Abraham: hospitality, exile, and the offering of the self

Blessed are you who, like your illustrious ancestor the blessed Abraham, are hospitable to guests and pride and glory yourselves in service to the Sacred Threshold. 'Abdu'l-Baha has the utmost joy in you and prays for you, that the Abrahamic tree may yield divine fruits and fragrant flowers may appear in the rose garden of His Holiness Abraham.

O Ibrahim! His Holiness Abraham uprooted the mighty idols and proclaimed the oneness of God.

Behold and call to mind when the Friend, through the power of the Glorious One, turned toward the abode of the idols in the name of His Lord, the Lord of all mankind.

Praise be to God that Thou hast, through the might of Abraham, shattered the idol of vain imaginings and rent asunder the obstructing veils.

Later, the beauty of the countenance of the Friend of God appeared from behind the veil, and another standard of divine guidance was hoisted.

Among the great Prophets was Abraham, Who, being an iconoclast and a Herald of the oneness of God, was banished from His native land. He founded a family upon which the blessing of God descended, and it was owing to this religious basis and ordination that the Abrahamic house progressed and advanced. Through the divine benediction noteworthy and luminous prophets issued from His lineage. There appeared Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David and Solomon.

Consider the case of Abraham. Had He not been exiled, He would not have received that greatest blessing; neither a Jacob nor an Isaac would have risen; the fame of the beauty of Joseph would not have been spread throughout the world. He would not have become the ruler of Egypt; no Moses would have appeared; no Muhammad, the divine Messenger, would have come.

O bondsman of the Ancient Beauty!

Although Abraham was exiled from his native land, that exile was a paradise of delight and a great triumph, for through it the verses of guidance were spread abroad and the lights of the Concourse on High dawned forth, and he became the manifestation of the confirmations of the Glorious Lord.

[Regarding the many exiles of Baha'u'llah and His banishment from Iran to 'Iraq, Istanbul, Edirne and eventually to 'Akka, 'Abdu'l-Baha remarked:] Abraham's migration precipitated the manifestation and appearance of Moses, Christ, Muhammad, the Exalted One [i.e. the Bab] and Baha'u'llah.

Then after him We sent forth the Friend (Abraham) and gave him ten scrolls from Our presence and sent him to Nimrod and his chiefs to remind them of the days of God and guide them to this clear and luminous path. … They made God's Cause an object of mockery and were not among the believers, until We destroyed Nimrod and his people and made the Friend an enduring Word from Our presence among the worlds.

O thou who art illumined by the fire of guidance and the light of Abraham! When Nimrod the obstinate sought to destroy that Essence of being and bring him to naught, he kindled the fire of envy, and it consumed his own household and lineage and the very foundations of that denier. But for His Holiness Abraham it became a glorious rose-garden and the cause of incomparable outpourings.

I beseech Thee by Thy Cause through which Thou didst manifest Thyself unto Moses on the Mount of Thy knowledge and unto Abraham in the fire of Thy love, to make me in all conditions detached from all else save Thee and holding fast unto the cord of Thy bounty.

God willing, may you be enabled through divine grace to attain unto that which is beloved in this day before the Lord of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

From the noble lineage of His Holiness Abraham arose souls whose countenances illumined the horizons and whose fragrance perfumed the world. They became lamps of guidance and waves of the ocean of truth.

O family of His Holiness the Illustrious Abraham! Give praise that in this wondrous Dispensation you have become verses of guidance and manifestations of the bounty of the Abha Beauty. You have become birds in the rose garden of divine unity and hosts in the field of sanctification, confirmed by the grace of the Lord of Hosts.

… This is the gift of God, this is the grace of the All-Merciful, this is the divine promise to His Holiness Abraham, peace be upon him.

Verily We have aided the children of Abraham in this Most Great Revelation and guided them to My Straight Path and assisted them to know Me and caused them to hear what Moses heard on the Mount of Recognition, and I am the Generous Giver.

You have asked concerning the relations and genealogy of the mother of 'Abdu'l-Baha. The father and grandfather went to Persia from the regions of Taif, and the inhabitants of those regions are all, with very few exceptions, descendents of the posterity of Ishmael.

This is like Ishmael who is multiple - one is Ishmael the son of Abraham and another is Ishmael who was among the prophets of Israel and is mentioned in the Qur'an.

Consider how all people who lived in the past affirmed that Isaac was the sacrifice, and likewise the followers of the Qur'an have affirmed this station for Ishmael, even though it is clear and evident to every person of insight and understanding that, outwardly, no sacrifice actually took place, and by universal agreement, it was an animal that was sacrificed.

Now ponder what is the cause and reason that one who went to the altar of the Friend and was not sacrificed was honored with the mantle of being God's sacrifice and attained the ornament of divine acceptance. There is no doubt that it was through the Word of God that he attained this station and was honored with this most great bestowal.

O thou who art sacrificed in the path of love!

According to the belief of the followers of the Qur'an, His Holiness Ishmael, or according to the explicit texts of the Torah, His Holiness Isaac, hastened to the altar of sacrifice with the utmost joy, dancing and leaping.

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Indeed it was sent down before in the Qur'an: "And We ransomed him with a mighty sacrifice." This was revealed when Abraham desired to fulfill what he had witnessed in his vision from his Lord, that there is none other God but He, the All-Subduing, the Self-Subsisting. When he desired to fulfill his Lord's command regarding his son, God sent down from His presence a ransom for him, as a grace from His presence. He, verily, is the best of those who show grace.

O God, my God! Would that a thousand Ishmaels were given Me, this Abraham of Thine, that I might have offered them, each and all, as a loving sacrifice unto Thee.

