THE DAY OF THE COVENANT

Devotional Program
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Music (3:01) soft fade at 2:11 From the Universal House of Justice CD Everlasting (2:55) Prayer on the Firmness of the Covenant (Tamil) Readings on the Covenant from Shoghi Effendi Chant: Wahai Putra Wujud Extracts from the Medium Obligatory Prayer Prayer for Praise and Grattitude (Tamil) Selections of Writings by Abdul-Baha on the Covenant

10. Selections of Writings by Abdul-Baha on the Covenant 11. Chant: Kadavulin Namum 12. Selections of Writings by Abdul-Baha on the Covenant 13. Selections of Writings by Abdul-Baha on the Covenant 14. CD Garden of Thine Heart (1:48)

FROM THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

A Covenant in the religious sense is a binding agreement between God and man, whereby God requires of man certain behaviour in return for which He guarantees certain blessings, or whereby He gives man certain bounties in return for which He takes from those who accept them an undertaking to behave in a certain way. (23 March 1975, from a letter written by the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)

CD: EVERLASTING
O SON OF SPIRIT! My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.

PRAYER ON THE FIRMNESS IN THE COVENANT

Make firm our steps, O Lord, in Thy path and strengthen Thou our Thy oneness, and gladden our bosoms with the signs of Thy divine unity. Adorn our bodies with the robe of Thy bounty, and remove grace; that the essence of all beings may sing Thy praise before the merciful utterance and the mystery of Thy divine being, that the above words and letters and transcend the murmur of syllables and revelation of Thy splendor. holy ecstasy of prayer may fill our soulsa prayer that shall rise vision of Thy grandeur. Reveal then Thyself, O Lord, by Thy from our eyes the veil of sinfulness, and give us the chalice of Thy hearts in Thine obedience. Turn our faces toward the beauty of

soundsthat all things may be merged into nothingness before 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 them with Thy power and strengthen their loins in obedience to Thee.

Thy Covenant and Thy Testament, that have held fast unto the

Lord! These are servants that have remained fast and firm in

Thou art the Pardoner, the Gracious. Abdul-Bah

READINGS ON THE COVENANT FROM SHOGHI EFFENDI

"So firm and mighty is this Covenant," He Who is its appointed Center has affirmed, "that from the beginning of time until the present day no religious Dispensation hath produced its like." "It is indubitably clear," He, furthermore, has stated, "that the pivot of the oneness of mankind is nothing else but the power of the Covenant." "Know thou," He has written, "that the 'Sure Handle' mentioned from the foundation of the world in the Books, the Tablets and the Scriptures of old is naught else but the Covenant and the Testament." And again: "The lamp of the Covenant is the light of the world, and the words traced by the Pen of the Most High a limitless ocean." "The Lord, the All-Glorified," He has moreover declared, "hath, beneath the shade of the Tree of Anisa (Tree of Life), made a new Covenant and established a great Testament... Hath such a Covenant been established in any previous Dispensation, age, period or century? Hath such a Testament, set down by the Pen of the Most High, ever been witnessed? No, by God!" And finally: "The power of the Covenant is as the heat of the sun which quickeneth and promoteth the development of all created things on earth. The light of the Covenant, in like manner, is the educator of

the minds, the spirits, the hearts and souls of men." To this same Covenant He has in His writings referred as the "Conclusive Testimony," the "Universal Balance," the "Magnet of God's grace," the "Upraised Standard," the "Irrefutable Testament," "the all-mighty Covenant, the like of which the sacred Dispensations of the past have never witnessed" and "one of the distinctive features of this most mighty cycle." Extolled by the writer of the Apocalypse as "the Ark of His (God) Testament"; associated with the gathering beneath the "Tree of Anisa" (Tree of Life) mentioned by Baha'u'llah in the Hidden Words; glorified by Him, in other passages of His writings, as the "Ark of Salvation" and as "the Cord stretched betwixt the earth and the Abha Kingdom," this Covenant has been bequeathed to posterity in a Will and Testament which, together with the Kitab-i-Aqdas and several Tablets, in which the rank and station of Abdu'l-Baha are unequivocally disclosed, constitute the chief buttresses designed by the Lord of the Covenant Himself to shield and support, after His ascension, the appointed Center of His Faith and the Delineator of its future institutions. (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 238-239)

CHANT: WAHAI PUTRA WUJUD!

WAHAI PUTRA WUJUD! Kalbumu adalah rumahKu, sucikanlah supaya Aku dapat turun penjelmaanKu.

kedalamnya. Rohmu adalah tempat wahyuKu; bersihkanlah bagi

O SON OF BEING! Thy heart is my home; sanctify it for My descent. Thy spirit is My place of revelation; cleanse it for My manifestation.

