Ages of promise, renewal, and human maturity

the Adamic cycle and the Baha'i cycle

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Editorial introduction

This is the springtime of the Eternal One, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá announces, and He immediately says what such a season is for: universal peace, a common language, the union of religions, and friends whose only weapons are reconciliation and speech. The long view of religious history serves that near purpose. He explains that every religion has carried two kinds of law, the ethical foundation unchanged from the dawn of the Adamic cycle, and the social ordinances that each age renews; that a universal cycle spans countless ages until one supreme Manifestation brings the world to maturity; and that the cycle which began with Adam has reached that point in Bahá’u’lláh, under whose shadow future Messengers will still appear. The Báb counts the years differently, so the terms cycle, dispensation, age and epoch repay careful sorting before any timeline is drawn. Krishna’s promise to appear whenever righteousness declines offers a separate account of renewal ^[1]. The journey leads on into the coming of age and maturity of mankind, into the cycles of the physical and spiritual worlds, and into the future divine revelations that a very long cycle still holds.

Selected passages

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This is the age of the Blessed Perfection and this is the time of the Greatest Name! This is the century of the Manifestation, the age of the Sun of all horizons and the beautiful springtime of the Eternal One!

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1897-Nov-23 -- AB02719)

Glad tidings of the Kingdom of Abha! We announce to you glad tidings of great joy! Similar words were spoken almost two thousand years ago. Reflect and be not of the heedless. This is the great day of God. This is the day of universal peace, of universal brotherhood, of a universal language and of the union of all religions. This is the day wherein the prophecies of the Holy Books of every tongue have been or are being fulfilled. This is the cycle of Baha'u'llah.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1913-Jul-29 in Ramleh -- ABU2536)

In this Most Great Cycle, the suckling child has the station of a noble person, and newborn children are wise, seeing and praiseworthy. For the Lord God has manifested Himself through His attribute of the All-Merciful and educates humanity with utmost love.
Neither sword nor arrow exists, nor blade nor instrument of iron. The weapons of the divine friends are peace and reconciliation, and their world-conquering sword is utterance, expression and speech.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Surush Kayqubad (Bombay) -- AB07442)

This connection and attachment and unity and harmony are among the special characteristics of this Most Great Cycle, wherein the Sun of Truth from the Dayspring of Oneness hath shed the lights of unity upon the temples of detachment, and the Most Great Sea hath bestowed upon the shores of contingent beings the luminous pearls of unity and detachment.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1893-Oct-23, to Mashhadi Ghulam-Ali Tabrizi -- AB06937)

If we investigate the foundations of the divine religions, we find them to be one, absolutely changeless and never subject to transformation. For example, each of the divine religions contains two kinds of laws or ordinances. One division concerns the world of morality and ethical institutions. These are the essential ordinances. They instill and awaken the knowledge and love of God, love for humanity, the virtues of the world of mankind, the attributes of the divine Kingdom, rebirth and resurrection from the kingdom of nature. These constitute one kind of divine law which is common to all and never subject to change. From the dawn of the Adamic cycle to the present day this fundamental law of God has continued changeless. This is the foundation of divine religion.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Universalist Church on 1912-Nov-06 -- ABU0009)

This age is a different age and its requirements are different requirements. The laws of the previous age do not suffice for this great century.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1913-Feb-06 in Paris -- ABU3283)

In this great Cycle and wonderful Dispensation, the majority of these non-essential commands which refer to the body are to be administered by the House of Justice, because this great Cycle is of long duration, this great Age is vast, continuous and eternal, and since changes and alterations are the characteristic and necessary demands of the world, therefore these material commands will be administered according to the exigencies of the time, but the very foundation of the Law of God has never been nor will be altered.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá -- AB10799)

