The Father, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains, is the Sun of Truth, and the Son and the Holy Spirit are two mirrors in which that one Sun appears without ever descending from its station. The picture answers a difficulty that has perplexed Christian thinkers from the beginning: how three can be one when, as He states plainly, three cannot become one nor one three. Other images follow, the iron that glows in the fire and may say I am fire, and the recurring pattern in every age of a giver of grace, a gift, and a recipient, visible with Moses on Sinai and with Muhammad as much as with Christ. The Báb speaks more severely, rejecting any reading of the cross that would confine the divine nature within limits, and one account of a believer baiting a priest over the cross he wore shows how a clever argument can land as an insult on a person’s devotion. The Catechism gives the other side its own voice, affirming one undivided nature while distinguishing the persons by their relations [1]; hearing each account in its own terms is the beginning of honest conversation. The wider field of Christian doctrine and practice lies just beyond.
As for the difference between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: the Father is the Sun of Truth, and the Son and the Holy Spirit are two opposing mirrors, and that Sun is manifest and visible in both mirrors. When you look at the reality, the Sun is one, but it is reflected in two other mirrors and has apparently multiplied, for the sun that appears in the mirror is also the sun, but it is the manifestation of the real Sun. It is not that the Sun has descended from its exalted station and taken up residence in the mirror. Rather, the Sun remains in its sanctified exaltation, but is reflected in the mirror....
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1905 ca., to D S Butler -- AB06817)
The available source contains an omission or incomplete wording; sentence boundaries need review.
02
It is impossible that three are one and one be three. For instance - like a piece of iron - it is hard, black, cold, but in the fire becomes soft, red and hot - it leaves its own qualities and takes the qualities of the fire. So the iron can say, "I am fire" - the fire can say, "I am in the iron and fire in one", because he has the qualities. So Jesus Christ said, "Father in Son," and "Son and Father are One."
One and singleness are not against the Trinity and vice versa.
In every dispensation there have been three persons: In the dispensation of Moses, there were Moses and the Fire and the Speaker of Sinai; in the dispensation of Christ, there were the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; in the dispensation of Islam, there were the Lord and Gabriel and the Beloved.
Yet in reality these three are one.
In philosophical terms: motion, mover and moved; cause, effect and affected; creation, creator and created; knowledge, teacher and taught; grace, bestower and recipient.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1914-Dec-16 in Abu Sinan -- ABU2844)
04
Apropos of someone asking a question he gave the explanation that in every dispensation three persons are mentioned. In the Mosaic dispensation there was Jehovah, the burning bush and Moses. In the Christian time we had Christ, the holy-Spirit and the Father. In Islam we have Mohamad, Gabriel and Allah.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paraphrase of words spoken on 1913-Oct-24 in Ramleh -- ABU2625)
05
In the time of Moses, the ides of the Trinity was shown in (1) God, (2) the speaker of Mount Sinai, and (3) The Fire (which corresponds to our idea of the Holy Spirit). In the time of Abraham, this thought was represented by Abraham, the Angels, and God.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to E.J. Rosenberg et al, spoken around Feb. 1901 -- ABU2649)
06
O thou seeker after Truth!
The question of the Trinity, since the time of His Holiness Christ until now, is the belief of the Christians, and to the present time all the learned among them are perplexed and confounded. All have confessed that the question is beyond the grasp of reason, for three cannot become one, nor one three.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1906 ca., to Cora W Renner -- AB00952)
The available source contains an omission or incomplete wording; sentence boundaries need review.
07
All those who came in the days of Christ have been unable to explain the trinity to make it agree with the unity. St. John ( the gold-mouthed) was one day walking and thinking how he could combine unity and trinity. He came upon a little boy who was sitting by the sea, having a small cup in his hand. St. John asked what He was going to do and he said he was going to put all the water of the sea in it. Just as impossible to combine trinity and unity.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Alma Albertson et al, spoken on 1900-Nov-26 -- ABU0356)
08
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.
(The Báb, Khutba written one stage from Medina (Khutbiy-i-Shajariyyih), 1260-12 (after Mecca) [1844-Dec] -- BB00216)
09
Praise be to God Who created the letters according to the repetition of the name of the All-Bountiful from His own Self, and the letter la that the tongues of all created things might proclaim His praise in the letter la without the judgment which the Christians have taken therefrom in the form of the cross, and the Divine Nature resolved the alif of unity in the human nature of the letter of multiplicity which is the lam.
(The Báb, Fi 'ilmi'l-qira'a, 1262 [1845-1846], to inquirer from Qazvin -- BB00301)
10
One day this Haji Muhammad grabbed hold of a Christian priest's collar to teach him the Faith. During their conversation, he pointed to the cross the priest had hung around his neck and asked, "Reverend priest, what is this that you have hung around your neck?" He replied, "It is the symbol of the cross." Haji asked, "Why have you chosen the cross?" The priest said, "Because Christ's body touched the wooden cross at the time of His martyrdom, so it is sacred."
Haji said, "Why don't you adorn your neck with something that brought comfort and ease to Christ, instead of hanging the symbol of the cross which caused His suffering and martyrdom?" The priest asked, "What thing brought comfort to Christ?" Haji Muhammad said, "The donkey." The priest became agitated and reproachfully said to him, "Where, which donkey?"
Haji said, "What an uninformed priest you are! Haven't you read in the Gospel that Christ sent two of His disciples to a nearby village and instructed them, 'There you will find a young donkey tied up - bring it.' They went and brought the donkey, and Christ rode it with His disciples into Jerusalem. Be fair - isn't that donkey which brought comfort to Christ better than this cross you have hung around your neck?"
The priest became very agitated and, having no response, came to me and complained that Haji Muhammad had spoken thus and insulted him, and requested that I tell my followers to stop teaching priests and stop bothering them.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken ca. Feb. 1920 -- ABU1300)
11
But as to the question of the Trinity, know, O advancer unto God, that in each one of the cycles wherein the Lights have shone forth upon the horizons (i. e., in each prophetic dispensation) and the Forgiving Lord hath revealed Himself on Mount Paran (see Habbakkuk 3:3, etc.) or Mount Sinai, or Mount Seir (see Ezekiel 35), there are necessarily three things: The Giver of Grace, and the Grace, and the Recipient of the Grace; the Source of the Effulgence, and the Effulgence, and the Recipient of the Effulgence; the Illuminator, and the Illumination, and Illuminated.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1900-Oct-07, to Arthur P Dodge -- AB00460)
12
Glorified be God, the All-Knowing, Who hath fashioned things by the art of choice in a manner worthy of the wondrous lights: by the Will -- the secret of possibilities; by the Purpose -- the hidden core of existents; and by Decree -- He ordained the triune marking for the sake of the sign of delimitation. From this did the Christians take the form of the cross and the notion of the indwelling of lahut in nasut. The Beloved hath informed of their corrupted consciences, and the Christians said, "God is the third of three," though He is but One God -- exalted be He above that which they associate!
(The Báb, Fi Bayani Lawhi'l-Mahfuz (Letter on the Preserved Tablet) (part II), 1261 [1844-1845], to Aqa Muhammad Ibrahim -- BB00364)