Say: O leaders of religion! Weigh not the Book of God with such standards and sciences as are current amongst you, for the Book itself is the unerring Balance established amongst men. In this most perfect Balance whatsoever the peoples and kindreds of the earth possess must be weighed, while the measure of its weight should be tested according to its own standard, did ye but know it.
… Say: This is the infallible Balance which the Hand of God is holding, in which all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth are weighed, and their fate determined, if ye be of them that believe and recognize this truth. Say: This is the Most Great Testimony, by which the validity of every proof throughout the ages hath been established, would that ye might be assured thereof.
The revealed Word: learning to examine our standards
Word of God is its own standard
Editorial introduction
Weigh not the Book of God with the standards and sciences current among you, Bahá’u’lláh tells the leaders of religion, for the Book itself is the unerring Balance in which everything else must be weighed. A reader comes to revelation expecting to test it against grammar, inherited opinion, prevailing philosophy or personal expectation; here the measuring instrument is itself placed on the scale. The Báb goes further, saying that the religion of God can be understood through nothing but itself, and that revealed verses, not wonders, are its one universal proof. Recognition still calls for the faculty to comprehend, and Shoghi Effendi asks believers to direct their methods of inquiry until they reach what the Prophet has already seen. Isaiah holds the two sides together, placing divine thought beyond human thought yet promising that the Word returns to its source like rain that has watered the earth [1]. From here the path leads into the place of rational arguments, the limits of language, and the abstruseness and incomparability that make the Word of God a study without end.
Selected passages
From the right hand of the Throne hath been sent down:
Hast thou not heard that My proof is My very Being, My evidence My Manifestation, My testimony My Self, and that which floweth from My Pen is the path to My knowledge, which none shall attain save those who have detached themselves from all things and have passed through this world and whatsoever hath been created therein as a cloud passeth by?
In brief, the Balance hath been and shall ever be the Manifestation Himself, and whatsoever floweth forth from the ocean of His bounty and generosity, and that which they practice today, and that which they utter, and that which they command - these have been and shall ever be the Balance for all, both before and after.
… The Divine Proof hath ever been one, and for all they have ordained those same revealed verses as proof. And were there not in creation the faculty to recognize and comprehend verses, they would certainly not have been revealed through manifest signs.
You and your like have claimed that the words of the Most Great Gate and the Most Perfect Remembrance are incorrect and contrary to the rules of the people. You have not yet understood that the revealed divine words are the standard for all things, and nothing else can be its standard. Any rule that contradicts divine verses is invalid.
All denied God in what they said, for the standard is what God hath revealed in the Qur'an, not the whims of the transgressors among the people.
Some time ago, in one of the Tablets, these exalted words were revealed from the Supreme Pen - exalted be His glory: Fix thy gaze upon these blessed words which, like unto the sun, have shone forth from the heaven of God's holy Tablet: "Return ye to the holy Writings, O ye who are endowed with insight!"
Through the heedlessness of all on earth, the Cause hath reached such a pass that the Sun of Truth must needs adduce proofs for Its own effulgent rays.
However, concerning that which hath been sent down from the heaven of bounty and the clouds of mercy in the Bayan, no universal proof or conclusive evidence hath been ordained save the revelation of verses. This hath ever been and shall ever remain God's proof unto the peoples of the earth. Should any matter appear from the Source of Grace and Glory other than this, it is purely through God's favor; otherwise, the supreme proof is that which He Himself hath ordained - and who is more truthful in speech than God?
By what proof did ye believe in the Point of the Bayan? Bring it forth, then read what hath been sent down from the presence of the Truth, the Knower of things unseen. If ye deny the appearance of God and His Cause and the effects and influence of the Most Exalted Pen, by what proof can that which ye possess be established?
Although it beseemeth not one like Me to adduce proof of His Cause through mention of aught else, yet when We perceived the weakness and frailty of the servants, We mentioned that which was revealed aforetime as a mercy from Us unto them.
The Bayan crieth out and saith: O people! Make Me not a veil between you and your Lord. He Who revealed Me hath commanded you not to make of Me a proof in the days of God, the Lord of the worlds.
Today all divine Books have been and shall be dependent upon the Most Great Book. The Mother Book calleth out with the most exalted voice and summoneth the people to the supreme horizon.
Whosoever hath attained unto acceptance and taken hold of it with the hand of certitude, he verily hath acknowledged and confessed all the divine Books.
Can anything revealed before equal a single verse of His? Nay, by the Manifestation of Grace! Thus hath the All-Merciful testified in the Bayan, yet ye are not fair.
They have denied Him Who hath come unto them with that which equaleth all that was revealed aforetime and thereafter.
Today none of the books of the world can provide deliverance save through a single word that hath shone forth from the dayspring of the mouth of God's Will. Every utterance adorned thereby attaineth the honor of acceptance.
