Baha’i Teachings

The First Right of the People

The first right of the people, before all their other rights on earth, is the right of access to His Word ‘unadulterated and unobscured by unwarrantable inferences or unauthorized interpretations’.

That is to say, in reality the spiritual rights exist before the earthly rights. From the beginning of civilization the spiritual rights have paved the way for the existence of the secular rights.

This reality hasn’t been perceived because the people must needs first evolve through the development of their earthly – that is, secular – rights in order to have the capacity to comprehend their spiritual rights. Other than this necessary relationship the spiritual rights are incomparable for these are the true freedoms which pertain to the world of the Kingdom.

The first freedom then is the right to access His Word free of “unwarrantable inferences or unauthorized interpretations”¹.

That is to say, this access must be free of the adulterations and obscuring dust created primarily by the self-appointed leaders of religion. These are the ones who speak as if from authority but without having first been given permission to promote the “opinion” of their own inferences and interpretations.

Such as these infringe on the rights of the people. Furthermore, through infringing upon the rights of the people they infringe upon the rights of God. That is, God has a purpose in giving humanity these rights.

In order to understand this one must perceive how each right is in fact preceded by a duty which exists through the command of God, independently from whether or not the people arise to fulfill it. Thus it is actually through the implicit permission of its duty that the right attains any existence or power at all.

As each right is preceded by a duty, thus even the first right is preceded by a first duty. (Likewise the explication of the first duty² preceded this explication of the first right.)

This first duty has already been mentioned as it was set forth in the opening declaration of Baha’u’llah’s Most Holy Book:

“The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of Him Who is the Day Spring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who represents the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation.”

This duty is what establishes that right of access to His Word.

For How – if not for the Word – are the people enabled to recognize the Manifestation?

Beyond this:

How – if not for Recognition of His Manifestation – are the people enabled to know God?

And even beyond that:

How – if not for the extent to which they have been enabled to know Him – are the people enabled to worship God?

From this we can perceive that the worldly conditions complained of with these 3 howling woes are due to the lack of fulfillment of these duties and this in turn has been caused by those who have infringed on God’s Rights, and by doing so they overturned the foundation of all human rights.

In both the disease and in its cure we can perceive the signs of God’s perfect Justice. He does not demand of us that which we are truly unable to fulfill. And also in this we witness the signs of His perfect Mercy. For if a person was truly too powerless to overcome the circumstances which prevented them from adequately fulfilling a duty then surely they could take refuge in the reality of His Forgiveness. For in the Balance of the all-Informed, Justice is accompanied by Mercy.

Nevertheless, in such circumstances we are still required to make an effort and if we are sincere in that effort we can trust with absolute certainty that we will be rewarded in like measure.

“The All-Merciful has conferred upon humanity the faculty of vision, and endowed it with the power of hearing. Some have described it as the ‘lesser world,’ when, in reality, it should be regarded as the ‘greater world.’ The potentialities inherent in the human station, the full measure of its destiny on earth, the innate excellence of its reality, must all be manifested in this promised Day of God. The Pen of the Most High has, at all times and under all conditions, remembered, with joy and tenderness, His loved ones, and has counseled them to follow in His way. Well is it with one whom the changes and chances of this world have failed to deter from recognizing the Day Spring of the Unity of God, who has quaffed, with unswerving resolve, and in the name of the Self-Subsisting, the sealed wine of His Revelation. Such a one shall be numbered with the inmates of Paradise, in the Book of God, the Lord of all worlds.”³

The significance of the relationship between duties and rights is one of the meanings alluded to in the Qur’anic verse:

“Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass: the glass as it were a brilliant Star: Lit from a blessed Tree, an Olive, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! Allah guides whom He will to His Light: Allah sets forth parables for men: and Allah knows all things.”⁴

This means also that it is not of their own deserving that the people receive the Light but that this is by the Favor and Grace of God. It is through this Favor and Grace that the people are enabled to fulfill their duty. For without this assistance they would not be able to do so. Therefore, the actualization of this right of access to the Word is contingent upon striving to fulfill the duty which precedes it. This is the oil from which the virgins fill their lamps.

Furthermore, each right is in turn succeeded by another duty which in turn supports the previous right and also leads to yet another right. “Light upon Light.” Thus God’s cyclic scheme is witnessed to be the foundation of both Creation and Civilization.

