By 1863, Baha'u'llah concluded that the time had come to begin acquainting
some of those around Him with the mission which had been entrusted to Him
in the darkness of the Siyah-_Ch_al. This decision coincided with a new
stage in the campaign of opposition to His work, which had been
relentlessly pursued by the Shi'ih Muslim clergy and representatives of
the Persian government. Fearing that the acclaim which Baha'u'llah was
beginning to enjoy among influential Persian visitors to Iraq would
re-ignite popular enthusiasm in Persia, the Shah's government pressed the
Ottoman authorities to remove Him far from the borders and into the
interior of the empire. Eventually, the Turkish government acceded to
these pressures and invited the exile, as its guest, to make His residence
in the capital, Constantinople. Despite the courteous terms in which the
message was couched, the intention was clearly to require compliance.(19)
By this time, the devotion of the little company of exiles had come to
focus on Baha'u'llah's person as well as on His exposition of the Bab's
teachings. A growing number of them had become convinced that He was
speaking not only as the Bab's advocate, but on behalf of the far greater
cause which the latter had declared to be imminent. These beliefs became a
certainty in late April 1863 when Baha'u'llah, on the eve of His departure
for Constantinople, called together individuals among His companions, in a
garden to which was later given the name Ridvan ("Paradise"), and confided
the central fact of His mission. Over the next four years, although no
open announcement was considered timely, the hearers gradually shared with
trusted friends the news that the Bab's promises had been fulfilled and
that the "Day of God" had dawned.
The precise circumstances surrounding this private communication are, in
the words of the Baha'i authority most intimately familiar with the
records of the period, "shrouded in an obscurity which future historians
will find it difficult to penetrate."(20) The nature of the declaration
may be appreciated in various references which Baha'u'llah was to make to
His mission in many of His subsequent writings:
The purpose underlying all creation is the revelation of this most
sublime, this most holy Day, the Day known as the Day of God, in His Books
and Scriptures--the Day which all the Prophets, and the Chosen Ones, and
the holy ones, have wished to witness.(21)
...this is the Day in which mankind can behold the Face, and hear the
Voice, of the Promised One. The Call of God hath been raised, and the
light of His countenance hath been lifted up upon men. It behooveth every
man to blot out the trace of every idle word from the tablet of his heart,
and to gaze, with an open and unbiased mind, on the signs of His
Revelation, the proofs of His Mission, and the tokens of His glory.(22)
As repeatedly emphasized in Baha'u'llah's exposition of the Bab's message,
the primary purpose of God in revealing His will is to effect a
transformation in the character of humankind, to develop within those who
respond the moral and spiritual qualities that are latent within human
nature:
Beautify your tongues, O people, with truthfulness, and adorn your souls
with the ornament of honesty. Beware, O people, that ye deal not
treacherously with any one. Be ye the trustees of God amongst His
creatures, and the emblems of His generosity amidst His people....(23)
Illumine and hallow your hearts; let them not be profaned by the thorns of
hate or the thistles of malice. Ye dwell in one world, and have been
created through the operation of one Will. Blessed is he who mingleth with
all men in a spirit of utmost kindliness and love.(24)
The aggressive proselytism that had characterized efforts in ages past to
promote the cause of religion is declared to be unworthy of the Day of
God. Each person who has recognized the Revelation has the obligation to
share it with those who he believes are seeking, but to leave the response
entirely to his hearers:
Show forbearance and benevolence and love to one another. Should any one
among you be incapable of grasping a certain truth, or be striving to
comprehend it, show forth, when conversing with him, a spirit of extreme
kindliness and good-will....(25)
The whole duty of man in this Day is to attain that share of the flood of
grace which God poureth forth for him. Let none, therefore, consider the
largeness or smallness of the receptacle....(26)
Against the background of the bloody events in Persia, Baha'u'llah not
only told His followers that "if ye be slain, it is better for you than to
slay," but urged them to set an example of obedience to civil authority:
"In every country where any of this people reside, they must behave
towards the government of that country with loyalty, honesty and
truthfulness."(27)
The conditions surrounding Baha'u'llah's departure from Baghdad provided a
dramatic demonstration of the potency of these principles. In only a few
years, a band of foreign exiles whose arrival in the area had aroused
suspicion and aversion on the part of their neighbors had become one of
the most respected and influential segments of the population. They
supported themselves through flourishing businesses; as a group they were
admired for their generosity and the integrity of their conduct; the lurid
allegations of religious fanaticism and violence, sedulously spread by
Persian consular officials and members of the Shi'ih Muslim clergy, had
ceased to have an effect on the public mind. By May 3, 1863, when He rode
out of Baghdad, accompanied by His family and those of His companions and
servants who had been chosen to accompany Him to Constantinople,
Baha'u'llah had become an immensely popular and cherished figure. In the
days immediately preceding the leave-taking a stream of notables,
including the Governor of the province himself, came to the garden where
He had temporarily taken up residence, many of them from great distances,
in order to pay their respects. Eyewitnesses to the departure have
described in moving terms the acclaim that greeted Him, the tears of many
of the onlookers, and the concern of the Ottoman authorities and civil
officials to do their visitor honor.(28)
"THE CHANGELESS FAITH OF GOD..."
Following the declaration of His mission in 1863, Baha'u'llah began to
elaborate a theme already introduced in The Book of Certitude, the
relationship between the Will of God and the evolutionary process by which
the spiritual and moral capacities latent in human nature find expression.
This exposition would occupy a central place in His writings over the
remaining thirty years of His life. The reality of God, He asserts, is and
will always remain unknowable. Whatever words human thought may apply to
the Divine nature relate only to human existence and are the products of
human efforts to describe human experience:
Far, far from Thy glory be what mortal man can affirm of Thee, or
attribute unto Thee, or the praise with which he can glorify Thee!
