self-concealment of the Manifestation of God
Editorial introduction
For years the Manifestation of God moved among people as one of them, and none knew Him. His very appearance, one Tablet declares, was the veil over His face. Concealment here is less a matter of hiding than of seeing: a station can be present, even familiar, and still pass unrecognized by eyes clouded with imaginings. The image unfolds through a garment of camel’s hair, a beauty wrapped in a thousand veils, a word held back because hearts were not yet ready, and at last the appointed hour when the veil is lifted and the call goes out to the world. Strikingly, blame is withheld from those who could not recognize what had not yet been disclosed. Mark tells of Peter naming Jesus as the Christ and being charged to tell no one [1], a kindred mystery of knowing and keeping silent. To ponder this subject is to ask how truth arrives in measure, a question that leads onward to progressive revelation, to wisdom in speech, and to acting according to the needs of each day.
Say: The Beauty of God was among you, and His countenance shone forth between earth and heaven like a lustrous and burnished pearl, yet were ye veiled from Him, such that not one among you recognized Him, would ye but understand. The veil of His face was none other than His very manifestation, would ye but comprehend.
I beg forgiveness from God! This curtain and veil are due to the deficiency of our vision. For, in truth, that Daystar in its essence hath neither rising nor setting. In His Kingdom of glory He is always manifest.
And if he recognized Him not, no blame attacheth unto him, for in those days We concealed Our face behind seventy thousand veils lest the eyes of the ungodly should fall upon it.
Say: We were among you for years untold and We veiled Our face from every perceiving eye lest anyone from among the people of the earth should recognize Us, and God is witness and knower of this. When the idolaters persisted, We lifted the veil of concealment from the face of Beauty and made it appear like the sun at high noon.
Remember then that We were amidst you for some years and you did not recognize Me inasmuch as We had veiled Our Face from you and from all creation. Thus wert ye deprived from recognizing God and His Beauty, His testimony and His glory and His proofs and His signs and His Servant, if ye but know it.
This was not unique to thee, for even those who were around Him at all times knew Him not, for We veiled the Face behind a thousand veils lest anyone discover what was ordained in the Tablets from the Pen of a holy, protecting One.
Say: Verily the grace, knowledge and wisdom have all appeared in the temple of a concealed Name, Whose manifestation was veiled by His beauty in such wise that none among creation recognized Him, could ye but know it, though He moved among them all the days as one of them, as though they were veiled by their own selves and were as blind, deaf and dumb, in that they beheld not the Beauty of God nor heard the melodies of God, though all these were before their eyes morning and evening.
Say: This is the Book of Command from the Point of the Bayan unto His servant who hath attained the presence of the Throne yet knew Him not, inasmuch as the Beauty of Glory had veiled His face from the eyes of all the worlds.
And He walked among you yet none recognized Him save His own all-knowing, all-informed Self. And there appeared from Him the signs of God and His grandeur, then the sovereignty of God and His power, but none was aware of this save God, your Lord and the Lord of all creation.
Know then, O Sultan, that We dwelt among the people as one of them, such that We would sit with them and walk before them morning and evening, and none among them recognized Us, for they were seized with vain imaginings and were drowned in the ocean of fancy.
He is the one who kept company with Me in the land of Ta during the days when the Face was hidden from the worlds.
O My Name! By God! We have donned a garment of camel's hair lest anyone should recognize Me, and those whose garments of pride have been soiled should flee from around Me.
Yet in these days this Wronged One hath donned the garment of camel's hair, and though the lights of Revelation have encompassed the world, He hath veiled Himself.
Say: "When We found none in the kingdom worthy, We concealed the Beauty of the Divine Identity in camel's hair, lest ye should recognize Me. When ye turned away with the fetters of your hearts, We revealed the Face from behind the pavilion of light, and ordained the matter in a tablet that was hidden from all eyes."
I have caused the living waters to issue from the Kawthar of My mouth, even as I have concealed the living sun behind My hair. In truth, within the darkness of My hair I have hidden the light of My beauty: though dark in its outer being, its inner being is light upon light, upon all light. Thus have the secrets been revealed by the Pen of the Unconstrained.
He is God!
My hair is My Veil whereby I conceal My Beauty, that haply the eyes of the non-believers among My servants may not fall upon it. Thus do We conceal from the sight of the ungodly the glorious and sublime beauty of Our Countenance.
