Paragraph 1.51

Say: We have revealed Our verses in nine different modes. Each one of them bespeaketh the sovereignty of God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. A single one of them sufficeth for a proof unto all who are in the heavens and on the earth; yet the people, for the most part, persist in their heedlessness. Should it be Our wish, We would reveal them in countless other modes.

Comments

• It’s so remarkable that in this paragraph Baha’u’llah brings to our attention the fact that the “verses” of God could be “revealed” in a variety of “modes”. Ordinarily one wouldn’t even think of this attribute of Divine Revelation.

• Having gained this insight, we become further aware that each of these “modes” is indicative of, and points to, the “sovereignty of God”.

• In the ‘The Revelation of Baha'u'llah vol. 1’ by Adib Taherzadeh, we find the following useful information concerning these “nine different modes”:

In the Suriy-i-Haykal (Surih of the Temple) revealed in 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh states that in this Dispensation the verses of God have been revealed in nine different styles or categories. A well-known Bahá'í scholar, Jinab-i-Fadil-i-Mazindarani, after careful study of the Writings, has enumerated these styles as follows:

  1. Tablets with the tone of command and authority.
  2. Those with the tone of servitude, meekness and supplication.
  3. Writings dealing with interpretation of the old Scriptures, religious beliefs and doctrines of the past.
  4. Writings in which laws and ordinances have been enjoined for this age and laws of the past abrogated.
  5. Mystical Writings.
  6. Tablets concerning matters of government and world order, and those addressed to the kings.
  7. Tablets dealing with subjects of learning and knowledge, divine philosophy, mysteries of creation, medicine, alchemy, etc.
  8. Tablets exhorting men to education, goodly character and divine virtues.
  9. Tablets dealing with social teachings. (Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha'u'llah v 1, p. 42)

Paragraph 1.50

"Say: The Holy Spirit Itself hath been generated through the agency of a single letter revealed by this Most Great Spirit, if ye be of them that comprehend. And that innate and untaught nature in its essence is called into being by the verses of God, the Help in Peril, the All-Glorious, the Best-Beloved. Say: This nature prideth itself in its relation to Our transcendent Truth, whilst We, for Our part, glory neither in it nor in aught else, for all beside Myself hath been created through the potency of My word, could ye but understand."

Comments:

• In this powerful paragraph, the Manifestation of God brings our attention to the Entities of the “Holy Spirit” and the “Most Great Spirit”, Their interaction, and the relation between the “nature” of the Person in Whom the Most Great Spirit has appeared, the “verses of God”, and the Most Great Spirit Itself. Incredible subjects, way beyond us mortal “confined” beings to understand! In attempting to gain some insights (partial and imperfect, however) from this powerful paragraph, let’s first start by briefly reviewing the overall concept of “Holy Spirit” as it is referred to in the previous Dispensations, and then turn to the Baha’i Writings for updated illumination, and then explore references containing the Entity of the “Most Great Spirit”. This is indeed a very humbling undertaking! We’ll begin by examining the use of the phrase “Holy Spirit” in the New Testament and the Qur’an – the two latest Dispensations before the coming of the Bab and Baha’u’llah.