Tie ten bars of iron together as tightly as you like and they remain ten bars. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá uses the image to show that real unity comes only through fire: in the furnace the metals melt, their atoms flow together, and a single casting emerges from the mould. Iron thrust into flame loses its coldness, blackness and hardness and takes on the heat and glow of the fire, and a soul consumed in the love of God is changed in the same way, until it sees and hears by a light not its own. The old alchemical dream of dyeing metals is reread as the adorning of pure hearts with the color of God. Malachi pictured a refiner bent over silver until it was fit for a righteous offering [1]; in both visions the heat serves what it brings forth. Even teaching a single soul is likened to turning black stone into diamond and base metal into gold. The way runs on into the lore of alchemy, the search for the elixir, and the wider language of symbols.
If you take ten bars of iron and tie them together no matter how closely they will not become one, but when a metallurgist comes on the scene, he takes the ten bars, melt them in the furnace and cast them in one mould. Only through this fiery process their atoms will flow and commingle with each other, becoming united and inseparable!
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1914-Jan-27 -- ABU1941)
02
Convey affectionate greetings to all the divine friends in Hamadan, both Jewish and Muslim, and say that the terms "Jewish" and "Muslim" are incomplete expressions. I hope these titles will be completely forgotten and the term "Baha'i" will become everyone's designation, so difference and distinction may be entirely eliminated. All these figurative communities should melt like iron in the furnace of reality from the fire of God's love and be cast in a single mold. If this is done and "Baha'i" is said, these multiple designations are unnecessary - the single designation that testifies to reality, which is the word "Baha'i", suffices.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1919-Dec-08, to Doctor Habibullah Muayyid son of Khudabakhsh -- AB00827)
03
But the only way to make these metals into one alloy, is to put them into a crucible and apply intense heat to melt them all.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Mr. Smiley at Peace Society conference, 1912-May-16 -- ABU3046)
04
55. O SON OF BEING!
Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words - Arabic, 1274 ca. [1857-1858] -- BH00386)
05
O thou who art firm in the Covenant! The letter thou hadst written on 2 May 1919 was received. Praise thou God that in tests thou art firm and steadfast and art holding fast to the Abha Kingdom. Thou art not shaken by any affliction or disturbed by any calamity. Not until man is tried doth the pure gold distinctly separate from the dross. Torment is the fire of test wherein the pure gold shineth resplendently and the impurity is burned and blackened. At present thou art, praise be to God, firm and steadfast in tests and trials and art not shaken by them.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1919-Jul-25, to Howard C Ives -- AB02911)
06
The emancipated soul sees with the eye of perfect faith because it knows what vast provisions are made to enable it to gain the victory over every difficulty and trial. Yet man must remember the earth plane is a workshop, not an art gallery for the exhibits of perfect powers. This is not the plane of perfection, but earth is the crucible for refining and moulding character.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Marie Watson et al in Aug. 1921 -- ABU0064)
07
Then he shall discern with the Eye of God, hear with the ears of the True One, and become like unto the iron, which when cast in the fire loses its qualities of coldness, blackness and solidity, and the characteristics of fire such as heat, redness and glowing will become apparent and manifest in it....
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1907-May-18, to Sarah J Farmer -- AB08891)
The available source contains an omission or incomplete wording; sentence boundaries need review.
08
It is like iron whose inherent properties are coldness, solidity and blackness. When this iron falls into the fire, its coldness is transformed into heat, its solidity is changed to fluidity, and its blackness is converted to a red glow. All its former characteristics are utterly obliterated and vanish, and the qualities of fire become manifest in it.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1921-Jan-13 -- ABU1443)
09
On the other hand, man must acquire heavenly qualities and attain divine attributes. He must become the image and likeness of God. He must seek the bounty of the eternal, become the manifestor of the love of God, the light of guidance, the tree of life and the depository of the bounties of God. That is to say, man must sacrifice the qualities and attributes of the world of nature for the qualities and attributes of the world of God. For instance, consider the substance we call iron. Observe its qualities; it is solid, black, cold. These are the characteristics of iron. When the same iron absorbs heat from the fire, it sacrifices its attribute of solidity for the attribute of fluidity. It sacrifices its attribute of darkness for the attribute of light, which is a quality of the fire. It sacrifices its attribute of coldness to the quality of heat which the fire possesses so that in the iron there remains no solidity, darkness or cold. It becomes illumined and transformed, having sacrificed its qualities to the qualities and attributes of the fire.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Kinney home on 1912-Nov-29 -- ABU0139)
10
As to the station of fana in the estimation of the Sufis: they imagined that the originated reality might divest itself of the world of origination and become invested with the attributes of the Ancient One, even as fire and iron, whereof the iron may be stripped of its iron-like quality and the property of fire appear and become manifest in it. This station, they held, might be attained through spiritual discipline and wayfaring, and they fancied within themselves, in the realm of imagination, the manifestation thereof. Therefore would they cry, "I am the Truth!" Whereas that which is originated can never divest itself of the attribute of origination, which is essential unto it, for this is an intrinsic necessity of its being, and an intrinsic necessity can never be separated from the essence of a thing.
