God and the Manifestations: reflection, presence, and mystery

This is the meaning of the Messiah's words, that the Father is in the Son. Dost thou not see that should a stainless mirror proclaim, 'Verily is the sun ashine within me, together with all its qualities, tokens and signs', such an utterance by such a mirror would be neither deceptive nor false? No, by the One Who created It, shaped It, fashioned It, and made It to be an entity conformable to the attributes of the glory within It!

And if it be said that the mirrors are the manifestations of the sun and the dawning-places of the daystar of the world, this is not meant to imply that the sun has descended from the heights of its sanctity or has become embodied in the mirror, or that that limitless Reality has been confined to this visible plane. God forbid! This is the belief of the anthropomorphists.

O Shaykh! This station is the station in which one dieth to himself and liveth in God. Divinity, whenever I mention it, indicateth My complete and absolute self-effacement. This is the station in which I have no control over mine own weal or woe nor over my life nor over my resurrection.

Certain ones among you have said: "He it is Who hath laid claim to be God." By God! This is a gross calumny. I am but a servant of God Who hath believed in Him and in His signs, and in His Prophets and in His angels.

Say: Naught is seen in My temple but the Temple of God, and in My beauty but His Beauty, and in My being but His Being, and in My self but His Self, and in My movement but His Movement, and in My acquiescence but His Acquiescence, and in My pen but His Pen, the Mighty, the All-Praised. There hath not been in My soul but the Truth, and in Myself naught could be seen but God.

Were any of the all-embracing Manifestations of God to declare: "I am God!" He, verily, speaketh the truth, and no doubt attacheth thereto. For it hath been repeatedly demonstrated that through their Revelation, their attributes and names, the Revelation of God, His name and His attributes, are made manifest in the world.

… By virtue of this station, they have claimed for themselves the Voice of Divinity and the like, whilst by virtue of their station of Messengership, they have declared themselves the Messengers of God. In every instance they have voiced an utterance that would conform to the requirements of the occasion, and have ascribed all these declarations to Themselves, declarations ranging from the realm of divine Revelation to the realm of creation, and from the domain of Divinity even unto the domain of earthly existence.

As to what was asked concerning the blessed word "He" appearing in the garment of "I," and hidden in "I am the One Witnessed," and its restriction in this Revelation: For the Daysprings of Divine Revelation and the Manifestations of His Cause there is, in every station, an utterance, and at every rank, a mention. At times they speak with "Verily, I am God," and at other times they utter "I am a servant who hath believed in God."

Know thou of a certainty that the Unseen can in no wise incarnate His Essence and reveal it unto men. He is, and hath ever been, immensely exalted beyond all that can either be recounted or perceived. … He Who is everlastingly hidden from the eyes of men can never be known except through His Manifestation, and His Manifestation can adduce no greater proof of the truth of His Mission than the proof of His own Person.

Say: He it is Who is the Manifestation of Him Who is the Unknowable, the Invisible of the Invisibles, could ye but perceive it.

Say: The gates of attainment and meeting are shut against the knowledge of His Essence. He hath manifested, through His grace, Eternal Manifestations and Dawning-Places of Oneness, that they might speak of their Manifestor among His creation and their Sender among His creatures, and He hath made the recognition of them the same as His recognition, and meeting them the same as meeting Him. This is the indubitable truth, and there exists no station, abode, beginning or end higher than this, from the beginning that hath no beginning unto the end which His knowing servants cannot reckon.

The Wronged One testifies that there is no God but Him, the All-Compelling, the Self-Subsisting. He hath ever been hidden in His Essence, and He Who speaketh this day speaketh from His presence that there is no God but Me, the Mighty, the Well-Beloved. Verily, the Manifestation appears from the realm of the Unseen, and the Unseen establishes His decree through the Manifestation. Thus hath the Sun of Divine Unity shone forth from the horizon of detachment. Blessed are they who know! Say: The Unseen cannot be known except through this Visible One. Blessed be the All-Loving Who hath come on the Promised Day.

