"O brother, we should open our eyes, meditate upon His Word, and seek the sheltering shadow of the Manifestations of God ..."

 

photo by Trina G.

"O brother, we should open our eyes, meditate upon His Word, and seek the sheltering shadow of the Manifestations of God, that perchance we may be warned by the unmistakable counsels of the Book, and give heed to the admonitions recorded in the holy Tablets; that we may not cavil at the Revealer of the verses, that we may resign ourselves wholly to His Cause, and embrace wholeheartedly His law, that haply we may enter the court of His mercy, and dwell upon the shore of His grace. He, verily, is merciful and forgiving towards His servants."

Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Íqán

www.bahai.org/r/459087282

"The Prophets “endowed with constancy,” whose loftiness and glory shine as the sun, were each honored with a Book which all have seen, and the verses of which have been duly ascertained."

 

photo by Trina G.

"In like manner, thou observest in this day with what vile imputations they have assailed that Gem of Immortality, and what unspeakable transgressions they have heaped upon Him Who is the Source of purity. Although God hath throughout His Book and in His holy and immortal Tablet warned them that deny and repudiate the revealed verses, and hath announced His grace unto them that accept them, yet behold the unnumbered cavils they raised against those verses which have been sent down from the new heaven of God’s eternal holiness! This, notwithstanding the fact that no eye hath beheld so great an outpouring of bounty, nor hath any ear heard of such a revelation of loving-kindness. Such bounty and revelation have been made manifest, that the revealed verses seemed as vernal showers raining from the clouds of the mercy of the All-Bountiful. The Prophets “endowed with constancy,” whose loftiness and glory shine as the sun, were each honored with a Book which all have seen, and the verses of which have been duly ascertained. Whereas the verses which have rained from this Cloud of divine mercy have been so abundant that none hath yet been able to estimate their number. A score of volumes are now available. How many still remain beyond our reach! How many have been plundered and have fallen into the hands of the enemy, the fate of which none knoweth."

Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Íqán

www.bahai.org/r/147115947

"Give ear unto God’s holy Voice, and heed thou His sweet and immortal melody."

 

© 2024 Chuck Egerton

"Give ear unto God’s holy Voice, and heed thou His sweet and immortal melody. Behold how He hath solemnly warned them that have repudiated the verses of God, and hath disowned them that have denied His holy words. Consider how far the people have strayed from the Kawthar of the divine Presence, and how grievous hath been the faithlessness and arrogance of the spiritually destitute in the face of that sanctified Beauty. Although that Essence of loving-kindness and bounty caused those evanescent beings to step into the realm of immortality, and guided those destitute souls to the sacred river of wealth, yet some denounced Him as “a calumniator of God, the Lord of all creatures,” others accused Him of being “the one that withholdeth the people from the path of faith and true belief,” and still others declared Him to be “a lunatic” and the like."

Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Íqán

www.bahai.org/r/654102833

“Whom God causeth to err through a knowledge”

 

Itten

"Although the outward meaning of “Whom God causeth to err through a knowledge” is what hath been revealed, yet to Us it signifieth those divines of the age who have turned away from the Beauty of God, and who, clinging unto their own learning, as fashioned by their own fancies and desires, have denounced God’s divine Message and Revelation. “Say: It is a weighty Message, from which ye turn aside!”¹⁶⁷Likewise, He saith: “And when Our clear verses are recited to them, they say, ‘This is merely a man who would fain pervert you from your father’s worship.’ And they say, ‘This is none other than a forged falsehood.’”^168"

Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Íqán

www.bahai.org/r/002768642

"And when He Who is well-grounded in all knowledge, He Who is the Mother, the Soul, the Secret, and the Essence thereof, revealeth that which is the least contrary to their desire, they bitterly oppose Him and shamelessly deny Him."

 

Lake Tahoe, photo by Jordan M. 

"Even as thou dost witness how the people of the Qur’án, like unto the people of old, have allowed the words “Seal of the Prophets” to veil their eyes. And yet, they themselves testify to this verse: “None knoweth the interpretation thereof but God and they that are well-grounded in knowledge.”¹⁶⁵ And when He Who is well-grounded in all knowledge, He Who is the Mother, the Soul, the Secret, and the Essence thereof, revealeth that which is the least contrary to their desire, they bitterly oppose Him and shamelessly deny Him. These thou hast already heard and witnessed. Such deeds and words have been solely instigated by leaders of religion, they that worship no God but their own desire, who bear allegiance to naught but gold, who are wrapt in the densest veils of learning, and who, enmeshed by its obscurities, are lost in the wilds of error. Even as the Lord of being hath explicitly declared: “What thinkest thou? He who hath made a God of his passions, and whom God causeth to err through a knowledge, and whose ears and whose heart He hath sealed up, and over whose sight He hath cast a veil—who, after his rejection by God, shall guide such a one? Will ye not then be warned?”^166 "

Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Íqán

www.bahai.org/r/968354379

"Most of the people have become afflicted with the same spiritual disease."

photo by Margarete P.

 

"Likewise, in this day, thou hast heard the people impute similar charges to this Revelation, saying: “He hath compiled these words from the words of old”; or “these words are spurious.” Vain and haughty are their sayings, low their estate and station!

After the denials and denunciations which they uttered, and unto which We have referred, they protested saying: “No independent Prophet, according to our Scriptures, should arise after Moses and Jesus to abolish the Law of divine Revelation. Nay, he that is to be made manifest must needs fulfill the Law.” Thereupon this verse, indicative of all the divine themes, and testifying to the truth that the flow of the grace of the All-Merciful can never cease, was revealed: “And Joseph came to you aforetime with clear tokens, but ye ceased not to doubt of the message with which He came to you, until, when He died, ye said, ‘God will by no means raise up a Messenger after Him.’ Thus God misleadeth him who is the transgressor, the doubter.”¹⁶⁴ Therefore, understand from this verse and know of a certainty that the people in every age, clinging to a verse of the Book, have uttered such vain and absurd sayings, contending that no Prophet should again be made manifest to the world. Even as the Christian divines who, holding fast to the verse of the Gospel to which We have already referred, have sought to explain that the law of the Gospel shall at no time be annulled, and that no independent Prophet shall again be made manifest, unless He confirmeth the law of the Gospel. Most of the people have become afflicted with the same spiritual disease."

Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Íqán

www.bahai.org/r/619058106

“And they say, ‘Shall we then abandon our gods for a crazed poet?’”

 

© 2024 Chuck Egerton

"And likewise, He saith: “As for those who believe not in the verses of God, or that they shall ever meet Him, these of My mercy shall despair, and these doth a grievous chastisement await.”¹⁶² Also, “And they say, ‘Shall we then abandon our gods for a crazed poet?’”¹⁶³ The implication of this verse is manifest. Behold what they observed after the verses were revealed. They called Him a poet, scoffed at the verses of God, and exclaimed saying: “These words of his are but tales of the Ancients!” By this they meant that those words which were spoken by the peoples of old Muḥammad hath compiled and called them the Word of God."

Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Íqán

www.bahai.org/r/994440014