O 'Ali-Qabli-Akbar! The Most Great Elixir hath been the Word of Truth, which the Hand of Power hath manifested from the Hidden Mine through the Hidden Name. Nurture it in the retort of the heart with the fire of love, and after its effect appeareth in all the pillars, if but an atom thereof be bestowed upon the people of the world, thou shalt behold all the copper of existence transformed into pure gold. This is the Most Great Elixir, with whose mention the Pen of the Ancient of Days hath been and is occupied.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Lawh-i-Kimiya 3, to Ali Akbar -- BH02654)
12
O thou servant of the True One! Sulphur is the fire of the love of God, and mercury is the quicksilver of the ocean of the knowledge of God. Combine then these twin noble elements, and harmonize and unite these twin soundest pillars, and so obtain the Noblest Stone---that is, the Jewel of Jewels, the Ruby of the Mine of the Kingdom---so that thou mayest discover the Most Great Elixir and find the Alchemy of Truth, and, casting it upon the copper and iron of men’s souls, transmute them into purest gold.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Father of Mirza Ali Akbar -- AB06652)
13
For instance, consider the substance of copper. Were it to be protected in its own mine from becoming solidified, it would, within the space of seventy years, attain to the state of gold. There are some, however, who maintain that copper itself is gold, which by becoming solidified is in a diseased condition, and hath not therefore reached its own state.
Be that as it may, the real elixir will, in one instant, cause the substance of copper to attain the state of gold, and will traverse the seventy-year stages in a single moment. Could this gold be called copper? Could it be claimed that it hath not attained the state of gold, whilst the touchstone is at hand to assay it and distinguish it from copper?
Likewise, these souls, through the potency of the Divine Elixir, traverse, in the twinkling of an eye, the world of dust and advance into the realm of holiness; and with one step cover the earth of limitations and reach the domain of the Placeless. It behooveth thee to exert thine utmost to attain unto this Elixir which, in one fleeting breath, causeth the west of ignorance to reach the east of knowledge, illuminateth the darkness of night with the resplendence of the morn, guideth the wanderer in the wilderness of doubt to the wellspring of the Divine Presence and Fount of certitude, and conferreth upon mortal souls the honor of acceptance into the Ridvan of immortality. Now, could this gold be thought to be copper, these people could likewise be thought to be the same as before they were endowed with faith.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Kitab-i-Iqan (The Book of Certitude), 1278 ca. [1861-1862], to Haji Mirza Siyyid Muhammad, great uncle of the Bab (Khal-i-Akbar) -- BH00002)
14
And by this dyeing was not meant, and is not meant, the dyeing of metals, but rather the adorning of pure hearts with the dye of God, and that is the sanctification and purification of souls from the various colors of the world.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1292-06-19 [1875-Jul-23], to Mulla Abdullah Fadil Zarqani (Rafi) -- BH06094)
15
Before they arise to teach they must know what is meant by 'teaching.' It does not mean an eloquent review of the various events of the cause or the masterful presentation of the principles of the Movement, or the utterance of a conglomeration of high-sounding words. It means the power of spiritual transmutation, the latent energy of divine metallurgy, the force of celestial regeneration. The words of the speaker must be impregnated with the Fire of the Love of God - so that the lives may be changed, the characters renovated, the customs renewed, the morals readjusted and the whole gamut of life raised to the highest and loftiest scales and musical tones.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken en route in carriage in Haifa, 1915-Feb-07 -- ABU0389)
16
Today if you teach one person it is as though you have resurrected a dead soul into life. It is as though you have changed the black stone into diamond. It is as though you have transmuted metal into gold, Satan into angel, animal into man.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to visitors, spoken at Hotel Marquardt on 1913-Apr-05 -- ABU3373)
17
I beg of Thee, O my God, by Thy most exalted Word which Thou hast ordained as the Divine Elixir unto all who are in Thy realm, the Elixir through whose potency the crude metal of human life hath been transmuted into purest gold, O Thou in Whose hands are both the visible and invisible kingdoms, to ordain that my choice be conformed to Thy choice and my wish to Thy wish, that I may be entirely content with that which Thou didst desire, and be wholly satisfied with what Thou didst destine for me by Thy bounteousness and favor. Potent art Thou to do as Thou willest. Thou, in very truth, art the All-Glorious, the All-Wise.