Bahai Faith; Peace -- Religious aspects -- Bahai Faith
In our solar system the center of illumination is the sun itself. Through
the will of God this central luminary is the one source of the existence
and development of all phenomenal things. When we observe the organisms of
the material kingdoms, we find that their growth and training are
dependent upon the heat and light of the sun. Without this quickening
impulse there would be no growth of tree or vegetation; neither would the
existence of animal or human being be possible; in fact, no forms of
created life would be manifest upon the earth. But if we reflect deeply,
we will perceive that the great bestower and giver of life is God; the sun
is the intermediary of His will and plan. Without the bounty of the sun,
therefore, the world would be in darkness. All illumination of our
planetary system proceeds or emanates from the solar center.
Likewise, in the spiritual realm of intelligence and idealism there must
be a center of illumination, and that center is the everlasting,
ever-shining Sun, the Word of God. Its lights are the lights of reality
which have shone upon humanity, illumining the realm of thought and
morals, conferring the bounties of the divine world upon man. These lights
are the cause of the education of souls and the source of the
enlightenment of hearts, sending forth in effulgent radiance the message
of the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God. In brief, the moral and ethical
world and the world of spiritual regeneration are dependent for their
progressive being upon that heavenly Center of illumination. It gives
forth the light of religion and bestows the life of the spirit, imbues
humanity with archetypal virtues and confers eternal splendors. This Sun
of Reality, this Center of effulgences, is the Prophet or Manifestation of
God. Just as the phenomenal sun shines upon the material world producing
life and growth, likewise, the spiritual or prophetic Sun confers
illumination upon the human world of thought and intelligence, and unless
it rose upon the horizon of human existence, the kingdom of man would
become dark and extinguished.
The Sun of Reality is one Sun, but it has different dawning places, just
as the phenomenal sun is one although it appears at various points of the
horizon. During the time of summer the luminary of the physical world
rises far to the north of the equinoctial, in spring and fall it dawns
midway, and in winter it appears in the most southerly point of its
zodiacal journey. These daysprings or dawning points differ widely, but
the sun is ever the same sun—whether it be the phenomenal or spiritual
luminary. Souls who focus their vision upon the Sun of Reality will be the
recipients of light no matter from what point it rises, but those who are
fettered by adoration of the dawning point are deprived when it appears in
a different station upon the spiritual horizon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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