Reflections on the Tablet of Visitation for 'Abdu'l-Baha

Reflections on the Tablet of Visitation for 'Abdu'l-Baha

Whoso recitheth this prayer with lowliness and fervor will bring gladness and joy to the heart of this Servant; it will be even as meeting Him face to face.

He is the All-Glorious!

O God, my God! Lowly and tearful, I raise my suppliant hands to Thee and cover my face in the dust of that Threshold of Thine, exalted above the knowledge of the learned, and the praise of all that glorify Thee. Graciously look upon Thy servant, humble and lowly at Thy door, with the glances of the eye of Thy mercy, and immerse him in the Ocean of Thine eternal grace.

Lord! He is a poor and lowly servant of Thine, enthralled and imploring Thee, captive in Thy hand, praying fervently to Thee, trusting in Thee, in tears before Thy face, calling to Thee and beseeching Thee, saying:

O Lord, my God! Give me Thy grace to serve Thy loved ones, strengthen me in my servitude to Thee, illumine my brow with the light of adoration in Thy court of holiness, and of prayer to Thy kingdom of grandeur. Help me to be selfless at the heavenly entrance of Thy gate, and aid me to be detached from all things within Thy holy precincts. Lord! Give me to drink from the chalice of selflessness; with its robe clothe me, and in its ocean immerse me. Make me as dust in the pathway of Thy loved ones, and grant that I may offer up my soul for the earth ennobled by the footsteps of Thy chosen ones in Thy path, O Lord of Glory in the Highest.

With this prayer doth Thy servant call Thee, at dawntide and in the night-season. Fulfill his heart's desire, O Lord! Illumine his heart, gladden his bosom, kindle his light, that he may serve Thy Cause and Thy-servant. Thou art the Bestower, the Pitiful, the Most Bountiful, the Gracious, the Merciful, the Compassionate.                ~ 'Abdu'l-Bahá

When I first encountered this prayer, I was deeply effected by the mysterious power it had from the "Mystery of God".  One of the Master's great services was the building of the Shrine of the I Báb. We can associate  this prayer of service with the burial of the Báb's remains, on Mount Carmel, on Nawruz, 1909.

"Every stone of that building, every stone of the road leading to it," He, many a time was heard to remark, "I have with infinite tears and at tremendous cost, raised and placed in position." "One night," He, according to an eye-witness, once observed, "I was so hemmed in by My anxieties that I had no other recourse than to recite and  repeat over and over again a prayer of the Báb which I had in My possession, the recital of which greatly calmed Me. The next morning the owner of the plot himself came to Me, apologized and begged Me to purchase his property." ('Abdul-Baha, quoted in God Passes By, p. 275)

Zechariah 6:12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: 6:13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.

When all was finished, and the earthly remains of the Martyr-Prophet of Shiraz were, at long last, safely deposited for their everlasting rest in the bosom of God's holy mountain, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who had cast aside His turban, removed His shoes and thrown off His cloak, bent low over the still open sarcophagus, His silver hair waving about His head and His face transfigured and luminous, rested His forehead on the border of the wooden casket, and, sobbing aloud, wept with such a weeping that all those who were present wept with Him. That night He could not sleep, so overwhelmed was He with emotion. (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 276)

Then the Master shares with us His own inner prayer, what He constantly says to His "Everlasting Father." When we say it, it becomes our prayer, and the believer is praying for the Master, and the master is praying for us to do as he does.  We want to feel close to the Master, Who was always close to the Father, and experience His thankfulness, after He had struggled to raise the Shrine, and how His unwavering servitude to the Cause was clearly demonstrated. He still had before Him three years of traveling in the West and the World War, the writing of the Will and Testament, and the appointment His successor, the Guardian.

In the Tablet, we are "humble and lowly at Thy door." This speaks of the Báb's interment, and later we read "Help me to be selfless at the heavenly entrance of Thy Gate," which also refers to the Báb, both in this world and the next. The Master prepared the pilgrims to enter into the Presence of Bahá'u'lláh, and the Shrine of the Báb. Perhaps these references made it clear where 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself was to be interred in 1921. A century later, a special permanent  shrine is being built, to which the remains of the Master will be transferred.

The "Threshold" is "exalted above the knowledge of the learned." The Learned is the Institution of the Counselors and Auxiliaries, who carry on the work of the protection and propagation of the Faith, after the Hands of the Cause.

As in many places in Bahá’í Scripture the mercy, grace and forgiveness of God is portrayed as a vast ocean. With the Mediterranean nearby, we can visualize this easily. We are praying 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbás be immersed "in the Ocean of eternal grace"; but there is the sense that He, the Mystery of God, is praying the same thing for us.  We are servants with Him.  Later in the prayer, it is "the ocean of selflessness" that we beg to be immersed in.

The second paragraph is characterized by the string of descriptive pleadings emphasizing the dependence of the servants, and their complete sincerity. We are being prepared by Him to enter the Presence of God, where we are inspired to try harder, to be more selfless, more determined, more desperate for the strength and grace we seek. We are "within the holy precincts" and desire, not only to be as lowly as the sacred dust our face has touched, but to offer up our souls for it! -such dust now enriched by the sacred dust of the Promised One!

We want "such humility and submissiveness that every atom of the dust beneath their feet may attest the depth of their devotion." so we can supply "the needs of all creation." (GWB V) and heal the wounds of the world and its peoples. Selflessness is what we wish to gain from the Master; while His faithless brother gave us the abject example of selfishness. The lies that were told to the Turkish authorities about the purpose of the Shrine are burned away in its current reality: the Throne is established upon the earth for all people!

'Abdu'l-Bahá taught us again about the history of the Holy Land, where all the "chosen ones" had appeared, "-- the Land promised by God to Abraham, sanctified by the Revelation of Moses, honored by the lives and labors of the Hebrew patriarchs, judges, kings and prophets, revered as the cradle of Christianity, and as the place where Zoroaster, according to 'Abdu'l-Bahá's testimony, had "held converse with some of the Prophets of Israel," and associated by Islam with the Apostle's night-journey, through the seven heavens, to the throne of the Almighty. Within the confines of this holy and enviable country, "the nest of all the Prophets of God," "the Vale of God's unsearchable Decree, the snow-white Spot, the Land of unfading splendor" was the Exile of Baghdad, of Constantinople and Adrianople condemned to spend no less than a third of the allotted span of His life, and over half of the total period of His Mission. "It is difficult," declares 'Abdu'l-Bahá, "to understand how Bahá'u'lláh could have been obliged to leave Persia, and to pitch His tent in this Holy Land, but for the persecution of His enemies, His banishment and exile." (GPB p. 183)

To recite the prayer "at dawntide and in the night-season" seems to indicate that we should say it twice in twenty-four hours, if not more. The principle message from the Servant of Bahá is that we also be glad and selfless servants of the Cause of God, and serve it with all our hearts, until we are also interred, and our bodies returned to dust, while our souls ascend to the "Lord of Glory in the Highest."

Luke 2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.