For, as already mentioned, the reality of Divinity is transcendent, sanctified, and beyond all imagination. All that can be imagined are the holy and divine Manifestations. There is nowhere else for man to direct his gaze, and should he pass beyond this he will fall prey to delusion. Thus what is meant by the words "He is God" is that that manifest Being is the promised Beauty and the Day-Star of Truth, the Exponent of the secrets of Lordship and Divinity, the Repository of the mysteries of the All-Merciful, and the Source of the signs of His Singleness; and that I have begun my discourse with His blessed Name.

If any be set up by His side as peers, if they be regarded as identical with His Person, how can it, then, be maintained that the Divine Being is one and incomparable, that His Essence is indivisible and peerless?

The essence of unity is to recognize the Manifestation of Truth as one with the Unknowable and Inaccessible Essence, meaning that thou shouldst regard His acts, deeds, commands and prohibitions as being from Him, without separation or connection, mention or indication.

Rather, It speaks through the tongue of Its Manifestations, just as the Torah was revealed through the tongue of Moses, and God, exalted be His glory, mentioned all the laws of that time through the tongue of Him Who conversed with God. The same is true of other Holy Books which outwardly appeared from the tongue of the Prophets and Messengers, while in all cases the Speaker and Utterer was God - exalted be His glory, universal be His bounty, mighty be His power, and great be His station.

Hearken unto that which is revealed unto thee from the direction of eternity in this Most Holy, Most Pure, Most Great Spot, that He is the Light in the countenance of the Manifestation, and the One remembered in His heart, and the Beloved in His inner being, and the Speaker in His breast, and the One Who maketh mention upon His tongue, and the Doer through His limbs, and the Beholder through His sight, and the Hearer through His ear, yet the people perceive not and walk in the wilderness of fancy.

So the body of each Manifestation reflects the Splendor of God, for all the splendor of the Manifestation is from Him. The body itself has nothing which it can show forth; thus each Manifestation is fully under the Command of God, and if the Manifestation accepts or rejects, rebukes or praises, it means that God has done it, for they of themselves do nothing, as they are entirely under the sway of the will of God.

Say: Even were He to speak from desire, it behooveth you not to object to Him, O ye possessed of insight, for in His desire is seen naught save the desire of God, your Best-Beloved, the Most High, the Most Glorious, and in His Self naught save the Self of God, the Lord of the seen and the unseen.

The third station is that of divine grace, the revelation of the beauty of the Ancient of Days and the effulgence of the lights of the ever-living and omnipotent Lord. The individual realities of the holy Manifestations cannot be separated from divine grace and revelation any more than the corporeal mass of the sun can be separated from its light.

Know thou that the Manifestation hath not emerged from the four elements, but rather is the Mystery of Oneness, the Pre-existent Essence, the Self-Subsisting Reality, and the Hidden Identity.

… Were He to be known through any other than Himself, His essence could not be proven free from similitude, nor His being sanctified from likeness, nor His uniqueness from the manifestations of creation.

Until now, the station of the Manifestation Himself hath remained concealed. None hath attained unto the light of true Divine Unity save whom God willeth. The purpose is that the station of the Manifestation be made known. For example, the Apostle of God - may the spirit of all else be sacrificed for His sake - is the Manifestation of "He doeth whatsoever He willeth and ordaineth whatsoever He pleaseth" and is established upon the throne of "He shall not be asked of His doings." In this station, He hath no partner or peer; nay, none is even mentioned in that realm, and all were created by His Word.

And I bear witness unto Muhammad as he hath testified unto himself at the Dawning-Place of response from Thy Being. Glorified art Thou, O my God! Thou art more exalted than that Thy beloved should be known by any soul or that anything should comprehend his knowledge. I bear witness unto his truth as Thou hast testified unto Thyself through him. None knoweth his reality save Thee alone, Who hath no partner.