O people! It is as though I had never departed from among you, but rather journeyed for days and returned unto you with My Beauty, whose sovereignty every atom doth testify, yet ye knew Me not and denied My Cause, though by it were ye and all contingent beings created. Thereby it hath become evident that in Our former Manifestation ye knew not My Beauty, but only My garment and My robe amidst the earth and heaven. Had ye known My former Beauty, ye would have recognized it in this latter Manifestation when I revealed Myself from behind the veils.
The humility, submissiveness, and self-effacement of the Point of the Bayan is clear and evident throughout the Bayan. He saith that He is sanctified from being known through any recognition of His own or through what is revealed in the Bayan.
Glory be unto Him Who hath commanded me to silence and to veil His mighty and glorious Cause, even though revelation hath reached such a degree that tongues and pens are powerless to describe it.
I was silent; the Truth made Me speak. I was seated; He raised Me up for His firm and mighty Cause. Were the matter in My hands, I would have veiled My face from all on earth, but God hath manifested Me in truth. Verily He is the Powerful, the Trustworthy.
In those days We concealed Our face lest anyone recognize Us, according to the wisdom inscribed in the Tablets by the Pen of Command. When the appointed time of concealment was fulfilled, We unveiled the Face with a sovereignty witnessed by all creation.
We remained in this concealment until God's appointed time was fulfilled according to what was ordained by His Pen on a preserved tablet of glory.
For in that time the appointed hour of the Cause had not been fulfilled and the Face had not been unveiled, and We were behind a mighty veil. When the appointed time came, the fingers of divine power rent asunder the veil of concealment, and the Face shone forth from the horizon of glory and power, and the Tongue of God spoke amongst all worlds.
Say: We were among the servants for months and years, and We veiled Our face lest every deceitful wretch should recognize Us, until God's appointed time was fulfilled and the days were accomplished and the Promise came, and God's Cause appeared from this brilliant, luminous Dayspring.
However, in those days the appointed time for the Cause had not been fulfilled, therefore We concealed the Face lest the servants recognize it, though it was shining from the horizon of holiness with manifest radiance. When the appointed time was fulfilled, the veils were rent asunder and thy Lord, the Mighty, the Bestower, appeared from behind them and spoke a word whereat all in the heavens and earth were struck with terror.
Remember the times when thou wert seated in My presence and didst hear with thine own ears the melodies of God, and in those days We concealed Our face from all who are in the heavens and on earth, according to a wisdom that was hidden in God's mystery. When the appointed time was fulfilled and the Command came forth, We drew aside the veils in Our chosen name and manifested Our Self to all created things with a sovereignty that was witnessed by all worlds.
I was hidden within the tabernacle of grandeur and power, but when the appointed time was fulfilled, I manifested My Self as a grace from Me, and I am the Manifest, the Evident, the All-Informed.
He veiled His face for numbered days, then revealed Beauty once again with His Most Glorious Name.
When the year nine had passed, He was manifested with this Name [Baha, =9] unto all things, even as thou didst witness how in that year the revelation of the Divine Unity was both hidden yet visible, and manifest yet concealed.
Say: "We were behind seventy thousand veils and We concealed the Face lest anyone of the worlds should behold it. But when the ungodly imprisoned Us, We unveiled the Face and manifested it like the sun from behind thick clouds.
And thou - remind the people in thy days and fear no one, even if these deniers oppose thee. Verily thy Lord will guard thee from those who have disbelieved and from these unbelievers. Say: By God! We desired not to reveal Our Cause to anyone, and thus were We in mighty concealment. But when the ungodly imprisoned Us in this prison, We therefore revealed Our countenance in spite of them and in spite of those who denied these wondrous, revealed verses.
Say: We were concealed in a mystery that was, in truth, most beautiful, lest anyone should recognize Us and lest the eyes of the treacherous should fall upon Us. But when the idolaters transgressed beyond their bounds, We removed the veil and revealed the Face with radiant lights of sanctity.
Before He made Himself known, they believed in Him, circled round Him, and prostrated themselves before Him. But when the veil was rent asunder and He shone forth at midday with the lights of God, the Most High, the Most Exalted, they scattered from around Him like locusts dispersed.
Blessed art thou, then blessed art thou! Joy be unto thee, then joy be unto thee, inasmuch as thou didst recognize the Dayspring of Revelation while He was veiled behind curtains of light, and didst attain His presence, and drink the choice wine of reunion with Him, and hear His most sweet call, and behold His most glorious countenance.
