outward and inward meanings
Editorial introduction
Whoever takes the outward meaning and abandons the inner is ignorant, Bahá’u’lláh teaches, and whoever takes the inner and abandons the outward is heedless; the sage holds both. The test He gives is almost comic in its plainness. If the Will of God says wash your faces, the face is to be washed with water, and whoever spiritualises it away may walk about with a dirty face while imagining himself devout. Yet the same Writings insist that bread, wine, heaven, the falling stars and the throne of David open into meanings no physical form can contain, and that the Jews of Jesus’ day knew the letter by heart while missing its life-giving spirit. Depth is real, and so is the temptation to use depth as an escape from what a text plainly asks. Jesus’ own explanation of the sower, in Mark 4:13–20, shows interpretation serving hearing and fruitfulness [1]. The path leads on into symbolism and literal interpretation, into the meanings of letters and numbers, and into the first and the last, the seen and the hidden, where outward life and inward purpose are asked to agree.
Know that whoso taketh the outward meaning and abandoneth the inner is ignorant, and whoso taketh the inner meaning and abandoneth the outward is heedless, and whoso taketh the inner meaning while maintaining the outward meaning is a perfect sage. This is a word that hath shone forth from the horizon of knowledge - recognize its worth and value its price highly.
This is what the Tongue of Grandeur spoke:
The purpose of interpretation is that they should not deprive themselves of the outward meaning nor remain veiled from the intended meaning. For instance, if from the heaven of Divine Will it is revealed "wash your faces", they should not interpret it to mean that the intent of washing is to wash the inner face and that it must be cleansed with the water of knowledge, and similar interpretations.
Then, know thou that the power of the Word of God is effective both in the spirit and the body, and the influence of the Spirit of God is predominant over the material, as well as the essential and spiritual. And that, verily, God is powerful in all things, and that the Signs (i.e., verses) have exoteric and esoteric (sense), and neither their outward prevents their inward, nor their inward (prevents) their outward (meaning).
Interpret not the divine Word, and remain not veiled from its outer meaning, for none knoweth its interpretation save God and those who are heedless of the outer meaning of the words and claim to understand their inner meanings - I swear by the Most Great Name that such souls have been and shall ever be liars. Blessed are they who act upon the outer meaning and hope for the inner meaning.
Among the binding counsels and explicit admonitions of the Most Great Name is this: that ye should close fast the gates of interpretation [ta'wil] and cleave unto the clear meaning of the Book, that is to say, unto the literal meaning current among the people...
Such is the view that hath been expounded and considered sufficient in the literal interpretations. While confirming such interpretations, the people of truth, they who consider the hidden realities and inner significances, have carefully examined this blessed verse and unraveled therein other far-reaching meanings.
Concerning certain divine verses that have been revealed according to their outward meaning, their purpose was to encourage those souls. Moreover, all return to the divine manifestation. As long as that divine manifestation exists in every thing, it is described and mentioned with all names and attributes, and after its withdrawal becomes non-existent.
Know thou furthermore that each letter of these sacred words hath two aspects - one turning toward the inner meaning and one toward the outer. Would that we could find attentive ears and receptive hearts that could bear to hear the realities of meaning contained within God's Book and become illumined by the lights of the suns dawning from the horizons of God's words!
As for the distinction between the inner and outer in manifestation, know that God has made for every inner an inwardness and for every outer an outwardness, and the soul in them is but one soul, and the command is but one, and it is nearer.
There is no concealment of its inner meaning, yet its inner meaning is beyond its outer meaning. Thus has God established it through the proof of wisdom for itself.
God hath permitted them both revelation and interpretation as they wish and through what means they desire, in truth and praised.
We have preserved them from allusion and from that which ye were, contrary to truth, abandoned.
Say: The verses are indeed God's possession wherein all things exist and none can be compared unto them. Thus doth God create what He willeth by His command. He is, verily, the Mighty, the Beloved. Say: Within the verses is the splendor of thy Lord whereby ye are illumined.
This Revelation hath not come to enforce earthly commandments, as were recorded in the Bayan by the Pen of the Merciful, but rather to manifest the evidences of perfection in human souls -- that their spirits may be lifted up to eternal stations and that which their minds can scarcely believe may brilliantly appear -- till all may ultimately tread above the kingdoms of earth and heaven.
Know thou that the mystics who have reached the depths of the seas of grace and recognized the mysteries of the beginning in the end speak with words that have outward meanings while intending inner significances, and this is their way and custom.
Although the origin of the Tree hath been revealed in the Tablets through allusion and metaphor and indication, yet that allusion is more eloquent than explicit statement. Ponder, that perchance thou mayest find a way unto it.
