The Baha'i concept of God

The Bahá'í belief in one God means that the universe and all its creatures and its forces have been created by a single Being superhuman and supernatural. This Being we call God, has absolute control of his creation (omnipotence) and the complete and perfect knowledge of the latter (omniscience). Although we have different concepts of the nature of God, although we pray in different languages and gave him different names - Allah or Yahweh, God or Brahma - nevertheless we speak the same unique Being.
Celebrating the creative act of God, Bahá'u'lláh said:
Praise to the unity of God and honor the unique and very glorious sovereign Lord of the universe, none of the most complete, has created the reality of all things that nothing has extracted the most finest and most subtle of its creation and who, issuing his creatures from lower where was the removal of his presence, and saving them from the perils of ultimate extinction, has received his kingdom of incorruptible glory! Nothing less than universal grace and mercy that penetrate all could accomplish.2
Bahá'u'lláh taught that God is a being too large and too subtle for the human mind, with its limitations, could ever understand or properly represent exactly:
How wonderful is the unity of the living God and unchangeable forever - a unit that is above all limitations and understanding that transcends all created things ... How sublime is the incorruptible Essence, how completely independent of knowledge that can have all created things, and how this unity will remain immeasurably exalted above the praise of all the inhabitants of heaven and earth!3
According to Bahá'í teachings, God transcends his creation to such an extent that, for all eternity, we will never be able to make him a clear picture or achieve anything except an assessment fraction of his higher nature. Even when we say that God is the Almighty, the Most Loving, the Infinitely Just, we only use terms derived from human experience very limited power, love and justice. In fact, our knowledge of all things is limited by our knowledge of these attributes and qualities perceptible to us only:
Know that there are two kinds of knowledge: knowledge of the essence of a thing and knowledge of its qualities. The essence of a thing is known through its qualities, otherwise it remains hidden and unknown.
Given that our knowledge of things, even of created and limited things, is knowledge of their qualities and not their essence, how is it possible to understand in its essence the Divine Reality which is unlimited ...? Knowing God, therefore, means understanding and knowing its attributes, not its reality. And this knowledge of attributes is also proportional to the capacity and power of man, is not absolute.4
As for humans, the knowledge of God means the knowledge of qualities and attributes of God, and not direct knowledge of its essence. But how can we attain knowledge of God's attributes? Bahá'u'lláh wrote that everything in creation is God's work and therefore reflects a lot of its attributes. For example, even in the intimate structure of a rock or crystal, one can observe the order of God's creation. And this object is more elegant, more he is able to reflect the attributes of God. The event is the form of creating the highest we know, the event provides us the most complete knowledge of God that we have:
Everything in heaven and on earth is in itself proof of direct names and attributes of God, since, in every atom are enshrined the signs that bear eloquent testimony to the revelation of this great light ... But this is especially true of the man and the highest degree ... For by him were virtually revealed, to a degree that no other created thing can not reach or exceed, all names and attributes of God ... And, of all men, most perfect, the most prominent and best events are the Sun of Truth. Even better, it is only through the operation of the will of these events and by the outpouring of grace, that all other live and move.5
Although a rock or a tree reveals something of the subtleties of his creator, only a conscious being as humans can adopt the attributes of God in his life and his actions. Since the events are already at the stage of perfection in this life that we can more fully grasp the deeper meaning of God's attributes. God is not limited to a physical body, and therefore we can not directly see or observe his personality. So, in fact, knowing the events that we are approaching the greatest knowledge of God.
Know, without doubt, that the Unseen can in no way embody the essence and reveal to men. It is and always will be infinitely exalted above all that can be perceived and expressed ... He who from all eternity, remained hidden from human eyes can not be known by its manifestation, and its manifestation can provide greater evidence of the truth of his mission as proof that the person brings it same.6
And in another similar passage:
The door to knowledge of the Lord has always been and will remain forever closed to men. No human mind only sees ever in his holy court. However, as a token of his mercy and as a sign of his loving kindness He showed to men the Stars the day of his divine guidance, the Symbols of His divine unity, and he wanted to, that knowledge of these sanctified Beings to be identical his own knowledge.7
Of course, only those who lived during the lifetime of the event have the opportunity to observe directly. For this reason, Bahá'u'lláh explained that the writings and words of each event are a vital link between individuals and God. For Bahá'ís, the word of the event is the Word of God, and unto the Word which individuals can turn daily to get closer to God and know Him better. The written Word of God is the instrument that creates an awareness of the presence of God in our daily lives:
Say: The first and most important evidence of its truth is his own person. Just then his revelation. And for those who recognize neither the one nor the other, it is the words he has proved as evidence of its reality and truth ... He has endowed every soul's ability to recognize the signs of God.8
It is for this reason that the discipline of daily prayer, meditation and study of holy writings constitutes an important part of spiritual practice of individual Baha'is. They believe that this discipline is one of the main ways to get closer to their creator.
To summarize: the Bahá'í view of God is that His essence is eternally transcendent, but its attributes and qualities are immanent in the events.9 Our knowledge of anything being limited by our knowledge of the attributes of every perceptible thing, knowledge of events is (for ordinary humans) equivalent to knowledge of God.10 In concrete terms, this knowledge is acquired through study, prayer, meditation and practical application of what the Word of God tells us (that is to say the Holy Scriptures of events).
1">Adapted from William S. Hatcher and J. Douglas Martin, The Baha'i Faith: The emergence of a world religion (Brussels, Baha'i Publishing House, 1997), pp. 93-94, 155-159.
2">Bahá'u'lláh, Extracts from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, (Brussels, Baha'i Publishing House, ed. 1990), p. 44.
3"> Bahá'u'lláh, Extracts from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 172.
`Abdu'l-Bahá, The Lessons of Saint Jean d'Acre (Press Universitaires de France, Paris, 4th edition, revised, 1970), pp. 225-226.
5"> Bahá'u'lláh, Extracts from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, pp. 117-118.
6"> Bahá'u'lláh, Extracts from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 34.
7" Bahá'u'lláh, Extracts from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 34.
8">Bahá'u'lláh, Extracts from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 70.
9">In this regard, Shoghi Effendi said the manifestation of Bahá'u'lláh that the incarnation was complete names and attributes of God. [See The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, (Brussels, Baha'i Publishing House, ed. 1993), p. 108].
10 Abdu'l-Bahá, The Lessons of Saint Jean d'Acre, P. 227.

