Refining Utterance (1-5)

Why God has given us the gift of speech.

1) "O Emigrants! The tongue I have designed for the mention of Me, defile it not with detraction. If the fire of self overcome you, remember your own faults and not the faults of My creatures, inasmuch as every one of you knoweth his own self better than he knoweth others."

(Baha'u'llah, Persian Hidden Words, No. 66)

2) "Verily I say, the tongue is for mentioning what is good, defile it not with unseemly talk. God hath forgiven what is past. Henceforward everyone should utter that which is meet and seemly, and should refrain from slander, abuse and whatever causeth sadness in men. Lofty is the station of man!"

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, pp. 219-220)

3) "Glorified art Thou, 0 Lord my God! My tongue, both the tongue of my body and the tongue of my heart, my limbs and members, every pulsating vein within me, every hair of my head, all proclaim that Thou art God, and that there is none other God beside Thee."

(Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations, p. 112)

4) "I beg Thee to forgive me, 0 my Lord, for every mention but the mention of Thee, and for every praise but the praise of thee..."

(The Bab, Baha'i Prayers, Wilmette, 2002, p. 80)

5) 'Today it behoveth one and all to forgo the mention of all else, and to disregard all things. Let their speaking, let their inner state be summed up thus: "Keep all my words of prayer and praise confined to one refrain; make all my life but servitude to Thee." That is, let them concentrate all their thoughts, all their words, on teaching the Cause of God and spreading the Faith of God, and inspiring all to characterize themselves with the characteristics of God; on loving mankind; on being pure and holy in all things, and spotless in their public and private life; on being upright and detached, and fervent, and afire. All is to be dispraised, except His praise. Today, to this melody of the Company on high, the world will leap and dance: "Glory be to my Lord, the All-Glorious!" But know ye this: save for this song of God, no song will stir the world, and save for this nightingale-cry of truth from the Garden of God, no melody will lure away the heart. "Whence cometh this Singer Who speaketh the Beloved's name?"'

(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 93)

Next