1 Shoghi Effendi (World Order of Baha’u’llah, p. 24)

2 For an explanation of the first duty see “Recognition Part 1”

3 Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, CLXII (all quotes converted to modern English)

4 Qur’an 24:35 (modernized Yusuf Ali translation)

By Wind, 4 years11/02/2019 ago

Baha'i Teachings

The Bridal Ring

Come before the Court

Testify to the Truth of what you know

Leave out the falsity of what you believe

For it is in Deed,

that each one must reveal

What it is that they truly perceive

So when the Moon gives not its Light

Consider then and take heed:

The dark itself must witness

Even as the Moon’s Shade

bears testimony that bridal Ring

A beacon in this oppressive night

By Wind, 4 years10/31/2019 ago

Baha'i Teachings

Recognition Part 1

From the opening, in the very beginning of the 1^st verse of His Most Holy Book of Law, Baha’u’llah declares that:

ان اوّل ما كتب الله على العباد

عرفان مشرق وحيه ومطلع امره

الّذي كان مقام نفسه في عالم الامر والخلق

Which in translation says:

In this regard He also declares:

انّه يفعل ما يشآء

ولا يسئل عمّا شآء

وما حكم به المحبوب

انّه لمحبوب ومالك الاختراع

That is: “He does what He pleases. He chooses; and none may question His choice. Whatsoever He, the Well-Beloved, ordains, the same is, verily, beloved. To this He Who is the Lord of all creation bears Me witness.”¹

The reason that “none may question” is because, as He explains in another Tablet, whatever pertains to the Manifestation “all His acts and doings” and whatever He ordains or forbids “should be considered … as identical with the Will of God Himself.” ²

Similarly in another Tablet, also excerpted in Gleanings, Baha’u’llah states that:

“. . . the works and acts of each and every one of these Manifestations of God, nay whatever pertains unto them, and whatsoever they may manifest in the future, are all ordained by God, and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose.”³

Thus we understand that the Manifestation speaks as God has commanded Him to speak, acts as God has commanded Him to act, forbids what God has commanded Him to forbid and ordains what God has commanded Him to ordain. Every true Baha’i will likewise bear witness that the Manifestation isn’t a partner with God but rather the relationship between His will and God’s Will, is as set forth in Baha’u’llah’s statement that:

“Divinity, whenever I mention it, indicates My complete and absolute self-effacement. This is the station in which I have no control over mine own weal or woe nor over my life nor over my resurrection.”⁴

From this we understand that Baha’u’llah’s human station was effaced in the Divine Station.

“… We have, at no time, desired anything whatsoever except His Will, and have welcomed each one of His irrevocable decrees.” Gleanings LXII p. 120

“I have renounced My desire for Thy desire, O my God, and My will for the revelation of Thy Will. By Thy glory! I desire neither Myself nor My life except for the purpose of serving Thy Cause, and I love not My being save that I may sacrifice it in Thy path.” Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 37

That is, through His desire to be completely effaced in God’s Will, the Will of God becomes known because this effacement is a perfect reflection of God’s Will to Manifest that Perfect Mirror. Therefore the Manifestation submits personal will to God’s Will to such an extent that the personal identity is erased.

Thus we understand, not that the Manifestation is free to do whatever He chooses separate from God’s own Will, but rather the meaning is as stated in the Kitab-i-Iqan where He indicates that all the Manifestations “… in themselves manifest and vindicate the reality of these holy words: ‘Verily God does whatsoever He wills, and ordains whatsoever He pleases.’”⁵

A reflection of this reality can therefore be stated as: The Manifestation does as God Wills.

That Baha’u’llah considered himself in complete servitude to God and that there is only one God without partner is attested throughout His Word!

