Not a leaf stirs without God knowing its movement, Bahá’u’lláh says, and the secrets of hearts are engraved in clear characters before Him. Being known that completely raises the old anxiety at once: if my deed is known before I do it, am I still free? ‘Abdu’l-Bahá answers that knowledge is not the cause of what it knows. The gardener knows which fruit will be bitter without making it so, and the astronomer who predicts an eclipse does not cause one; God’s knowledge, freed from past and future, encompasses all things without producing them. The harder puzzle is that our words for time and multiplicity hardly apply to the divine Essence at all. Psalm 139 approaches the same subject from inside prayer, where being searched and known is a comfort rather than a threat [1]. The teaching turns practical in two directions: an unseen moral life asks for integrity, and since all knowledge is divine knowledge and every creature a sign of God’s power, no one may look on another with contempt. The road continues into the attributes of God, into knowledge itself, and into the recognition of God.
Likewise the Surih of Heykal and others like it, that thou mayest know of a certainty that not a leaf stirreth except that God knoweth its movement, its stability and its conditions.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1296-08 [1879-Jul], to Mulla Husayn Afshar -- BH04072)
02
Think not the secrets of hearts are hidden, nay, know ye of a certainty that in clear characters they are engraved and are openly manifest in the holy Presence.
… 63. O YE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD!
Know, verily, that an unforeseen calamity followeth you, and grievous retribution awaiteth you. Think not that which ye have committed hath been effaced in My sight. By My beauty! All your doings hath My pen graven with open characters upon tablets of chrysolite.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words - Persian, 1274 ca. [1857-1858] -- BH00113)
03
For His knowledge of all things before the existence of all things, is like His knowledge of all things after their existence. Likewise, His power over all things before the existence of all things, is like His power over them after their existence. God hath always known all things and hath always been potent over all things.
(The Báb, Bayan-i-Farsi (Persian Bayan) -- BB00001)
04
The reality of everything, just as it is, with all its transformations, is known and visible. Just as a gardener knows the reality of the fruits within the trees - which will be bitter and which sweet. But this knowledge does not cause it to happen. If you were to discover and become aware that this tree will bear such a fruit, would your knowledge cause its existence? The ultimate truth is that perfect knowledge encompasses the realities of things.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1911-Apr ca., to Ishaq son of Panihas -- AB00262)
05
Answer: The knowledge of a thing is not the cause of its occurrence; for the essential knowledge of God encompasses the realities of all things both before and after they come to exist, but it is not the cause of their existence. This is an expression of the perfection of God.
… Through astronomical calculations the mathematicians determine that at a certain time a solar or lunar eclipse will occur. Surely this prediction is not the cause of the eclipse. This of course is merely an analogy and not an exact image.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 35, Free Will and Foreknowledge, 1904-Jun ca. -- AB03274)
06
Created things were known to God, but the name "All-Seeing" had no connection to the realities of things. When they became realized in the world of existence, the name "All-Seeing" connected with them.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1910-Oct-17, to Jadhdhab, Azizullah son of Isma'il Namdar -- AB00954)
07
Yea, He knoweth your deeds before their appearance, even as He knoweth them after they are manifest. … This knowledge doth not cause the deed in His creation, even as your knowledge of something is not the cause of its appearance in what ye have willed or will, have known or will know.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Lawh-i-Ibna', to Muhammad Ibrahim known as Haji Khalil -- BH00431)
08
God is aware of all souls and what they possess. The forbearance of God hath emboldened souls, for He does not rend asunder the veils before their appointed time, and due to the precedence of mercy, manifestations of wrath have been withheld. Therefore, most people imagine that God is unaware of what they commit in secret. Nay, by His all-knowing, all-informed Self! All is visible and evident in the mirror of His knowledge.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Lawh-i-'Ali, ca. 1289-1290?, to Mulla Ali Akbar Shahmirzadi et al -- BH00718)
09
In truth, knowledge of multiplicities holds no nobility in the station of the Essence; rather it is polytheism according to the people of glory, for in the station of knowledge of the Essence, every mention of anything is invalid and indeed indicates polytheism and imperfection.
The nobility among the people of the Bayan and glory in the station of existences and entities is pure simplicity in the station of the manifestation of the Essence. Otherwise, attachment to multiplicities and knowledge of them is imperfection for one who knows the wisdom of the manifestations of the Divine Essence in the Kingdom of Names and Attributes.
(The Báb, Tafsiri-i-Hadith-i-'Allamani Akhi Rasulu'llah, to Valiy-i-Shushtar -- BB00114)
10
In brief, it means that all knowledge is divine knowledge, meaning realities must be known for knowledge to be realized - until something is encompassed, the encompasser cannot encompass it. And all creation manifests signs of God's might and power. In this light, one cannot consider people as ignorant while counting oneself as learned, for knowledge of truth is divine knowledge - knowledge is identical with what is known. And all created things are signs of power - one cannot look with contempt upon divine signs.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1903-Jun-23, to Mulla Ahmad Ali Nayrizi -- AB05358)
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11
The truth is that when the creative action is related to existence, it is the Will; when it is related to the archetype ('ayn), in other words, the species form, it is Purpose; and when it is related to the limitations of the created, that is to say, their topography (handasa)--which includes length and breadth, continuance and mortality, term of duration, and the like--it is predestination. Through the accomplishment of the act of creation and the thing itself, it is fate; and through its manifestation, the revealing of causes, and the disclosure of means, it is execution....
(Shaykh Ahmad, Sharh al-Masha'ir, pp. 15-18, in K. Brown's selections on the seven stages)
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