The teachings of Bahá’u’lláh cut through this tangle of inconsistent views
and, in doing so, reformulate many truths which, whether explicitly or
implicitly, have lain at the heart of all Divine revelation. Although in
no way a comprehensive reading of His intent, Bahá’u’lláh makes it clear
that attempts to capture or suggest the Reality of God in catechisms and
creeds are exercises in self-deception: “To every discerning and illumined
heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the divine Being, is
immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal
existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His
glory that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that
human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery.”(9) The instrumentality
through which the Creator of all things interacts with the ever-evolving
creation He has brought into being is the appearance of prophetic Figures
who manifest the attributes of an inaccessible Divinity: “The door of the
knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the face of all
beings, the Source of infinite grace ... hath caused those luminous Gems
of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of
the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart
unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the
subtleties of His imperishable Essence.”(10)
To presume to judge among the Messengers of God, exalting one above the
other, would be to give in to the delusion that the Eternal and
All-Embracing is subject to the vagaries of human preference. “It is clear
and evident to thee”, are Bahá’u’lláh’s precise words, “that all the
Prophets are the Temples of the Cause of God, Who have appeared clothed in
divers attire. If thou wilt observe with discriminating eyes, thou wilt
behold Them all abiding in the same tabernacle, soaring in the same
heaven, seated upon the same throne, uttering the same speech, and
proclaiming the same Faith.”(11) To imagine, further, that the nature of
these unique Figures can be—or needs to be—encompassed within theories
borrowed from physical experience is equally presumptuous. What is meant
by “knowledge of God”, Bahá’u’lláh explains, is knowledge of the
Manifestations Who reveal His will and attributes, and it is here that the
soul comes into intimate association with a Creator Who is otherwise
beyond both language and apprehension: “I bear witness”, is Bahá’u’lláh’s
assertion about the station of the Manifestation of God, “...that through
Thy beauty the beauty of the Adored One hath been unveiled, and through
Thy face the face of the Desired One hath shone forth....”(12)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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