LXXXIV. Regard thou the one true God
as One Who is apart from, and
immeasurably exalted above, all created
things. The whole universe
reflecteth His glory, while He is
Himself independent of, and transcendeth
His creatures. This is the true meaning
of Divine unity. He Who is the
Eternal Truth is the one Power Who
exerciseth undisputed sovereignty over
the world of being, Whose image is
reflected in the mirror of the entire
creation. All existence is dependent
upon Him, and from Him is derived the
source of the sustenance of all things.
This is what is meant by Divine
unity; this is its fundamental principle.
Some, deluded by their idle fancies,
have conceived all created things as
associates and partners of God, and
imagined themselves to be the exponents
of His unity. By Him Who is the one
true God! Such men have been, and will
continue to remain, the victims of
blind imitation, and are to be numbered
with them that have restricted and
limited the conception of God.
He is a true believer in
Divine unity who, far from confusing duality with
oneness, refuseth to allow any notion
of multiplicity to becloud his
conception of the singleness of God,
who will regard the Divine Being as
One Who, by His very nature, transcendeth
the limitations of numbers.
The essence
of belief in Divine unity consisteth in regarding Him Who is
the Manifestation
of God and Him Who is the invisible, the inaccessible,
the unknowable
Essence as one and the same. By this is meant that whatever
pertaineth to the former, all His
acts and doings, whatever He ordaineth or
forbiddeth, should be considered,
in all their aspects, and under all
circumstances, and without any reservation,
as identical with the Will of
God Himself. This is the loftiest
station to which a true believer in the
unity of God can ever hope to attain.
Blessed is the man that reacheth this
station, and is of them that are
steadfast in their belief.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 166-167
XXI. O Salman! The door of the knowledge
of the Ancient Being hath ever
been, and will continue for ever
to be, closed in the face of men. No man's
understanding shall ever gain access
unto His holy court. As a token of His
mercy, however, and as a proof of
His loving-kindness, He hath manifested
unto men the Day Stars of His divine
guidance, the Symbols of His divine
unity,
and hath ordained the knowledge of these sanctified Beings to be
identical with the knowledge of His
own Self. Whoso recognizeth them hath
recognized God. Whoso hearkeneth
to their call, hath hearkened to the Voice
of God, and whoso testifieth to the
truth of their Revelation, hath
testified to the truth of God Himself.
Whoso turneth away from them, hath
turned away from God, and whoso disbelieveth
in them, hath disbelieved in
God. Every one of them is the Way
of God that connecteth this world with
the realms above, and the Standard
of His Truth unto every one in the
kingdoms of earth and heaven. They
are the Manifestations of God amidst
men, the evidences of His Truth,
and the signs of His glory.
--Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 49
XXIV. 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. Whoso maketh the slightest
possible difference between their
persons, their words, their messages,
their acts and manners, hath indeed
disbelieved in God, hath repudiated
His signs, and betrayed the Cause of
His Messengers.
--Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 59
And now, with reference to His words:
"And then shall all the tribes of the
earth mourn, and they shall see the
Son of man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory."
These words signify that in those days
men will lament the loss of the Sun
of the divine beauty, of the Moon of
knowledge, and of the Stars of divine
wisdom. Thereupon, they will behold
the countenance of the promised One,
the adored Beauty, descending from
heaven and riding upon the clouds.
By this is meant that the divine Beauty
will be made manifest from the heaven
of the will of God, and will appear
in the form of the human temple.
The term "heaven" denoteth loftiness and
exaltation, inasmuch as it is the
seat of the revelation of those
Manifestations of Holiness, the Day-springs
of ancient glory. These ancient
Beings, though delivered from the
womb of their mother, have in reality
descended from the heaven of the
will of God. Though they be dwelling on
this earth, yet their true habitations
are the retreats of glory in the
realms above. Whilst walking amongst
mortals, they soar in the heaven of
the divine presence. Without feet
they tread the path of the spirit, and
without wings they rise unto the
exalted heights of divine unity. With
every fleeting breath they cover
the immensity of space, and at every
moment traverse the kingdoms of the
visible and the invisible. Upon their
thrones is written: "Nothing whatsoever
keepeth Him from being occupied
with any other thing;" and on their
seats is inscribed: "Verily, His ways
differ every day."[1] They are sent
forth through the transcendent power of
the Ancient of Days, and are raised
up by the exalted will of God, the most
mighty King. This is what is meant
by the words: "coming in the clouds of
heaven." [1 Qur'an 55:29.]
--Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan,
p. 66
XXVIII. Happy is the man who will
arise to serve My Cause, and glorify My
beauteous Name. Take hold of My Book
with the power of My might, and cleave
tenaciously to whatsoever commandment
thy Lord, the Ordainer, the All-Wise,
hath prescribed therein. Behold,
O Muhammad, how the sayings and doings of
the followers of Shi'ih Islam have
dulled the joy and fervor of its early
days, and tarnished the pristine
brilliancy of its light. In its primitive
days, whilst they still adhered to
the precepts associated with the name of
their Prophet, the Lord of mankind,
their career was marked by an unbroken
chain of victories and triumphs.
As they gradually strayed from the path of
their Ideal Leader and Master, as
they turned away from the Light of God
and corrupted the principle of His
Divine
unity, and as they increasingly
centered their attention upon them
who were only the revealers of the
potency of His Word, their power
was turned into weakness, their glory into
shame, their courage into fear. Thou
dost witness to what a pass they have
come. Behold, how they have joined
partners with Him Who is the Focal-Point
of Divine unity. Behold how their
evil doings have hindered them from
recognizing, in the Day of Resurrection,
the Word of Truth, exalted be His
glory. We cherish the hope that this
people will henceforth shield
themselves from vain hopes and idle
fancies, and will attain to a true
understanding of the meaning of Divine
unity.
The Person of the Manifestation hath
ever been the representative and
mouthpiece of God. He, in truth,
is the Day Spring of God's most excellent
Titles, and the Dawning-Place of
His exalted Attributes. If any be set up
by His side as peers, if they be
regarded as identical with His Person, how
can it, then, be maintained that
the Divine Being is One and Incomparable,
that His Essence is indivisible and
peerless? Meditate on that which We
have, through the power of truth,
revealed unto thee, and be thou of them
that comprehend its meaning.
--Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 69
If we ponder a while over the Qur'anic
verses and proofs, and the
traditional accounts which have come
down to us from those stars of the
heaven of Divine
Unity, the Holy Imams, we shall be convinced of the fact
that if a soul is endowed with the
attributes of true faith and
characterized with spiritual qualities
he will become to all mankind an
emblem of the outstretched mercies
of God. For the attributes of the people
of faith are justice and fair-mindedness;
forbearance and compassion and
generosity; consideration for others;
candor, trustworthiness, and loyalty;
love and loving-kindness; devotion
and determination and humanity. If
therefore an individual is truly
righteous, he will avail himself of all
those means which will attract the
hearts of men, and through the
attributes of God he will draw them
to the straight path of faith and cause
them to drink from the river of everlasting
life.
--Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine
Civilization, p. 55
Praised be Thou, O Lord my God! I
implore Thee by Them Who are the
Tabernacles of Thy Divine holiness,
Who are the Manifestations of Thy
transcendent
unity and the Day-Springs of Thine inspiration and revelation,
to grant that Thy servants may not
be kept back from this Divine Law which,
at Thy will and according to Thy
pleasure, hath branched out from Thy most
great Ocean. Do Thou, then, ordain
for them that which Thou didst ordain
for Thy chosen ones and for the righteous
among Thy creatures, whose
constancy in Thy Cause the tempests
of trials have failed to shake, and
whom the tumults of tests have been
powerless to hinder from magnifying Thy
most exalted Word -- the Word through
Which the heavens of men's idle
fancies and vain imaginations have
been split asunder. Thou art, verily,
the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the
All-Knowing.
--Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations
by Baha'u'llah, p. 27
Praise be unto God Who hath made the
Most Great Infallibility the shield
for the temple of His Cause in the
realm of creation, and hath assigned
unto no one a share of this lofty
and sublime station -- a station which is
a vesture which the fingers of transcendent
power have woven for His august
Self. It befitteth no one except
Him Who is seated upon the mighty throne
of 'He doeth what He pleaseth'. Whoso
accepteth and recognizeth that which
is written down at this moment by
the Pen of Glory is indeed reckoned in
the Book of God, the Lord of the
beginning and the end, among the exponents
of divine unity,
they that uphold the concept of the oneness of God.
