Consider the past. How many, both high and low, have, at all times,
yearningly awaited the advent of the Manifestations of God in the sanctified
persons of His chosen Ones
(Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Iqan, Page: 4)
[kf]
Already we see a term introduced in the first pages of the Sacred Iqan which
would be "new" to the hearer [particularly] from the Islamic background.
Baha'u'llah calls the Prophets of God _"MANIFESTATIONS of God in the
sanctified persons of His chosen Ones"
Just a bit further He, the Divine Revealer, says:
Moreover, the more closely you observe the denials of those who have opposed
the MANIFESTATIONS of the divine attributes, the firmer will be your faith
in the Cause of God.
(Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Iqan, Page: 6)
And then again
Nay, the manifold bounties of the Lord of all beings have, at all times,
through the MANIFESTATIONS of His divine Essence, encompassed the earth and
all that dwell therein.
(Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Iqan, Page: 14)
Unto every discerning observer it is evident and manifest that had these
people in the days of each of the MANIFESTATIONS of the Sun of Truth
sanctified their eyes, their ears, and their hearts from whatever they had
seen, heard, and felt, they surely would not have been deprived of beholding
the beauty of God, nor strayed far from the habitations of glory
(Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Iqan, Pages: 14-15)
Now just prior to the Dawn of the Revelation it was the great Shaykh Ahmad
Ah.sai who in his works going on to thousand two hundred pages mentions the
Prophets and the Imams as "Manifestations" of the Divine Attributes.
Thus in Sharh.uz Ziyaarat Fa-innahum Maz.aahiru Asmaa'ihi Ta'ala wa
s.ifaatihi al H.usna [1:section 168]
They the Prophets and Imams are the Manifestations of His Names and His
Beauteous Attributes.
This usage by Shaykh Ahmad though would not have been widely known at all
...But His holiness Baha'u'llah used it for all God's Revelators and
introduced a fundamental source of unity.
Conceive accordingly the distinction, variation, and unity characteristic of
the various MANIFESTATIONS of holiness, that thou mayest comprehend the
allusions made by the creator of all names and attributes to the mysteries
of distinction and unity, and discover the answer to thy question as to why
that everlasting Beauty should have, at sundry times, called Himself by
different names and titles.
(Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Iqan, Pages: 21-22)
So Jesus Christ is a Manifestation of the Divine Names and Attributes
Muhammad is a Manifestation of the Divine Names and attributes. So is the
Bab. So is Baha'u'llah.
**** that haply discerning hearts may comprehend all the allusions and the
implications of the utterances of the Manifestations of Holiness, so that
the overpowering majesty of the Word of God may not prevent them from
attaining unto the ocean of His names and attributes, nor deprive them of
recognizing the Lamp of God which is the seat of the revelation of His
glorified Essence.
(Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Iqan, Page: 28)***
The essence of these MANIFESTATIONS IS EXALTED ABOVE THE VEILS OF PLURALITY
AND THE EXIGENCIES OF NUMBER
(Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Iqan, Page: 153)
[St Paul had mentioned that God was "manifest" but the Johannine Incarnation
formula took dominance]
Compare John 1:14 and 1Ti 3:16]
BUT there are differences in our capacities
**** "They differ," explains Baha'u'llah in that same epistle, "only in the
intensity of their revelation and the comparative potency of their light."
And this, not by reason of any inherent incapacity of any one of them to
reveal in a fuller measure the glory of the Message with which He has been
entrusted, but rather because of the IMMATURITY AND UNPREPAREDNESS of the
age He lived in to apprehend and absorb the full potentialities latent in
that Faith.
(Shoghi Effendi: World Order of Baha'u'llah, Page: 58)***[emphasis
added] will be continued
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