Beyond a human image of God

Some imagined for God, according to their own delusions, certain attributes and characteristics and a spiritual identity and form. When they found it contrary to that, they remained behind the veil.

Question: Why is the expression "He is God" used at the beginning of the Tablets and Epistles?

Answer: This is a common practice in the East among the Muslims, and their intent is that one must begin all things with the mention of God. But what is intended in the divine Tablets is that the reality of the divine Essence is sanctified above all understanding, exalted beyond all imagination. For whatsoever man may imagine is encompassed by him, and that which encompasses is without a doubt greater than that which is encompassed. It is therefore clear that what is imagined is the creation, not the Creator. For the reality of Divinity is sanctified above all human fancy. In this day all people are worshippers of idle fancies, for they conceive a god in the realm of imagination and worship him. Thus if you were to ask someone who is engaged in prayer: "Whom are you worshipping?" he would say: "God." "What God?" "God as I imagine Him." Whereas that which is in his imagination is not God. All people are therefore worshippers of their own thoughts and fancies.

Thus for man there is no path to tread and no place to turn save unto the holy Manifestations. For, as already mentioned, the reality of Divinity is transcendent, sanctified, and beyond all imagination. All that can be imagined are the holy and divine Manifestations. There is nowhere else for man to direct his gaze, and should he pass beyond this he will fall prey to delusion. Thus what is meant by the words "He is God" is that that manifest Being is the promised Beauty and the Day-Star of Truth, the Exponent of the secrets of Lordship and Divinity, the Repository of the mysteries of the All-Merciful, and the Source of the signs of His Singleness; and that I have begun my discourse with His blessed Name.

And Husayn, in his interpretation of this Surah, said that the meaning of "He is God" and the meaning of "One, the Eternal" -- Muhammad ibn Hanafiyyih was asked about "the Eternal" and he said: "Ali said the interpretation of 'the Eternal' is: no name, no body, no likeness, no similitude, no form, no image, no limit, no bounds, no position, no place, no where, no how, no here, no fullness, no emptiness, no standing, no sitting, no stillness, no motion, no darkness, no light, no spirit, no self, no place is void of Him yet no place contains Him, no color, no thought of heart, no scent of fragrance -- He is beyond all these things."

… Thus did Ali, peace be upon him, say: "The beginning of religion is the knowledge of God; the perfection of knowing Him is to testify to His unity; the perfection of His unity is to deny Him attributes, as every attribute testifies that it is other than that which is described, and that which is described testifies that it is other than the attribute. The two testify to comparison, which is impossible for the Pre-existent. So whoever describes God has limited Him; whoever limits Him has numbered Him; whoever numbers Him has invalidated His eternity. Whoever asks 'how?' has sought to describe Him; whoever asks 'in what?' has contained Him; whoever asks 'on what?' has shown ignorance of Him; whoever asks 'where?' has excluded Him; whoever asks 'what is He?' has described Him; whoever asks 'to what?' has given Him a purpose. He is Knowing when there was nothing to be known, Creator when there was nothing created, Lord when there was nothing to be lorded over. Such is our Lord, far above what those who describe can describe."

God changes not with the changes of creation, just as He is not limited by the limitations of the limited. He is One, not in numerical sense; Manifest, not through direct contact; Visible, not through the dawn of vision; Hidden, not through subtle coverage; Separate, not through distance; Near, not through proximity; Subtle, not through corporeality; Existent, not after non-existence; Active, not through compulsion; Determining, not through movement of thought; Managing, not through movement; Willing, not through resolution; Desiring, not through need; Apprehending, not through means; Hearing, not through organs.

I bear witness that God, the Exalted, hath no place that might encompass Him, nor doth His Essence encompass anything that might impose limitations upon His encompassing power. He is neither substance nor essence nor abstract nor pure being, nor any of the attributes ascribed, nor any of the qualities praised. When thou sayest He is All-Hearing, verily He, exalted be His glory, hath created hearing in all things heard, while there was naught to be heard except His Essence. When thou sayest He is All-Seeing, verily He, exalted be His glory, hath created sight in all things seen, while there was naught to be seen except His Essence. When thou sayest He is All-Subtle, verily He, exalted be His glory, hath created subtlety in all subtle things, while there was naught subtle.

As to the attributes and perfections such as will, knowledge, power and other ancient attributes that we ascribe to that Divine Reality, these are the signs that reflect the existence of beings in the visible plane and not the absolute perfections of the Divine Essence that cannot be comprehended. For instance, as we consider created things we observe infinite perfections, and the created things being in the utmost regularity and perfection we infer that the Ancient Power on whom dependeth the existence of these beings, cannot be ignorant; thus we say He is All-Knowing. It is certain that it is not impotent, it must be then All-Powerful; it is not poor, it must be All-Possessing; it is not non-existent, it must be Ever-Living. The purpose is to show that these attributes and perfections that we recount for that Universal Reality are only in order to deny imperfections, rather than to assert the perfections that the human mind can conceive. Thus we say His attributes are unknowable.

