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)
