"Say: Naught is seen in My temple but the Temple of God, and in My beauty but His Beauty, and in My being but His Being, and in My self but His Self, and in My movement but His Movement, and in My acquiescence but His Acquiescence, and in My pen but His Pen, the Mighty, the All-Praised. There hath not been in My soul but the Truth, and in Myself naught could be seen but God."
Comments:
• Baha’u’llah makes very powerful pronouncements in this paragraph concerning His relation, as a Manifestation God, to God. This is in conformity with other pronouncements in His Writings concerning the incredible greatness of His Dispensation. For example:
"Great indeed is this Day! The allusions made to it in all the sacred Scriptures as the Day of God attest its greatness. The soul of every Prophet of God, of every Divine Messenger, hath thirsted for this wondrous Day. All the divers kindreds of the earth have, likewise, yearned to attain it." (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 11)
"In the Book of Isaiah it is written: "Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty." No man that meditateth upon this verse can fail to recognize the greatness of this Cause, or doubt the exalted character of this Day -- the Day of God Himself. This same verse is followed by these words: "And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that Day." (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 13)
"Say: This is the Day of God Himself; fear ye God and be not of them that have disbelieved in Him. Cast the idle tales behind your backs and behold My Revelation through Mine eyes. Unto this have ye been exhorted in heavenly Books and Scriptures, in the Scrolls and Tablets." (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 241)
• We also need to balance our understanding (however “partial and imperfect”, it may be, in the words of the House of Justice) against other references from Baha’u’llah such as:
"When I contemplate, O my God, the relationship that bindeth me to Thee, I am moved to proclaim to all created things "verily I am God"; and when I consider my own self, lo, I find it coarser than clay!" (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 234)
• Adib Taherzadeh provides some very helpful and insightful explanation concerning these issues. In his ‘The Revelation of Baha'u'llah v 1’ he explains that:
“One of the traditions of Shí'ah Islam states that when the Promised One appears He will utter one word which will cause people to flee Him. Bahá'u'lláh has explained in a Tablet that this word is the changing of 'He' into 'I'; instead of saying 'He is God', the Manifestation of God in this day will say 'I am God', and people bereft of understanding and insight will turn away from Him.” (Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha'u'llah v 1, p. 44)
• There are also many explanations provided by ‘Abdu’l-Baha concerning Divinity and the manifestations of Its attributes in Prophets and Manifestations of God. For example in a talk given on Reality of Divinity in London on September 17th, 1911, He explain that “Lastly the perfect man, the Prophet, is one who is transfigured, one who has the purity and clearness of a perfect mirror -- one who reflects the Sun of Truth. Of such a one -- of such a Prophet and Messenger -- we can say that the Light of Divinity with the heavenly Perfections dwells in him.” To read the entire talk please visit http://centerofcovenanttalks.blogspot.com/2010/01/reality-of-divinity.html