Briefly, our claim is that a universal cycle in the world of existence comprises a vast span of time and countless ages and epochs. In such a cycle the Manifestations of God shine forth in the visible realm until a universal and supreme Manifestation makes the world the focal centre of divine splendours and, through His revelation, brings it to the stage of maturity. The duration of the cycle He ushers in is very long indeed. Other Manifestations will arise in the course of that cycle under His shadow and will renew, according to the needs of the time, certain laws pertaining to material affairs and transactions, but they will remain under His shadow. We are in the cycle which began with Adam and whose universal Manifestation is Baha'u'llah.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 41, Universal Cycles, 1904 ca. -- AB00206)

Briefly, there were many universal cycles preceding this one in which we are living. They were consummated, completed and their traces obliterated. The divine and creative purpose in them was the evolution of spiritual man, just as it is in this cycle. The circle of existence is the same circle; it returns. The tree of life has ever borne the same heavenly fruit.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at 309 W 78th St on 1912-Jul-05 -- ABU0403)

And this cycle of Manifestation -- which extendeth from the Dispensation of Adam, peace be upon Him, until this day, a span of twelve thousand two hundred and ten solar years -- hath, in every age, appeared under a distinct Name.

(The Báb, Kitabu'l-Huzn, 1265 (Chihriq) [1848-1849], to Siyyid Javad Karbala'i -- BB00242)

Every Manifestation is the Adam of His time. (Adam means the type man, the perfect man.)
There were one hundred thousand Adams before the Adam of biblical records each being the Manifestation of His own time or cycle.
This cycle in which we are living and which has come to its full expression today having ended thus, is the long Adamic cycle, being five hundred thousand years.
Five hundred thousand years ago a Great Manifestation came and founded it.
… Today, which culminates this long cycle - Baha'u'llah being, in the words of 'Abdu'l-Baha, "The expression of maturity and perfection of humanity."
… He is the Founder also of the new long cycle of 500,000 years when another great Manifestation will come. In the meantime throughout this coming long cycle of 500,000 years there will be cycles like that of Moses, Jesus, etc., only on a higher scale, as this is the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. None will be as great as Baha'u'llah until 500,000 years is accomplished.
'Abdu'l-Baha says that within the last 500,000 years there have been seven universal Manifestations, the last three of whom were Melchizedek, Jesus Christ, and Baha'u'llah.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Isabella D Brittingham -- AB01159)

Thus this blessed Cycle falls in the seventh rank - it is the mighty Cycle, the new resurrection, the Greater Day of Judgment, the Abha Paradise, and the planting ground of the Tree of Life. Therefore, in reality it has no end or termination....

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1904-Jan-20, to Isabella D Brittingham -- AB04858)

The available source contains an omission or incomplete wording; sentence boundaries need review.

Great is this cycle and its Lord is the Manifest Beauty. Its heaven is the Law of sanctification, pouring down upon the field of both noble and base. Its sun is the Reality of the Divine Essence - all Its Manifestations in other cycles occupied the station of servitude.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1900 or <, to Siyyid Mihdi Yazdi the martyr -- AB01336)

Most blessed are you because you are living in the Cycle of His Highness the Desired One!
This Cycle is the Cycle of the Blessed Perfection. Each one of the prophets had a Dispensation. Thus we have the Dispensation of Moses, the Cycle of Christ, the epiphany of Mohamad. But this Cycle is the Cycle of the Blessed Perfection.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1914-Jan-08 in Haifa -- ABU1174)

Say: O people! Another cycle hath come and the All-Merciful hath appeared with great sovereignty.

(Bahá’u’lláh, 1290 [1873] or earlier, to Dhabih -- BH03717)

Now this age is the divine age and this century the century of the All-Merciful.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1908-Sep-06, to Aqa Haji son of Shahvirdi -- AB06865)

For a century spans one hundred years, so in this glorious age of the Majestic Lord, day by day the Divine Cause rises higher and more exalted, more sublime and unreachable. The manifestation of the signs of beauty and glory and the appearance of the tokens of might and greatness of the peerless Lord continue.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Baha'is of Shahrud -- AB02646)

As this century is the century of light and the Cycle of the revelation of Mysteries undoubtedly these glorious aims will be fully established and the influence of this great Cause will encircle the East and the West."