O beloved! When the Day-Star of the horizons shone forth from the Iraq quarter, as that holy and wondrous Temple was seated before the Throne, He desired to utter a wondrous and glorious word and draw thee, through the gems of outpoured and hallowed grace and universal, divine mercy, from the realms of fancy and passion to the pleasant expanses of certitude and eternity. However, in view of the weakness of all created things and whatsoever is therein, and the poverty of the people of creation and all that pertaineth unto them, that Beauty of the All-Sufficient withdrew from the heaven of utterance to the kingdom of silence, lest the pillars of men be shaken and the hearts of people be cut off. For in those days the appointed time of silence in the kingdom of the divine Cause had not yet been fulfilled.
But since We found the people of the Bayan more veiled than the peoples of former times, We have therefore concealed most matters from them lest they be among those who waver. Otherwise, We would have cast upon them thy name, then thy form, then thy station, that they might be of those who prostrate themselves before God Who created thee and them.
Therefore reveal not a word of what God hath ordained in thy being of the most hidden secret of the testimony of Oneness unto thyself. For if thou shouldst inform them of thy hidden affair, even a little in truth, they would sacrifice themselves for the love of God instead of thee in their longing for God -- and God is truly kind to His servants in truth.
Turn people away from exaggeration regarding me, for God knows two groups will perish: the excessive lovers and the hateful detractors. Their sin is not upon me, for I said before and say now before God, His Messengers and His friends that I am a servant who has believed in God and His signs. God has honored me by His grace as He willed with knowledge from the people of infallibility (God's blessings upon them) -- as long as the Sun of Identity has risen with identity and the Sun of Oneness has not set with oneness.
Say: Verily I am a servant who hath believed in God and His signs, and I say not unto you that I know the unseen, nor do I claim any sign from heaven, but rather I recite unto you these clear verses from the Book of God for a people who remember. Say: Were I to abrogate a decree or command a new decree, then in that moment I would be bound by a true verse from the Book of God. But now verily I am a confirmer of that which ye possess of the pure religion.
And I bear witness before Thee concerning what people attribute to me, that I commanded naught in any book reaching unto all people save the purification of the air, and after making mention of the exaltation of Thy Cause and the Furqan, I joined therewith mention of the confirmation of Thy judgment from before upon all who believed in Thee until Thy judgment should reach them.
Let the copy of the Arabic folio be conveyed by the students to every land, that all may be assured that I am but a servant -- without learning and without claim. Whoso pronounceth concerning this lowly one a judgment of belief to the weight of an atom, God, the All-Knowing, shall question him thereof on the Day of Resurrection. God, and the people of His love, are witnesses and seers that I make no claim that would render obedience to me incumbent upon anyone.
This day I beg forgiveness of God, my Lord, for all that I manifested, and I say unto thee -- for the absent ones and for whoso knoweth me -- that I do not stand upon any Cause whose recognition is incumbent upon the people; I lay claim to no authority. And whoso should ascribe to me divine knowledge or authority, upon him be the curse of God, and the curse of His angels, and of all humankind.
It is incumbent upon one who claims such a momentous matter that he be characterized by all perfect attributes, both theoretical and practical, and that he lack not any branch of knowledge or custom, and that he have complete and detailed mastery over all outward and inward sciences, and that there be no matter of divine grace or supernatural occurrence that is praiseworthy in God's sight except that he possess it definitively, not merely potentially - like the potential that God has placed in all things, whether essentially or accidentally. And if he lacks any single matter or branch of knowledge, there is no doubt that he is not the bearer of this mighty station. God Almighty and His holy ones bear witness that I am neither learned in, nor capable of, a single branch of the customary sciences, nor the source of any supernatural occurrences.
Would that men had been informed of the origin of the Cause! By the True One! none became acquainted therewith save myself; yet did We conceal it, and caused the mention of him whom I had reared by my word to be spread abroad, in order to safeguard the Dayspring of the Revelation. And when he beheld his name made renowned, he rose up in warfare against my wronged and peerless self.
Among those souls was Jinab-i Munir, whose words surpassed the words of Yahya. Yet Our purpose in the spreading abroad of the name, and in the concealment of Yahya, was that the people of the Bayan might turn their faces toward that House wherein the divine purpose lay hidden. This, indeed, was the intent of the Most Exalted One in the diffusion of the name of Azal; yet He called him but a mirror, and gave precedence over that mirror to the Letters of the Living---one of whom was Mulla Hasan of Bujistan---and commanded the renowned among His companions to train Yahya.
