He is the Rememberer and the Remembered! Every name beareth witness that He is sanctified from all names, and every thing testifieth that He is the Most Exalted, the Most Great.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1296 ? [1878-1879], to Ghulam -- BH06893)
Divine self-remembrance: praise at the edge of speech
self-description of God; God's self-remembrance
Editorial introduction
He is the Rememberer and the Remembered, the Witness and the Witnessed: Bahá’u’lláh opens tablet after tablet with a paradox that praise cannot climb past. From eternity, He prays, God has described His own Self to His own Self, and no one else can make fitting mention of Him. Whoever sets out to praise God therefore arrives quickly at the edge of speech, and the question is what to do there. The Báb answers that God has cast His likeness into the essence of every created thing, so that all souls are mirrors and whoever truly knows his own self through the attributes of his Creator knows his Lord; the limit becomes a door. The Qur’án, when God declares His own name and oneness, joins that declaration at once to the command to worship and remember [1], and the movement from divine self-disclosure to human response runs through all of this. Reverence of this kind is less self-centred than knowledge, and it opens onto God’s love for His own Essence, the Primal Will and the Word through which He first became known, and the practice of remembrance itself.
Selected passages
I am the Witness and the Witnessed One.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1300-02-15 [1882-Dec-26], to Aqa Hasan -- BH06874)
He is the Rememberer and the Remembered!
(Bahá’u’lláh, ca. 1289-1290? -- BH08462)
(Bahá’u’lláh, to Firaydun et al -- BH00296)
Glorified and exalted is He! He has ever been His own describer of His Self, and His Essence the unifier of His Essence. None knoweth how He is except Him.
(The Báb, Tafsir-i-Nubuvvat-i-Khassih (Treatise on Specific Prophethood), to Manuchihr Khan -- BB00014)
He hath ever been the One Who uniteth His Own Essence with His Essence, and describeth His Own Self by His Self, for whatsoever else besides Him hath been created by His word.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1293-05 [1876-May], to Mirza Ibrahim Marsa'-Saz -- BH05780)
Ever hath Thy Reality praised Thy Reality, and all else doth praise Thee within the bounds of Thy sovereign might. Forever dost Thou magnify Thy Self through Thy Self, and should any besides Thee magnify Thee, it is but within the confines of the geometry Thou hast established through the limitations of Thy creation and brought into being through the manifestations of Thy might.
(The Báb, Du'a' li-Huruf-i-Bismi'llahi'r-Rahmani'r-Rahim, 1265 mid-late [1848-1849], to to be read first by Yahya and Javad -- BB00024)
(The Báb, 1264-01-01 [1847-Dec-9] -- BB00485)
Since this is so, I make mention of what the tongue of Thy Revelation hath spoken in Thy Tablets: that Thou art not described except by Thyself and not mentioned save through Thyself.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1296 ? [1878-1879], to Aqa Muhammad Javad -- BH03294)
The First Station and the Sin in the rank of the Bayan is God's praise of His own Self, and the describer is the very description, and it is His saying "I cannot reckon Thy praise, Thou art as Thou hast praised Thyself," and His saying: "He manifested to it through it." God's description of Himself is by Himself, and to His creation by His creation.
(The Báb, Tafsir (huruf) al-basmala -- BB00022)
God described Himself to everything through everything, and cast into the essence of everything His own likeness, until He became known; and in all things there is a sign indicating that He is One. … All souls are as mirrors, and He is manifest to the mirrors through the mirrors. He is the One, the sign of God and His description. And for all things this soul exists - whoso knoweth it hath known his Lord.
The meaning is that there is no way unto God except through recognition of this soul, which is the same as the recognition of the Lord, for a thing cannot be comprehended beyond its source. Whoso knoweth his own self through the attributes of his Creator knoweth Him, and that description is the description of the Lord - there is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Most Exalted, the Most Great.
(The Báb, Tafsir-i-Hadith-i-Ma'rifati Nafs, 1261 [1844-1845] -- BB00098)
They who desire to know Him through other than what hath been truthfully revealed are indeed behind a manifest veil. Thus hath He indicated His Own Self through His Own Self.
