Two of the most important volumes of Bahá’u’lláh’s writings
date from this first period of exile, [Baghdad] preceding the declaration of
His mission in 1863. The first of these is a small book which He named The
Hidden Words. Written in the form of a compilation of moral aphorisms, the
volume represents the ethical heart of Bahá’u’lláh’s message. In verses which
Bahá’u’lláh describes as a distillation of the spiritual guidance of all the
Revelations of the past, the voice of God speaks directly to the human soul…
The second of the two major works composed by Bahá’u’lláh during this period is
The Book of Certitude, a comprehensive exposition of the nature and purpose of
religion. In passages that draw not only on the Qur’án, but with equal facility
and insight on the Old and New Testaments, the Messengers of God are depicted as
agents of a single, unbroken process, the awakening of the human race to its
spiritual and moral potentialities.
(From ‘Baha’u’llah’; A statement prepared
by the Bahá'í International Community Office of Public Information, at the
request of the Universal House of Justice and published in 1992)
