day of Resurrection; Judgement
Editorial introduction
The Day of Resurrection has come, Bahá’u’lláh tells Ahmad, and the heedless lie in a strange sleep. Few sentences overturn expectation so completely. The trumpet, the opened graves, the balance and the bridge are not discarded but read anew: the call of a Manifestation is the trumpet, the soul that hears and acknowledges it has already crossed the bridge, and the secrets of every heart are laid bare. The Báb speaks of each revelation as the resurrection of the one before it, and of a Day whose measure of fifty thousand years is a symbol of its vastness. The Gospel of John holds a similar tension between a crossing from death to life that happens now and a summons from the tombs still to come [1]. Such a Day asks less for watching the sky than for waking up. The path leads on into the language of the Qur’an and its traditions, the imagery that clothes its warnings and promises, and the old question of how prophecy is fulfilled before eyes that do not see.
Say: O people of the earth! This is the Day of hearing, for the Call hath been raised from the direction of the Throne, would ye but hear it. And this is the Day of vision, for the lights of the Countenance have shone forth from the horizon of manifestation.
O Ahmad! The Day of Resurrection hath come, yet the heedless are in a strange sleep.
Through Him the Resurrection and its might have appeared, and the Hour and its signs have been made manifest, yet most of the people are in evident doubt.
The Hour hath passed and the Resurrection hath come to pass, yet the people see and perceive not. The Call hath been raised between earth and heaven, and the earth hath been transformed, yet the people understand not, save those who have turned away from the pleasures of the world and set their faces toward God, the Lord of Names, when He came with the truth with a sovereignty that encompassed all who are in the unseen and the visible realms.
As to thy question about resurrection, that which hath been revealed in the Book of Certitude is sufficient. Well is it with them that understand!
Know that regarding what you asked about the meaning of the Day of Resurrection -- it has endless ranks in God's knowledge. Among them is the Day of Origination, the Day of Creation, the Day of Production, the Day of Bringing into Being, the Day of Formation, the Day of the Term, and the Day of the Book. In brief, every matter has its day.
That Day is filled with conditions, signs, verses, events, wonders, manifestations and appearances that establish the firm foundation of fifty thousand years, though this number is symbolic and greater than that. For example, with one call of "Am I not?" the gathering and dispersion was realized.
That which is meant by judgment in the Gospel is a spiritual judgment. It is not meant that the world of divinity will be ended, the divine bounties will cease, and the Revelation of GOD will be finished.
Every manifestation before its resurrection appeareth in the subsequent manifestation - for example, the resurrection of the Gospel appeared in the twenty-third year of the revelation of the Furqan (Qur'an), and the resurrection of the Qur'an appeared in the manifestation of the Bayan, and the resurrection of the Bayan shall appear in the manifestation of Him Whom God shall make manifest, exalted be His mention.
The Primal Tree hath appeared, yet ye aided it not. Say: Ye have done what God loveth not to mention. Fear ye God and weep for your souls in recompense for what your hands have wrought.
… He will surely gather you together on the Day of Resurrection. This is God's decree wherein there is no doubt. Say: All shall on that Day return unto God, thy Lord.
Verily ye shall have a station on the path on the Day of Resurrection where ye shall in truth be questioned. God will question His servants concerning what they do in God's religion without the judgment of truth concealed in that Book.
… Verily We shall unveil the secrets on the Day of Resurrection from within yourselves in truth by truth; there shall ye bear witness unto the Most Great Remembrance through what God hath placed within you of His signs.
For verily the opposers, on the Day of Presence and the Day of Manifestation, shall hang down their heads before their Lord, and thou on that day shalt be veiled from the Gate. And naught veileth thee from Him save that which thy vain imaginings have veiled thee therefrom.
Say: The Day of Resurrection has been decreed to be fifty thousand years, and all were veiled from it. No spirit of the Bayan remained in any heart except those whom God exempted through His grace - the Letters of His Face or whomsoever He willeth from the letters of His creation.
All whom God created in every world have returned, believer and otherwise. All have been raised in the tombs of the living - the believers among the foremost of the righteous, and others whom We love not to mention, yet people remain veiled from God's Cause.
Has the Great Catastrophe been fulfilled? Say: Yea, by the Lord of lords! Has the Resurrection come to pass? Nay, the Self-Subsisting has appeared with the kingdom of verses. Do you see people lying prostrate? Yea, by my Lord, the Most High, the Most Glorious! Have the tree trunks been uprooted? Nay, the mountains have been scattered, by the Lord of attributes. He asked: "Where are Paradise and Hell?"
Say: This is the Day whereof ye were promised in the Tablets, when the heavens shall be folded up in the right hand of Power, when the earth shall be grasped by the hand of Will, and when the seas shall be set ablaze.
Say: By God! This is the Day of Distinction. And what shall make thee understand what the Day of Distinction is? Woe on that Day to the deniers who deny the Day of Judgment! None denieth it save every transgressor, every sinful one. This is the Day whereon the Interlocutor of Sinai hath spoken, whereon the Trump hath been blown, those in the graves have been raised, and all who are in the heavens and on earth have swooned away, except whom God hath willed, the Mighty, the All-Praised.
The Cry hath been raised and the Hour hath appeared and the Trumpet hath been sounded, when He Who conversed with God took His seat upon the throne of Revelation and the Herald proclaimed: The Kingdom is God's, the Almighty, the Self-Subsisting!