Whatever duty Thou hast prescribed unto Thy servants of extolling to the
utmost Thy majesty and glory is but a token of Thy grace unto them, that
they may be enabled to ascend unto the station conferred upon their own
inmost being, the station of the knowledge of their own selves.(29)
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. Far be it from His glory that human tongue should adequately
recount His praise, or that human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery.
He is and hath ever been veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence,
and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of
men....(30)
What humanity experiences in turning to the Creator of all existence are
the attributes or qualities which are associated with God's recurring
Revelations:
The door of the knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the
face of all beings, the Source of infinite grace, ... hath caused those
luminous Gems of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the
noble form of the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that
they may impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being,
and tell of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence....(31)
These sanctified Mirrors ... are one and all the Exponents on earth of Him
Who is the central Orb of the universe, its Essence and ultimate Purpose.
From Him proceed their knowledge and power; from Him is derived their
sovereignty. The beauty of their countenance is but a reflection of His
image, and their revelation a sign of His deathless glory....(32)
The Revelations of God do not differ in any essential respect from one
another, although the changing needs they serve from age to age have
called out unique responses from each of them:
These attributes of God are not and have never been vouchsafed specially
unto certain Prophets, and withheld from others. Nay, all the Prophets of
God, His well-favored, His holy, and chosen Messengers, are, without
exception, the bearers of His names, and the embodiments of His
attributes. They only differ in the intensity of their revelation, and the
comparative potency of their light....(33)
Students of religion are cautioned not to permit theological dogmas or
other preconceptions to lead them into discriminating among those whom God
has used as channels of His light:
Beware, O believers in the Unity of God, lest ye be tempted to make any
distinction between any of the Manifestations of His Cause, or to
discriminate against the signs that have accompanied and proclaimed their
Revelation. This indeed is the true meaning of Divine Unity, if ye be of
them that apprehend and believe this truth. Be ye assured, moreover, that
the works and acts of each and every one of these Manifestations of God,
nay whatever pertaineth unto them, and whatsoever they may manifest in the
future, are all ordained by God, and are a reflection of His Will and
Purpose....(34)
Baha'u'llah compares the interventions of the Divine Revelations to the
return of spring. The Messengers of God are not merely teachers, although
this is one of their primary functions. Rather, the spirit of their words,
together with the example of their lives, has the capacity to tap the
roots of human motivation and to induce fundamental and lasting change.
Their influence opens new realms of understanding and achievement:
And since there can be no tie of direct intercourse to bind the one true
God with His creation, and no resemblance whatever can exist between the
transient and the Eternal, the contingent and the Absolute, He hath
ordained that in every age and dispensation a pure and stainless Soul be
made manifest in the kingdoms of earth and heaven.... Led by the light of
unfailing guidance, and invested with supreme sovereignty, They [the
Messengers of God] are commissioned to use the inspiration of Their words,
the effusions of Their infallible grace and the sanctifying breeze of
Their Revelation for the cleansing of every longing heart and receptive
spirit from the dross and dust of earthly cares and limitations. Then, and
only then, will the Trust of God, latent in the reality of man, emerge ...
and implant the ensign of its revealed glory upon the summits of men's
hearts.(35)
Without this intervention from the world of God, human nature remains the
captive of instinct, as well as of unconscious assumptions and patterns of
behavior that have been culturally determined:
Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He [God]
... chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know
Him and to love Him--a capacity that must needs be regarded as the
generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of
creation.... Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He
hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the
glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath
focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a
mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled
out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty.
These energies with which the ... Source of heavenly guidance hath endowed
the reality of man lie, however, latent within him, even as the flame is
hidden within the candle and the rays of light are potentially present in
the lamp. The radiance of these energies may be obscured by worldly
desires even as the light of the sun can be concealed beneath the dust and
dross which cover the mirror. Neither the candle nor the lamp can be
lighted through their own unaided efforts, nor can it ever be possible for
the mirror to free itself from its dross. It is clear and evident that
until a fire is kindled the lamp will never be ignited, and unless the
dross is blotted out from the face of the mirror it can never represent
the image of the sun nor reflect its light and glory.(36)
The time has come, Baha'u'llah said, when humanity has both the capacity
and the opportunity to see the entire panorama of its spiritual
development as a single process: "Peerless is this Day, for it is as the
eye to past ages and centuries, and as a light unto the darkness of the
times."(37) In this perspective, the followers of differing religious
traditions must strive to understand what He called "the changeless Faith
of God"(38) and to distinguish its central spiritual impulse from the
changing laws and concepts that were revealed to meet the requirements of
an ever-evolving human society:
The Prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to
foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the
spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity....
Little wonder, then, if the treatment prescribed by the physician in this
day should not be found to be identical with that which he prescribed
before. How could it be otherwise when the ills affecting the sufferer
necessitate at every stage of his sickness a special remedy? In like
manner, every time the Prophets of God have illumined the world with the
resplendent radiance of the Day Star of Divine knowledge, they have
invariably summoned its peoples to embrace the light of God through such
means as best befitted the exigencies of the age in which they
appeared....(39)
It is not only the heart, but the mind, which must devote itself to this
process of discovery. Reason, Baha'u'llah asserts, is God's greatest gift
to the soul, "a sign of the revelation of ... the sovereign Lord."(40)
Only by freeing itself from inherited dogma, whether religious or
materialistic, can the mind take up an independent exploration of the
relationship between the Word of God and the experience of humankind. In
such a search, a major obstacle is prejudice: "Warn ... the beloved of the
one true God, not to view with too critical an eye the sayings and
writings of men. Let them rather approach such sayings and writings in a
spirit of open-mindedness and loving sympathy."(41)