Know thee that He is the Supreme Mirror of God, out of Whose Revelation is manifested the worldly Mirror, Which is naught but the Letters of the Living, and naught is seen in that Supreme Mirror of God but God.

Say: Nothing is ascribed unto God that is not likewise ascribed unto Him Whom God shall make manifest. This is the Path of God, from before and from after, if ye wish to follow it. Otherwise, it is all the same to God, from before and from after, in every condition, and unto Him do all worship. And all, in all conditions, belong to God and unto Him do all prostrate themselves.

He is the Ever-Abiding. God beareth witness that there is none other God but Him and that 'Ali-before-Muhammad is His Manifestation and His Concealment, His Name and His Beauty, His Mystery and His Light, His Cause and His Utterance, His Speech and His Word, His Wisdom and His Proof, His Evidence and His Revelation, His Word and His Sovereignty, His Grace and His Bounty. His is the Command and the Creation, and verily He is the Mighty, the Powerful.

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

O Thou Who art possessed of Glory and Beauty, of Grandeur and Majesty! There is no God but Him, the Most Great, the Most Exalted. God hath testified unto His Own Self before all things, even as He now testifieth unto Himself. There is no God but Him, the Most High, the Most Great.

O God! Verily Thou knowest my secret and beholdest my public self. I have not fabricated anything concerning Thee in any decree, nor have I claimed any station without right. Thou didst create me and nurture me, then guide me and cause me to speak that which Thou lovest for Thyself amongst all the people of creation. Thou art God, there is no God but Thee, alone with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad - Thy blessings be upon him and his family - is Thy servant whom Thou didst bring into being and choose for Thyself, singling him out for Thy Cause and accepting him for Thy knowledge. Thou didst make him the station of Thy grandeur in recognition and power, for Thou hast ever been what Thou art, unconnected with the making of creation and its people, nor described by the attributes of invention and those who embody them.

Thou art as Thou art - nothing can know Thee and nothing can describe Thee, for all else besides Thee has been created from nothingness through origination, and they can only point to Thee through negation and are cut off in affirmation. Glorified art Thou, glorified art Thou, above what those who draw comparisons describe without the authority of the Book! Glorified art Thou, glorified art Thou! Had they known Thee, they would not describe Thee, and had they truly worshipped Thee, they would not have found intimacy with aught else, for love of Thy Essence cuts all off from mention and affirmation. Without doubt, knowledge of Thy Being is impossible through names and attributes.

Glorified art Thou, O my God! I describe Thy Self only by what Thou hast manifested to me in the station of signs, and none has any portion in the realm of evidence except through being cut off from similarities and allusions. How can I enumerate Thy praise when Thou art as Thou art, known by none save Thyself? And how could I remain silent before Thy face when Thou didst create me only to mention Thy bounties in the places of signs?

Here I am in my station before Thee, confessing before Thee what Thou hast willed for me of what Thou hast sent down in the Mother Book: "No calamity befalleth on earth or in your own souls but it is in a Book before We bring it into existence - verily that is easy for God." So praise be to Thee as befitteth Thee - nothing hath befallen me save what was written for me, and nothing was intended for me except what is best for me. To Thee be praise and glory and grandeur and honor, and none can fulfill what is due to Thee due to their incapacity therein.

O my God! Silence has fallen short in expressing what Thou hast willed for me of the calamities of Thy kingdom, and the utmost acknowledgment of praises to Thy Self for what has befallen me of hardship and adversity. To Thee belongs the most exalted sublimity and the greatest praise, whatsoever Thou lovest for Thyself as reward for my gratitude for what good and beautiful things Thou hast sent down upon me.

I bear witness, O my God, by what Thou lovest for Thyself, that I am of the people of contentment and patience, and that I believe in Thee and in Thy Book and Thy Messengers and Thy angels and Thy chosen ones. I have loved nothing except for love of Thee and have hated nothing except in obedience to Thee. Therefore, O God, send blessings upon the people of Thy Cause - blessings of such magnitude that have no end with Thee nor in Thy knowledge. O God, chastise their enemies even as they have wrought; and those who have wronged Us shall surely know that they cannot outstrip Us -- Our decree shall encompass what they do.

