O thou servant of the Holy Threshold! We have read what flowed out from
thy pen in thy love for God, and found the contents of thy letter most
pleasing. My hope is that through the bounty of God, the breaths of the
All-Merciful will at all times refresh and renew thee.
Thou didst write of reincarnation. A belief in reincarnation goeth far
back into the ancient history of almost all peoples, and was held even by
the philosophers of Greece, the Roman sages, the ancient Egyptians, and
the great Assyrians. Nevertheless such superstitions and sayings are but
absurdities in the sight of God.
The major argument of the reincarnationists was this, that according to
the justice of God, each must receive his due: whenever a man is afflicted
with some calamity, for example, this is because of some wrong he hath
committed. But take a child that is still in its mother's womb, the embryo
but newly formed, and that child is blind, deaf, lame, defective--what sin
hath such a child committed, to deserve its afflictions? They answer that,
although to outward seeming the child, still in the womb, is guilty of no
sin--nevertheless he perpetrated some wrong when in his previous form, and
thus he came to deserve his punishment.
These individuals, however, have overlooked the following point. If
creation went forward according to only one rule, how could the
all-encompassing Power make Itself felt? How could the Almighty be the One
Who 'doeth as He pleaseth and ordaineth as He willeth'?(51)
Briefly, a return is indeed referred to in the Holy Scriptures, but by
this is meant the return of the qualities, conditions, effects,
perfections, and inner realities of the lights which recur in every
dispensation. The reference is not to specific, individual souls and
identities.
It may be said, for instance, that this lamplight is last night's come
back again, or that last year's rose hath returned to the garden this
year. Here the reference is not to the individual reality, the fixed
identity, the specialized being of that other rose, rather doth it mean
that the qualities, the distinctive characteristics of that other light,
that other flower, are present now, in these. Those perfections, that is,
those graces and gifts of a former springtime are back again this year. We
say, for example, that this fruit is the same as last year's; but we are
thinking only of the delicacy, bloom and freshness, and the sweet taste of
it; for it is obvious that that impregnable centre of reality, that
specific identity, can never return.
What peace, what ease and comfort did the Holy Ones of God ever discover
during Their sojourn in this nether world, that They should continually
seek to come back and live this life again? Doth not a single turn at this
anguish, these afflictions, these calamities, these body blows, these dire
straits, suffice, that They should wish for repeated visits to the life of
this world? This cup was not so sweet that one would care to drink of it a
second time.
Therefore do the lovers of the Abha Beauty wish for no other recompense
but to reach that station where they may gaze upon Him in the Realm of
Glory, and they walk no other path save over desert sands of longing for
those exalted heights. They seek that ease and solace which will abide
forever, and those bestowals that are sanctified beyond the understanding
of the worldly mind.
When thou lookest about thee with a perceptive eye, thou wilt note that on
this dusty earth all humankind are suffering. Here no man is at rest as a
reward for what he hath performed in former lives; nor is there anyone so
blissful as seemingly to pluck the fruit of bygone anguish. And if a human
life, with its spiritual being, were limited to this earthly span, then
what would be the harvest of creation? Indeed, what would be the effects
and the outcomes of Divinity Itself? Were such a notion true, then all
created things, all contingent realities, and this whole world of
being--all would be meaningless. God forbid that one should hold to such a
fiction and gross error.
For just as the effects and the fruitage of the uterine life are not to be
found in that dark and narrow place, and only when the child is
transferred to this wide earth do the benefits and uses of growth and
development in that previous world become revealed--so likewise reward and
punishment, heaven and hell, requital and retribution for actions done in
this present life, will stand revealed in that other world beyond. And
just as, if human life in the womb were limited to that uterine world,
existence there would be nonsensical, irrelevant--so too if the life of
this world, the deeds here done and their fruitage, did not come forth in
the world beyond, the whole process would be irrational and foolish.
Know then that the Lord God possesseth invisible realms which the human
intellect can never hope to fathom nor the mind of man conceive. When once
thou hast cleansed the channel of thy spiritual sense from the pollution
of this worldly life, then wilt thou breathe in the sweet scents of
holiness that blow from the blissful bowers of that heavenly land.
The Glory rest upon thee, and upon whosoever turneth toward and gazeth on
the Kingdom of the All-Glorious, which the Lord hath sanctified beyond the
understanding of those who are neglectful of Him, and hath hid from the
eyes of those who show Him pride.