"O ye who are sincere! O ye who are attracted! O ye..."

O ye(7) who are sincere! O ye who are attracted! O ye who are yearning! O
ye who are arising for service to the Cause of God, for the promotion of
the Word of God and the spreading of the Fragrances of God!

Verily, I read your excellent letter, its beautiful composition, eloquent
words and deep meanings. I praised God and gave glory to Him for that He
hath strengthened you and confirmed you in serving His glorious vineyard.
Your faces shall be enlightened with the radiance of supplication to God,
invocation to Him, Humbleness and submissiveness to the friends
(believers), and your assembly will be made a magnet for the lights of
assistance from His Great Kingdom.

It is incumbent upon you to commemorate and ponder upon the signs of God,
to implore to God and to be evanescent and subservient in the Cause of
God. This is what makes you the signs of guidance among the people, stars
shining in the supreme horizon and thriving trees in the Paradise of
El-Abha.

Then know ye that Abdul-Baha is in cheerfulness and joy and in the
happiness of great glad-tidings through being in this far distant
prison.(8) By the life of El-Baha! --this prison is my supreme paradise, my
utmost desire, the joy of my heart and the dilation of my breast, my
shelter, my asylum, my inaccessible cave and my high protection. By it I
glory among the angels of heaven and the Supreme Concourse.

Be rejoiced, O friends of God, with this confinement which is a cause of
freedom, this prison which is a means of salvation (to many) and this
suffering which is the best cause of great comfort. Verily, by God, I
would not change this prison for the throne of the command of the horizons
and would not exchange this confinement for all excursions and enjoyments
in the gardens of the earth.

Verily, I hope, through the kindness of my Lord and His mercy, bounty and
generosity, to be suspended in the air in His path and that my breast may
become the target to be be pierced by thousands of bullets; or that I may
be cast into the bottomless seas, or thrown into the wilderness and plains
of barrenness. This is my utmost aim, my supreme desire, the animation of
my spirit, the healing of my bosom and the sight of my eyes.

As to you, O friends of God: Make firm your feet in the Cause of God with
such firmness as cannot be shaken by the most great disasters of this
world. Be not troubled by anything under