A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
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“The Changeless Faith of God…” |
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Following the declaration of His mission in 1863, Bahá’u’lláh began to
elaborate a theme already introduced in The Book of Certitude, the relationship
between the Will of God and the evolutionary process by which the spiritual and
moral capacities latent in human nature find expression. This exposition would
occupy a central place in His writings over the remaining thirty years of His
life. The reality of God, He asserts, is and will always remain unknowable.
Whatever words human thought may apply to the Divine nature relate only to human
existence and are the products of human efforts to describe human experience:
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Far, far from Thy glory be what mortal man can affirm of Thee, or
attribute unto Thee, or the praise with which he can glorify Thee!
Whatever duty Thou hast prescribed unto Thy servants of extolling to the
utmost Thy majesty and glory is but a token of Thy grace unto them, that
they may be enabled to ascend unto the station conferred upon their own
inmost being, the station of the knowledge of their own selves.
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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.
He is and hath ever been veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence,
and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of
men….
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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….
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These sanctified Mirrors … are one and all the Exponents on earth of
Him Who is the central Orb of the universe, its Essence and ultimate
Purpose. From Him proceed their knowledge and power; from Him is derived
their sovereignty. The beauty of their countenance is but a reflection
of His image, and their revelation a sign of His deathless glory….
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These attributes of God are not and have never been vouchsafed
specially unto certain Prophets, and withheld from others. Nay, all the
Prophets of God, His well-favored, His holy, and chosen Messengers, are,
without exception, the bearers of His names, and the embodiments of His
attributes. They only differ in the intensity of their revelation, and
the comparative potency of their light….
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Beware, O believers in the Unity of God, lest ye be tempted to make
any distinction between any of the Manifestations of His Cause, or to
discriminate against the signs that have accompanied and proclaimed their
Revelation. This indeed is the true meaning of Divine Unity, if ye be of
them that apprehend and believe this truth. Be ye assured, moreover, that
the works and acts of each and every one of these Manifestations of God,
nay whatever pertaineth unto them, and whatsoever they may manifest in
the future, are all ordained by God, and are a reflection of His Will and
Purpose….
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Bahá’u’lláh compares the interventions of the Divine Revelations to the
return of spring. The Messengers of God are not merely teachers, although this
is one of their primary functions. Rather, the spirit of their words, together
with the example of their lives, has the capacity to tap the roots of human
motivation and to induce fundamental and lasting change. Their influence opens
new realms of understanding and achievement:
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And since there can be no tie of direct intercourse to bind the one
true God with His creation, and no resemblance whatever can exist between
the transient and the Eternal, the contingent and the Absolute, He hath
ordained that in every age and dispensation a pure and stainless Soul be
made manifest in the kingdoms of earth and heaven…. Led by the light
of unfailing guidance, and invested with supreme sovereignty, They [the
Messengers of God] are commissioned to use the inspiration of Their words,
the effusions of Their infallible grace and the sanctifying breeze of
Their Revelation for the cleansing of every longing heart and receptive
spirit from the dross and dust of earthly cares and limitations. Then,
and only then, will the Trust of God, latent in the reality of man,
emerge … and implant the ensign of its revealed glory upon the summits
of men’s hearts.
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Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He
[God] … chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity
to know Him and to love Him—a capacity that must needs be regarded as
the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of
creation…. Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He
hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the
glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He
hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made
it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been
singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty.
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These energies with which the … Source of heavenly guidance hath
endowed the reality of man lie, however, latent within him, even as the
flame is hidden within the candle and the rays of light are potentially
present in the lamp. The radiance of these energies may be obscured by
worldly desires even as the light of the sun can be concealed beneath the
dust and dross which cover the mirror. Neither the candle nor the lamp
can be lighted through their own unaided efforts, nor can it ever be
possible for the mirror to free itself from its dross. It is clear and
evident that until a fire is kindled the lamp will never be ignited, and
unless the dross is blotted out from the face of the mirror it can never
represent the image of the sun nor reflect its light and glory.
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The time has come, Bahá’u’lláh said, when humanity has both the capacity
and the opportunity to see the entire panorama of its spiritual development as
a single process: “Peerless is this Day, for it is as the eye to past ages and
centuries, and as a light unto the darkness of the times.”
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In this perspective,
the followers of differing religious traditions must strive to understand
what He called “the changeless Faith of God”
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and to distinguish its central
spiritual impulse from the changing laws and concepts that were revealed to
meet the requirements of an ever-evolving human society:
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The Prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is
to foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the
spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity….
Little wonder, then, if the treatment prescribed by the physician in this
day should not be found to be identical with that which he prescribed
before. How could it be otherwise when the ills affecting the sufferer
necessitate at every stage of his sickness a special remedy? In like
manner, every time the Prophets of God have illumined the world with
the resplendent radiance of the Day Star of Divine knowledge, they have
invariably summoned its peoples to embrace the light of God through
such means as best befitted the exigencies of the age in which they
appeared….
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It is not only the heart, but the mind, which must devote itself to this
process of discovery. Reason, Bahá’u’lláh asserts, is God’s greatest gift to
the soul, “a sign of the revelation of … the sovereign Lord.”
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Only by
freeing itself from inherited dogma, whether religious or materialistic, can
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the mind take up an independent exploration of the relationship between the Word
of God and the experience of humankind. In such a search, a major obstacle is
prejudice: “Warn … the beloved of the one true God, not to view with too
critical an eye the sayings and writings of men. Let them rather approach such
sayings and writings in a spirit of open-mindedness and loving sympathy.”
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