Creation in pairs: relationship, difference, and the creative word

So great was the wondrous grace which pervaded all things that through the utterance of the letters "B" and "E" the gems that lay hid within the repositories of this contingent world were brought forth and made manifest.

From the Kaf of Being, generosity was made manifest, which became the cause of existence. And from the Nun appeared the realm of preservation and encompassment. Such power lies concealed within these two that should all created things appear with countless tongues and praise them until the endless end, they would never fathom their essence and would find themselves utterly impotent and wanting.

The Kaf is the rank of the Primal Will, and the Nun is the rank of Purpose, and the Primal Will is the father of all things and Purpose their mother. … Through the Kaf God created the substance of things and the sign of His uniqueness and the temple of His oneness, indicating God alone, and it is the highest consciousness in contingency wherein God alone is known, and it is called the heart. Through the Nun God created things from the beginning of inclination toward Himself to the uttermost multiplicity, from infinity unto infinity.

God has made words as bodies for spirits which are meanings, and God has written with His hands between them a true relationship, and there was naught between them save as between the Kaf and the Nun.

The meaning of Adam is the reality that bestows bounties, is manifest and active, for in him are comprised the outward manifestations of the divine names and attributes, and the various states of the All-Merciful. Eve is the reality that is dependent, on which bounties are bestowed, which is subservient and influenced, for it is under the influence of all the divine names and attributes.

Know thou that masculine and feminine are characteristics of physical bodies and have no connection with the spirit. The spirit and its realm are sanctified from such conditions and are free from every description that applies to bodies in the contingent world. However, in previous cycles, men were distinguished from women because physical powers ruled over spiritual ones.

Whereupon He created all things -- whether plants or animals or intelligent and rational beings -- in joyous, connected pairs, in order that they might flourish, multiply, and worship their Lord with radiant devotion, treading the path of guidance with heart and soul. Amongst the believers, He hath ordained this binding covenant to be a sign of Divine Unity and the highest means for attaining physical and spiritual union.

There is nothing in the plant kingdom except it has its splendid mate, nor among sensing creatures except it has its noble pair.

That is, were the souls created in pairs and did they belong to each other forever and ever, even if they did not meet on this earth?

He said: "Yes" - that everything was created in pairs, but that this earth was the flaming sword and sometimes, even if affinities met, they could not be happy for various reasons connected with the imperfect conditions here; but in spirit they were related forever.

As for thunder and lightning - lightning represents the meeting of two mighty forces, negative and positive, that is, the force of attraction and the force of repulsion. When these two forces meet, lightning flashes and pierces the air, creating a vacuum. Then the air rushes back to fill the vacuum, producing waves in the air which affect the auditory nerve, thus producing thunder.

And peace and blessings be upon His Beloved, His Chosen One, His Manifestation and His Appearance among His servants and creation, through Whom was revealed the decree of the "B" and "E" and every hidden command and treasured secret, and upon His family and companions who arose to aid Him and strove in God with true striving until the verses were spread throughout the lands.

O loved ones of God! Have ye forgotten the remembrance of Him at Whose command the letter K was joined with its pillar N, by Whom all faces were turned toward the face of your Lord, the Mighty, the Praised, through Whom the Tree of man yielded the fruits of divine knowledge and the oceans of understanding surged in human hearts?

I beseech Thee, O Bestower of bounties and Lord of all nations, by Thy Most Great Name through which Thou didst manifest the Kaf and the Nun and didst create thereby what was and what will be, to assist Thy servants to turn towards that which Thou hast commanded them in Thy Book.

He it is Who createth what He willeth through His command "Be" and it is.

… Say: God hath created no ink but He hath created it by His command, wherewith ye write. And God hath created of everything pairs that ye might draw inference therefrom.

The letter of that honored master arrived, and like the morning breeze it gave freshness to the withered heart and revived the lifeless body, for it was adorned with mention of the Desired One, the Sovereign of the unseen and the seen. From the glad tidings of the well-being of that spiritual friend, a new world appeared and boundless joy was attained. They have said that the world was created through the command "Be" (Kun), and in the realm of truth, this "Kaf" is the "Kaf" of remembrance of friends, and the "Nun" is the endless bounty of love.

His essential camphor-like nature is too great to be known through description or majesty, and His essential cypress-like being is too holy to be described through manifestations of power before the appearance of all things and after their concealment. There is no God but He, the King, the Manifest, the Resplendent, the Sovereign, the Powerful, the Subduer, Who has ordained the measures of all things under the shadow of His command, and made the essences of all things between the Kaf and the Nun through the revolution of the Vav by the appearance of the Ha' in the degree of concealment.

Then when they spoke and caused to speak, and came with their signs and manifested their evidences, and completed their signs and bestowed their bounties, through them were made known the realities of the people of certitude and the inner secrets of the people of hypocrisy, until the confident ones ascended and the humble ones were exalted, the seekers were guided and the wayfarers among the people of faithfulness became God-fearing, while the deniers transgressed and the oppressors fabricated, the fearful ones grew arrogant and the hypocrites among the people of discord became pious.

Then when they melted and moved, persisted and swelled, inhaled and became straight, the letter Kaf revolved and connected to the letter Nun.

Thus it is that were someone to look with the very essence of discerning vision, he would observe that all the worlds originate in the station of the Purpose, which is begotten by the Will, while this Latter subsisteth by Itself, and encompasseth all the worlds in virtue of Its rank in the world of creation: for anyone who is possessed of any rank in this Dispensation of the Bayan confesseth the exaltation of Its rank in his own soul: inasmuch as the world of the souls conformeth unto the world of the horizons.

