Dear Gilberto,
I think the Bab was saying something along these lines. If God is
truly unknowable and wholly transcendent then any attempt to describe
Him including saying God is One is inadequate.
warmest, Susan
On 3/26/08, Gilberto Simpson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Well, actually there is a rather philosophical passage in Nahjul
> Balagha (I don't know how Bahais necessarily view that text) which
> actually does say something like that. (Or at least, one thing reminds
> me of the other) But I don't think it then provides license for
> polytheism.
>
> Sermon 151:
>
> Praise be to Allah who is proof of His existence through His creation,
> of His being external through the newness of His creation, and through
> their mutual similarities of the fact that nothing is similar to Him.
> Senses cannot touch Him and curtains cannot veil Him, because of the
> difference between the Maker and the made, the Limiter and the limited
> and the Sustainer and the sustained.
>
> He is One but not by the first in counting, is Creator but not through
> activity or labour, is Hearer but not by means of any physical organ,
> is Looker but not by a stretching of eyelids, is Witness but not by
> nearness, is Distinct but not by measurement of distance, is Manifest
> but not by seeing and is Hidden but not by subtlety (of body). He is
> Distinct from things because He overpowers them and exercises might
> over them, while things are distinct from Him because of their
> subjugation to Him and their turning towards Him.
>
> He who describes Him limits Him. He who limits Him numbers Him. He who
> numbers Him rejects His eternity. He who said "how" sought a
> description for Him. He who said "where" bounded him. He is the Knower
> even though there be nothing to be known. He is the Sustainer even
> though there be nothing to be sustained. He is the Powerful even
> though there be nothing to be overpowered.
>
> [...]
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 7:06 PM, Susan Maneck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > If you ask a question like "How many gods/God is there?" The standard
> > > Muslim answer is "one". A typical Buddhist answer is "zero". And a
> > > possible Hindu answer is 3003. And yet in some sense the Bahais seem
> > > to affirm all these different answers simultaneously.
> >
> > Dear Gilberto,
> >
> > So does Hinduism.
> >
> > > Who said that to say "God is One" is shirk?
> >
> > The Bab, but I always have trouble finding the exact quote. How do you
> > get a key word out of "God is One"?
> >
> > wamrest, Susan
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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