It hath been proven by argument and demonstrated by clear evidence that He cannot be described by any description save His own, nor known through any knowledge but His own. However, He hath appointed for His loved ones a spacious pavilion, and that is the confession of powerlessness and humility before the manifestations of His grandeur, His might and His sovereignty.
Man has a sacred power which permits him to discover the inner significances, the reality of invisible things.
To penetrate the inner significances a mighty effort is needed."
When one in reading substitutes the symbolic or spiritual title of the great ones, the human temple fades and only reality remains.
Everything that the Prophets foretold came to pass, but they were all allegories. Literal meanings were not intended, inasmuch as the Words of God are symbolic; they are mysteries. They are a treasure; treasures are hidden. They are a mine of gems; mines are always hidden. For example, Christ says, "I am the bread of heaven." It is obvious that Christ was not bread, and that to outward seeming He did not come from heaven; rather, He issued from the womb of Mary. By this "bread," however, is meant the bread of heavenly bounty---the celestial perfections.
Although thou hast given oath to attend the church, yet thy spirit is under the Covenant and Testament of the Spiritual Divine Church. Thou shouldst protect this. Although they consider the wine and the bread in the church as the blood and body of Christ, yet this is but the appearance and not the reality. But the reality of Christ is the words of the Holy Spirit.
O thou yearner after the Truth!
The Supper of the Lord which His Highness the Spirit (Christ) ate with the apostles was a heavenly supper and not one of material bread and water, for material objects have no connection with spiritual objects. As at that time material food was also present, therefore the leaders of the religion of Christ thought that it was material food which was changed into spiritual food.
'Abdu'l-Baha answered: "All these things - the fish, the honeycomb etc, are symbols and were meant to be understood spiritually, just as the Resurrection itself was a spiritual resurrection.
The miracles of Christ were spiritual teachings, not literal.
For example, if we say that the raising of the dead in the time of His Holiness the Spirit meant eternal life, then we should also consider the deliverance of Israel from the sea and the drowning of Pharaoh's people as the salvation of the Israelites from the seas of error and the drowning of the Copts in the ocean of ignorance.
The crossing of the Red Sea has a spiritual meaning. It was a spiritual journey, through, and above the sea of corruption and iniquity of Pharaoh and his people, or army. By the help of God, through Moses, the Israelites were able to cross this sea safely and reach the Promised Land (spiritual state), while Pharaoh and his people were drowned in their own corruption.
Therefore, we say that these verses indicating the disobedience of Adam, peace be upon him, or the error of certain Prophets, are allegorical verses, not decisive ones, and they have an interpretation in inspired hearts and hidden meanings with tranquil souls.
Concerning the falling of the stars: Many of the stars are larger than the sun. The sun is a million times larger than the earth, and many of the Stars are larger than the sun. How then can they fall upon the earth? It is as if a hundred thousand mountains should be placed upon a grain of mustard. These are symbols only.
Let us return to our purpose and say: At times we interpret this heaven as the heaven of the ancient Law, for when the heaven of God's supreme Law is raised up, that former heaven is cleft asunder by God's will, the Lord of Names. And at times we interpret it as the heaven of idle fancies, for when the heaven of that which is known is raised up by the command of our Lord, the Guardian, the Self-Subsisting, the heaven of vain imaginings is rent asunder, leaving no trace in the world, by the will of the Ancient of Days, Creator of nations and Fashioner of souls.
As for Chapter 16 of the Book of the Divine John, it has an interpretation and inner meaning; it is not to be taken literally.
For this divine Jerusalem, at whose center lies the Holy of Holies, is the heavenly city and celestial metropolis. East and West lie in but one of its corners.
Nevertheless, in the outward sense too, Israel shall gather in the Holy Land, and this is a promise that shall not prove false.
Christ told his followers to receive his words in the spirit - not in the letter; and so have all Manifestations."
Beha Ullah was no exception in this respect to all other Divine Manifestations. He used symbols and metaphors, and if we would understand him, we must interpret these. But this is the day of enlightenment, and therefore his symbols will be read with the highest conception of truth, and his teachings will throw light upon those of all the former Manifestations.
In past you must not imagine that the prophets spoke things which the people could not understand. They were very well understood by their contemporaries and hearers, but as time changed terminologies changed and commentaries arose which darkened the light of the truths they taught.
Since some matters are in fact legends, the Manifestations of God present them in forms of truth and explain them thus, for if they were to deny well-known accepted matters, opponents would attribute it to their ignorance. Therefore these are explained in forms of truth.
By choice wine is meant at times the divine verses themselves, and at times His love - whoso drinketh thereof shall never thirst. This choice wine bestoweth life and conferreth eternal existence. In another sense, what is meant by it are the hidden pearls within the utterance of the Goal of all worlds, and its chalices are the writings revealed by the Supreme Pen.
