A pillar of strength
There are many Writings and prayers revealed for us by Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on how to become firm in the Covenant, to be this immovable rock. The word "steadfast" comes to mind when I think of being firm in the Covenant. When one searches and finds the Truth through one's own investigation and not through the blind imitations of others, one then wants to increase one's Faith, steadfastness and firmness. To reach one hundred percent Faith is called certitude. We are all striving to reach that lofty station.
Here is one of the many prayers revealed by the Beloved Master on firmness in the Covenant:
Make firm our steps, O Lord, in Thy path and strengthen Thou our hearts in Thine obedience. Turn our faces toward the beauty of Thy oneness, and gladden our bosoms with the signs of Thy divine unity. Adorn our bodies with the robe of Thy bounty, and remove from our eyes the veil of sinfulness, and give us the chalice of Thy grace; that the essence of all beings may sing Thy praise before the vision of Thy grandeur. Reveal then Thyself, O Lord, by Thy merciful utterance and the mystery of Thy divine being, that the holy ecstasy of prayer may fill our souls—a prayer that shall rise above words and letters and transcend the murmur of syllables and sounds—that all things may be merged into nothingness before the revelation of Thy splendor.
Lord! These are servants that have remained fast and firm in Thy Covenant and Thy Testament, that have held fast unto the cord of constancy in Thy Cause and clung unto the hem of the robe of Thy grandeur. Assist them, O Lord, with Thy grace, confirm with Thy power and strengthen their loins in obedience to Thee.
Thou art the Pardoner, the Gracious.
Could you ever imagine someone attacking the Cause of God? Who would dare to do such a thing? Who would cause harm to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá?
Well, this sort of thing has happened every time a Manifestation of God comes to us. Often, it is His own followers and even family members who seek power and control. This happened during Baha'u'llah's own lifetime with His half brother, Mirza Yahya. And ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had to deal with his half-brother as well as other family members. They caused great sufferings to the heart of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
This half-brother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá held a rank second to none. Mirza Muhammad-'Ali would have succeeded the Master if He passed away. However, that was not to be. He did outlive Abdu'l-Baha by twenty years. The Guardian in his God Passes By shares with us that Mirza Muhammad-'Ali "created an irreparable breach within the ranks of Baha'u'llah's own kindred, sealed ultimately the fate of the great majority of the members of His family, and gravely damaged the prestige, through it never succeeded in causing a permanent cleavage in the structure, of the Faith itself. The true ground of this crisis was the burning, the uncontrollable, the soul-festering jealousy which the admitted preeminence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in rank, power, ability, knowledge and virtue, above all the other members of His Father’s family, had aroused not only in Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí, the archbreaker of the Covenant, but in some of his closest relatives as well. An envy as blind as that which had possessed the soul of Mírzá Yaḥyá, as deadly as that which the superior excellence of Joseph had kindled in the hearts of his brothers, as deep-seated as that which had blazed in thebosom of Cain and prompted him to slay his brother Abel, had, for several years, prior to Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension, been smouldering in the recesses of Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí’s heart and had been secretly inflamed by those unnumbered marks of distinction, of admiration and favor accorded to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá not only by Bahá’u’lláh Himself, His companions and His followers, but by the vast number of unbelievers who had come to recognize that innate greatness which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had manifested from childhood.
The intensity of the emotions which this somber episode aroused within Him were reminiscent of the effect produced upon Bahá’u’lláh by the dire happenings precipitated by therebellion of Mírzá Yaḥyá. “I swear by the Ancient Beauty!,” He wrote in one of His Tablets, “So great is My sorrow and regret that My pen is paralyzed between My fingers.” “Thou seest Me,” He, in a prayer recorded in His Will, thus laments, “submerged in an ocean of calamities that overwhelm the soul, of afflictions that oppress the heart… Sore trials have compassed Me round, and perils have from all sides beset Me. Thou seest Me immersed in a sea of unsurpassed tribulation, sunk into a fathomless abyss, afflicted by Mine enemies and consumed with the flame of hatred kindled by My kinsmen with whom Thou didst make Thy strong Covenant and Thy firm Testament…”"
So what happened to this half-brother? "Surviving ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by almost twenty years," Shoghi Effendi writes in God Passes By, "he who had so audaciously affirmed to His face that he had no assurance he might outlive Him, lived long enough to witness the utter bankruptcy of his cause, leading meanwhile a wretched existence within the walls of a Mansion that had once housed a crowd of his supporters; was denied by the civil authorities, as a result of the crisis he had after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing foolishly precipitated, the official custody of his Father’s Tomb; was compelled, a few years later, to vacate that same Mansion, which, through his flagrant neglect, had fallen into a dilapidated condition; was stricken with paralysis which crippled half his body; lay bedridden in pain for months before he died; and was buried according to Muslim rites, in the immediate vicinity of a local Muslim shrine, his grave remaining until the present day devoid of even a tombstone—a pitiful reminder of the hollowness of the claims he had advanced, of the depths of infamy to which he had sunk, and of the severity of the retribution his acts had so richly merited."
Those who opposed the Cause of God were thrown into darkness. In this day, those who attack the Faith of God and beat at its roots, are thrown out because they are likened unto poison who can contaminate the rest of the body. We are commanded to shun Covenant-Breakers and avoid them at all cost.
The Faith of God goes through crisis and victory to purify its followers and to show that it is truly the Faith of God. Every time the Cause went through a crisis, it emerged stronger than ever!
So, we are ever grateful to have the beloved Master who kept the Faith of God unified and moving along its destiny. This is the Power of the Covenant!
