, the tree of his longing yielded the fruit of despair, and the fire of his hope fell to ashes. Then one night he could live no more, and he went out of his house and made for the marketplace. On a sudden, a watchman followed after him. He broke into a run, with the watchman following; then other watchmen came together, and barred every passage to the weary one. And the wretched one cried from his heart, and ran here and there, and moaned to himself: “Surely this watchman is Izrá’íl, my angel of death, following so fast upon me; or he is a tyrant of men, seeking to harm me.” His feet carried him on, the one bleeding with the arrow of love, and his heart lamented. Then he came to a garden wall, and with untold pain he scaled it, for it proved very high; and forgetting his life, he threw himself down to the garden.

And there he beheld his beloved with a lamp in her hand, searching for a ring she had lost. When the heart-surrendered lover looked on his ravishing love, he drew a great breath and raised up his hands in prayer, crying: “O God! Give Thou glory to the watchman, and riches and long life. For the watchman was Gabriel, guiding this poor one; or he was Isráfíl, bringing life to this wretched one!”

Indeed, his words were true, for he had found many a secret justice in this seeming tyranny of the watchman, and seen how many a mercy lay hid behind the veil. Out of wrath, the guard had led him who was athirst in love’s desert to the sea of his loved one, and lit up the dark night of absence with the light of reunion. He had driven one who was afar, into the garden of nearness, had guided an ailing soul to the heart’s physician.

Now if the lover could have looked ahead, he would have blessed the watchman at the start, and prayed on his behalf, and he would have seen that tyranny as justice; but since the end was veiled to him, he moaned and made his plaint in the beginning. Yet those who journey in the garden land of knowledge, because they see the end in the beginning, see peace in war and friendliness in anger."

~ Baha’u’llah, The Seven Valleys (Knowledge 3)