Chapter 1
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Conflicting writings on who are the Manifestations of God. Last updated: October 23rd, 2024.
Note: comments are in blue and writings are in black. In passages 1 - 3 below, Shoghi Effendi and the House indicate that only
Independent Prophets are Manifestations of God; which conflicts with the
writings of Baha'u'llah, the Independent Prophet, the Most Great Infallibility, and other Holy Books. In passages 4 - 6 below, Baha'u'llah indicates that the Holy Imams
(Dependent/Lesser Prophets of Muhammad, one of the two classes of Prophets) and David (a Dependent/Lesser
Prophet of Moses) are also Manifestations of God. Passage 4 on the
"station of pure abstraction and essential unity" of the Manifestations
of God includes Muhammad, Adam, Noah, Moses and Jesus, who are
Independent Prophets ("Supreme Manifestations"); Imam Ali and the Imams, who are
Dependent/Lesser Prophets of Muhammad; who "are all invested with the robe of prophethood [are all Prophets]". The writings of the
Bab, Muhammad, and the Holy Imams, also indicate the Holy Imams are Manifestations of God. The writings of Abdu'l-Baha also indicate the two classes of Prophets are all Manifestations of God. According to Baha'u'llah, "all the Prophets", both Independent Prophets and Dependent/Lesser Prophets, are God's Chosen Ones, are Manifestations of God, are "seated upon
the same throne", are the "Face of God", are "the First" and "the Last"; in keeping with belief in Divine Unity. The following compilation on the Manifestations of God has over a dozen references to Dependent/Lesser Prophets; including Imam Ali, Imam Husayn, Imam Sadiq, David, the "Moon", Abdu'l-Baha, the "Temples of the Oneness of God", and so on. A number of prophecies about the coming of Baha'u'llah and the Bab were revealed by the Holy Imams. Baha'u'llah, the Most Great Infallibility, says the following about the authority of his words, as distinct from all others: "Were He to pronounce water to be wine or heaven to
be earth or light to be fire, He speaketh the truth and no doubt would
there be about it; and unto no one is given the right to question His
authority or to say why or wherefore. Whosoever raiseth objections will
be numbered with the froward in the Book of God, the Lord of the
worlds.", "it is the duty of all
besides Him to strictly observe whatever laws and ordinances have been
enjoined upon them, and should anyone deviate therefrom, even to the
extent of a hair's breadth, his work would be brought to naught."
1)
... ; enunciates the doctrine of the "Most Great Infallibility" of the [Supreme]
Manifestation of God; asserts this infallibility to be the inherent and
exclusive right of the [Independent] Prophet; and rules out the possibility of the
appearance of another [Supreme] Manifestation ere the lapse of at least one
thousand years.
-- Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 213
2)
[SUPREME] MANIFESTATION OF GOD -- Designation of a Prophet "endowed with
constancy" Who is the Founder of a religious Dispensation, inasmuch as
in His words, His person, and His actions He manifests the nature and
purpose of God in accordance with the capacity and needs of the people
to whom He comes.
-- The Universal House of Justice, Messages 1963 to 1986, p. 746 (Glossary)
The essential understanding of Bahá'ís concerning their own Faith is
that its Founder, Bahá'u'lláh, is the latest [Independent] Divine Messenger or
[Supreme] Manifestation from God, Who has established a dispensation for a
duration of at least one thousand years, after which a new
[Supreme] Manifestation will come.
-- The Universal House of Justice, 1995 May 29, Non-membership in other Spiritual Organizations like Subud
3)
That `Abdu'l-Bahá is not a Manifestation of God, that, though the
successor of His Father, He does not occupy a cognate station, that no
one else except the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh can ever lay claim to such a
station before the expiration of a full thousand years-- are verities
which lie embedded in the specific utterances of both the Founder of
our Faith and the Interpreter of His teachings.
-- Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 132.
4)
These Manifestations of God have each a twofold station.
One is the station of pure abstraction and essential unity. In this
respect, if thou callest them all by one name, and dost ascribe to them
the same attributes, thou hast not erred from the truth. Even as He
hath revealed: "No distinction do We make between any of His
Messengers." For they, one and all, summon the people of the earth to
acknowledge the unity of God, and herald unto them the Kawthar of an
infinite grace and bounty. They are all invested with the robe of prophethood,
and are honored with the mantle of glory. Thus hath Muhammad, the Point
of the Qur'án, revealed: "I am all the Prophets." Likewise, He saith:
"I am the first Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus." Similar statements have
been made by Imam Ali. Sayings such as these, which indicate the essential unity of those Exponents of Oneness,
have also emanated from the Channels of God's immortal utterance, and
the Treasuries of the gems of Divine knowledge, and have been recorded
in the Scriptures. These Countenances
are the recipients of the Divine Command, and the Day Springs of His
Revelation. This Revelation is exalted above the veils of plurality and
the exigencies of number. Thus He saith: "Our Cause is but One."
Inasmuch as the Cause is one and the same, the Exponents thereof also
must needs be one and the same. Likewise, the Imams of the Muhammadan Faith, those lamps of certitude, have said: "Muhammad is our first, Muhammad is our last, Muhammad our all."
-- Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 50
I shall restate here My theme, that perchance this may assist thee in
recognizing thy Creator. Know thou that God - exalted and glorified be
He - doth in no wise manifest His inmost Essence and Reality. From time
immemorial He hath been veiled in the eternity of His Essence and
concealed in the infinitude of His own Being. And when He purposed to
manifest His beauty in the kingdom of names and to reveal His glory in
the realm of attributes, He brought forth His Prophets from the
invisible plane to the visible, that His name "the Manifest" might be
distinguished from "the Hidden" and His name "the Last" might be
discerned from "the First", and that there may be fulfilled the words:
"He is the First and the Last; the Seen and the Hidden; and He knoweth
all things!" Thus hath He revealed these most excellent names and most
exalted words in the Manifestations of His Self and the Mirrors of His
Being.
-- Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, p. 33
5)
It should first be noted that in one sense the stations of the Prophets
of God differ one from another. For instance, consider Moses [the Independent Prophet]. He
brought forth a Book and established ordinances, whilst a number of the
Prophets and Messengers [the Dependent/Lesser Prophets of Moses] who arose after Him were charged with the
promulgation of His laws, insofar as they remained consonant with the
needs of the age. The books and chronicles annexed to the Torah bear
eloquent testimony to this truth.
-- Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity.
Thy unity is inscrutable, O my God, to all except them that have
recognized Him Who is the Manifestation [Independent Prophet ("Sun") or Dependent/Lesser Prophet ("Moon")] of Thy singleness and the
Day-Spring of Thy oneness. Whoso assigneth a rival unto Him hath
assigned a rival unto Thee, and whoso hath set up a peer for Him hath
set up a peer for Thyself. No, no, none can withstand Thee in the whole
of creation. Thou hast everlastingly been exalted far above all
comparison and likeness. Thy oneness hath been demonstrated by the
oneness of Him Who is the Dawning-Place of Thy Revelation. Whosoever
denieth this, hath denied Thy unity, and disputed with Thee about Thy
sovereignty, and contended with Thee in Thy realm, and repudiated Thy
commandments.
Assist Thou Thy servants, O my Lord, to recognize Thy unity and to
declare Thy oneness, that all may gather together around what Thou
didst desire in this Day whereon the sun of Thine essence hath shone forth above the horizon of Thy will, and the moon of Thine own being hath risen from the Day-Spring of Thy behest. Thou
art He, O my Lord, from Whose knowledge nothing whatsoever escapeth,
and Whom no one can frustrate. Thou doest Thy pleasure, by Thy
sovereignty that overshadoweth the worlds.
-- Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 57
These attributes of God are not and have never been vouchsafed
specially unto certain Prophets, and withheld from others. Nay, all the
Prophets of God, His well-favoured, His holy, and chosen Messengers,
are, without exception, the bearers of His names, and the embodiments
of His attributes... Therefore, these illuminated Souls, these beauteous
Countenances have, each and every one of them, been endowed with all
the attributes of God, such as sovereignty, dominion, and the like,
even though to outward seeming they be shorn of all earthly majesty. To
every discerning eye this is evident and manifest; it requireth neither
proof nor evidence.
-- Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 103
Every one who is endowed with a clear insight will behold that They
(the Manifestations) were created before the creation of heaven and
earth, and that this has ever been the Throne of the Merciful, and will
forever be as it was; that there is no relation, connection, similarity
or reference between that Throne and all else save it, and that all
things testify with their inmost tongue; "Verily, these (bodies) are
the Thrones of the Merciful One."
-- Baha'u'llah, Lawh-i-Zuhúr, Tablet of the Manifestation - Provisional translation by an unknown author
6)
None of the many Prophets sent down, since Moses was made manifest, as
Messengers of the Word of God, such as David, Jesus, and others among
the more exalted Manifestations who have appeared during the
intervening period between the Revelations of Moses and Muhammad, ever
altered the law of the Qiblih. These Messengers of the Lord of creation
have, one and all, directed their peoples to turn unto the same
direction.
-- Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 51
7)
XXI. O Salmán! The door of the knowledge of the Ancient Being hath ever
been, and will continue for ever to be, closed in the face of men. No
man's understanding shall ever gain access unto His holy court. As a
token of His mercy, however, and as a proof of His loving-kindness, He
hath manifested unto men the Day Stars of His divine guidance, the
Symbols of His divine unity, and hath ordained the knowledge of these
sanctified Beings to be identical with the knowledge of His own Self.
Whoso recognizeth them hath recognized God. Whoso hearkeneth to their
call, hath hearkened to the Voice of God, and whoso testifieth to the truth of their Revelation, hath testified to the truth of God Himself. Whoso turneth away from them, hath turned away from God, and whoso disbelieveth in them, hath disbelieved in God.
Every one of them is the Way of God that connecteth this world with the
realms above, and the Standard of His Truth unto every one in the
kingdoms of earth and heaven. They are the Manifestations of God amidst
men, the evidences of His Truth, and the signs of His glory.
-- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 49
It follows, therefore, that every man hath been, and will continue to
be, able of himself to appreciate the Beauty of God, the Glorified. Had
he not been endowed with such a capacity, how could he be called to
account for his failure? If, in the Day when all the peoples of the
earth will be gathered together, any man should, whilst standing in the
presence of God, be asked: "Wherefore hast thou disbelieved in My Beauty
and turned away from My Self," and if such a man should reply and say:
"Inasmuch as all men have erred, and none hath been found willing to
turn his face to the Truth, I, too, following their example, have
grievously failed to recognize the Beauty of the Eternal," such a plea
will, assuredly, be rejected. For the faith of no man can be
conditioned by any one except himself.
-- Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 143
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