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to a newspaper publisher, spoken on board the SS Cedric at sea, 1912-Apr-04 -- ABU3018)

All these outpourings are from the grace and bounty of the Sovereign of existence, which in this new age and wondrous century have been bestowed upon the loved ones of the All-Merciful.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá -- AB06814)

The cycle of the Greatest Name is bounty upon bounty and joy upon joy.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Mirza Rahim et al -- AB08747)

Therefore, praise God for that He honored thee with presence in this great century and new cycle and caused thee to attain this new bounty.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1909 or <, to Mary A Woodworth -- AB08356)

Therefore, blessed is the state of those souls who gained the greatest share from this most mighty Dispensation and found the greatest elixir from this most perfect gift.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1894 ca., to Mirza Ahmad -- AB05835)

O thou who seekest the seat of truth! Turn thy face toward the Abha Kingdom and supplicate to the Concourse on High: "O Thou bountiful Lord! Cover our faults, bestow upon us Thy freely-given grace and endless forgiveness. Open our eyes and attune our ears to mysteries, that in this mighty Dispensation the signs of divine unity may be embodied and the reality of detachment may be realized. For such heavenly bounty befitteth this luminous cycle."

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Mirza Asadullah -- AB09422)

O thou lamp of the gathering of the love of God!
In this Most Great Cycle wherein the weakest of souls, through the power of divine bestowal, are adorned with the robe of "He strengtheneth whom He willeth with His strength" and wherein the servants of the Most Glorious Threshold are invested with the robe of "Thou givest sovereignty to whom Thou willest" and the garment of "He singles out for His mercy whomsoever He pleaseth" - one must make hope powerful and aspiration lofty and noble.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1894 ca., to Aqa Mirza Muhammad Husayn -- AB04771)

The available source contains an omission or incomplete wording; sentence boundaries need review.

O Samandar, Fire ignited by the divine! In this Most Great Cycle and century of the Sovereign King of Eternity, souls are confirmed and assisted by the hosts of the Abha Kingdom such that, like armies of power and might, they storm forth in the arena of diffusing the divine fragrances and strive to exalt the Word of God.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Shaykh Kazim Qazvini (Samandar) -- AB01715)

O thou who art lost in the wilderness of the love of God! In this Most Great Cycle, when the dawn of contingent being hath been illumined by the lights of the Countenance of the All-Merciful, and the waves of the Ancient Ocean have encompassed the shores of the worlds of creation, and the cloud of bounty hath gained ascendancy over the horizons of existence, and the powers of the Divine Kingdom have set all the pillars of creation in motion from every direction, and the breezes of grace have wafted from the source of bounty, and rock and clod and tree have been blessed by the favors of the Lord of destiny, and the solid rock hath been cleft asunder - the loved ones of God must needs become the signs of guidance and the standards of divine grace. They must manifest such steadfastness and strength and power in the assemblage of the world that they may transform its very structure and quicken the dead body of humankind through the divine spirit, making it a manifestation of the favors of the peerless Lord, so that the signs of bounty may become evident in all degrees of existence, and the banner of the new cycle, the new life, and the guidance of the Gracious Lord may be raised upon hills and mountains. And glory be upon thee.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1893-Feb-09, to Mirza Abdu'l-Baha (Bushruyih) -- AB04814)

In this Most Great Century and Most Noble Cycle, when subtle and pure realities have been illumined by the shining rays from the Sun of Truth, and when the temples of unity have been raised up in the arena of existence through this perfect bounty and all-encompassing grace, the souls who are ready must count as a precious gift this glorious favor and mighty grace, and in this Most Great Cycle, having been illumined by the lights of the manifestation of the Ancient Sun, they must bestow bounty and generosity upon other peoples from the Orient of the world.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Haji Mirza Muhammad Yazdi Alaqihband -- AB03770)

Further quotations · supplied wording and references

In its broadest outline the first century of the Baha'i Era may be said to comprise the Heroic, the Primitive, the Apostolic Age of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, and also the initial stages of the Formative, the Transitional, the Iron Age which is to witness the crystallization and shaping of the creative energies released by His Revelation. GPB.xiii

Source reference not supplied