For instance He declares: “God was alone; there was none else besides Him.”⁶

And in another Tablet He reveals:

“He is, and hath from everlasting been, one and alone, without peer or equal, eternal in the past, eternal in the future, detached from all things, ever-abiding, unchangeable, and self-subsisting. He hath assigned no associate unto Himself in His Kingdom, no counsellor to counsel Him, none to compare unto Him, none to rival His glory.”⁷

These explanations clarify that true Baha’is are not those who add partners to God, rather they believe in the One God described by Baha’u’llah in these words:

“To every discerning and illumined heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. …He stands exalted beyond and above all separation and union, all proximity and remoteness. No sign can indicate His presence or His absence; inasmuch as by a word of His command all that are in heaven and on earth have come to exist, and by His wish, which is the Primal Will itself, all have stepped out of utter nothingness into the realm of being, the world of the visible.”⁸

Once we understand and accept this the meaning of “He doeth as He Willeth” relative to the Laws of the Manifestations becomes readily apparent. It is understood to mean that the Manifestation isn’t constrained by the previous laws which were in accord with the needs of a previous age because times having changed a new law is needed so as to foster an ever evolving spiritual civilization.

The people, being unaware of this, are deficient in their understanding. They judge His Revelation according to whether or not they find support in it for the laws which they already believe in, whether this be the law of a former book or that of their own personal concept of right and wrong.

Thus it is said: “And when the standard of Truth is made manifest, the people of both the East and the West curse it.”⁹

In this regard it seems inescapable that one way or another the people must make a judgement – a decision – whether yay or nay! This is because every human being is motivated to pursue the object of their desire in the degree of their own valuation of the worthiness of that object. Whatever this object may be it signifies to them what is truly worthwhile and therefore sacrosanct – on a personal level. Thus they will defend their possession of it even as they would defend their own persons for they understand instinctively that it represents their motivation to live.

Thus it can be witnessed that every human being is moved to choose the highest possible value that they are able to perceive given their personal circumstances and limitations. For the materially oriented this will be a material desire, for the socially oriented a social desire, for the intellectually oriented an intellectual desire, for the idealistically oriented an idealistic desire and for the spiritually oriented a spiritual desire.¹⁰

To the extent that their psyche is firmly wedded to their own subjective concept of value a person will find it difficult to conceive that there might be a higher standard of value than that which they have chosen for themselves. For most, the reality is, they didn’t independently choose it, rather it was imprinted on them through family, culture, society etc. These values aren’t necessarily intrinsic to these institutions originally, rather, these institutions arose from the values which, over millennia, were learned from the scriptures and teachings which God caused to be revealed previously all the way back to long, long before the dawn of history. However, because humans are imperfect, human institutions are bound to reflect these values imperfectly.

It is because the people failed to comprehend the true intent of those scriptures that too much of what they understand concerning “values” is merely accumulated human interpretations of the meaning of those values, and thus they presume to adequately measure with an inadequate standard Him Who is the Arbiter of Value itself.

1 excerpted from the seventh verse of the Kitab-i-Aqdas (all quotes converted to modern English)

2 Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, L XXX IV, p. 167

3 Gleanings, XX IV, p. 59

4 Epistle to the Son of the Wolf

5 Kitab-i-Iqan p. 97

6 Gleanings XC-III

7 Gleanings XC-IV

8 Iqan p. 98

9 Iqan p. 238

10 Of course, as human beings are complex, there will be varying degrees of admixture in these motivations, but for the most part it can be seen that one type of motivation in particular will tend to dominate over the choices people make as they go through life.

