The Self of God -- the Manifestation of God, the Independent Prophet and the Dependent/Lesser Prophet.
1)
The Bab, the Independent Prophet, "Whom the Almighty hath graciously chosen for His Own Self".
O peoples of the earth! Give ear unto God's holy Voice proclaimed by this Arabian Youth Whom the Almighty hath graciously chosen for His Own Self.
He is indeed none other than the True One, Whom God hath entrusted with
this Mission from the midst of the Burning Bush. O Qurratu'l-`Ayn!
Unravel what Thou pleasest from the secrets of the All-Glorious, for
the ocean is surging high at the behest of the incomparable Lord.
Chapter CXXIV.
-- The Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 50
PRAISE be to Thee, O Lord, my Best Beloved! Make me steadfast in Thy
Cause and grant that I may be reckoned among those who have not
violated Thy Covenant nor followed the gods of their own idle fancy.
Enable me, then, to obtain a seat of truth in Thy presence, bestow upon
me a token of Thy mercy and let me join with such of Thy servants as
shall have no fear nor shall they be put to grief. Abandon me not to
myself, O my Lord, nor deprive me of recognizing Him Who is the Manifestation of Thine Own Self, nor account me with such as have turned away from Thy holy presence.
-- The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 214
2)
Baha'u'llah, the Independent Prophet, the Manifestation of His Self.
Glorified be Thy name, O Lord my God! I beseech Thee by Him Who is Thine exalted and supreme Remembrance,
Whom Thou hast sent down unto all Thy creatures and invested with Thy
name, the All-Glorious, Whose will Thou hast ordained to be Thine own
will, Whose self Thou hast decreed to be the revealer of Thine own
Self, and His essence the Day-Spring of Thy wisdom, and His heart the
treasury of Thine inspiration, and His breast the dawning-place of Thy
most excellent attributes and most exalted titles, and His tongue the
fountain-head of the waters of Thy praise and the well-spring of the
soft-flowing streams of Thy wisdom, to send down upon us that which
will enable us to dispense with all else except Thee, and will cause us
to direct our steps towards the sanctuary of Thy pleasure and to aspire
after the things Thou didst ordain for us according to Thine
irrevocable decree. Empower us, then, O my God, to forsake ourselves
and cleave steadfastly to Him Who is the Manifestation of Thy Self, the
Most Exalted, the Most High.
-- Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 130
[1] O thou glorious enquirer who art set aglow through the Fire of the
Friend! [2] Be thou assured that from the very first day that God aided
Me through faith in Him and confirmation in His Cause, it was not my
desire to respond to the enquiries of any among the servants. [3] But
since I found in thy heart a fire from the Proof of God and a brand from the Light of the Manifestation of His Self,
the ocean of My affection hath surged and it is My wish to reply to
thee through the power and might of God. [4] My munificence overfloweth
with the sprinklings of servitude in the Land of the Theophany, in
order that the breezes of Light might attract thee unto the summit of
exhilaration, and cause thee to attain that station which God hath
decreed for thee in these days in which the winds of sorrow have
encompassed Me on all sides. [5] This on account of that which the
hands of the people have committed for they have calumniated me without
proof or written testimony.[6] O Lord! Cast patience upon Me and make
Me to be victorious over the seditious people.
-- Baha'u'llah, Lawh-i-Kullu-Ta'am, The Tablet of All Food. Provisional translation by Stephen Lambden.
3)
Abdu'l-Baha, the Branch, the Self of God.
Say: Verily, the ocean of pre-existence [Abdu'l-Baha] hath branched forth from this most great Ocean [Baha'u'llah]. Blessed, therefore, is he who abides upon Its shores, and is of those who are established thereon. Verily, this most sacred temple of Abha
[Glory] - the branch of Holiness - hath branched forth from the
Sadratu'l-Muntaha. Blessed is whosoever sought shelter beneath it and
is of those who rest therein.
Say: Verily, the branch of command hath sprung forth from this root which God hath firmly planted in the ground of the will, the limb of which has been elevated to a station which encompasses all existence. Therefore, exalted be He for this creation, the lofty, the blessed, the inaccessible, the mighty!
O ye people! Draw nigh unto It, and taste the fruits of its knowledge
and wisdom on the part of the mighty, the knowing One. Whosoever will
not taste thereof shall be deprived of the bounty, even though he hath
partaken of all that is in the earth - were ye of those who know.