O my God! Thou knowest my station and bearest witness to my inmost heart. Thou hast made Thy signs forbidden to the people by reason of their denial; and had not a Word gone forth beforehand from Thy presence, Thou wouldst have judged between them with justice, and they would not have been wronged.

O my God! Thou art aware of my resolve: I have committed the matter unto those most worthy among Thy friends in religion and unto the people of Thy obedience, endued with the knowledge of certitude, that in these days mankind may answer according to the judgment of Thy Book, and that none be driven, in any affair, to the patrons of Satan -- for verily they were a people depraved.

O God! A luminous Leaf hath descended upon me -- lofty and ennobled -- wherein the signs of Thy glory shine resplendent, and whose intimations are refined of all but the Bayan. Thou, verily, knowest that it is a blessed Leaf, not the yellowed leaf of the crimson tree. There is no God but Thee! In it I besought Thee for that which is magnified before Thee and exalted in Thy sight; and none is to be asked from it save that for whose sake Thou didst create and ordain the Wondrous Word, and its relation unto the two who, in Thy decree, have preceded. Thou knowest, moreover, that all kinships, relations, paths and indications are severed between me and them; none knoweth the "how" save its own wondrous how-ness, and relations point to naught but a devised geometry.

And that Reality -- as it is -- is He: it hath neither manifestation nor concealment, neither sign nor appearance. As for the two and all that came to be within the realm of possibility, they recount only their own selves and, in every affair, point but to their own stations. Thus the proof standeth fast for Him Who doth not plead by His Essence, and description floweth for Him Who is not described by His Essence -- for His sake! Exalted are the allusions, and effaced are all "others" before Him. None knoweth how He is save His Master Who created him and made him a lowly servant unto all the worlds.

Bear Thou witness for me, O my God, that I am Thy servant, who hath believed in Thy Self -- one, without partner, minister, likeness to Thy Word, or peer. Verily, Thou art the All-Glorious, the Most Great. I have claimed, in any matter, naught but pure servitude and the severed Word. None deserveth loftiness and majesty but Thine own Self alone; whatsoever is beside Thee is Thy creature and within Thy grasp. And Thou art Witness unto all things.

What I have uttered before Thy countenance is a Word Thou didst answer when it was asked concerning Thy servant. Wherefore, inspire it, O my God, with that judgment which becometh Thy majesty, and guard it from every evil encompassed by Thy knowledge. For she summoned me with that request written upon her Leaf -- she asked therein for the interpretation of what Thy Proof, Ja'far ibn Muhammad -- upon them be peace -- spoke to a servant. Thou, verily, knowest that a single letter of that hadith would not suffice the seas of the heavens and the earth, for it was uttered from his Lord, and none encompasseth His knowledge but Thou. Yet I indicated its purport according to the decree of the "First Word"; and now, within her verses, I point to the spirit of that hadith -- a Word than which naught greater hath been sent down therein.

Thy Speaking Proof, the Just, described the form of Thy mighty Proof -- the first legatee of Thy Messenger Muhammad (blessings be upon him and his House) -- and he pointed to the station of Thy knowledge before Thy Face: "It is not He; yet He is not other than it." Wherefore, bear Thou witness, O my God, that I do believe in that Word; for Thou didst create him for Thyself, didst reveal Thyself unto him with the might of Thy grandeur, and didst abolish the separation between him and Thee -- save for the four stations of the ordinance; for the distinction in the letters is four in number: it is not He in remembrance, nor in union, nor in indication; yet He is not other than it. For Thou hast made him the mirror of Thy Self and the one who standeth in the place of Thy Oneness. Naught is recounted from Thy Wali in any matter but that the judgment of that Word runneth therein; for he is the House of Light, the garment of appearance, and the water of inwardness. He is not He -- nay, Thou hast summoned him unto Thyself; and the discourse between me and Thee remaineth: "Thou art Thou." There is no difference in the issue save that those hallowed frames and that leonine, most-purified form are a matter proceeding from the Word of the Unseen: not is it He, nor is He He, nor is it it -- Thou art Thou alone, without partner, O my God, within these verses.

