Throughout the world, in every spot, settlements have been erected time and again, then ruined. The earth remains in one state, but whatever appears upon its surface is erased.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1915-Jul-25 in Haifa -- ABU0635)
Creation continually renewed
continual renewal of creation
Editorial introduction
Settlements rise on the earth and are erased, and the earth remains for the next. Beneath that familiar rhythm lies a stranger teaching: what looks continuous is in truth renewed moment by moment, the forms of this world being fleeting shadows of the Kingdom, succeeding one another so quickly that they appear to stand still, as sunlight is forever new while the sun endures. Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá then speak of another newness altogether. When a Manifestation of God appears, a springtime dawns; minds, hearts, sciences and virtues are quickened, and souls who believe become a new creation, spiritual rather than physical. God abrogates in every age what people have grown used to, and creates them anew. Paul ties the new creation in Christ to a changed way of regarding people and the work of reconciliation [1]. To follow these threads is to ask what remains faithful to its source while changing form, and to be led toward the Word as the cause of creation, the ceaseless motion of all things, and the progressive revelation by which religion itself is renewed.
Selected passages
This world is the plane of creation and disintegration. The process never stops: On one side it creates new people, and on the other it destroys what she has created. The world will not grow tired.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to some friends, spoken on 1914-Dec-01 -- ABU1534)
O true servant of the Abha Beauty! That which thou beholdest in this temporal world are the fleeting shadows of the world of the Kingdom and the external images of the celestial realm. This is why thou observest that these shadows and forms are continuously being renewed. They are not permanent, but the succession of similar forms and like states is such as to give the appearance of constancy. In the end, however, it will become clear that it was a mirage, not real water; illusions, not the realities of the signs.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1904 ca., to Aqa Buzurg (Darrih Jaz) -- AB05577)
Truth has ever existed while creation is continually renewed, like the sun and its rays.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Mirza Zaman -- AB05224)
Write this down: In the Divine Books, mention is made of a new creation: "Were We then wearied with the first creation? Yet are they in doubt with regard to a new creation." The meaning of this is that the souls who believe in the verses of God are a new creation. This new creation is not physical but spiritual.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1921-Jan-13 -- ABU1443)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at New Thought Forum on 1912-Aug-25 -- ABU0079)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1920-Mar-27, to Spiritual Assembly of Los Angeles -- AB02117)
O thou who seekest the lights of guidance! Wert thou to observe this new Dispensation with penetrating sight thou wouldst see how the world of existence hath become a fresh creation from the effulgences of the Ancient Beauty and wert thou look clearly at this new cycle thou wouldst see how its true aspect hath been adorned with both visible and invisible perfections from His Supreme Horizon.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1897-Feb-07, to Mashhadi Muhammad Ali -- AB06323)
The new creation encompasses all things, for in the new creation there is no room for imperfection, lest "Blessed be God, the Most Perfect of Creators" be rendered false and meaningless.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Lawh-i-Maryam 3, to Maryam, cousin of Baha'u'llah -- BH05897)
The Sun of the divine world hath dawned from the horizon of the temperate, spring equinox, resurrecting into new life the countries of the orient and the occident. The mountain and prairie of the Ideal world are adorned with green and verdant vegetation. The trees of the temples of humanity are clothed with the garments of New Bestowals and be gemmed with New blossoms and fruits. A most tremendous stir or motion is witnessed in the world of creation. All the phenomena are in the process of reformation and regeneration and all the creatures are chanting the verses of oneness with their tongues of consciousness and reality.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1914-Apr-20, to Prof. Hatch and Mr. Gurbaxani -- AB04998)
Then a new tree grows from its seeds, green, verdant and freshened by the divine outpouring, the merciful breeze, the heat from the Sun of Reality, the heavy rain from the clouds of the abundant mercy and the blowing wind from the wafting place of Providence. "Whatever verse we abolish or forget we replace by a better one." This is the example of the new creation, the miraculous cycle and the second resurrection, which is in conformity with the first creation.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1919-Mar-04, to Baha'is of Egypt -- AB00778)
Say: God originateth creation, then causeth it to return. Will ye not then reflect?
… At every moment ye seek to ascend, and in less than nineteen-ninths ye ascend in ways ye comprehend not. Therefore doth God abrogate in every century, when its term is ended, that with which ye have grown familiar, and God createth anew both you and your works.
(The Báb, Kitab-i-Jaza' (Book of the Reckoning), 1264-05-05 ca. (Chihriq) [1848-Apr-9], to Mulla Husayn, Quddus, 'Abdu'l-Vahhab, Aba 'Ali, Hasan, 'Azim, Yahya and others -- BB00004)
When thou hast understood this, thou wilt be certain that creation hath no beginning whereby thou mightest reckon from its inception, and preserve this as one of the bounds of thy religion. In every Revelation all things are renewed and created anew.
(The Báb, Tafsir-i-Haykali'd-Din, 1266-06-01 and 02 (Chihriq) [1850-Apr-14] -- BB00027)
At such a time as she besought leave from the sacred court of the Eternal King to pass from the chambers of spiritual solitude into the assemblage of divine mercy, and to shed one ray from among the concealed effulgences upon the realms of the hallowed Oneness, lo, a herald, from the source of supreme Divinity and the treasury of most great Lordship, cried aloud that no creation was yet visible which could serve as the locus of such an effulgence and irradiation. Thereupon command was given for a new creation and a wondrous handiwork. All the denizens of the Concourse on high and the inhabitants of the tabernacles of immortality were bewildered as to of what element this strange creation should be fashioned and from what reality it should come to be.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Huwa Munfikhu'r-Ruh (Lawh-i-Nuqtih?) -- BH01911)
(Bahá’u’lláh, Suriy-i-Vafa (=Lawh-i-Vafa), to Shaykh Mulla Muhammad Husayn Vafa -- BH00354)
Continue exploring
- Word of God the cause of creation
- all things are in motion; kinds of motion
- arcs of ascent and descent
- creation of the world
- divine emanation is ceaseless; eternal
- eternality vs. origination; creation from nothingness
- infinity and eternity
- progressive revelation; renewal of religion
- self-description of God; God's self-remembrance
For thought and discussion
Questions to carry forward
- Which passages concern changes in the physical world, and which concern spiritual renewal? What does reading them together reveal?
- How can something remain continuous with its origin while becoming genuinely new?
- What attachments might prevent us from recognizing a new possibility, and what would thoughtful receptivity look like?
- How might inward renewal become visible in a relationship, a community, or the work of reconciliation?