By God's life! I concealed this with all diligence lest any hateful rejected one should become aware of it. By God! The Pen is powerless to recount what he committed in his vain life, for it is ashamed to mention that which is unworthy of mention this Day.
Such hath been ... that the fragrances of discord and dissension from those who profess loyalty have risen to such a degree that the atmosphere of the horizons hath become such that the Ancient Beauty hath determined to veil the effulgence of His peerless Beauty behind the veils of glory, in such wise that no pure light shall ever again be witnessed from Him.
And when He found the situation thus, He concealed His luminous countenance behind a veil and hid His mighty beauty in the cloud of the unseen.
You know that I have never desired and do not desire anything except utter evanescence, complete extinction, absolute poverty, and total helplessness.
O thou who art enamored of the Joseph of the divine Egypt! The Joseph of Canaan appeared with grace and beauty in the market of earthly Egypt, but the Joseph of the true Beauty appeared in the divine Egypt with a luminous countenance, divine comeliness, heavenly grace, lordly beauty, glorified charm, a brilliant dawning-place, and an appearance like a rose garden in the market of manifestation. And when He found the buyers to be pretenders and the seekers to be heedless, He concealed His luminous countenance behind the veil of the unseen and hid His divine beauty behind the clouds of concealment.
The Beloved of Reality, Who for ages lay concealed behind the veil of glory and hidden in the mantle of the unseen, hath manifested Himself, and like unto Joseph of Egypt hath appeared in supreme beauty and comeliness, becoming renowned in every street and marketplace. … Blind were they raised, deaf were they gathered, until that Sun of Reality was concealed behind the clouds of glory and vanished in the invisible Kingdom.
O my God and my Beloved! After Thou didst conceal Thyself behind the veils of perfection, hide behind the clouds of glory, cover Thyself with the veil of absence, and deprive eyes from witnessing and ears from hearing Thy address - do Thou open before our faces the gates of favors, direct our gaze toward the Kingdom of bounty, assist us with the hosts of Thy unseen realm, aid us with the army of Thy might and power, quicken our hearts with the sweet savors of Thy holiness, illuminate our vision with witnessing the signs of Thy glory, expand our breasts through the traces of Thy oneness, and make us servants of Thy Cause who rely upon Thy help and protection and who hasten to the field of sacrifice out of longing to meet Thee.
He Who was concealed from eternity in the treasuries of might and grandeur hath appeared.
He cast off all concealment and raised high the banner of enchantment. He revealed His beauty and unfurled the standard of majesty.
Today from the rustling of the Divine Lote-Tree this most exalted word is heard: O people of the world! The Hidden Beloved hath appeared and the concealed Mystery hath been made manifest in the assemblage of the world.
Thereupon did Zion cry aloud and say: "O peoples of the earth! Rejoice, for the Hidden One hath appeared - He Who was concealed in the treasuries of God's protection, the Lord of all worlds."
Say: O concourse of humanity! The Most Great Scene hath appeared and hath been adorned with the lights of the countenance of the Lord of Destiny, Who was concealed behind the veils of the Unseen and hidden within His inaccessible knowledge.
O My people! Will ye flee from My presence? Will ye turn away from your Best-Beloved, who loveth you and who standeth now before you? This is the Day wherein the rapture of divine revelation hath taken hold of all created things, the Day wherein He Who had been mentioned in the books of God, the All-Glorious, the All-Wise, hath been made manifest.
Further quotations · supplied wording and references
"We have not completely lifted the veil. We have revealed Our Self to a degree corresponding to the capacity of the people. Otherwise, were the Ancient Beauty to appear in His beauty, none among all who are in the heavens and earth could bear to behold Him."
Fear ye God and entertain no doubts regarding His Cause, for verily, the Mystery of this Gate is shrouded in the mystic utterances of His Writ and hath been written beyond the impenetrable veil of concealment by the hand of God, the Lord of the visible and the invisible.
Afterward: Thus speaks the least of God's creation, Ali bin Muhammad, the son of the late Muhammad Rida (may his soul rest in peace): A group of people has attributed to this humble servant the claim to the station of Babiyyat (the Gatehood) of the Imam--peace be upon him. However, I have never made such a claim, nor do I make it now. … I myself bear no mastery over any branch of knowledge or practice of the sciences of the learned, nor do I possess the ability to perform any supernatural acts or wonders. If words have flowed from my pen, they have done so purely out of natural inclination, and all of them contradict the norms of the community. These words are evidence of nothing.
For thought and discussion