Corroboration (LOP VI, Notes 55-64)

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Let him then raise his hands, and repeat three times the Greatest Name. [VI]

55) The Greatest Name

• ‘Allah-u-Abha’ is Arabic meaning ‘God the All-Glorious.’ It refers to Baha'u'llah.

• Repetition of ‘Allah-u-Abha’ occurs in the Long Obligatory Prayer in three places, three times in each place.
  

"O ye beloved friends of God and handmaids of the Merciful!

"Call ye to mind the blessed Name of our peerless Beloved, the Abha Beauty, in an uplifting spirit of unbounded ecstasy and delight, then unloose your tongues in His praise in such wise that the realm of the heart may be purged from the woes and sorrows of the world of water and clay, that the great heights of spiritual perception may be unveiled before your eyes, that the glorious signs of His Divine Unity may shine resplendent, a fresh outpouring of His grace may stream forth, and a liberal effusion of celestial confirmations may be vouchsafed unto you.

"His Name is indeed the healing medicine for every illness, and imparteth warmth unto those starving with cold. It is the sovereign remedy and the supreme talisman. It is the source of life in both worlds, and of salvation unto such as have gone astray. Today this hallowed Name serveth as a shield for all mankind, and as a veritable refuge for the children of men. It is the wondrous accent of the Lord of Mercy, and His celestial melody."

(Abdu'l-Baha, "From an unpublished authorized translation of a Tablet of Abdu'l-Baha." Department of the Secretariat of the Universal House of Justice, 2000.)


“While praying it would be better to turn one’s thoughts to the Manifestation as He continues, in the other world, to be our means of contact with the Almighty.”

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of India, 27 April 1937, Dawn of a New Day, p. 67)


"As a devoted believer in Baha’u’llah, you have the privilege of using the Greatest Name and the revealed prayers to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit, which is your shield and your protection through any difficulties and which will bring reassurance and serenity to your heart."
(Extract from a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice 4 January 1991, to an individual believer)

See also "The Word Baha': Quintessence of the Greatest Name," by Stephen Lambden. Published in Baha'i Studies Review, Volume 3, Issue 1, 1993.)


before God—blessed and exalted be He [VI]

56)

• ‘From the Bahá'í perspective, the "Essence" of God is "unknowable".

• The "Reality of Divinity ... is invisible, incomprehensible, inaccessible, a pure essence which cannot be described ..."

• God is "exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence..."

• "God is never flesh". The Godhead has no physical form and does not in any way resemble a human being, male or female.

• The "attributes" of the Manifestations of God are the means by which the "Divine characteristics and perfections" of God are made known to humanity.’

(The Universal House of Justice, 23 February 1992, 'Ancient Goddess Religions')


Thou seest, O my God, how my spirit hath been stirred up within my limbs and members [VI]

57) ‘Whensoever the light of Manifestation of the King of Oneness settleth upon the throne of the heart and soul, His shining becometh visible in every limb and member. At that time the mystery of the famed tradition gleameth out of the darkness: "A servant is drawn unto Me in prayer until I answer him; and when I have answered him, I become the ear wherewith he heareth...." For thus the Master of the house hath appeared within His home, and all the pillars of the dwelling are ashine with His light. And the action and effect of the light are from the Light-Giver; so it is that all move through Him and arise by His will.’

(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 22) [Emphasis added.]

in its longing to worship Thee, and in its yearning to remember Thee and extol Thee [VI]

58) “Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy.”

(Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations By Baha'u'llah, p. 262) [Emphasis added.]


"True remembrance is to make mention of the Lord, the All-Praised, and forget aught else beside Him."

(Baha'u'llah, "Words of Wisdom," Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 155)


"Say: Deliver your souls, O people, from the bondage of self, and purify them from all attachment to anything besides Me. Remembrance of Me cleanseth all things from defilement, could ye but perceive it."

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings, CXXXVI, p. 294-5) [Emphasis added.]


"Strive, O people, that your eyes may be directed towards the mercy of God, that your hearts may be attuned to His wondrous remembrance, that your souls may rest confidently upon His grace and bounty, that your feet may tread the path of His good-pleasure. Such are the counsels which I bequeath unto you. Would that ye might follow My counsels!"

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, CXXXVI, p. 297) [Emphasis added.]


‘Baha'u'llah's prayers are loaded with words like "remembrance" and "forgetfulness." To take one suggestive example, in Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, "remember" and "forget" and their variants appear 110 times in the prayers translated there by Shoghi Effendi.’

Searching for God in time and memory - An examination of Baha'i prayer as 'remembrance' by Christopher White. Published in Reason and Revelation: Studies in the Babi and Baha'i Religions 13.

See Note 105.
my spirit...testifieth to that whereunto the Tongue of Thy Commandment hath testified in the kingdom of Thine utterance and the heaven of Thy knowledge

59) The prayer makes it clear that one is reciting words that are attested – Baha’u’llah tells us of divine corroboration; it appears that the holy verses are confirmed on every level of existence. These words show that, in this life and beyond, one is not alone in belief, trust and faith in what one is praying. Baha’u’llah reveals worlds of testimony.

Corroboration in the Long Obligatory Prayer

• "my spirit...testifieth to that whereunto the Tongue of Thy Commandment hath testified in the kingdom of Thine utterance and the heaven of Thy knowledge"

• "I testify unto that whereunto have testified all created things, and the Concourse on high, and the inmates of the all-highest Paradise, and beyond them the Tongue of Grandeur itself from the all-glorious Horizon"

• "I testify that it is He whose name hath been set down by the Pen of the Most High, and Who hath been mentioned in the Books of God, the Lord of the Throne on high and of earth below."

• 'I entreat Thee...by the words “Here am I. Here am I” which Thy chosen Ones have uttered in this immensity'

• "Thou hast...caused me...to acknowledge that which hath been uttered by the Tongue of Thy grandeur"

• "I testify, O my God, to that whereunto Thy chosen Ones have testified, and acknowledge that which the inmates of the all-highest Paradise and those who have circled round Thy mighty Throne have acknowledged."

that I may demonstrate my poverty and magnify Thy bounty and Thy riches [VI]

60) ‘By “riches…” is meant independence of all else but God, and by “poverty” the lack of things that are of God.’

(Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 132)

See Notes 52 and 91.


magnify [VI]
61)

"magnify: 4: To praise or glorify."

(Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary)


may declare my powerlessness [VI]

62) "What power can the shadowy creature claim to possess when face to face with Him Who is the Uncreated?"

(Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations, LXXXVIII, p. 149)

manifest Thy power and Thy might [VI]

63) "O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be."

(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys, p. 60)


“And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

(King James Bible, Matthew 17:20)

my poverty...my powerlessness

64) I beseech Thee, O my Lord, by Thy most effulgent Name, to acquaint my people with the things Thou didst destine for them...Inspire them, O my Lord, with a sense of their own powerlessness before Him Who is the Manifestation of Thy Self, and teach them to recognize the poverty of their own nature in the face of the manifold tokens of Thy self-sufficiency and riches, that they may gather together round Thy Cause, and cling to the hem of Thy mercy, and cleave to the cord of the good-pleasure of Thy will.

(Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations, p. 46-47) [Emphasis added.]



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