The wine of inner truths and meanings is delectable in any cup, be it a golden goblet or an earthen vessel. Yet surely a crystal and bejeweled cup is more refined.
The primary meaning of "fresh" refers to utterances that draw man closer to the Truth, that is, bring him nearer to God, while "withered" is that which removes him from His straight path - namely the divines and theologians of the earth whom you see today lying prostrate as if they were hollow palm-trunks.
We have veiled the Tree about which thou didst inquire, that thou mayest witness how a single leaf thereof hath overshadowed all the worlds, and that thou mayest know that the tree of opposition besides it was planted at the place of martyrdom of Husayn's head, if ye be of them that know. And in every city thereof is a leaf and branch, and thus do We inform thee through grace that thou mayest be of them that know.
That sovereignty is earthly and not the intended meaning, for earthly sovereignty ultimately leads to "the loss of both this world and the Hereafter." This sovereignty is the sovereignty of the world of inner meanings and the dominion of the highest Paradise.
Christ was in reality a king; but his reign was not that of a Nimrod or a Cyrus. His was a Divine Reign. His rule penetrated to the world of the heart. The earthly reign may pass away in a handful of dust; but the Divine Reign is such that after nineteen hundred years it still remains.
Third: That he should sit on the throne of David. It is clear that he did not have a throne: he did not have even a mat to sit on. The throne of His Holiness is a heavenly throne, not a throne which is built of gold and silver.
The outer sacrifice of the sheep is a symbol of the inner sacrifice.
The body is the word. The spirit is its meaning.
There is a Persian proverb: "The outer is the expression of the inner". For instance, this lamp is the outer, the light which it contains is the inner. The outward in this case expresses what is within.
They see the outer and not the inner, they see the various forms of lamps but not the reality of light and the mystery of light.
As they were looking at his body, they failed to see the light shining within it. But those who looked to the spiritual and the real existence of the Spirit in Christ, firmly believed in him. We must not look at the lantern but at the light--the candle inside.
… What made Satan disbelieve in Adam and not worship him? It was only the outward condition of Adam which deterred Satan from believing in him. He would have worshipped him if he had looked at the Spirit in Adam.
You must look at their reality - that effulgent reality that illumines the horizons, that effulgent reality that makes the human world luminous, that effulgent reality that delivers souls from imperfections, that effulgent reality that brings the collective body to the highest degree of perfection - it is above human concepts.
The object of reading and reciting is to understand the inner significance of the verses and mysteries of the Book. Had reading sufficed, all the Jewish people should have acknowledged Christ but as they lacked understanding of the mysteries and the inner meanings, they were deprived of the bounty of believing in Him.
But they do not understand the inner meaning.
Know then that all the revealed books - the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, the Qur'an, and the divine scrolls and scriptures and the Bayan - are in complete agreement and harmony. But those who have not discovered the mysteries of the words and whose eyes are veiled by coverings cannot solve the difficulties and reconcile the perplexing expressions, for they cling to the shells and are heedless of the manifest meaning and the pure essence of that renowned meaning. For among God's words and verses are those that are clear and those that are allegorical. Those cattle-like ones know not even the clear verses, let alone the allegorical ones.
Every divine religious law was complete for its time. The renewal of the laws of God and the appearance of the Manifestations of the bounties of the Lord in each cycle are necessary. Thus the people who seek truth and inner meanings can discover the divine mysteries and become aware of the secrets of the Books of God. They know God to be the Supreme, His bounties infinite and the doors of His mercy unbarred. They believe in all the Prophets and affirm 'No difference do we make between any of them' [Q2:130].
The wisdom of this hidden mystery is that without it, the Day of Separation would not be realized, "Be ye separated this day, O ye sinners" would not be manifest, the intimate and the deprived would not be distinguished, and the truthful and false would not be set apart.
His words have an inner door wherein lies mercy for the people of knowledge who have recognized the sublimity of his majesty and the greatness of his station, and who seek neither superiority nor corruption in the land of knowledge. Its outer meaning contains punishment for the people of ignorance and transgression who cling to its superficial meaning, thus changing God's blessing of His knowledge.
Observe how an ear that perceived such a voice from thorn and thistle became unaware of the rose of truth in the garden of knowledge, the song of the nightingale of inner meanings, and the lesson of spiritual stations.
That is, human words have become deprived of their true meanings and are used in metaphorical meanings.
O My handmaid, pass beyond that which is apparent and turn thy gaze towards the inner reality.
Strive that perchance through divine assistance ye may attain unto the ocean of inner meanings.
