(Bahá’u’lláh, Lawh-i-Hikmat (Tablet of Wisdom), 1292? [1875-1876], to Mulla Muhammad Qa'ini (Nabil-i-Akbar) -- BH00223)
Nature and God’s will
nature and God's will
Editorial introduction
Nature, Bahá’u’lláh says, is in its essence the embodiment of His name the Creator, the expression of God’s Will in and through the contingent world, and a person of insight sees nothing in it but that splendour. The claim invites contemplation and immediately raises a difficulty. Fire burns and water flows without any awareness of doing so; nature has neither consciousness nor will, and yet it is full of order and law, which is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s reason for placing it in the grasp of a Lord who rules it. Human beings are the exception, able to discover the natures of things and so to master them, and every craft comes from that discovery. Psalm 19 sings of heavens that declare the glory of God and a sun that runs its daily course [1], another way of reading creation as speech. But is seeing God in nature enough? ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tells of a traveller dying of thirst who spies an oasis and knows there must be water; conviction does not quench thirst, and he must find the spring, which is why belief in nature’s God has never founded a civilisation while revelation has. The subject opens onto the Primal Will, the imperfection of nature, the power of the mind over it, and the single law that runs through all things.
Selected passages
They attribute all these conditions and phenomena, even the movement of the chain of beings and their development and growth, to Nature, and consider Nature as the source of all beings. He says that the Nature which they consider as the source of all beings is the manifestation of His Creative Name. That is to say, the Holy Essence is sanctified from all names and attributes, even from being known as the First Cause. It is the First Cause that is the source of all being and which has been interpreted as Nature.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Commentary on passages from the Tablet of Wisdom, 1910-Apr-14, to Ali Akbar Quchani -- AB00373)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 16, Intelligible Realities and their Expression through Sensible Forms, 1904 ca. -- AB00259)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 1, Nature is Governed by a Universal Law, 1904-Jun ca. -- AB01029)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given in Baptist Temple on 1912-Jun-08 -- ABU0007)
The atoms of the elements are predisposed (programmed) to synthesis and composition according to the laws of nature; the Cosmic Spirit, the divine Primal Will operates and creates in this manner. The Primal Will operates in the element, in the primal atom, as attraction and repulsion; on the next higher level as organic life; then as animal-vegetative; and finally as spiritual life, which is destined to rise to the super-spiritual.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken ca. 1909-1910 -- ABU0170)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Metaphysical Club on 1912-Aug-27 -- ABU0024)
These foolish ones worship nature while denying its Creator.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1913 ca. -- AB03841)
When Khan was in the Holy Land, 'Abdu'l-Baha made this reply to an American inquirer: There was once an Arab traveler who had lost his way in the desert. He was dying of thirst and, humbly, he begged God for water. Suddenly on the far horizon he saw an oasis with waving trees, and he knew that there could be no trees and greenery unless water was present too. When he had somehow dragged himself across the sands and reached the oasis, how did he go about quenching his thirst? Was his conviction enough for him, that growing things meant water? Or did he search avidly for a source, a crack in a rock or an opening in the earth where water could get through and he could drink and live?
Believing that God is present in nature has never been enough. This belief has never founded, and could never found, a civilization. But belief in God's Chosen Ones, His Prophets, through Whom come the living waters of His revelation, has created structures in the life of man that the revolution of many ages and cycles could not destroy, and brought him holy light that time could never dim.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to an American spoken in 1900, relayed by Ali-Kuli Khan -- ABU1594)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1911-Nov-15 in Paris -- ABU1959)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Plaza Hotel on 1912-May-02 -- ABU0122)
But concerning the degrees through which the soul has gone, these degrees are spiritual. Consider all the advancement of the word of humanity which is at present manifest and known. This has been realized through the spirit. The manifestation of the will of the Omnipotent, in the universe, means the manifestation of the divine laws and disciplines which are essential to the realities of beings, and in the world of the Kingdom they are ideas which in the appearance of the holy Manifestations (of God) are realized.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1920-Dec-02, to Alwyn Baker -- AB01223)
Nature did not originate of itself - by accident, - but it sprang from a divine act of creation. Thus nature does not represent an eternal, divine order, but it is a creature, a work of temporal existence, for what can be created, the Creator can also make to vanish.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken in the house of Abdu'l-Baha in Feb 1910 -- ABU0226)
Further quotations · supplied wording and references
For more on unreasoning nature vs. unreasoning intellect see
Plotinus, Enn.IV.4.13.
...those who entirely deny the appearance of any miracle attributed to the Prophets should not do so, for human reason is not a sufficient standard.... all phenomea, as things endowed with power, are also miracles of God...
(Baha'u'llah, provisional translation, Sahifiy-i-Shattiyyih, JBS9:3 pp.57-58)
...the Divine Breath englobes all the forms of the world; in face, it is for them like the Materia Prima (al-jawhar al-hayulani), which is nothing but the first determination of Universal Nature (al-tabi'ah).
(Ibn 'Arabi, from the Fusus al-Hikam, in Burckhardt, The Wisdom of the Prophets, p. 75. Cf. Izutsu's commentary: "the 'breath of the Merciful' is the principle of Being or the ground of Being extending over both the world of material things and the world of spiritual beings. In this ontological capacity, the 'breath of the Merciful' is regarded by Ibn 'Arabi as Nature (tabi`ah). Viewed from this perspective, the 'breath' is a Substance (jawhar, in the Aristotelian sense of Prime Matter) in which all the forms of Being, both material and spiritual, are manifested." Sufism and Taoism, pp. 133-134)
...in reality, Nature is no other than the 'breath of the Merciful' [al-nafas al-rahmaniy]. All the forms of the world become manifest in the latter, ranging from the highest forms to the lowest, in virtue of the spreading of the 'breath' through the material substance of the world of physical bodies in particular. The 'breath' spreads also through the Being of the spirits of a luminous nature and the attributes. But that is another kind of the spreading of the 'breath'. ...the Divine breath acts as the Prime Matter in relation to the forms of the world. And (the Divine breath in this capacity) is precisely what we call Nature.
(Ibn 'Arabi, in Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, p. 134. See also Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi, p. 298)
Continue exploring
For thought and discussion
Questions to carry forward
- How does distinguishing an expression of divine will from conscious choice help us read the passages about nature together?
- What do the images of the heavens and the thirsty traveler suggest about the relationship between recognizing a sign and responding to it?
- How might human discovery and the ability to alter natural processes enlarge our responsibilities within creation?
- Which uses of the word nature in these readings need to be distinguished before we compare their philosophical or religious claims?
- How could contemplating creation influence the conduct through which we seek to express justice and goodness?