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THE NINTH GLAD-tidings: (193:7) The sinner, when in a state wherein he finds himself free and severed from all else save God, must beg for forgiveness and pardon. It is not allowable to declare one's sins and transgressions before any man, inasmuch as this has not been, nor is, conducive to securing God's forgiveness and pardon. At the same time such confession before the creatures leads to one's humiliation and abasement, and God exalted in His glory! -- does not wish for the humiliation of His servants. Verily He is compassionate and beneficent! (193:8) A sinner must, between himself and God, beg for mercy from the Sea of Mercy and ask forgiveness from the Heaven of Beneficence, and then say: (194:1) Oh my God! Oh my God! I beg of Thee -- by the blood of Thy lovers, who were so attracted by Thy sweet utterance that they betook themselves unto the lofty summit, the place of great martyrdom, and by the mysteries concealed in Thy knowledge, and by the pearls deposited in the Sea of Thy bestowal -- to forgive me, and my father and my mother. Verily Thou art the most merciful of the merciful! There is no God but Thee, the forgiving, the beneficent! (194:2) Oh, my Lord! Thou beholdest the essence of error advancing toward the sea of Thy gift, and the weak one toward the kingdom of Thy power, and the poor one toward the sun of Thy wealth. Oh, my Lord! Disappoint him not of Thy generosity and bounty; deprive him not of the graces of Thy days, and turn him not away from Thy door which Thou hast opened before all in Thy heaven and earth. (194:3) Alas! Alas! My transgressions have prevented me from drawing nigh unto the court of Thy sanctity, and my trespasses have kept me afar from turning unto the tents of Thy glory. I have indeed wrought that which Thou hast forbidden me; I have neglected that which Thou hast commanded me! I beg of Thee by the King of Names to decree for me from the Pen of grace and bestowal that which will draw me near unto Thee and will purify me from my sins which have intervened between me and Thy forgiveness and pardon. Verily, Thou are the powerful, the bounteous! There is no God but Thee, the mighty, the gracious! THE TENTH GLAD-TIDINGS: We have removed from the Epistles and Tablets the decree of effacing the books as a favor from the presence of God, the sender of this great message!
(194:4)
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