Therefore, O thou who seekest to behold the countenance of the Chosen Beauty, become as Abraham, the Friend of God in his sacrifice, and freely give thy life like Ishmael, that thou mayest find the gates of bounty opened from every direction and behold the favors of the King of Oneness like a brilliant light.

Thus when his holiness Abraham, the Friend of God, was eager to attain the infinite perfections of the All Merciful One, He, therefore, sought the increased realization of all Lordly conditions. In particular, He sought the raising of the dead.

Always, from the earliest ages, the conception of the Trinity hath been present. In the time of Moses, the ides of the Trinity was shown in (1) God, (2) the speaker of Mount Sinai, and (3) The Fire (which corresponds to our idea of the Holy Spirit). In the time of Abraham, this thought was represented by Abraham, the Angels, and God.

As an illustration of the Trinity, take light and illumination, there is the light-giver, the Sun (God) the light-receiver, and the ray of light connecting the two. Again there is the giver of the bounty, the receiver of the bounty and the bounty which is the Holy Spirit.

Today Abraham is a compassionate father in great joy and gladness. Isaac gives glad tidings to the horizons from the Abha Kingdom. Israel sees his lineage as glorious. Joseph considers Jacob's descendants as characterized by guidance and divine gifts.

Among those who possessed this divine power and were assisted by it was Abraham. The proof is this: Abraham was born in Mesopotamia of a family that was ignorant of the oneness of God; He opposed His own people and government, and even His own kin; He rejected all their gods; and, alone and single-handed, He withstood a powerful nation.

When Abraham was exiled from His home, God spoke to Him, "Do not be sad. I will give You the choicest land in the entire world."

… The Holy Land is the center of light and the dawning place of revelation and the birthplace of Christ, where Moses, Muhammad and Baha'u'llah came.

… There are rivers in this part of the world, like the River Jordan and al-'Asi.

It hath ever been thus: Abraham departed from His native land, but His departure became the cause of joy. Moses was sent far from His homeland, but that exile led Him to behold the Fire upon Sinai.

Praise be to God that thou hast attained and hast been illumined with the lights of the Word of Divine Unity. The children of the Friend and the heirs of Him Who conversed with God are mentioned in the presence of the Wronged One.

I inquired as to the genealogy of Bahaiuillah, and 'Abduil-Baha said that He was of Abrahamis blood---not through Isaac or Ishmael, but through one of his other sons by Katurah by whom he had six sons.

Although this request came from the tongue of the people, yet Abraham attained complete faith in the Glorious Lord.

Otherwise Abraham was illustrious, a soul at rest, pleasing and pleased, a holy soul.

It had drawn so near unto extinction that weakness and decline were nigh to seize it, but through one exalted word it was strengthened again and made firm. When His holiness Abraham was suspended in the air, the great angel came to him and asked "Hast thou any need?" He replied "Not from thee!" This word set all ablaze - weakness was transformed to strength, silence to speech, and muteness to utterance.

When the fire of Nimrod's tyranny was aflame and the decree to burn the temple of the Friend of that time - may our soul be a sacrifice for Him - issued forth from that dayspring of misbelief, there appeared from His Holiness that whose fragrance shall never cease from the worlds of inner meanings, utterance, wisdom and knowledge. When they suspended Him in the fire, Gabriel, by God's command, came to Him and asked: "Hast thou any need?" He replied: "No, not of thee."

Know thou that when Ishmael, son of the Friend of the All-Merciful, desired to set foot in the wilderness of love that he might reach the Sinai of divine nearness - which is the station of complete sacrifice - at the moment he intended to proceed to his destination, he observed one adorned in the garments of knowledge and piety. This person drew near to Dhabih and, with utmost cunning, sought to prevent him from the places of divine destiny and to turn him aside from that which he had intended. When that Luminary of the horizons caught the odor of hypocrisy from him, he informed the Friend of the All-Merciful, who said: "O son, pay no heed to him for this is Satan. Beware of his deception and take refuge in the protection of the King of Grandeur. Choose thy dwelling in the secure abode which is the precinct of divine protection." When that lover of the Beauty of the All-Glorious heard the melody of the Friend of the All-Merciful, he drove him away and took refuge in God's protection.

O namesake of God's Sacrifice! Your namesake in the field of sacrifice proclaimed "O my father! Do what thou art commanded. Thou wilt find me, if God so willeth, of the steadfast," and attained unto "We ransomed him with a mighty sacrifice."

If this banishment from the homeland had not occurred, how would Abraham have become that illustrious personage? How would the Holy Land have become the footstool of that manifest light? How would the blessed spot have become the inheritance of Israel? How would the progeny of Ishmael have come into being? By what means would Joseph of Canaan have risen from the depths of the well to the heights of the moon? How would Moses have beheld the burning fire in the tree on Sinai? How would He have been sent forth with the manifest serpent and the white hand? How would the people of Israel have become dominant over Judea, Palestine and Galilee? From where would the carpet of Solomon have been spread? Where would the kingdom of David have been established?

Furthermore, in the station of unity, Ishmael and Isaac have the status of one being - the title of each may be applied to the other. However in the Torah Isaac is mentioned, and likewise in the traditions of His Holiness the Messenger there is mention of Isaac and also mention of Ishmael - both of them. This servant mentioned Ishmael according to the convention of the people, since on the tongues and lips of the people of the Furqan [Quran] Ishmael is mentioned, therefore correspondingly in the course of the exposition each of the loved ones of God who are named Ishmael were guided to this most glorious and exalted station.