The resting place of Bahá’u’lláh’s earthly remains is at Bahjí, the holiest place on earth for Bahá’ís..
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:
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.[29]
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....[30]
What humanity experiences in turning to the Creator of all existence are the attributes or qualities which are associated with God's recurring Revelations:
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....[31]
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....[32]
The Revelations of God do not differ in any essential respect from one another, although the changing needs they serve from age to age have called out unique responses from each of them:
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....[33]
Students of religion are cautioned not to permit theological dogmas or other preconceptions to lead them into discriminating among those whom God has used as channels of His light:
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....[34]
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:
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.[35]
Without this intervention from the world of God, human nature remains the captive of instinct, as well as of unconscious assumptions and patterns of behavior that have been culturally determined:
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.
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.[36]
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.”[37] In this perspective, the followers of differing religious traditions must strive to understand what He called “the changeless Faith of God”[38] 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:
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....[39]
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.”[40] Only by freeing itself from inherited dogma, whether religious or materialistic, can 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.”[41]
Copyright © 1991, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. All right reserved. Published by the Bahá’í International Community, Office of Public Information, New York.