Potential Influence

The Hidden Words can exert a potent influence in freeing man from the fetters of materialism and enabling him to win the battle against his own self. In a Tablet to one of the teachers of the Cause—Mirza Abbas known as Qabil, a native of Abadihą—‘Abdu’l-Bahá urged him to peruse the verses of The Hidden Words by day and night, and to supplicate God to enable him to carry out the exhortations of the Blessed Beauty.[Bahá’u’lláh] In the same Tablet He makes it clear that The Hidden Words is not merely to be read. Rather, it was given to the believers by Bahá’u’lláh to enable them to put into practice His counsels and commandments.

Qabil’s life of service and dedication is clearly indicative of a potent and transforming influence on his soul, partly derived from his chanting of some passages of The Hidden Words every day. 

He was a zealous and enthusiastic man, a poet of remarkable talent, a teacher of wide repute and, above all, devoted to Bahá’u’lláh. He lived to old age, after suffering many persecutions and spending much of his life in travel and teaching. He used to stay at home with his family only a few months each year; the rest of the time he travelled long distances on a donkey, riding from village to village and town to town. His enthusiastic spirit, coupled with his deep love for Bahá’u’lláh, cheered and uplifted the believers whom he met on his way. They would gather to meet him and he would often request them, whenever circumstances permitted, to chant in unison certain Tablets or poems of Bahá’u’lláh which lent themselves to collective chanting, and would teach them to sing together some of his own beautiful, soul-stirring songs composed in praise and glorification of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá or Shoghi Effendi.˛

In those days the playing of musical instruments was frowned upon by the Muslim clergy, and the Bahá’ís were careful not to upset a fanatical populace by playing them. But Qabil had a certain genius in clapping his hands to accompany their songs of love and praise. Where greater freedom prevailed, a homemade drum was a welcome accompaniment to his chant of love for Bahá’u’lláh. The believers, who were often oppressed and persecuted, always welcomed the few days that Qabil spent with them, for he created joy and enthusiasm wherever he went. 

Bahá’u’lláh has referred to the revelation of The Hidden Words in these terms:

The mystic and wondrous Bride, hidden ere this beneath the veiling of utterance, hath now, by the grace of God and His divine favour, been made manifest even as the resplendent light shed by the beauty of the Beloved. I bear witness, O friends! that the favour is complete, the argument fulfilled, the proof manifest and the evidence established. Let it now be seen what your endeavours in the path of detachment will reveal. In this wise hath the divine favour been fully vouchsafed unto you and unto them that are in heaven and on earth. All praise to God, the Lord of all Worlds.

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Contents

Manner of Its Revelation 

Major Themes 

Potential Influence 

Interpretation of `Abdu'l-Bahá