I recognize, O my God, that whenever something is related to Thee, the decree of the Will is applicable to it, and whenever it is related to itself, the decree of Purpose is established in it. When this duality is realized the decree of predestination is manifested.

The proof that a thing cannot receive existence except through seven aspects is that which I shall now indicate through wisdom's proof: For when a thing is mentioned, it has the rank of existence, and it cannot exist except through the rank of its essence, which is the cause of accepting existence. When duality is established, the link is established. When the link is established in the station of trinity, wisdom necessitates the rule of four in the descent of the Command from the unseen realm to the visible world. Therefore, in mentioning truth, the seven are required in all ranks of existence.

All praise be unto God, Who hath created realities that are paired through the mutual encounter of the divine names and attributes, that are comprised of both existence and essence, and that derive their grace from states that are opposite yet compatible and from facing mirrors that form complementary reflections. “Glory be to Him Who hath created all the pairs, of such things as the earth produceth, and of themselves, and of things beyond their ken”,[Q36:36] and hath made the human reality to be a wellspring of blessings and a fountainhead of abundant increase in the world of being. The inner realities of all things proceeded from the encounter of the most excellent names, and the contest of the most exalted attributes. They married, assembled, gathered, harmonized, united, and attained unto completion and perfection—whereupon, within the essences of the realities derived therefrom, the effulgence of primal oneness shone resplendent.

That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today. The world of existence came into being through the heat generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different. Thus doth the Great Announcement inform thee about this glorious structure. Such as communicate the generating influence and such as receive its impact are indeed created through the irresistible Word of God which is the Cause of the entire creation, while all else besides His Word are but the creatures and the effects thereof.

O Asad! Upon thee be My glory! Concerning thy question about the meaning of 'active' - it refers to the Universal Lord, though it hath other meanings, and that which returns to the 'passive.' Reflect upon the Tablet of Wisdom. In every verse lies concealed an ocean among the oceans. We beseech God that thou mayest be enabled to witness and contemplate that which hath streamed forth from the Most Exalted Pen, both in the past and future. That which hath been sent down from the heaven of Divine Will is such that before it the books of the world have bowed down, yet the peoples remain in evident drunkenness.

"The world of existence came into being through the heat generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient." That is to say: The substance and primary matter of contingent beings is the ethereal power, which is invisible and known only through its effects, such as electricity, heat, and light--these are vibrations of that power, and this is established and proven in natural philosophy and is known as the ethereal matter. This ethereal matter is itself both the active force and its recipient; in other words, it is the sign of the Primal Will in the phenomenal world.

Light consists of material vibrations like heat and other material effects. If it had special merit, then phosphorescent flies would be superior to humans. Similarly some worms that emit sparks would also be superior to humans. From the friction between attractive and repulsive forces, light occurs which is lightning - so is that superior to humans? And from striking steel against flint, fire is produced - so is stone better than humans? Light and fire are not in the stone or steel but occur from the striking.

And He created the Moon with balanced parts but water dominated the parts, thus it came with the color of water. So the two active ones came, not the passive ones, for the active ones are fire and water while the passive ones are earth and air.

Say: Through what We have set forth, the humors shall not exceed their balance, nor their measures depart from their state. The original nature remains in its purity, and the sixth and the sixth of the sixth remain in their condition. The two active and the two passive elements are preserved, and in God do we trust.

How can, then, such a man succeed in befittingly extolling the One through a motion of Whose finger all the names and their kingdom were called into being, and all the attributes and their dominion were created, and Who, through yet another motion of that same finger, hath united the letters B and E (Be) and knit them together, manifesting thereby what the highest thoughts of Thy chosen ones who enjoy near access to Thee are unable to grasp, and what the profoundest wisdom of those of Thy loved ones that are wholly devoted to Thee are powerless to fathom.

Shoghi Effendi, in letters written on his behalf, has explained the significance of the "letters B and E." They constitute the word "Be", which, he states, "means the creative Power of God Who through His command causes all things to come into being" and "the power of the Manifestation of God, His great spiritual creative force."

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He [God] it is Who hath created all that is in the heavens and on the earth by the word of his Command, which He hath designated as the 'B' before the 'E'.

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His command when He willeth aught, is but to say to it, be (Kun), and it is.

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...the bearer of the essence (jawhar) is the active agent (fa'il)...

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It is assuredly the quintessence of [the divine, Cosmic] Activity (jawhar al-fa`il) from which are established the foundations of the world (qawwam al-`alām). It is [also] the "Heat" without which there would be no motion (al-haraka); for motion is a result of the action which is engendered thereby.

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The way (the tao) begets one; one begets two; two begets three; three begets the myriad creatures. The myriad creatures carry on their backs the yin and embrace in their arms the yang and are the blending of the generative forces of the two. (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, xlii)

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The advocates of the doctrine of the unity of existence are joining partners with God by virtue of the testimony of the idea of existence itself. For the "unity" affirmed by them is derivative of the existence of duality; otherwise why would they deny the duality and affirm the unity? Likewise, those who advocate that the cause of the existence of the contingent beings is the Essence of God, and thus believe in some form of relation between the two, are disbelievers. For causation is dependent on the association with the effect, and relation is dependent on the existence of duality, whereas both conditions are utterly false.

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The relationship that binds [God to His creation], which is mentioned in the Tablets, only appeared from His Will (iradih), which was sent forth from His Volition (mashiyyat), and which in turn was generated by My all-encompassing and irrevocable decree (amr).

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