Thousand

the Words of God have innumerable significances and mysteries of meanings -- each one a thousand and more.
(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 155)

every day of the cycle of the Blessed Beauty is in reality equal to one year, and every year of it is equal to a thousand years.
(Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 67)


Nabil spent some time thus esteemed and in high favor, but the love he had for God was past all concealing. It burst from his heart, flamed out and consumed its coverings.
A thousand ways I tried
My love to hide  --
But how could I, upon that blazing pyre
Not catch fire!
(Memorials of the Faithful, p. 2)


'Bid them recite: "Is there any Remover of difficulties save God? Say: Praised be God! He is God! All are His servants, and all abide by His bidding!" Tell them to repeat it five hundred times, nay, a thousand times, by day and by night, sleeping and waking, that haply the Countenance of Glory may be unveiled to their eyes, and tiers of light descend upon them.'
(Baha'u'llah, God Passes By, p. 119)

With a look He granteth a hundred thousand hopes, with a glance He healeth a hundred thousand incurable ills, with a nod He layeth balm on every wound, with a glimpse He freeth the hearts from the shackles of grief.
(Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 51)


it is incumbent upon the friends that are fast and firm in the Covenant and Testament to be ever wakeful lest after this wronged one is gone this alert and active worker of mischief may cause disruption, privily sow the seeds of doubt and sedition and utterly root out the Cause of God. A thousand times shun his company.
(The Will and Testament of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 21)

Thank God that -- praise be to God! -- the glass of thy life and heart hath become bright with the lamp of guidance, and the chalice of hope and desire hath overflowed with the wine of the love of God. This is an attainment and blessing that, if thou give thanks a thousand centuries and cycles, thou wilt not be capable of doing justice. Therefore, in the utmost of joy, gladness, rejoicings and endless happiness thou must open thy tongue in thanksgiving and glorifying the Lord of mercy and become the cause of enlightenment.
(Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha Abbas, Vol. III, p. 689)

It is necessary for them to meditate, to meditate for a thousand thousand years, that haply they may attain unto a sprinkling from the ocean of knowledge,
(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 126)

A month in 'Akká is better than a thousand years elsewhere.
(The Prophet Muhammad, quoted in Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 179)

And he that saith in 'Akká: 'Glorified be God, and praise be unto God, and there is none other God but God, and most great is God, and there is no power nor strength except in God, the Exalted, the Mighty,' God will write down for him a thousand good deeds, and blot out from him a thousand evil deeds, and will uplift him a thousand grades in Paradise, and will forgive him his transgressions.
(The Prophet Muhammad, quoted in Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 180)

The conceptions of the devoutest of mystics, the attainments of the most accomplished amongst men, the highest praise which human tongue or pen can render are all the product of man's finite mind and are conditioned by its limitations. Ten thousand Prophets, each a Moses, are thunderstruck upon the Sinai of their search at His forbidding voice, "Thou shalt never behold Me!"
(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 62)

I testify, O my God, that if I were given a thousand lives by Thee, and offered them up all in Thy path, I would still have failed to repay the least of the gifts which, by Thy grace, Thou hast bestowed upon me.
(Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 20)

In these days, praise be to God, the power of His Word hath obtained such ascendancy over men, that they dare breathe no word. Were they to encounter one of the companions of God who, if he could, would, freely and joyously, offer up ten thousand lives as a sacrifice for his Beloved, so great would be their fear, that they forthwith would profess their faith in Him, whilst privily they would vilify and execrate His name!
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 77)

But once having been honoured with God's supreme distinction, and having been vouchsafed His bountiful grace, they would, if they were able, have freely offered up ten thousand lives in His path!
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 156)

At every moment he offereth a hundred lives in the path of the Loved One, at every step he throweth a thousand heads at the feet of the Beloved.
(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 8)

In like manner, it is related that on a certain day, one of the companions of Sadiq complained of his poverty before him. Whereupon, Sadiq, that immortal beauty, made reply: "Verily thou art rich, and hast drunk the draught of wealth." That poverty-stricken soul was perplexed at the words uttered by that luminous countenance, and said: "Where are my riches, I who stand in need of a single coin?" Sadiq thereupon observed: "Dost thou not possess our love?" He replied: "Yea, I possess it, O thou scion of the Prophet of God!" And Sadiq asked him saying: "Exchangest thou this love for one thousand dinars?" He answered: "Nay, never will I exchange it, though the world and all that is therein be given me!"
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 131)