EXTRACTS FROM THE MEDIUM OBLIGATORY PRAYER

I bear witness to Thy unity and Thy oneness, and that Thou art God, and that there is none other God beside Thee. Thou hast, verily, revealed Thy Cause, fulfilled Thy Covenant, and opened wide the door of Thy grace to all that dwell in heaven and on earth. Blessing and peace, salutation and glory, rest upon Thy loved ones, whom the changes and chances of the world have not deterred from turning unto Thee, and who have given their all, in the hope of obtaining that which is with Thee. Thou art, in truth, the Ever-Forgiving, the All-Bountiful. (Baha'u'llah, from the Medium Obligatory Prayer, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 316)

PRAYER FOR PRAISE AND GRATTITUDE

Thou, Lord, God Omnipotent! Thou before Whose wisdom the confesseth his ignorance, before Whose might the strong waxeth In the Name of God, the Most High! Lauded and glorified art

wise falleth short and faileth, before Whose knowledge the learned weak, before Whose wealth the rich testifieth to his poverty, before Whose knowledge turneth the essence of all understanding and around the sanctuary of Whose presence circle the souls of all mankind.

Whose light the enlightened is lost in darkness, toward the shrine of

wisdom of the wise and the learning of the learned have failed to understandeth not, nor recount that unto which he cannot attain, Unsearchable. Powerless though I be to rise to the heavens of Thy glory and soar in the realms of Thy knowledge, I can but recount Thy tokens that tell of Thy glorious handiwork. whilst Thou hast been from everlasting the Inaccessible, the comprehend, inasmuch as no man can sing that which he

How then can I sing and tell of Thine Essence, which the

heaven and earth unite to glorify the least of Thy signs, wherein and whereby Thou hast revealed Thyself, yet would they fail, how much more to praise Thy holy Word, the creator of all Thy tokens.

still the pangs of yearning for Thee! Though all the dwellers of

By Thy Glory! O Beloved of all hearts, Thou that alone canst

testified that Thou art one and there is none other God but Thee, Who hast been from everlasting exalted above all peer or likeness and to everlasting shalt remain the same. All kings are but Thy servants and all beings, visible and invisible, as naught before Thee. There is none other God but Thee, the Gracious, the Powerful, the Most High. Bahullh

All praise and glory be to Thee, Thou of Whom all things have

ABDUL-BAHA ON THE COVENANT

Today no power can conserve the oneness of the Baha'i world save tempest will encompass the Baha'i world. It is evident that the axis of the oneness of the world of humanity is the power of the Covenant been revealed from the Supreme Pen and had not the Book of the Covenant, like unto the ray of the Sun of Reality, illuminated the scattered and certain souls who were the prisoners of their own the root of this Blessed Tree. Every person would have pushed world, the forces of the Cause of God would have been utterly and nothing else. Had the Covenant not come to pass, had it not the Covenant of God; otherwise differences like unto a most great

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passions and lusts would have taken into their hands an axe, cutting forward his own desire and every individual aired his own opinion! (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of the Divine Plan, p. 51)

SELECTIONS OF WRITINGS BY ABDUL-BAHA ON THE COVENANT

Hold thou fast to the Covenant of thy Lord, and as the days go by, tenderness over the servitors of the All-Merciful, that thou mayest seas of life. Let nothing grieve thee, and be thou angered at none. It loving and trusted friend to all the peoples of the earth, without any behoveth thee to be content with the Will of God, and a true and hoist the sail of love upon the ark of peace that moveth across the increase thy store of love for His beloved ones. Bend thou with

exceptions whatever. This is the quality of the sincere, the way of the saints, the emblem of those who believe in the unity of God, and the raiment of the people of Baha.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, pp. 25-26)

CHANT: KADAVULIN NAMUM Blessed is the spot, and the house, and the place, and refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow. praise glorified. Bah'u'llh Where mention of God hath been made and His the city, and the heart, and the mountain, and the

SELECTIONS OF WRITINGS BY ABDUL-BAHA ON THE COVENANT

Today, every wise, vigilant and foresighted person is awakened, and nothing save the power of the Covenant is able to stir and move the throughout all regions the Cause of Christ and were the pulsating bear fruit, while the tree that hath none, no matter how high and fit for the fire. to him are unveiled the mysteries of the future which show that

heart of humanity, just as the New and Old Testaments propounded power in the body of the human world. A tree that hath a root shall hardy it may be, will eventually wither, perish and become but a log

The Covenant of God is like unto a vast and fathomless ocean. A billow shall rise and surge therefrom and shall cast ashore all accumulated foam.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 223)

ABDUL-BAHA ON THE COVENANT

O thou daughter of the Kingdom! Thy letter was received. It was like hearts. This is because its contents indicated faith, assurance and the melody of the divine nightingale, whose song delighteth the

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like unto an artery pulsateth in the body of the contingent world and protecteth Baha'i unity.

power of the world of existence is the power of the Covenant which

firmness in the Covenant and the Testament. Today the dynamic

The Baha'is are commanded to establish the oneness of mankind; if they cannot unite around one point how will they be able to bring about the unity of mankind?

and Testament was to gather all existent beings around one point so that the thoughtless souls, who in every cycle and generation have been the cause of dissension, may not undermine the Cause. He hath, therefore, commanded that whatever emanateth from the favour, while all else is error.

The purpose of the Blessed Beauty in entering into this Covenant

Centre of the Covenant is right and is under His protection and

(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, pp. 208-209)

CD: GARDEN OF THINE HEART

O FRIEND! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love, and from the nightingale of affection and desire loosen not thy hold. Treasure the companionship of the righteous and eschew all fellowship with the ungodly.