Grandeur (Azamat) 172 B.E.

Adelaide, Australia

“The glory of Him Whom God shall make manifest is immeasurably above every other glory, and His majesty is far above every other majesty. His beauty excelleth every other embodiment of beauty, and His grandeur immensely exceedeth every other manifestation of grandeur. Every light paleth before the radiance of His light, and every other exponent of mercy falleth short before the tokens of His mercy.”
-The Bab, Selections From the Writings of the Bab
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Vancouver, Canada

“O Man Of Two Visions!
Close one eye and open the other. Close one to the world and all that is therein, and open the other to the hallowed beauty of the Beloved.”
-Baha’u’llah, The Hidden Words
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Tully, Australia

“Thou art My glory and My glory fadeth not; thou art My robe and My robe shall never be outworn. Abide then in thy love for Me, that thou mayest find Me in the realm of glory.”
-Baha’u’llah, The Hidden Words
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Oak Hill, USA

“O friend, till thou enter the garden of such mysteries, thou shalt never set lip to the undying wine of this Valley. And shouldst thou taste of it, thou wilt shield thine eyes from all things else, and drink of the wine of contentment; and thou wilt loose thyself from all things else, and bind thyself to Him, and throw thy life down in His path, and cast thy soul away. However, there is no other in this region that thou need forget: ‘There was God and there was naught beside Him.’ For on this plane the traveler witnesseth the beauty of the Friend in everything. Even in fire, he seeth the face of the Beloved. He beholdeth in illusion the secret of reality, and readeth from the attributes the riddle of the Essence. For he hath burnt away the veils with his sighing, and unwrapped the shroudings with a single glance; with piercing sight he gazeth on the new creation; with lucid heart he graspeth subtle verities. This is sufficiently attested by: ‘And we have made thy sight sharp in this day.’
After journeying through the planes of pure contentment, the traveler cometh to the Valley of Wonderment and is tossed in the oceans of grandeur, and at every moment his wonder groweth.”
-Baha’u’llah, The Seven Valleys
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Oxford, UK

“It is incumbent upon thee to acquire the various branches of knowledge…”
-‘Abdu’l-Baha, Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha
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Ottawa, Canada

A foraging honey bee pays a visit to a bed of plum blossoms, pollinating the flowers in the process. Without this crucial interaction between flower and bee, many fruits and other flowering crops would never produce, severely limiting our food supply. Humanity’s well-being, then, is intricately linked with the well-being of these humble insects.

“Were one to observe with an eye that discovereth the realities of all things, it would become clear that the greatest relationship that bindeth the world of being together lieth in the range of created things themselves, and that co-operation, mutual aid and reciprocity are essential characteristics in the unified body of the world of being, inasmuch as all created things are closely related together and each is influenced by the other or deriveth benefit therefrom, either directly or indirectly.”
-‘Abdu’l-Baha, Huququ’llah—The Right of God
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Wilmette, USA

“I supplicate God that ye may become the army of that kingdom, in order that by the power of the Most Great Name, the friends of God may conquer this world through love, friendship and the strength of the Kingdom of peace; the human race become compassionate, and bloodshed and carnage be completely effaced from the universe.”
-‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith
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Tampere, Finland

“Dost thou think thyself only a puny form, when the universe is folded up within thee?”
-The Imam `Ali
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Miami, USA

“Similarly the wise and reflecting soul will know of a certainty that this infinite universe with all its grandeur and order could not have come to exist by itself.”
-‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith
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London, UK

“Trustworthiness is the greatest portal leading unto the tranquillity and security of the people. In truth the stability of every affair hath depended and doth depend upon it. All the domains of power, of grandeur and of wealth are illumined by its light.”
-Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah
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New York City, USA

“The bedrock of a strategy that can engage the world’s population in assuming responsibility for its collective destiny must be the consciousness of the oneness of humankind. Deceptively simple in popular discourse, the concept that humanity constitutes a single people presents fundamental challenges to the way that most of the institutions of contemporary society carry out their functions.”
-The Prosperity of Humankind, Bahá’í International Community, Office of Public Information, Haifa, 1995