The Baha'i concept of God is that of a Supreme Being - of
course, the language of man is inadequate to describe this great reality that
we call God. All that we can speak concerning God is of the Manifestations of
God's attributes; but as to the inner nature of God, Rumi, the mystic poet of
Persia, 800 years ago, said: "How can you, O Philosopher, dare fathom this
fathomless ocean? This is a Path that none could travel by meditation or
contemplation. Man can no more fathom the essence of that divine Reality than a
slip of straw could sink to the depths of the sea."
This shows the impossibility for the mind of man to
comprehend the Invisible Essence, as for a wisp of straw to reach the bottom of
the sea. Well, then, how are we to recognize and to know God?
The answer is that man can know God only through the Manifestations
of His Names end Attributes in this visible world. For example you find the
skies and the seas and of the earth, and the passing of the seasons, - phenomena
manifesting forth life's various phases. Life finally ends in what seems to be
a state of death; and then again, when the first season of the New Year comes
around, you see life anew emerging from what appeared to be extinction, manifesting
itself anew as does nature pregnant with blossoms, beauty, and delicious
fruits.
This enables man to realize there is a Supreme Power in nature of which we shall ever remain ignorant, but without which these manifestations, and these changes and chances, which are ever recurrent, would never reappear. This leads great artists, the greatest thinkers and philosophers, to berate a man of religion who, despite the panorama of wonders spread before the eyes of man, still believes that the greatest power of God, regardless of man's limitations, is only manifest in man. Thus, one believes that the greatest majesty and the fullness of God's glories, nay, all the attributes of power and might from the Invisible Essence is made manifest through man.
The poet says: It is enough to pass through the world of nature, and with every step discover phenomena vibrant with the spirit -- with the presence of that Supreme Being. That is what the man of science, the student of nature would say -- he who would call it great folly to dwell upon the teachings of a Faith which teaches that only through a particular individual called a Prophet, the greatness and the glory of God and the essential meaning of the Divinity -- and its highest attributes --could be attained.
Now, let us see what Baha'u'llah teaches about this. Man of
science, the poet or philosophers call the search for God in nature and in all
the departments of the world of phenomena, in all its phases -- its changes and
transformations -- the highest and the most rewarding enterprise.
In the teachings of Baha'u'llah, the fullest and deepest
truth in search for God, which even convinces the doubting nature worshipper
and skeptical philosopher is that what the people of religions call the
historical God is the same as God in Nature. For the highest expression of Divine
Attributes is found in man, the most perfect embodiment of Divine Attributes
reflected in the World of Creation. We can, therefore, demonstrate that God in
Nature is the same as God in History, but it is God in History Who has always
trained men to establish great civilizations am to perform great achievements.
It is He who has founded the Seven Great Religions of the world which have blessed
men with the most productive end fruitful knowledge of that Supreme Being whose
worshippers recognize him as God in History.
To explain further, we should remember that from God in
History, who inspired the founders of great civilizations and endowed men with
great gifts, emanate the inspiration which caused men to produce great paintings
and masterpieces of art and to achieve the discovery of the mysteries of the
world of nature. In other words, it is proven by history that even the
knowledge that the worshippers of God in nature - poets, scientists,
philosophers -- attain, concerning God, was revealed through the Manifestations
and the Prophets whom we look upon as the channels through which the highest
wisdom and knowledge of God is made available to men; and that it is through
them that a climate of peace and civilized life was furnished in which
scientists, philosophers, and the poets - worshippers of God in Nature - could
produce their work. God's prophets provided the leisure and the opportunity, under
a state of law and of order, without which man could not have discovered the
mysteries of nature and finally achieved the discovery of atomic power, a
discovery which has revolutionized human life. Those Divine Teachers have enabled
man to fly in the air, to communicate without wires; to navigate the bottom of
the seas. They have today invented missiles which could hit a target,
unattended by a human operator, 2000 miles away and perhaps more.
Despite all these, we say to the worshippers of God in
nature, they could not have solved these mysteries had it not been for the
atmosphere of civilized life created by the Prophets - the Manifestations of
God in history -- who have spoken to man through these Seven Great Religions of
the World, who foretold the Advent of Baha'u'llah.
