Question about Dependent/Lesser Prophets being Manifestations of God.
If you (a Baha'i) were brought before God, similar to what is expressed in passages 1 and 2, and asked whether the Holy Imams and David are Manifestations of God; based on the Holy Writings in passages 3 - 5; what would be your answer?
1)
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
2)
Thus on the Day of Resurrection
God will ask everyone of his understanding and not of his following in
the footsteps of others. How often a person, having inclined his ears
to the holy verses, would bow down in humility and would embrace the
Truth, while his leader would not do so. Thus every individual must
bear his own responsibility, rather than someone else bearing it for
him. At the time of the appearance of Him Whom God will make manifest
the most distinguished among the learned and the lowliest of men shall
both be judged alike. How often the most insignificant of men have
acknowledged the truth, while the most learned have remained wrapt in
veils. Thus in every Dispensation a number of souls enter the fire by
reason of their following in the footsteps of others. IV, 18.
-- The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 89
3)
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
4)
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)
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
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