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.