This exalted and blessed word was repeatedly heard from the Tongue of Grandeur, blessed and exalted be His utterance:
"O servant! Until they pass beyond the gulf of names, they shall not attain to the ocean of inner meanings. The people of former times throughout ages and centuries were worshippers of vain imaginings, yet counted themselves among the people of unity.
The people of Baha are souls who were not deprived of the truth by the name of successor or mirror or the like. They passed beyond the river of names and sought the ocean of meanings.
Say: O friends, until ye pass beyond the rivers of names ye shall not attain to the ocean of meanings. Strive that words may not become a barrier and that deeds and utterances may not turn into veils.
Say: O people! Know with clear certainty that until ye pass beyond the river of names, ye shall not attain unto the ocean of meanings. This is a word that was hidden in the treasuries of My Most Exalted Pen, and We have revealed it in truth and sent it forth with justice.
I swear by the Sun of Utterance rising from the horizon of the prison's heaven - until the heart is freed from names it will not attain unto reality nor reach the ocean of inner meanings.
And whoso knoweth the Point is enriched above the knowledge of aught else, and in the inmost of the inmost essence, whoso knoweth the Point knoweth that whereof the outer letters are composed and that which brancheth forth from them.
Creative letters are the beloved of God, for they are the manifest book in which the mysteries of creation are read.
I hope that you may be among those veiled ones who shine like the sun in the realms of inner meaning - though outwardly concealed, yet [in reality] manifest and evident like the moon at the pole of heaven.
O hearer of the Call! Although outwardly thou art prevented from hearing, yet praise be to God that thou art a keen listener to the Call of the Most Glorious Beauty and the voice of the Concourse on High.
An ear is needed that can hear the song of the celestial herald; otherwise, in terms of this physical ear, even the rabbit shares it with man.
There are many souls whose inner reality differs from their outer appearance.
Outwardly some individuals are refined and presentable, but in their essence they remain base. That is, externally they appear like others, but they harbor sordid intentions and designs.
Though their outer appearance may manifest as fire, their inner reality betokens light. The realm of words does not prevent them from the lofty stations of meaning, nor do metaphorical veils conceal them from the places of truth.
Say: Though the outward appearance of My oppression be as fire, yet its inner reality is light.
O God!
Though chicory appears outwardly bitter, inwardly it is most sweet.
This pertains to the outward realm; in the inward realm, whosoever hath acted according to the divine commandments and held fast to the Most Holy Book which hath been sent down from the holy Kingdom, is reckoned before God as one of the people of the divine presence.
Then will the outer form correspond with the inner meaning and be entitled to the designation of Reality.
This is the station where the outer is identical with the inner, and the inner identical with the outer. This station is beloved, and anything less is rejected.
Whoso combineth in himself the outward and the inward, verily he hath attained unto all good from the presence of a mighty, a wise One.
Praise be to God Who hath wafted the holy breezes from the divine paradise of meaning upon all created things, that all might behold with both outward and inward vision the lights of the Divine Beauty, and that none upon earth might be prevented or held back from the remembrance of the True Object of Worship.
He is the Protector, He is the Helper, and He is the Succourer of the inner and the outer, and the outer of the outer and the inner of the inner unto whatsoever God willeth.
Further quotations · supplied wording and references
Know that whoso clingeth to the outward sense (az-zahir) of the words, leaving aside their esoteric (al-batin) significance, is simply ignorant. And whoso concentrateth on the metaphorical sense to the exclusion of the prosaic meaning is heedless. Only the one who intepreteth the verses esoterically while harmonizing this reading with the literal meaning can be said to be a complete scholar. (Baha'u'llah, provisional translation, Tafsir-i-Suratu'l-Shams, in
Between the two extremes of abstraction or undifferentiated unity, and differentiation or utmost diversity, are many levels of structure and meaning in the text, including the verses, sentences, phrases, and words. The Bab explains the overall unity of the Surih of Abundance by relating all its different phrases and sentences together as expressions of the general meaning of the surih, in terms of the two modalities of {outward} and {inward} meaning, where the outward meaning pertains to historical reality, and the inward to metaphysical reality
By 'interpretation', is intended that none may be deprived of the apparent meaning of the words, or fail to grasp their purpose. For example, if the heaven of Divine Will should reveal the injunction 'wash your faces ... ', do not interpret the reference to such ablutions as the cleansing of one's inner countenancet, or its purifying with the waters of mystical insight and the like. How often doth a person 's face remain sullied and defiled due to such interpretations, while imagining himself to be acting according to the principles of the Faith of God; whereas in fact the obvious intention here is that the face should be washed with physical water. The inner meanings of certain of the Divine Words, however, may be expounded, if these interpretations do not become a source of idle fancies and vain imaginings, or be bereft of the Divine purpose.
For thought and discussion