The Baha’i faith… Haven or deviation?

This is an English translation of an article that appeared recently on Al Waqt:

The Baha’i faith… Haven or deviation?

By: Ali Ahmad Al-Diri

Could a religion be an avenue for deviation?

I am addressing this issue in the wake of the campaign against the Baha’i faith in Egypt, which has, unfortunately, attracted the contribution of writers and journalists who have added fuel to the controversy. For example, the journalist Mahmoud Issa has made virulent observations about an incident related to the citizens of Suhaj, one of the villages of Upper Egypt, who burned down four of their neighbors’ houses because they embraced the Baha’i faith: he pointed out to the mistake of considering the Baha’i faith a religion, the presence of proselytizers and missionaries who propagate this deviant thinking, and the existence of incentives that are mostly of a pecuniary nature and that attract those simple souls to the Bahai faith, which is lacking spiritual incentives. The religious establishment should have been more aware and should have been ready with a plan to confront this dangerous deviation which would transform into heroes and martyrs. (1)

From a religious perspective, it is possible to describe a religion with deviance. As a matter of fact, every religion accuses the religions that come after it of deviance, which is inadmissible from an epistemological, sociological or legal perspective, especially where human rights are concerned. The legal perspective is not the same as that of the canonical law of Islam rightfulness; it is a modern concept and is the product of the human mind, which has created it as a regulatory system for the organization of life and in order to provide people with a framework that would guarantee them their security and the right to live in freedom and justice. As such, the legal system is a human endeavor and is amenable to amendment without the risk of apostasy or heresy; whereas the canonical law of Islam cannot be amended, without the risk of apostasy and heresy.

From a sociological perspective, the followers of the Baha’i faith are human groups of diverse ethnic origins, who practice their life according to teachings which they believe emanate from God; they have their own rituals, their own scriptures and their systems for communicating with and envisioning the universe. We cannot describe these groups as deviant. The common law that governs any modern state necessitates the protection of different groups in its interpretation of deviance and should not adopt the perspective of one religious group in its perception of deviance against another. .modern state has to remain neutral in confronting religions.

In the short film prepared by the blogger Ahmad Ezat, a Baha’i girl says “I do not feel that I am living normally within society”, and the Baha’i boy says: “Baha’is are allowed to live, but they are inexistent in the eyes of the state.” (2)

If the state deems a religious group as deviant (and hence lost), it cannot give it any recognition., which is a way of acknowledging it, and once a group loses this recognition it cannot exist normally within society. The state is the product of the modern legal system, not of the canonical law of Islam.