I have not sought Thy very Essence -- for it hath cut off all from comprehension -- nor have I desired aught beside Thee; for whoso desireth other than Thee hath joined a partner unto his Lord. Glorified art Thou -- glorified art Thou! In interpreting that Word I have set down what none among men of understanding can bear, save by Thy leave; and by intimations nigh unto Thy Face I have unfolded, from the whole of the report, what Thou willest from all creation.

O God, make all Thy creatures mindful of Thee, and grant them constancy in clinging to Thy obedience. Thou art, verily, the Near at hand, the All-Responsive. I beseech Thee, O my God, to send Thy benedictions upon Muhammad and the House of Muhammad; and, by their right, to show mercy unto that sanctified Leaf -- protect her from false intimations, from the guile of the people of falsehood and of sedition. Send down, O God, upon the hearts of her kindred the Word of pardon and mercy, that no blood-debt be seen among them, nor any word of estrangement be heard from them. Have mercy, O God, upon whoso seeketh Thy decree therein; and abase, O God, whoso seeketh Thy wrath concerning her. Guard her, O my God, from the evil of every evildoer encompassed by Thy knowledge and recorded by Thy Book. Thou art He Who is able to do whatsoever Thou willest as Thou willest; Thou showest mercy unto whomsoever Thou willest as Thou willest. Nothing in the heavens or on earth debarreth Thee; naught is beyond the compass of Thy power.

Bring her, O God, unto the station of Thy good-pleasure and bounty. Forgive her, O my Master, in this meanest of worlds and in the life to come, the Abode of Honour. Shield her gaze, in this world, from its adornments and from whatsoever Thou abhorrest therein. Thou art the All-Bountiful, the Clement. When Thou dost will a thing, nothing can hinder Thee; in that very instant it is present with Thee and commemorated before Thee. Send down, O God, upon the people of Thy obedience that which beseemeth Thy munificence: Thou art the Lord of piety and the Lord of forgiveness. Praise be to God, the Lord of all the worlds.

And if I say regarding your station, as your Master mentioned, "You are not Him in the station of Essence, nor is He other than you in the manifestation of attributes," then I have ascended to the air of despair, reached the ultimate helplessness, and risen to the utmost station of poverty.

If I say you are unity itself and the signs of abstraction, I have only described my own state and testified to my heart's incapacity, for your reality ever transcends mention of names and attributes, and your being has always surpassed reference to similitudes and essences.

O My Well-Beloved! Thou hast breathed Thy Breath into Me, and divorced Me from Mine own Self. Thou didst, subsequently, decree that no more than a faint reflection, a mere emblem of Thy Reality within Me be left among the perverse and envious.

All the divines were wont to utter these words, and I repeatedly heard them say in the days of My childhood: "O what is that Word at which even the holy ones take flight?" Say: That Word is now made manifest, and ye fled before hearing it, and ye perceive it not. And that blessed, hidden, treasured and concealed Word is this: "He" hath appeared in the garment of "I," and the "Self-Subsisting" speaketh forth with "I am the One Who is manifest."

The Wronged One beareth witness that He is verily the Self-Subsisting, the All-Compelling, Who hath appeared from the horizon of the Known and speaketh before the faces of all peoples: "There is none other God besides Him, the Mighty, the All-Knowing."

O people of Baha! By God the Truth, none was intended by "He" except Myself. Thus hath the matter been decreed in the Book.

By My life! He is I and I am He, and He is indeed the Essence of Power amidst creation and the Source of Authority for all who are in the heavens and on earth.

