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Abstract:
Explanation of "The Greatest Name," with words of Abdu'l-Bahá, as copied by May Maxwell. Source and date not known.
Notes:
Email me if you know what this text is from, and when.
Text notes that it was transcribed by May Maxwell, and at bottom, it reads "copied by M.S. Perry; 1945". Don Calkins notes that the July 1943 Baha’i News, p. 12, lists a Mrs. Mable Perry as a member of the Baha’i Service for the Blind committee, and that ancestry.com lists a Mable S. Perry, wife of Charles B. Perry, as a resident of East Hartford, Connecticut, in 1920/30/40, born 1876.
See also Elucidation of the Meaning of the Greatest Name ('Abdu'l-Bahá and Mirza Abu'l Fadl, comp. M. Maxwell) and Explanation of the Symbol of the Greatest Name (A.Q. Faizi, 1968).
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Elucidation of the Meaning of The Greatest Name
Mirza Abu'l-Fadl Gulpaygani
1945?
In every age the Manifestations have revealed a Name by which Their followers could call upon the Infinite Power of the Almighty. This name expresses the attributes of God, and His Revelation for that age. It is the epitome of that mysterious Power which the Messenger of God has brought to earth.
In the time of the Jews it was Jehovah. In the time of Buddha it was OM. In the time of the Christians it was Christ. In the Book of Revelations it says, "In that Day I will write upon them My new Name."
Now in this great Day that Blessed Bab has revealed this New Name of ABHA, which is in the Persian and Arabic language, the superlative of Glory, the Most Glorious.
The Name by which Bahá'ís call upon the Power of the God (in worship) is Allah'u'Ahba, meaning God the Most Glorious; and in the Book of Akdas, the most Holy Book of Bahá'u'lláh, we are instructed to call upon the Power of the Greatest Name 95 times, preferable at dawn, but sometimes during the day.
The wisdom of repeating the Greatest Name 9 times before each prayer and 95 times daily, is as follows: Abdu'l-Bahá said that there is in man a power of concentration not fully developed, which power rightly directed can lead him to great heights of knowledge, understanding and illumination. Prayer and supplication are the ladder, He said, "by which the soul ascends and as the power of sustained communion with God develops the capacity to receive the influx of The Holy Spirit and to penetrate, the hidden mystery unfolds". Prayer and communion is the only direct approach of the soul to God, and Bahá'u'lláh has likened it unto "a river of milk" which is the perfect nutriment, and the more we partake of this lifegiving food, the more the soul shall advance in the path of God and the greater will be its progress.
Abdu'l-Bahá has likened the power of concentration to a cubic crystal. He said, "If you place a ruby, the hardest stone, in a seven times heated furnace, the heat will have no effect, but if you place that ruby in a cubic crystal in the rays of the mid-day sun, it will be dissolved." This, He has likened to the powers of concentration in man. He said, "Whatsoever man concentrates upon, he will draw to himself." Therefore in prayer and supplication he must close the door to all the outer world and turn his whole being to the Focal Point, the Manifestation of God in his day and thus draw into his soul the burning rays of the Sun of Truth, the Infinite Love, Light Beauty and Perfection of God.
Therefore, before each prayer, man should repeat the Greatest Name 9 times and each morning he should repeat it 95 times (successively) seeking the Divine Beloved with all his heart and soul.
(Copied by M.S. Perry; 1945)
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