The steed of this Valley is patience; without patience the wayfarer on this journey will reach nowhere and attain no goal. Nor should he ever be downhearted; if he strive for a hundred thousand years and yet fail to behold the beauty of the Friend, he should not falter.
(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 5)


One speck of chastity is greater than a hundred thousand years of worship and a sea of knowledge.
(Baha'u'llah, quoted in The Universal House of Justice, Day of the Covenant 26 November 2003 message to the Followers of Bahá'u'lláh in the Cradle of the Faith, p. 4 -- from Ocean)


There was once a lover who had sighed for long years in separation from his beloved, and wasted in the fire of remoteness. From the rule of love, his heart was empty of patience, and his body weary of his spirit; he reckoned life without her as a mockery, and time consumed him away. How many a day he found no rest in longing for her; how many a night the pain of her kept him from sleep; his body was worn to a sigh, his heart's wound had turned him to a cry of sorrow. He had given a thousand lives for one taste of the cup of her presence, but it availed him not. The doctors knew no cure for him, and companions avoided his company; yea, physicians have no medicine for one sick of love, unless the favor of the beloved one deliver him.
(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 13)


It is seemly that the servant should, after each prayer, supplicate God to bestow mercy and forgiveness upon his parents. Thereupon God's call will be raised: 'Thousand upon thousand of what thou hast asked for thy parents shall be thy recompense!'
(Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 94)

I swear by the most holy Essence of God -- exalted and glorified be He -- that in the Day of the appearance of Him Whom God shall make manifest a thousand perusals of the Bayan cannot equal the perusal of a single verse to be revealed by Him Whom God shall make manifest.
(Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 103)


One consecrated soul is preferable to a thousand other souls.
(Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 80)



O ye friends of God! Today is the day of union and this age is the age of harmony in the world of existence. "Verily, God loveth those who are working in His path in groups, for they are a solid foundation." Consider ye that he says "in groups," united and bound together, supporting one another. "To work," mentioned in this holy verse, does not mean, in this greatest age, to perform it with swords, spears, shafts and arrows, but rather with sincere intentions, good designs, useful advices, divine moralities, beautiful actions, spiritual qualities, educating the public, guiding the souls of mankind, diffusing spiritual fragrances, explaining divine illustrations, showing convincing proofs and doing charitable deeds. When the holy souls, through the angelic power, will arise to show forth these celestial characteristics, establishing a band of harmony, each of these souls shall be regarded as one thousand persons and the waves of this greatest ocean shall be considered as the army of the hosts of the Supreme Concourse.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 401)

Say, God hath, according to that which is revealed in the Book, taken upon Himself the task of ensuring the ascendancy of any one of the followers of the Truth, over and above one hundred other souls, and the supremacy of one hundred believers over one thousand non-believers and the domination of one thousand of the faithful over all the peoples and kindreds of the earth
(Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 153)


By God, besides Whom is none other God! Should anyone arise for the triumph of our Cause, him will God render victorious though tens of thousands of enemies be leagued against him.
(Baha'u'llah, The Advent of Divine Justice, p. 57)

Whensoever holy souls, drawing on the powers of heaven, shall arise with such qualities of the spirit, and march in unison, rank on rank, every one of those souls will be even as one thousand, and the surging waves of that mighty ocean will be even as the battalions of the Concourse on high.
(Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 260

0 ye believers of God! Be not concerned with the smallness of your numbers, neither be oppressed by the multitude of an unbelieving world. Five grains of wheat will be endued with heavenly blessing, whereas a thousand tons of tares will yield no results or effect. One fruitful tree will be conducive to the life of society, whereas a thousand forests of wild trees offer no fruits. The plain is covered with pebbles, but precious stones are rare. One pearl is better than a thousand wildernesses of sand, especially this pearl of great price, which is endowed with divine blessing. Ere long thousands of other pearls will be born from it. When that pearl associates and becomes the intimate of the pebbles, they also all change into pearls.
(Tablets of the Divine Plan, p. 95)

"O Tahirih!" exclaims in his book on the Bábís the great author and poet of Turkey, Sulayman Nazim Bey, "you are worth a thousand Násiri'd-Dín Sháhs!"
(God Passes By, p. 76)

"the Letters of the Living, the chosen disciples of the Báb, whose station is ten thousand times more glorious than any which the apostles of old have attained"
(Baha'u'llah, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 63)


"How thankful must we be for having been made in this Day the recipients of so overwhelming a favor! Would that we had ten thousand lives that we might lay them down in thanksgiving for so rare a privilege, so high an attainment, so priceless a bounty!"
(Abdu'l-Baha, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 110)