And when Thou didst purpose to make Thyself known unto men, Thou didst successively reveal the Manifestations of Thy Cause, and ordained each to be a sign of Thy Revelation among Thy people, and the Day-Spring of Thine invisible Self amidst Thy creatures, until the time when, as decreed by Thee, all Thy previous Revelations culminated in Him Whom Thou hast appointed as the Lord of all who are in the heaven of revelation and the kingdom of creation, Him Whom Thou hast established as the Sovereign Lord of all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth.

Every one of them is a mirror of God, reflecting naught else but His Self, His Beauty, His Might and Glory, if ye will understand. All else besides them are to be regarded as mirrors capable of reflecting the glory of these Manifestations Who are themselves the Primary Mirrors of the Divine Being, if ye be not devoid of understanding. … These Mirrors will everlastingly succeed each other, and will continue to reflect the light of the Ancient of Days. They that reflect their glory will, in like manner, continue to exist forevermore, for the Grace of God can never cease from flowing.

Consider to what extent the love of God makes itself manifest. Among the signs of His love which appear in the world are the dawning points of His Manifestations. What an infinite degree of love is reflected by the divine Manifestations toward mankind!

… Were it not for the love of God, the divine Prophets would not have been sent to the world.

There are here two suns - one, the Essence of God and the reflected one in the mirror though it is but one. One sun in Heaven, one sun in the mirror - in reality only one, not two. The sun which shines in the mirror says, "I am God" - he is right. So Jesus Christ says, "I am the Father."

Now, if we were to say that we have beheld the Sun in two mirrors--one Christ and the other the Holy Spirit--or, in other words, that we have seen three Suns, one in heaven and two upon the earth, we would be speaking the truth. And if we were to say that there is only one Sun, that it is absolute singleness, and that it has no peer or partner, we would again be speaking the truth.

"The Word was with God." The Christhood means not the body of Jesus but the perfection of divine virtues manifest in Him. Therefore, it is written, "He is God." This does not imply separation from God, even as it is not possible to separate the rays of the sun from the sun. The reality of Christ was the embodiment of divine virtues and attributes of God. For in Divinity there is no duality.

Jesus is not separated from God, since He is the perfection of Divine Knowledge."

Jesus was a Manifestation of God. Everything of him pertained to God. To know him was to know God. To have him was to have God. To obey him was to obey God.

The Reality of Christ is like a translucent mirror--the Sun of Divinity is inclusive of the properties which are manifested in it. By this we do not mean that the Sun has left his station and entered into the mirror. For the Reality of Divinity there is no ascent and descent, no entrance, and no exit.

The reality of divinity is holy beyond descent and incarnation but the divine Manifestations are expressive of the attributes and perfections of God, the All-Praised, the Exalted.

They are like mirrors placed before the Sun of Truth, so if they claim that the Sun of Truth is in them, they speak the truth. However, they mean that the signs and light of the Sun of Truth are in them, and not the Sun itself.

Yes, and yet not in Essence. A Divine Manifestation is as a mirror reflecting the light of the Sun. The light is the same and yet the mirror is not the Sun. All the Manifestations of God bring the same Light; they only differ in degree, not in reality.

The 'Self' of GOD spoken of in the Tablets refers to the Attributes of the Merciful, not to His Essence. This 'Self' is found in 'Perfection' in the Prophet, only.

But the Baha'is believe (1st) there is the essence of God, the knowledge of which is unattainable by man. It is the Mystery of Mysteries and the Essence of essences and the Light of lights. (2d) then there is the Manifestation of God, the transparent Mirror, the Clear Channel, the Perfect Man who represents to us all the ideas of "God" that we can clearly grasp; who reveals to us faint glimpses of that far off Light, and who opens our eyes to the majestic Glory of the Eternal Kingdom. (3d) Then there are creatures who receive the teachings and who try to live the life of purity and sanctity.

Abdu'l Baha: Complete individuality belongs only to the station of the Prophet.