Leave behind all remembrances and hold fast to this Remembrance, the Manifest. Set aside the tales of the people and take what you have been given of this Great Announcement. The Announcement of God cannot be weighed against what tidings the people possess, nor can what is with Him be equaled by what exists between the heavens and the earth.
By what is in the hands of people their faith cannot be established. Thus hath the Command been sent down from thy Lord, the Mighty, the All-Forgiving.
All who are on earth have claimed knowledge and love, both in the past and present, but when the divine touchstone and balance appeared, the station of all was made clear, manifest and evident.
The utterance of the Goal of all the worlds was the balance of truth, and it weighed all things: some He dealt with through justice, and others through grace.
The Book of God hath been sent down in truth from the presence of One knowing and wise. Verily it is the Balance of Truth amongst creation and the Most Great Sign for all who are in the heavens and the earth.
Say: It is the Most Great Balance, whereby every mighty matter is weighed. By it are all things known, if ye be of them that perceive.
The Book of God speaketh the truth, yet most people comprehend not.
We have answered thee with that which God hath sent down in the Book.
This matter needeth no mention or explanation, for it is among the fundamental ordinances in a hidden Tablet.
Thus have We caused to flow from the Pen that which shall establish the decree of pre-existence, yet most of the peoples remain heedless.
Say: God doeth what He willeth and all act according to the decree of the Book.
Those towns - their people were wrongdoers, so We shall send upon them a wind from a distant valley. This is a decree in thy Lord's Book - there is none to change His command, and God's decree on that Day in the Mother Book shall be witnessed.
Take heed of what God revealed in the Furqan: "And the sun runs unto a resting-place." This clear statement from the Qur'an contradicted what Ptolemy and every philosopher after him maintained, for those Ptolemaic principles were accepted among mathematicians whose fame had spread to all horizons. Thus the interpreters resorted to weak interpretations of this blessed verse to make it conform with those ancient principles accepted by the people, abandoning the clear meaning that matched reality with manifest proof. … Thereby it was proven to them that the sun has axial motion, and they acknowledged that "the sun runs unto a resting-place" as is clearly stated in the Book without doubt or uncertainty.
The Word of God is perfect and arbitrary in Its perfection. When there is difference of view there is absence of the Spirit. The Word is the only Standard of Truth.
He who denieth this Book, naught shall be accepted from him though he act according to what is in the Books of God, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
Rather, rejoice in this Clear Book, for nothing among all things can equal it - to this doth the Lord of all creation bear witness on this luminous night.
By My life, if thou shouldst taste their sweetness, thou wouldst forsake all creation and turn unto thy Lord, saying: "I believe in Him Who hath sent Thee, O Thou Who art imprisoned in the most desolate of lands!"
Consider the world as a book; at every moment obliteration seizeth its words, as every person of insight can perceive. But the words of God have a station that neither obliteration can seize nor extinction approach.
Soon all that is visible shall vanish, and that which is everlasting and enduring hath been and shall ever be the Word of God. Its traces shall not be obliterated, nor shall it be overtaken, and its fruits shall endure throughout the kingdom of earth and heaven.
O Fatimih, hold fast unto the Word and be free and detached from aught else. Today the lights of the Sun of true Divine Unity have shone forth by God's command. How excellent is the state of the one who hath attained unto it. At all times the rain of mercy is pouring down from the heaven of bounty, yet the people remain heedless of it. Blessed is he who hath attained, and woe unto the heedless ones.
Further quotations · supplied wording and references
God's standards are different from those of men.
Let us be on our guard lest we measure too strictly the Divine Plan with the standard of men. I am not prepared to state that it agrees in principle or in method with the prevailing notions now uppermost in men's minds, nor that it should conform with those imperfect, precarious, and expedient measures feverishly resorted to by agitated humanity. Are we to doubt that the ways of God are not necessarily the ways of man?
It is a human tendency, against which the Manifestation warns us, to measure His statements against the inaccurate standard of the acquired knowledge of mankind. We tend to take them and place them within one or other of the existing categories of human philosophy or science while, in reality, they transcend these and will, if properly understood, open new and vast horizons to our understanding.
To the Baha'is, therefore, the Revealed Word is the balance, the infallible balance, by which truth can be distinguished from error. The human mind is too limited, too impotent to be able, all alone, to understand the purpose and plan of God for His creation. … If it seems to be in conflict with prevailing notions and standards, this is no sufficient reason to justify us to repudiate it. Rather we should endeavor to so direct our methods of investigation as to be able to reach the very same conclusions the Prophet has arrived at.
Continue exploring
For thought and discussion
Questions to carry forward
- How does the image of a Balance change the questions a reader brings to revelation?
- What distinguishes openness to a new standard from uncritical acceptance of another person’s interpretation?
- How do these selections relate recognition, evidence, detachment, and the use of reason?
- What does Isaiah’s image of nourishing rain add to the compilation’s image of weighing and measuring?
- Where do the passages challenge inherited categories, and what care is needed when reading their historical arguments?
- How could further study of rational arguments and the limits of language deepen this inquiry?