"Say: In this day, the fertilizing winds of the grace of God have passed over all things. Every creature hath been endowed with all the potentialities it can carry. And yet the peoples of the world have denied this grace! Every tree hath been endowed with the choicest fruits, every ocean enriched with the most luminous gems. Man, himself, hath been invested with the gifts of understanding and knowledge. The whole creation hath been made the recipient of the revelation of the All-Merciful, and the earth the repository of things inscrutable to all except God, the Truth, the Knower of things unseen. The time is approaching when every created thing will have cast its burden. Glorified be God Who hath vouchsafed this grace that encompasseth all things, whether seen or unseen! Thus have We created the whole earth anew in this day, yet most of the people have failed to perceive it. Say: The grace of God can never be adequately understood; how much less can His own Self, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting, be comprehended!"
Comments:
• In this amazing paragraph Baha’u’llah helps us better understand and appreciate God’s attribute of Grace that has encompassed His creation through His Manifestation – in this Day, through Baha’u’llah! As was explained in comments associated with some earlier paragraphs, this attribute is symbolically represented by the fourth letter of the Arabic word Haykal (Temple) -- referring to one of Baha’u’llah’s Tablets known as the Surih of Haykal.
• We notice that the metaphor “fertilizing winds” is used in this paragraph in connection with “the grace of God”. To “fertilize” is defined in the dictionary as, to make fertile, make fruitful or productive, to enrich.
• In the first line of this paragraph we further notice that the past tense of the verb “pass” is used in describing the “fertilizing winds” that have passed over “all things”.
• The effects that these “fertilizing winds” have had by passing “over all things”, Baha’u’llah tells us, are that:
August 26, 2010
August 7, 2010
Paragraph 1.46
"O Fourth Letter of this Temple, betokening the attribute of Grace! We have made thee the manifestation of grace betwixt earth and heaven. From thee have We generated all grace in the contingent world, and unto thee shall We cause it to return. And from thee shall We manifest it again, through a word of Our command. Potent am I to accomplish whatsoever I desire through My word "Be", and it is! Every grace that appeareth in the world of being hath originated from thee, and unto thee shall it return. This, verily, is what hath been ordained in a Tablet which We have preserved behind the veil of glory and concealed from mortal eyes. Well is it with them that deprive themselves not of this manifest and unfailing grace."
Comments:
• The last Arabic letter of the word Haykal (Temple) is Lám. As was mentioned in comments associated with Paragraph 1.37: The word Haykal (Temple) is composed in Arabic of the four letters Ha', Ya', Káf and Lám (HYKL). Its first letter is taken to symbolize the word Huviyyah (Essence of Divinity); its second letter the word Qadir (Almighty), of which Ya' is the third letter; its third letter the word Karim (All-Bountiful); and its fourth letter the word Fadl (Grace), of which Lám is the third letter.
• We recall that earlier in comments associated with Paragraph 1.17 it was indicated that according to Adib Taherzadeh in volume 3 (p. 133) of his book ‘The Revelation of Baha’u’llah’: “In answer to a question, Bahá'u'lláh has stated that the Haykal [Temple] which is addressed in this Surih is the Person of Bahá'u'lláh, and so is the voice which addresses the Haykal.”
• In Paragrpah 1.46 we become aware that the Entity that appears to us as the Manifestation of God is the source of “all grace in the contingent world”. Furthermore, we become aware that this same Entity will “cause” all grace to be “return(ed)" back to the Manifestation of God! And that “through a Word” of “command” Baha’u’llah (representing this Entity for our time) “shall manifest” this grace “again”. Difficult concepts to fully understand – unless we could find specific explanations by the Master or the beloved Guardian. For now, we could postulate some imperfect possibilities. Could one meaning of the appearance and the return of this entity of “grace” be the very soul of each human being that comes from God (through His Manifestation) and then returns back to Him? Could it be the process of progressive Revelation through which each Manifestation of God comes to earth as a sign of God’s grace and then retreats back to His “true habitation”? Could it be each official successor(s) of every Manifestation of God whom through His grace are created and sent to us for our guidance after His passing – like ‘Abdu’l-Baha?
Comments:
• The last Arabic letter of the word Haykal (Temple) is Lám. As was mentioned in comments associated with Paragraph 1.37: The word Haykal (Temple) is composed in Arabic of the four letters Ha', Ya', Káf and Lám (HYKL). Its first letter is taken to symbolize the word Huviyyah (Essence of Divinity); its second letter the word Qadir (Almighty), of which Ya' is the third letter; its third letter the word Karim (All-Bountiful); and its fourth letter the word Fadl (Grace), of which Lám is the third letter.
• We recall that earlier in comments associated with Paragraph 1.17 it was indicated that according to Adib Taherzadeh in volume 3 (p. 133) of his book ‘The Revelation of Baha’u’llah’: “In answer to a question, Bahá'u'lláh has stated that the Haykal [Temple] which is addressed in this Surih is the Person of Bahá'u'lláh, and so is the voice which addresses the Haykal.”
• In Paragrpah 1.46 we become aware that the Entity that appears to us as the Manifestation of God is the source of “all grace in the contingent world”. Furthermore, we become aware that this same Entity will “cause” all grace to be “return(ed)" back to the Manifestation of God! And that “through a Word” of “command” Baha’u’llah (representing this Entity for our time) “shall manifest” this grace “again”. Difficult concepts to fully understand – unless we could find specific explanations by the Master or the beloved Guardian. For now, we could postulate some imperfect possibilities. Could one meaning of the appearance and the return of this entity of “grace” be the very soul of each human being that comes from God (through His Manifestation) and then returns back to Him? Could it be the process of progressive Revelation through which each Manifestation of God comes to earth as a sign of God’s grace and then retreats back to His “true habitation”? Could it be each official successor(s) of every Manifestation of God whom through His grace are created and sent to us for our guidance after His passing – like ‘Abdu’l-Baha?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)