When the stream of words reached this
stage, the sweet savours of true
knowledge were shed abroad and the
day-star
of divine unity shone forth
above the horizon of His holy utterance.
Blessed is he whom His Call hath
attracted to the summit of glory,
who hath drawn nigh to the ultimate
Purpose, and who hath recognized
through the shrill voice of My Pen of
Glory that which the Lord of this
world and of the next hath willed. Whoso
faileth to quaff the choice wine
which We have unsealed through the potency
of Our Name, the All-Compelling,
shall be unable to discern the splendours
of the light of divine unity or to
grasp the essential purpose underlying
the Scriptures of God, the Lord of
heaven and earth, the sovereign Ruler of
this world and of the world to come.
Such a man shall be accounted among
the faithless in the Book of God,
the All-Knowing, the All-Informed.
O thou honoured enquirer! [1] We bear
witness that thou didst firmly adhere
unto seemly patience during the days
when the Pen was held back from
movement and the Tongue hesitated
to set forth an explanation regarding the
wondrous sign, the Most Great Infallibility.
Thou hast asked this Wronged
One to remove for thee its veils
and coverings, to elucidate its mystery
and character, its state and position,
its excellence, sublimity and
exaltation. By the life of God! Were
We to unveil the pearls of testimony
which lie hid within the shells of
the ocean of knowledge and assurance or
to let the beauties of divine mystery
which are hidden within the chambers
of utterance in the Paradise of true
understanding, step out of their
habitation, then from every direction
violent commotion would arise among
the leaders of religion and thou
wouldst witness the people of God held
fast in the teeth of such wolves
as have denied God both in the beginning
and in the end. Therefore We restrained
the Pen for a considerable lapse of
time in accordance with divine wisdom
and for the sake of protecting the
faithful from those who have bartered
away heavenly blessings for disbelief
and have chosen for their people
the abode of perdition.
--Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah,
p. 105
FIX your gaze upon wisdom in all things,
for it is an unfailing antidote.
How often hath it turned a disbeliever
into a believer or a foe into a
friend? Its observance is highly
essential, inasmuch as this theme hath
been set forth in numerous Tablets
revealed from the empyrean of the Will
of Him Who is the
Manifestation of the light of divine unity. Well is it
with them that act accordingly.
Centre your attention unceasingly
upon that which will cause the Word of
God to be exalted. In this Most Great
Revelation goodly deeds and a
praiseworthy character are regarded
as the hosts of God, likewise is His
blessed and holy Word. These hosts
are the lodestone of the hearts of men
and the effective means for unlocking
doors. Of all the weapons in the
world this is the keenest.
Beseech thou God to graciously assist
all men to observe that which His
all-glorious Pen hath recorded in
the sacred Books and Tablets.
THIS Wronged One doth mention him
who hath set his face toward the
Incomparable One, the All-Knowing,
him who beareth witness unto His unity
even as the All-Glorious Pen hath
borne witness as it moveth swiftly within
the arena of utterance. Blessed is
the soul that hath recognized its Lord
and woe betide him who hath grievously
erred and doubted.
Man is like unto a tree. If he be
adorned with fruit, he hath been and will
ever be worthy of praise and commendation.
Otherwise a fruitless tree is
but fit for fire. The fruits of the
human tree are exquisite, highly
desired and dearly cherished. Among
them are upright character, virtuous
deeds and a goodly utterance. The
springtime for earthly trees occurreth
once every year, while the one for
human trees appeareth in the Days of God
-- exalted be His glory. Were the
trees of men's lives to be adorned in
this divine Springtime with the fruits
that have been mentioned, the
effulgence of the light of Justice
would, of a certainty, illumine all the
dwellers of the earth and everyone
would abide in tranquillity and
contentment beneath the sheltering
shadow of Him Who is the Object of all
mankind. The Water for these trees
is the living water of the sacred Words
uttered by the Beloved of the world.
In one instant are such trees planted
and in the next their branches shall,
through the outpourings of the
showers of divine mercy, have reached
the skies. A dried-up tree, however,
hath never been nor will be worthy
of any mention.
--Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah,
p. 256