Say: Verily a word hath gone forth in favor from the most great Tablet
and God has adorned It with the mantle of Himself, and made it sovereign over all in the earth and a sign of His grandeur
and omnipotence among the creatures; in order that, through it, the
people shall praise their Lord, the mighty, the powerful, the wise; and
that, through it, they shall glorify their creator and sanctify the self of God which standeth within all things. Verily, this is naught but a Revelation upon the part of the wise, the ancient One!
Say: O people, praise ye God, for its Manifestation,
for verily it is the most great favor upon you and the most perfect
blessing upon you; and through Him every moldering bone is quickened. Whosoever turns to Him hath surely turned unto God, and whosoever turneth away from Him hath turned away from My beauty, denied My proof and is of those who transgress. Verily, He is the remembrance of God amongst you and His trust within you, and His manifestation
unto you and His appearance among the servants who are nigh. Thus have
I been commanded to convey to you the message of God, your Creator; and
I have delivered to you that of which I was commanded. Whereupon,
thereunto testifieth God, then His angels, then His messengers, and
then His holy servants.
-- Baha'u'llah, The Tablet of the Branch - from BWF
... in the Chapter of The Branch
-- all the meanings of which mean the Servitude of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, that
is 'Abdu'l-Bahá -- all that was needed to explain the Center of the
Covenant and the Interpreter of the Book has been revealed from the
Supreme Pen.
-- Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 358
4)
The Living Temple, the Dependent Prophet of Baha'u'llah, the Manifestation
of God; about whom it is said, "We have, moreover, adorned Thee with
the ornament of Our own Self", and "and have appointed Thee as the Manifestation of Our own Self unto all who are in the heavens and on the earth."
1.81
O Living [the pre-existent Dependent Prophet when on the earthly plane] Temple! We, verily, have made Thee a mirror unto the kingdom of names, that Thou mayest be, amidst all mankind, a sign of My sovereignty, a herald unto My presence, a summoner unto My beauty, and a guide unto My straight and perspicuous Path.
We have exalted Thy Name among Our servants as a bounty from Our
presence. I, verily, am the All-Bountiful, the Ancient of Days. We have, moreover, adorned Thee with the ornament of Our own Self,
and have imparted unto Thee Our Word, that Thou mayest ordain in this
contingent world whatsoever Thou willest and accomplish whatsoever Thou
pleasest. We have destined for Thee all the good of the heavens and of
the earth, and decreed that none may attain unto a portion thereof
unless he entereth beneath Thy shadow, as bidden by Thy Lord, the
All-Knowing, the All-Informed. We have conferred upon Thee the Staff of
authority and the Writ of judgement, that Thou mayest test the wisdom
of every command. We have caused the oceans of inner meaning and
explanation to surge from Thy heart in remembrance of Thy Lord, the God
of mercy, that Thou mayest render thanks and praise unto Him and be of
those who are truly thankful. We have singled Thee out from amongst all
Our creatures, and have appointed Thee as the Manifestation of Our own Self unto all who are in the heavens and on the earth.
-- Baha'u'llah, Surih of the Temple, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 43.
5)
The Prophets (both Independent Prophets and Dependent/Lesser Prophets) are "Manifestations of His Self [God]", are Manifestations of the First and the Last, as indicated in the passages below.
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
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
6)
The Manifestation of God (one of the two classes of Prophets) about whom it is said, "I am He, Himself, and He is I, myself."
The door of the knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus
closed in the face of all beings, the Source of infinite grace,
according to His saying: "His grace hath transcended all things; My
grace hath encompassed them all" hath caused those luminous Gems of
Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of
the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may
impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell
of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence. These sanctified
Mirrors, these Day-springs of ancient glory are one and all the
Exponents on earth of Him Who is the central Orb of the universe, its
Essence and ultimate Purpose. From Him proceed their knowledge and
power; from Him is derived their sovereignty. The beauty of their
countenance
is but a reflection of His image, and their revelation a
sign of His deathless glory. They are the Treasuries of divine
knowledge, and the Repositories of celestial wisdom. Through them is
transmitted a grace that is infinite, and by them is revealed
the light that can never fade. Even as He hath said: "There is no
distinction whatsoever between Thee and them; except that they are Thy
servants, and are created of Thee." This is the significance of the
tradition: "I am He, Himself, and He is I, myself."
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 99
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