And they who, by the grace of God, attain unto that most radiant White Light, and the Divine Red Tree, and the Primordial Yellow Pearl, and the Ever-Green Eternal Leaf, verily speak as 'Ali -- peace be upon him -- declared in the Khutbat al-Tutunjiyyah: "I beheld God and Paradise with the eye of vision." They intend naught thereby save the beholding of the Countenance of Him Who revealeth Himself unto them -- by them -- through origination. Even as is plainly set forth in the sacred report wherein -- exalted be His remembrance -- "He was asked concerning God, glorified be He: 'Shall the believers behold Him on the Day of Resurrection?' He replied: 'Yea, and indeed they beheld Him before the Day of Resurrection.' It was asked: 'When?' He said: 'When He said unto them, Am I not your Lord? They said, Yea!' Then he was silent for a while and said: 'And verily the believers behold Him in this world before the Day of Resurrection -- dost thou not behold Him in thy rank at this very moment?' It was said: 'Shall I transmit this from thee?' He answered: 'Nay; for if thou relate it and a denier, ignorant of what thou sayest, reject it, he will deem it anthropomorphism and unbelief. The vision of the heart is not as the vision of the eye. Exalted is God above what the anthropomorphists and the atheists ascribe unto Him.'"

It is recorded in the Holy Bible that God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." It is self-evident that the image and likeness mentioned do not apply to the form and semblance of a human being because the reality of Divinity is not limited to any form or figure. Nay, rather, the attributes and characteristics of God are intended. Even as God is pronounced to be just, man must likewise be just. As God is loving and kind to all men, man must likewise manifest loving-kindness to all humanity. As God is loyal and truthful, man must show forth the same attributes in the human world. Even as God exercises mercy toward all, man must prove himself to be the manifestation of mercy. In a word, the image and likeness of God constitute the virtues of God, and man is intended to become the recipient of the effulgences of divine attributes. This is the essential foundation of all the divine religions, the reality itself, common to all.

I shall restate here My theme, that perchance this may assist thee in recognizing thy Creator. Know thou that God - exalted and glorified be He - doth in no wise manifest His inmost Essence and Reality. From time immemorial He hath been veiled in the eternity of His Essence and concealed in the infinitude of His own Being. And when He purposed to manifest His beauty in the kingdom of names and to reveal His glory in the realm of attributes, He brought forth His Prophets from the invisible plane to the visible, that His name "the Manifest" might be distinguished from "the Hidden" and His name "the Last" might be discerned from "the First", and that there may be fulfilled the words: "He is the First and the Last; the Seen and the Hidden; and He knoweth all things!" Thus hath He revealed these most excellent names and most exalted words in the Manifestations of His Self and the Mirrors of His Being.

Answer to first question: The Baha'is do not believe in the incarnation of the Word, meaning the transformation of the divine nature into human nature or pre-existence into temporal existence. Rather, the belief is that the Bab and the Blessed Beauty are complete Manifestations in the human world. It is clear and evident that the pre-existent cannot become temporal nor the temporal pre-existent. Transformation of essence is impossible and inconceivable. Rather, the Perfect Man is like a pure mirror in which the Sun of Reality with all its infinite bounties is apparent and visible.

These mirrors are the Messengers of God Who tell the story of Divinity, just as the material mirror reflects the light and disc of the outer sun in the skies. In this way the image and effulgence of the Sun of Reality appear in the mirrors of the Manifestations of God. This is what Jesus Christ meant when He declared, "the father is in the son," the purpose being that the reality of that eternal Sun had become reflected in its glory in Christ Himself. It does not signify that the Sun of Reality had descended from its place in heaven or that its essential being had effected an entrance into the mirror, for there is neither entrance nor exit for the reality of Divinity; there is no ingress or egress; it is sanctified above all things and ever occupies its own holy station. Changes and transformations are not applicable to that eternal reality. Transformation from condition to condition is the attribute of contingent realities.

Nevertheless, these people [i.e. the Catholics] believe that the incomprehensible and indescribable Divine Essence, that Supreme Heavenly Reality, has been materialized in a body, made to suffer trials and tribulations, had died and then once more had risen.

However, hardships are limited to this plane, and the Almighty God is sanctified beyond such afflictions.

Exalted then be God above what the anthropomorphists among the Christians describe, when they take the form of the cross from the temple of trinity and interpret the signs of Divinity in terms of limitation, thereby fabricating against God a falsehood based on the word of association, when they say that Christ is the Son of God. Glory be to God and exalted be His command! Jesus, son of Mary, was naught but a Messenger before whom other Messengers had passed away, and after whom came Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets. He was but a Messenger of God and the first of them that worship.