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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