The Balance hath been set up, the Path hath been made manifest, and the Beloved of the world crieth out amidst the peoples - that same cry that appeared once in the form of the Trumpet, wherein it was blown, and all who are on earth were struck with swooning, save whom God did will, the Lord of all worlds.
One hath asked: "Hath the Resurrection come to pass?" Say: "Yea, by My All-Knowing, All-Wise Self!" "Hath the Hour arrived?" Say: "Yea, by the Lord of the Mighty Throne!"
Verily We have given glad-tidings unto all people that the great and blessed verse "but He is the Apostle of God and the Seal of the Prophets" hath been fulfilled in the Day when mankind shall stand before the Lord of the worlds.
Say: O oppressed servants throughout all regions! On the Day of Reckoning He summons all unto the Lord of Creation.
Verily He is the One through Whom the Greater Resurrection hath come to pass and all created things have been gathered together.
O thou who art intoxicated with the wine of the Divine Covenant!
The Day of "Am I not?" is the Day of Manifestation. It is the hour of resurrection and revival. It is the time of the revelation of light. It is the moment of effulgence upon Sinai and the Mount. It is the Most Great Resurrection and the Supreme Catastrophe, when that Sun of Reality shines forth from the horizon of possibility and sheds its bounties upon the kingdoms of creation.
Darkness vanished, the light of guidance shone forth, the pitch darkness was destroyed, the great resurrection occurred, the mighty Day of Judgment arose, the pavilion of glory was raised in the land of gathering, the banner of assemblage and dispersion was unfurled at the pole of contingent being.
O Trustee! This is the Day wherein whatsoever hath been hidden and concealed in existence becometh manifest and evident. God, exalted be His glory, speaking of the Day of Resurrection, hath said: "The Day when all secrets shall be tried." Now this hath been partially revealed that all may acknowledge with clear certainty that which He hath proclaimed and promised.
When the spirit is freed from incidental limitations and earthly conditions, it traverseth all stations, and the more it is detached, the swifter, more constant and more truthful is its journey. If it be said that the human temple is, in one station, the kingdom of God, this is the truth in which there is no doubt, for the representation of all things is found and witnessed therein. Though some have called it the lesser world, yet We bear witness that it is the greater world. Its changes and variations have been and shall be due to other causes, like the change in the taste of a sick person who perceiveth bitterness in that which is sweet. The change hath not occurred in the sweetness, rather the taste hath altered.
Glory be to Him Who established the Greater Resurrection! Glory be to Him Who created and fashioned! Glory be to Him Who extended the Path and raised up the highest heavens! Glory be to Him Who set the Balance and gathered together all in existence for the next creation, and caused those who believed to enter into His mercy, and the heedless into hellfire and torment - and evil is the end of him who denied and fabricated lies!
And the great resurrection came to pass, and the mighty catastrophe occurred, and all that were in earth and heaven were brought together--one group in paradise and one group in the fire.
O thou peerless plant in the garden of divine knowledge!
Resurrection is soul-exciting and the Day of Judgment full of blessings. The Turk turneth into a kinsman, the Arab into a foreigner and the Persian into a stranger. Distant becometh near, the deficient perfect, the learned ignorant, the poor wealthy, the rich impoverished, the mighty abased, and the abased mighty.
In a former tradition it was mentioned that on the Day of Resurrection God, glorified be His majesty, will raise up Friday.
The first to prostrate before Me was Muhammad, then Ali. These are the witnesses after Him, then the Gates of Guidance - they who hastened to the Cause of their Lord, and they are the triumphant ones. Verily, the beginning of that Cause is the first Day of Resurrection when all shall be brought before God.
Verily We have waited patiently on the Day of Resurrection fifty thousand years that all things might be tested, until naught remaineth save the face of thy Lord, possessed of glory and majesty.
O Muhammad! Say: Verily He is the True One Who shall gather mankind on the Day of Resurrection through His command, that He may recompense every soul according to what it hath earned, and before Him shall all be brought. And from death until an appointed time ye shall all be resurrected.
These are the verses of the Spirit sent down in truth from the presence of One powerful, mighty, and omnipotent, bringing glad tidings to the people of the Day of Gathering - the Day whereon God shall come with His Cause upon clouds of a Name that hath been resplendent with truth. On that Day shall the believers rejoice in God's joy, and victory shall appear from the horizon of glory. On that Day shall the Balance be set up and the deeds of all, both small and great, shall be weighed.
The Day which ye were promised in the Tablets hath come unto you, and every soul hath come with its deeds, though none comprehend this save those possessed of understanding.
The servant testifies to the oneness and singleness of God, His justice and bounty, and to the Last Day when people shall stand before the Lord of the worlds.
O my God! I beseech Thee by Thy Name - O God, O Lord, O All-Merciful, O Inaccessible, O Holy, O He, O Mighty, O Beloved, O Subduer, O Manifest, O Single, O Unapproachable, O All-Encompassing, O Self-Subsisting, O Self-Sustaining, O Truth, O All-Knowing, O Ever-Living, O All-Powerful - to send Thy blessings upon the Letters of the Unity, and to raise me up from my resting-place on the Day of Resurrection, believing in Thee and in Thy signs, loving what Thou lovest, and abstaining from that which Thou lovest not.
For thought and discussion