Say: The first and foremost testimony establishing His truth is His own Self. Next to this testimony is His Revelation. For whoso faileth to recognize either the one or the other He hath established the words He hath revealed as proof of His reality and truth. This is, verily, an evidence of His tender mercy unto men. He hath endowed every soul with the capacity to recognize the signs of God.

If it be your wish, O people, to know God and to discover the greatness of His might, look, then, upon Me with Mine own eyes, and not with the eyes of anyone besides Me. Ye will, otherwise, be never capable of recognizing Me, though ye ponder My Cause as long as My Kingdom endureth, and meditate upon all created things throughout the eternity of God, the Sovereign Lord of all, the Omnipotent, the Ever-Abiding, the All-Wise.

As for thee, guard thyself and follow not these people, and be of those who ponder the Cause of thy Lord. Know thy Lord by His own Self, not by aught else, for naught else will suffice thee in any way, and all things bear witness to this, if thou art of them that hear.

Had you come to this blessed spot in the days of the manifestation of that most resplendent Light, entered the court of His presence, and beheld His luminous countenance, you would have recognized that His utterance and His beauty were in want of no further proof. How numerous the souls who, upon attaining His presence, became at once confirmed believers, dispensing with any further proof !

The Manifestation of God is proof of Himself, just as the sun is its own greatest and sufficient proof. The sun says, 'I am proof.' In the ancient times the women of Egypt thought Joseph was an angel. No proof was necessary but his own beauty and excellence. The proof was himself. People of sight and perception see at a glance what the blind and incapable can never see.

Some of them say: "He hath laid claim to divinity"; others say: "He hath devised a lie against God"; still others say: "He is come to foment sedition." … Lo! They are, in truth, enslaved to idle imaginings.

Whoso hath believed in Him hath believed in Mine own Self and hath arisen to mention Me and to aid My Cause.

The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of Him Who is the Dayspring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation. Whoso achieveth this duty hath attained unto all good; and whoso is deprived thereof hath gone astray, though he be the author of every righteous deed. It behoveth every one who reacheth this most sublime station, this summit of transcendent glory, to observe every ordinance of Him Who is the Desire of the world. These twin duties are inseparable. Neither is acceptable without the other.

Whosoever denieth this, hath denied Thy unity, and disputed with Thee about Thy sovereignty, and contended with Thee in Thy realm, and repudiated Thy commandments.

Assist Thou Thy servants, O my Lord, to recognize Thy unity and to declare Thy oneness, that all may gather together around what Thou didst desire in this Day whereon the sun of Thine essence hath shone forth above the horizon of Thy will, and the moon of Thine own being hath risen from the Day-Spring of Thy behest.

"I and the Father are one."

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I bear witness that he who hath known Thee hath known God, and he who hath attained unto Thy presence hath attained unto the presence of God.

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Say, verily, the good-pleasure of Him Whom God shall make manifest is the good-pleasure of God, while the displeasure of Him Whom God shall make manifest is none other than the displeasure of God.

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The divinity attributed to so great a Being and the complete incarnation of the names and attributes of God in so exalted a Person should, under no circumstances, be misconceived or misinterpreted. The human temple that has been made the vehicle of so overpowering a Revelation must, if we be faithful to the tenets of our Faith, ever remain entirely distinguished from that 'innermost Spirit of Spirits' and 'eternal Essence of Essences' - that invisible yet rational God Who, however much we extol the divinity of His Manifestations on earth, can in no wise incarnate His infinite, His unknowable, His incorruptible and all-embracing Reality in the concrete and limited frame of a mortal being.

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That Baha'u'llah should, notwithstanding the overwhelming intensity of His Revelation, be regarded as essentially one of these Manifestations of God, never to be identified with that invisible Reality, the Essence of Divinity itself, is one of the major beliefs of our Faith - a belief which should never be obscured and the integrity of which no one of its followers should allow to be compromised.

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