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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Life After Death |
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Know thou of a truth that the soul, after its separation
from the body, will continue to progress until it attaineth
the presence of God, in a state and condition which neither
the revolution of ages and centuries, nor the changes
and chances of this world, can alter. It will endure as
long as the Kingdom of God, His sovereignty, His dominion
and power will endure. It will manifest the signs of
God and His attributes, and will reveal His loving kindness
and bounty. The movement of My Pen is stilled when
it attempteth to befittingly describe the loftiness and glory
of so exalted a station. The honor with which the Hand of
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Mercy will invest the soul is such as no tongue can adequately
reveal, nor any other earthly agency describe.
Blessed is the soul which, at the hour of its separation
from the body, is sanctified from the vain imaginings of
the peoples of the world. Such a soul liveth and moveth in
accordance with the Will of its Creator, and entereth the
all-highest Paradise. The Maids of Heaven, inmates of
the loftiest mansions, will circle around it, and the Prophets
of God and His chosen ones will seek its companionship.
With them that soul will freely converse, and will
recount unto them that which it hath been made to endure
in the path of God, the Lord of all worlds. If any
man be told that which hath been ordained for such a
soul in the worlds of God, the Lord of the throne on high
and of earth below, his whole being will instantly blaze
out in his great longing to attain that most exalted, that
sanctified and resplendent station. … The nature of the
soul after death can never be described, nor is it meet and
permissible to reveal its whole character to the eyes of
men. The Prophets and Messengers of God have been
sent down for the sole purpose underlying their
revelation hath been to educate all men, that they may,
at the hour of death, ascend, in the utmost purity and
sanctity and with absolute detachment, to the throne of
the Most High. The light which these souls radiate is responsible
for the progress of the world and the advancement
of its peoples. They are like unto leaven which leaveneth
the world of being, and constitute the animating
force through which the arts and wonders of the world
are made manifest. Through them the clouds rain their
bounty upon men, and the earth bringeth forth its fruits.
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. The world
beyond is as different from this world as this world is
different from that of the child while still in the womb of
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its mother.—Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh,
pp. 155–157.
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The mysteries of which man is heedless in the earthly
world, those will he discover in the heavenly world, and
there will he be informed of the secrets of the truth; how
much more will he recognize or discover persons with
whom he has been associated. Undoubtedly the holy souls
who find a pure eye and are favored with insight will, in
the kingdom of lights, be acquainted with all mysteries,
and will seek the bounty of witnessing the reality of every
great soul. They will even manifestly behold the Beauty
of God in that world. Likewise will they find all the
friends of God, both those of the former and recent times,
present in the heavenly assemblage. The difference and distinction between men will naturally become realized after their departure from this mortal world. But this distinction is not in respect to place, but in respect to the soul and the conscience. For the Kingdom of God is sanctified (or free) from time and place; it is another world and another universe. And know thou for a certainty that in the divine worlds the spiritual beloved ones will recognize one another, and will seek union with each other, but a spiritual union. Likewise a love that one may have entertained for anyone will not be forgotten in the world of the Kingdom, nor wilt thou forget there the life that thou hadst in the material world. |
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