By Wind, 4 years10/30/2019 ago

Baha'i Teachings

A Day not followed by Night

Being a brief over-view of Baha’i teachings concerning the “Break of the Morn of Divine Guidance” and the “Day not followed by Night”.

~~~

Scriptures and histories of all faiths demonstrate a contrast between darkness and light, between ignorance and enlightenment, and between the violators and the righteous. For instance in the 24th Chapter of the Gospel of Matthew we read a warning concerning the disappearance of the Light and the consequential descent of night.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken …” (verse 29)

In the Kitab’i’Iqan, the Glory of God – Baha’u’llah, the Blessed Beauty, explains that this verse has numerous meanings describing several of them in some depth. This text is easily found and so it isn’t necessary to go into those meanings here but rather to quote just one line:

“… [T]he break of the morn of divine guidance must needs follow the darkness of the night of error.” Iqan p. 31

That morn and its successive Day is the main concern of this essay.

This Day was foretold in the Book of Revelation as a City in which there shall be no night:

“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the Glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its Gates shall never be shut by day — and there shall be no night there; they shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” (Revelation 21:23-26)

Likewise in His Suriy-i-Haykal, the Glory of God declared:

“O thou Temple of Holiness! We have cleansed Your heart from the illusions of the creation so that the light of My countenance may shine therein, wherefrom that same light will reflect light to the mirrors of the world. Inasmuch as We have chosen You above all that was ordained in the Kingdom of Command and Creation, and created You especially for Myself; this is the grace of God unto You from this very day to a day that will never end in the Kingdom, but will rather continue by the continuance of God, the Protector, the Precious, the Omniscient. For the Day of God is He Himself, who has appeared with the truth. This Day will never be followed by night, nor shall it be limited to the Remembrance, were ye of those who know.”

Baha’i scholars wondering as to the meaning of this “day not followed by night” might consider Shoghi Effendi’s insight on pages 115-118 of his “World Order of Baha’u’llah” wherein he explores this question through quotation of passages from the writings of the Bab and Baha’u’llah.

So for instance, in connection with his translation and interpretation of a passage from Baha’i Scripture, Shoghi Effendi wrote that it was “an inexcusable departure” from one of the Faith’s “most cherished and fundamental principles” to believe:

“… that all revelation is ended, that the portals of Divine mercy are closed, that from the daysprings of eternal holiness no sun shall rise again, that the ocean of everlasting bounty is forever stilled, and that out of the tabernacle of ancient glory the Messengers of God have ceased to be made manifest . . .”.

Shoghi Effendi further clarified the reality of this “fundamental principle which constitutes the bedrock of Bahá’í belief” set forth in that verse from Baha’u’llah stating:

“. . . religious truth is not absolute but relative … Divine Revelation is orderly, continuous and progressive and not spasmodic or final.”

After citing several quotes from Baha’i scripture mainly in regard to the theme of progressive Revelation, Shoghi Effendi then alludes to an unappreciated meaning with the statement:

“We might well ponder in our hearts the following passages from a prayer revealed by Bahá’u’lláh which strikingly affirm, and are a further evidence of, the reality of the great and essential truth lying at the very core of His Message to mankind…”

Thus upon reading Shoghi Effendi’s beloved translation of that prayer, we see:

“Thou didst decree that I be beheaded by the sword of the infidel.”

The informed will understand that the meaning of this statement is firstly in reference to John the Baptist. Those with eyes to see may also perceive another meaning.

Baha’u’llah further declares, concerning what has been suffered by this never-ending continuous Light at the hands of the infidels that:

“How bitter the humiliations heaped upon me, in a subsequent age, on the plain of Karbilá! How lonely did I feel amidst Thy people; to what state of helplessness I was reduced in that land! Unsatisfied with such indignities, my persecutors decapitated me and carrying aloft my head from land to land paraded it before the gaze of the unbelieving multitude and deposited it on the seats of the perverse and faithless.”

Which the informed reader will perceive as, firstly, a reference to Husayn (Hasan ibn Ali’s brother and successor in the Imamate) who was killed and beheaded in the Battle of Karbilá on the 10th of Muharram in the year 61 AH. Those who are both informed and possessed of vision may again perceive a further meaning.

It may be that those who have been dispossessed of such sight and vision are merely deprived of information, but perhaps they can nevertheless perceive that this event marked the descent of the Night of Yazid upon Sunni Islam while at the same time revealing the continuance of the Day of Muhammad through Ali and his descendents in the Imamate, the Guiding Lights of Shia Islam – for after Hasan and Husayn, Husayn’s son Ali (Imam al-Sajjad) succeeded, and he in turn was succeeded by his son Muhammad (Baqir), and so on to Ja’far (Sadiq), then Musa (Kazim), then Ali (Rida), then Muhammad (Taqi), then Ali (Hadi) and then Hasan (Askari). The Shia branch of Islam established itself in Persia as an independent state from Sunni Islam. Eventually the Sun of the Bab dawned in that land and after Him the Sun of Baha’u’llah.

Perhaps the appreciative ones will perceive that, in choosing to include this prayer in the explanation of this “fundamental principle which constitutes the bedrock of Bahá’í belief” Shoghi Effendi established what he himself meant by “continuous” and “not spasmodic”.

This then points the way to a true understanding of “The Day that will not be followed by Night.”

~~~

“Verily, the Word of God has never ceased to descend upon the world.” Baha’u’llah (Baha’i Scriptures, p. 192)

By Wind, 4 years10/28/2019 ago