One of our most wonderful friends has written and published a most precious Article on the Greatest Name [Bahá]

http://bahai-library.com/articles/baha.2.html

In this the author generously mentions my humble name in bringing to his kind attention a Prayer of His holiness Bahá’u’lláh.

I thought I should share with you the full provisional translation of this Prayer of His holiness Bahá’u’lláh with the source references.

There exists an Arabic prayer of Bahá'u'lláh -- headed "In the name of God, al- Abhá" -- which opens with reference to the Shí'í Dawn Prayer, the first line of which it subsequently quotes. By means of this Dawn Prayer, God had been supplicated, Bahá'u'lláh meditates, by the tongue of His Messengers (rusul), beseeched through the "tongues of those who are nigh unto God". All, in fact, were commanded to recite it at dawntimes for it contains the "Greatest Name" and is a protection against being veiled from that Name (Bahá') which is the "ornament" of God's "Self". (see AQA, Majmú'a-yi munáját 45-46).⁽¹⁵⁾

15. I am grateful to Dr. Khazeh Fananapazir for bringing this prayer to my attention.

Among the most important occurrences of the word Bahá' in Shí'í Islámic literatures is in an Arabic invocatory prayer attributed to Imám Muhammad al-Báqir (677--732 CE) the fifth of the Twelver Shí'í Imáms. The eighth Shí'í Imám, Ridá' (d. 818 CE.), who transmitted this prayer, reckoned that it contained the "Greatest Name" of God (al-ism al-a'zam). It is a prayer to be recited at dawn during Ramadan (Du'a Sahar), the Muslim month of fasting. The word Bahá or a derivative of the same root is contained some five times within it. It opens thus:

O my God! I beseech Thee by thy Bahá in its supreme splendour (bi- Abhá'hu), for all Thy Bahá' is truly luminous (al-Bahíyy). I verily, O my God, beseech Thee by the fullness of Thy Bahá' (Bahá'ika)!⁽¹⁴⁾

14. Arabic text in Qummí, Mafátih 228-229. Cf. the parallel lines of the Du'a' yawm al-mubáhila in ibid. 351f. This prayer is also recorded, among other sources, in Muhammad Taqí Majlisí's Bihár al-Anwár and Zád al- Ma'ád where it is commented upon (cf. Afshár, Bahr 270). Both Imám Ridá' and Imám Ja'far al-Sádiq (d.765 CE) are associated with the transmission of this Dawn Prayer and of traditions to the effect that it contains the Greatest Name.

Page 148-149 of INBA 48

http://reference.bahai.org/fa/t/b/MMQ1/mmq1-47.html

http://reference.bahai.org/fa/t/b/MMQ1/mmq1-48.html

Provisional translation of the above:

In the Name of God, the Most Glorious

Magnified be Thy Name, O Lord my God, I supplicate unto Thee with that supplication with which Thou wert implored by the tongue of Thy Messengers and Chosen Ones, and I beseech Thee by Thy Name with which the tongues of those nigh unto Thee sought Thee from before and so I beg Thee saying:

  "O my God!  I beseech Thee by Thy most glorious light (splendour) [min Bahá’ika bi-Abha’hu], and all Thy lights [ wa kullu Bahá’ika Bahiyyun] are verily glorious."

O my God and my Beloved. This is that Name with which Thou hast adorned the Tablet of Eternity and Thou hast made it to be the ornament of Thine own Self [Nafsika], O Thou Who art the King of the Dominions of Names. Thou didst command further that all should recite this Prayer at Dawn times so that no one endowed with discernment may be deprived of Its recognition. O my God, I beseech Thee by this Most Great Name that Thou mayest keep me firm in His love and in His goodpleasure so that I shall not turn to any one but Him, and that I may not cling to any one but Him, and may not proceed but in His direction. Verily Thou art powerful in that which Thou willest. There is none other God but Thee, the Almighty, the All-subduing, He Whose help is implored. Praise be to God, the Sovereign, the Help in peril, the Most Generous.**

Page 148-149 of INBA 48

http://reference.bahai.org/fa/t/b/MMQ1/mmq1-47.html

http://reference.bahai.org/fa/t/b/MMQ1/mmq1-48.html

One can see the beloved Guardian’s translation of that special verse here:

** O Shaykh!  Seek thou the shore of the Most Great Ocean, and enter, then, the Crimson Ark which God hath ordained in the Qayyum-i-Asma for the people of Bahá.  Verily, it passeth over land and sea.  He that entereth therein is saved, and he that turneth aside perisheth.  Shouldst thou enter therein and attain unto it, set thy face towards the Kaaba of God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting, and say:  "O my God!  I beseech Thee by Thy most glorious light, and all Thy lights are verily glorious."  Thereupon, will the doors of the Kingdom be flung wide before thy face, and thou wilt behold what eyes have never beheld, and hear what ears have never heard.

            (Baháu'lláh:  Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Pages: 139-140)**