(Bahá’u’lláh, ca. 1289-1290? -- BH08934)
God testifieth of His own Self unto His own Self, before the creation of all things, that there is none other God but Him, and that He Who speaketh with truth is indeed the Supreme Scripture for all who are in the realms of creation, and the Most Great Book for all who are in the world, and the Hidden Tablet for all who are in the unseen and the visible.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1291 ? [1874-1875] -- BH10315)
Glorified be He Who testified to His own Self by His own Self before the creation of earth and heaven.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1304-11-26 [1887-Aug-16] -- BH03845)
God hath in this Day borne witness unto His Own Self by His Own Self that there is no God but Him, and the creation knoweth not a single letter of that testimony, for it is, even as it is, the very essence of testimony in the presence of Divine Unity.
(The Báb, Prayer in reply to Mulla 'Abd al-Jalil, on the thanksgiving prostration, to Jalil Urumi -- BB00402)
Verily He is the Hidden Mystery, and He through His own Self, the Mystery, hath testified that He is He, there is no God but He, the Impenetrable, the Inaccessible, the Hidden Mystery.
(Bahá’u’lláh -- BH10032)
God beareth witness unto His Own Self by His Own Self that verily I am alive in the Most Glorious Horizon. Therefore doth My Self, My Being, and My Essence bear witness even as He hath borne witness unto Himself, and verily He is alive at this moment in this Horizon - He heareth and seeth.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1290 [1873] or earlier, to Karim in Shin -- BH00899)
Verily He giveth thanks unto Himself before His servants and handmaidens. And verily He cannot be described by any description save His own, nor can He be mentioned by any mention save His own.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1300-04-27 [1883-Mar-7], to daughter of Ammih -- BH07437)
He remembereth and praiseth His own Self, and remembereth His Afnan after His Aghsan, then those who have held fast unto that which is praiseworthy.
(Bahá’u’lláh -- BH10321)
God hath testified of His own Self by His own Self before the creation of His heaven and His earth that there is none other God but Him, the Single, the One, the Powerful, the Unconstrained.
(Bahá’u’lláh, ca. 1289-1290?, to Aqa Ghulam-Ali -- BH10316)
From time immemorial Thou hast been the One Who praiseth Thy Essence through Thy Essence, Who sanctifieth Thy Being through Thy Being, Who uniteth Thy Identity through Thy Identity, Who magnifieth Thy Self through Thy Self. Thou lovest not to be praised except by what Thou art through Thy power, Thy sovereignty, Thy loftiness, and the signs of Thy subsistence.
(The Báb, Kitab-i-Si Du'a (Book of 30 prayers), 1265-02 and 03 [1848-Dec] -- BB00011)
Glorified art Thou, O Lord, with the truest glorification - a glorification wherewith none of Thy creation hath ever glorified Thee, nor will any of Thy servants ever glorify Thee. Rather, it is the glorification wherewith Thou hast glorified Thine Own Essence, magnified Thine Own Being, exalted Thine Own Self, sanctified Thine Own Identity, and praised Thine Own Greatness. It is a glorification purified from the mention of similitudes and likenesses, and sanctified from the mention of names and attributes.
(The Báb, 1264-1265 [1848-1849] -- BB00132)
O my beloved! After ascending to the heavens of inner meanings, the wayfarers attain to three stations, meaning that the manifest Sun shines and becomes revealed in the mirrors of existing things according to these three ranks, although some consider the ranks of determinations to be five and have named them the five presences. … In this station and rank, existence is effaced from self and subsists through the Truth. All are from God and unto God shall they return, and "Say: All things are from God" is sufficient witness and adequate proof of this point, as the mystic of Rum has said:
His attributes are annihilated in the attributes of Him While His essence remains through the survival of His essence
This station certainly has no rules and seeks no customs, meaning all His deeds are pure justice even if outwardly they appear as injustice, and pure knowledge even if in form they appear as ignorance.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1290 [1873] or earlier -- BH02091)
Continue exploring
For thought and discussion
Questions to carry forward
- How does prayer change when the person praying recognizes that no description can encompass its divine object?
- What is gained by repeating the paradoxes of rememberer and remembered, witness and witnessed, rather than resolving them immediately?
- How do the images of signs and mirrors make knowledge possible while preserving its limits?
- How does the Qur’anic movement from divine self-identification to human worship compare with the movement of these prayers?
- How might humility about spiritual knowledge affect the way one speaks about God, oneself, and other people’s understanding?