The canonical law of Islam recognizes human beings according to its definition of deviance, whereas the state recognizes them according to its perception of the individual, who is not defined according to criteria of deviance or revelation but as existent or non-existent. The state recognizes an existing being in its records, and once this being is deceased, the name of this being is deleted from its records and added to its archives.

From the perspective of the state, religion is not a corpus of beliefs determined by either truth and revelation or denial and perdition, but a sum of the many living manifestations of humanity, and these manifestations have as much right to subsist as they have to be recognized by the state.

I have had intimate contacts with Baha’is. I had the opportunity of meeting many of them and attending their weddings, their religious celebrations and social gatherings. These contacts have led me to acquire an informed opinion of their religious dealings and of how religion governs their vision and frames their moral codes. Indeed it is a very strict system in terms of purity and spirituality, and it always gives ample leverage to the inner voice of each individual. Sociology has taught us that minorities always rely much more on their inner moral code than the external one, as is the case with groups that constitute majorities, and the Baha’i religion is no exception. If it becomes a majority anywhere in the world, it necessarily follows that it will have to transform its system to one where the external code takes precedence over the internal one. It is also not exceptional for it, as a religion, to want to spread itself, and to believe in its own superiority, its reasoning, its inclusiveness, its righteousness, its theological dialectic and the fact that as a religion, it brings salvation to humanity, and its reliance on parables, stories, metaphors and dreams in its educational and persuasive process.

At a Baha’i wedding ceremony in Bahrain, I was accompanied by my friend Ali Al-Jalawi who had published a book on the Baha’is of Bahrain. During this event, he drew my attention to the ubiquitous presence of the Arabic language, even in the ceremonial text and the accompanying prayers, in spite of the fact that most of the Baha’is of Bahrain are of Persian extraction. This was the text that was read during the ceremony: “Oh God, oh God, the sun and the moon are wed through Your love, and united in the worship of Your sanctity. They have vowed to serve you. Bless this union as a manifestation of Your abundance.” This prayer instantly clung to my heart like a moon clings to the heart of a lover, because of the excessive love and spirituality that overflow from the term ‘the sun and the moon’.

The Baha’i faith, as I experienced it closely, overflows with ‘lunar’ spirituality; in fact it ‘lunifies’ a person and ‘lunifies’ his or her spirit. During one of my visits, my Baha’i friend offered me a book entitled “Warq’a” as a present. He told me that the Baha’i faith teaches us about love and passion, and the love of light, splendor and mankind and that I would find that Jalal Eddine Al-Roumi expresses the essence of this approach in this book. I opened the book and read the following writing of Jalal Eddine: “you are what you seek”. All religions seek God, the absolute, through man and all the paths create unto you a religion and a path that connect you to him.

The great Sufi Ibn Arabi said “say of the universe what you wish” (3) because one cannot lose the way that would lead to God, for God is omnipresent and whatever one says and in whichever direction will always connect one to Him..

Baha’a Allah says “the word is the number one teacher in the university of existence, and it is the first drop that emanated from God. All names emanate from His name and the beginning and end to all things is within His grip.” (4)

The Muslim Sufi Ibn Arabi Mohieedin saw in the names of the Divine a manifestation of the existence of God. In his book “Fusous Al-Hikam” (Explanation of the rules of governance and Sufism) he talked about the universe and existence through the names of God, by considering them metaphors and ways of seeing the world, understanding it and living in it.

Could a religion be an avenue for deviation? If there is such thing as deviation, the shadows of God should not be seen in all avenues and branches that Baha’ullah talked about in his call upon the world: “O people of the world, ye are all the fruit of one tree, the leaves of one branch, the flowers of one garden and the drops of one ocean. Walk with perfect charity, concord, affection, and agreement.” (5)

Sources:
1. Mahmoud Issa, Baha’i turbulence, Alwatan Qatari newspaper, 10 April, 2009
2. View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drAe_hSCaxI&feature=PlayList&p=841A4BCE9E873E26&index=0&playnext=1
3. Ibn Arabi, Fusous Al-Hikam.
4. http://rands1957.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!7CE1906B800AE160!128.entry?_c=BlogPart.
5. http://rands1957.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!7CE1906B800AE160!128.entry?_c=BlogPart