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“The dilemma is both artificial and self-inflicted. The world order, if…” |
The dilemma is both artificial and self-inflicted. The world order, if
it can be so described, within which Bahá’ís
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today pursue the work of sharing Bahá’u’lláh’s message is
one whose misconceptions about both human nature and social evolution
are so fundamental as to severely inhibit the most intelligent and
well-intentioned endeavours at human betterment. Particularly is this
true with respect to the confusion that surrounds virtually every
aspect of the subject of religion. In order to respond adequately to
the spiritual needs of their neighbours, Bahá’ís will
have to gain an in-depth understanding of the issues involved. The
effort of imagination this challenge requires can be appreciated from
the advice that is perhaps the most frequently and urgently reiterated
admonition in the writings of their Faith: to “meditate”, to “ponder”,
to “reflect”.
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A commonplace of popular discourse is that by “religion” is intended
the multitude of sects currently in existence. Not surprisingly, such
a suggestion at once arouses protest in other quarters that by
religion is intended rather one or another of the great, independent
belief systems of history that have shaped and inspired whole
civilizations. This point of view, in turn, however, runs up against
the inevitable query as to where one will find these historic faiths
in the contemporary world. Where, precisely, are “Judaism”,
“Buddhism”, “Christianity”, “Islám” and the others,
since they obviously cannot be identified with the irreconcilably
opposed organizations that purport to speak authoritatively in their
names? Nor does the problem end there. Yet another response to the
enquiry will almost certainly be that by religion is intended simply
an attitude to life, a sense of relationship with a Reality that
transcends
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material existence. Religion, so conceived, is an attribute
of the individual person, an impulse not susceptible of organization,
an experience universally available. Again, however, such an
orientation will be seen by a majority of religiously minded persons
as lacking the very authority of self-discipline and the unifying
effect that give religion meaning. Some objectors would even argue
that, on the contrary, religion signifies the lifestyle of persons
who, like themselves, have adopted severe regimens of daily ritual and
self-denial that set them entirely apart from the rest of
society. What all such differing conceptions have in common is the
extent to which a phenomenon that is acknowledged to completely
transcend human reach has nevertheless gradually been imprisoned
within conceptual limits—whether organizational, theological,
experiential or ritualistic—of human invention.
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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.”
1
The
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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.”
2
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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.”
3
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
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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….”
4
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Religion, thus conceived, awakens the soul to potentialities that are
otherwise unimaginable. To the extent that an individual learns to
benefit from the influence of the revelation of God for his age, his
nature becomes progressively imbued with the attributes of the Divine
world: “Through the Teachings of this Day Star of Truth”,
Bahá’u’lláh explains, “every man will advance and
develop until he … can manifest all the potential forces with which
his inmost true self hath been endowed.”
5
As humanity’s purpose includes the carrying
forward of “an ever-advancing civilization”,
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not the least of the extraordinary powers that
religion possesses has been its ability to free those who believe from
the limitations of time itself, eliciting from them sacrifices on
behalf of generations centuries into the future. Indeed, because the
soul is immortal, its awakening to its true nature empowers it, not
only in this world but even more directly in those worlds that lie
beyond, to serve the evolutionary process: “The light which these
souls radiate”, Bahá’u’lláh asserts, “is responsible
for the progress of the world and the advancement of its
peoples…. All things must needs have a cause, a motive power, an
animating principle. These souls and symbols of detachment have
provided, and will continue to provide, the supreme moving impulse in
the world of being.”
7
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Belief is thus a necessary and inextinguishable urge of the species
that has been described by an influential modern thinker as “evolution
become conscious of itself”.
8
If,
as the events of the twentieth century provide sad and compelling
evidence, the natural expression of faith is artificially blocked, it
will invent objects of worship however unworthy—or even debased—that
may in some measure appease the yearning for certitude. It is an
impulse that will not be denied.
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In short, through the ongoing process of revelation, the One Who is
the Source of the system of knowledge we call religion demonstrates
that system’s integrity and its freedom from the contradictions
imposed by sectarian ambitions. The work of each Manifestation of God
has an autonomy and an authority that transcend appraisal; it is also
a stage in the limitless unfolding of a single Reality. Because the
purpose of the successive revelations of God is the awakening of
humankind to its capacities and responsibilities as the trustee of
creation, the process is not simply repetitive, but progressive, and
is fully appreciated only when perceived in this context.
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In no sense can Bahá’ís profess to have grasped at
this early hour more than a minute portion of the truths inherent in
the revelation on which their Faith is based. With reference, for
example, to the evolution of the Cause, the Guardian said, “All we can
reasonably venture to attempt is to strive to obtain a glimpse of the
first streaks of the promised Dawn that must, in the fullness of time,
chase away the gloom that has encircled humanity.”
9
Apart
from encouraging humility, this fact should serve also as
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a constant
reminder that Bahá’u’lláh has not brought into
existence a new religion to stand beside the present multiplicity of
sectarian organizations. Rather has He recast the whole conception of
religion as the principal force impelling the development of
consciousness. As the human race in all its diversity is a single
species, so the intervention by which God cultivates the qualities of
mind and heart latent in that species is a single process. Its heroes
and saints are the heroes and saints of all stages in the struggle;
its successes, the successes of all stages. This is the standard
demonstrated in the life and work of the Master and exemplified today
in a Bahá’í community that has become the inheritor
of humanity’s entire spiritual legacy, a legacy equally available to
all the earth’s peoples.
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The recurring proof of the existence of God, therefore, is that from
time immemorial He has repeatedly manifested Himself. In the larger
sense, as Bahá’u’lláh explains, the vast epic of
humanity’s religious history represents the fulfilment of the
“Covenant”, the enduring promise by which the Creator of all things
assures the race of the unfailing guidance essential to its spiritual
and moral development, and calls on it to internalize and give
expression to these values. One is free to dispute through historicist
interpretations of the evidence the unique role of this or that
Messenger of God, if that is one’s purpose, but such speculation is of
no help in accounting for developments that have transformed thought
and produced changes in human relationships critical to social
evolution. At intervals so rare that the known instances can be
counted on one’s fingers, the Manifestations of God
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have appeared,
have each been explicit as to the authority of His teachings and have
each exerted an influence on the advance of civilization incomparably
beyond that of any other phenomenon in history. “Consider the hour at
which the supreme Manifestation of God revealeth Himself unto men”,
Bahá’u’lláh points out: “Ere that hour cometh, the
Ancient Being, Who is still unknown of men and hath not as yet given
utterance to the Word of God, is Himself the All-Knower in a world
devoid of any man that hath known Him. He is indeed the Creator
without a creation.”
10
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1. | ibid., paragraph 104. [ Back To Reference] |
2. | ibid., paragraph 106. [ Back To Reference] |
3. | Gleanings, section XXII. [ Back To Reference] |
4. | Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1987), page 311. [ Back To Reference] |
5. | Gleanings, section XXVII. [ Back To Reference] |
6. | ibid., section CIX. [ Back To Reference] |
7. | ibid., section LXXXI. [ Back To Reference] |
8. | Julian Huxley, cited by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (London: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1959), page 243. See also Julian Huxley, Knowledge, Morality, and Destiny (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957), page 13. [ Back To Reference] |
9. | Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: Selected Letters (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1991), page 35. [ Back To Reference] |
10. | Gleanings, section LXXVIII. [ Back To Reference] |