With these proofs we convince every man of science that --
unless he is too proud, he must believe such things could be made possible by a
man alone, either in the desert of Egypt or by another born in a manger, or
still by an Arab who could not read or write… It is very difficult for a man to
experiment in the world of nature in search of her laws to credit such world
dispensations to men of this type, but logic which traces silk to the cocoon,
or the sweet honey to the bees, can in the Revelation of Baha'u'llah trace all
great human achievements to the influence of Divine Religion.
For instance, in the world of nature all planes [kingdoms]
are not alike. There are lower ones, higher ones and middle ones. But, taken by
and large, the first is the mineral plane and then the vegetable, the animal,
and the human plane. The highest expression of the Creative Energy in the
mineral plane is the crystallization of the glass which causes this substance
to reflect light and even generate fire when exposed to the rays of the sun.
Our further search in the world of nature brings us to a
higher one, the vegetable kingdom. In it the materiality of the mineral plane
is found and in addition another phenomenon which philosophers call
"Virtue augmentative". This power of increase turns a handful of grain
into a harvest. This is the highest expression of creative energy -- in that
plane. Another is the animal plane, in which both the mineral and the vegetable
properties are found, but an additional phenomenon in the animal plane is the
power of instinct which was absent on the preceding planes.
It is instinct which sends the squirrel to search for nuts and
for holes to store them in against the rigor of winter. And it is the same phenomenon
that once the snow of winter covers the fields sends the squirrel to recover the
nuts from their hiding place. The power of instinct differs from the power of
reason, for although on its face it generates action which resembles the act of
reason, it is in reality fortuitous and not due to conscious acts which lead from
preliminaries to a conclusion.
But in the kingdom of man reason is king. It performs conscious
acts. Man in his infancy and early childhood shares instinct with the animal,
but in his progress towards maturity man knows what he is doing. For example,
when he is laying a foundation he knows he is going to build a house, a house for
which he also provides rocks, timbers and cement, and sees that the process of building
leads to a conclusion. This, therefore, establishes the fact that man is the highest
pinnacle in God's creation and his powers transcend all the wonders in the phenomenal
world. In him all the preceding kingdoms are represented, but reason in him is
a special aspect of his creation. There is, however, one difficulty, and that
is that all men are not alike nor do all manifest the same powers. The seeker
in the world of nature who finds God will therefore have to set out and renew
his search in order to find the highest and most powerful Man.
Average men including empire builders, teachers, and discoverers
are all found to be working with tools in order to produce result; and, even as
history shows, the results are not beneficial or enduring. The world’s conquerors
left no results which after their own disappearance did not succumb to the impact
of time. As for men of knowledge, the knowledge they attained was through the
medium of schools and teachers and the wealth they acquired was the result of
forced charges imposed on unwilling taxpayers. But, our seeker was fortunate to
find a class of men shining as scintillating stars on the horizon of history. Men
who manifested the deepest wisdom and knowledge without the aid of human
teachers; who built divine edifices without earthly materials; marked epochs in
which humanity attained the highest bounty as a result of their beneficent
deeds. They had no thought of themselves, but their aim was to clothe man in the
raiment of God and cause them to manifest divine attributes in dealing with one
another. Where did their power come from? All the material which they used in
building up their world, all the wealth of wisdom which gives permanence to
their edifices of human glory, came from God, the Creator of man, who chose
them to be the bearers of His Message for the uplift of man and the harbingers
of glad tidings to the afflicted humanity of their times. We, who believe in Baha’u’llah, consider each
of them the divine leader in history, and their work endures for many a day.
For, to a true seeker of God in nature, the most powerful manifestations of God
in nature find their apotheosis in these prophetic Lords in fulfillment of those
prophecies revealed in the Seven Great religions of the World.
God has today manifested Himself in the fullness of His
transcendent glory – in the Revelation of Baha’u’llah.
- Ali-Kuli Khan ('Spontaneous Talks', Sunday Morning Classes, 1956]
