Sacrifice begins more quietly than its fiercest images suggest: in a prayer for deeds that spread the fragrance of God’s good pleasure, and in a plea for contentment, patience under decree, and fortitude in tribulation. From there the language of devotion deepens, asking for self-surrender, steadfast loyalty, and reliance upon God alone. One prayer begs that its speaker’s life be offered for the lovers of God and the body become dust on the path they tread; another remembers those who surrendered their spirits in His love, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asks that the yearners be raised to life on the martyr’s field. Such longing reaches toward a life without end, not toward death for its own sake. Paul’s appeal to present one’s body as a living offering gives a related sense of a life given wholly to God [1]. What is surrendered becomes a source of life for others. That discovery leads on to martyrs and martyrdom, to the meaning of tests and trials, and to the mystery of sacrifice.
I beseech Thee by the ocean of Thy verses and the lights of Thy Throne to aid me to perform such deeds as will diffuse the fragrance of Thy good-pleasure.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1306-09 [1889-Apr], to Mirza Kuchik ibn akh Jinab-i-Haji Muhammad Rida -- BH04193)
02
Our Lord! Ordain for us goodly contentment, patience under decree, fortitude in tribulation, and precedence to the field of sacrifice in the court of grandeur.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Aqa Mirza Ataullah Tabib Sirajul-Hukama -- AB01153)
03
O God, give us to drink from the same cup that thou hast ordained for the Most Great Name and make us inebriated with that wine that we might follow the path of that Beloved of all and ascend unto thy Kingdom.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1903 ca., to Muhammad Isma'il -- AB04400)
04
Ordain for me and him sacrifice in the field of self-surrender, steadfastness in loyalty, independence from all else save Thee, orientation toward Thee, reliance upon Thee, and martyrdom in Thy presence. By Thy glory! This is the ultimate hope and supreme aspiration of my heart, O Thou Lord of glory and perfection! Verily, Thou art the All-Glorious, the Most High.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Mirza Abu'l-Qasim Gulistanih -- AB12650)
05
I beseech Thee to adorn this servant with the ornament of faithfulness amidst the concourse of creation, in such wise that Thou mayest make me one of those who have been martyred in Thy path and who have surrendered their spirits in Thy love and good-pleasure.
O my God! May my life be sacrificed for Thy lovers! Make the blood of this despondent one to be shed in the way of those who are Thy friends and cause this withered body to become dust on the path trodden by Thy loved ones, O Thou Who art my God!
O Lord! Ordain for me this supreme bounty and grant me this mighty gift, that I may attain unto everlasting and eternal life that hath no end. Verily, Thou art the Gracious, the Merciful, the All-Bountiful."
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1902 ca., to Margaret M Sprague -- AB09630)
08
O Divine Providence! Lift to Thy lovers' lips a cup brimful of anguish. To the yearners on Thy pathway, make sweetness but a sting, and poison honey-sweet. Set Thou our heads for ornaments on the points of spears. Make Thou our hearts the targets for pitiless arrows and darts. Raise Thou this withered soul to life on the martyr's field, make Thou his faded heart to drink the draught of tyranny, and thus grow fresh and fair once more.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1908-Nov-19, to Baha'is of the world -- AB00156)