Tuesday, February 23, 2010

" ... for this is indeed the secret of the “Path” and the fruit of the Tree of “Truth” ...

"In this city, even the veils of light are split asunder and vanish away. “His beauty hath no veiling save light, His face no covering save revelation.” 7 How strange that while the Beloved is visible as the sun, yet the heedless still hunt after tinsel and base metal. Yea, the intensity of His revelation hath covered Him, and the fullness of His shining forth hath hidden Him.

Even as the sun, bright hath He shined,
But alas, He hath come to the town of the blind! 8

Courbet
In this Valley, the wayfarer leaveth behind him the stages of the “oneness of Being and Manifestation” 9 and reacheth a oneness that is sanctified above these two stations. Ecstasy alone can encompass this theme, not utterance nor argument; and whosoever hath dwelt at this stage of the journey, or caught a breath from this garden land, knoweth whereof We speak.

In all these journeys the traveler must stray not the breadth of a hair from the “Law,” for this is indeed the secret of the “Path” and the fruit of the Tree of “Truth”; and in all these stages he must cling to the robe of obedience to the commandments, and hold fast to the cord of shunning all forbidden things, that he may be nourished from the cup of the Law and informed of the mysteries of Truth. 10

If any of the utterances of this Servant may not be comprehended, or may lead to perturbation, the same must be inquired of again, that no doubt may linger, and the meaning be clear as the Face of the Beloved One shining from the “Glorious Station.” 11


-Bahá'u'lláh, The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys, pp. 39-40, The Valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness


7. Hadíth, i.e. action or utterance traditionally attributed to the Prophet Muḥammad or to one of the holy Imáms. 
8. The Mathnaví.
9. Pantheism, a Súfí doctrine derived from the formula: “Only God exists; He is in all things, and all things are in Him.”
10. This refers to the three stages of Súfí life: 1. Sharí’at, or Religious Laws; 2. Taríqat, or the Path on which the mystic wayfarer journeys in search of the True One; this stage also includes anchoretism. 3. Haqíqat, or the Truth which, to the Súfí, is the goal of the journey through all three stages. Here Bahá’u’lláh teaches that, contrary to the belief of certain Súfís who in their search for the Truth consider themselves above all law, obedience to the Laws of Religion is essential.
11. Maqám-i-Mahmúd. Qur’án 17:81.


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