Paragraph 127

In like manner, two of the people of Kúfih went to ‘Alí, the Commander of the Faithful. One owned a house and wished to sell it; the other was to be the purchaser. They had agreed that this transaction should be effected and the contract be written with the knowledge of ‘Alí. He, the exponent of the law of God, addressing the scribe, said: “Write thou: ‘A dead man hath bought from another dead man a house. That house is bounded by four limits. One extendeth toward the tomb, the other to the vault of the grave, the third to the Ṣiráṭ, the fourth to either Paradise or hell.’” Reflect, had these two souls been quickened by the trumpet-call of ‘Alí, had they risen from the grave of error by the power of his love, the judgment of death would certainly not have been pronounced against them.

"In like manner"? In like manner to what? In like manner to the reference by Jesus in the previous paragraph, calling those who are concerned with a burial dead, even though they still seem to be moving around.

Now, this is another very interesting little story here. As with the previous statement by Jesus, it appears to be condemning those who have not yet recognized Him, but as we saw, it was more likely a command to His disciple to seize the opportunity to teach. "Let the dead bury the dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."

So what about this story with Ali? On the surface it appears to be a condemnation, but is it? Baha'u'llah seems to imply it, but we don't think it ends here. It appears, to us, to be the moment of choice.

Putting this into a context, it seems strange to us that these two people would appear to be honouring Ali, acknowledging his trustworthiness by asking him to witness a contract. And what does he do? He seems to condemn them, calling them both dead. After all, he is the "Commander of the Faithful", striving to move the entire world towards that destined Kingdom of God on earth. And what do they ask of him? Witness this sale.

On the surface it seems so petty. After all, can you imagine taking up the valuable time of 'Abdul-Baha to ask Him to witness a contract?

And so, in a way, it actually makes some sort of sense that he might be upset, and condemning them for not asking something more meaningful of him.

But, like the previous story, there may be more here than meets the eye.

If we take a look, there seems to be something of a path. While we can presume the limits he mentions are the four walls of the house, he doesn't actually say that they are. They could, instead, be four steps on this path. It begins with the tomb, and continue to the vault of the grave.

Before we continue, let's look at these two steps. What, we wonder, is the difference between the tomb, and the vault of the grave? The tomb, as you know, is the enclosure for burying the dead, usually either a small cave, or a room built for the coffin. The vault, though, is what you see inside the tomb, above you when you are lying there. It seems to us that by mentioning these two, he is moving us from outside the tomb to inside it. We can imagine ourselves dead, approaching this tomb, and then being placed inside of it.

From there, we move to the third step, Sirat, the bridge that spans the chasm of hell and connects this world with paradise. Only the righteous, though, are able to cross it safely. The rest fall off it into the fiery pit.

And this leads us to the fourth step of this path. Will we cross safely to Paradise, or will we fall into the fire? The choice, as we know, is dependent on what we do in this life. And that is where we feel that Ali is taking this opportunity, seizing it firmly, to offer these two people the choice.

It is this choice that seems to be more in line with the teachings of Ali and Islam, as well as what we found from Jesus in the previous paragraph. Neither seem to be condemning the people outright, but instead are offering them a choice, as well as showing what that choice implies. They are not concerned about the things of this world. Their interest lies solely with the spiritual journey, and what lies at the end of it for the person or people involved.

By talking about these two stories here, in the Kitab-i-Iqan, Baha'u'llah seems to be strongly reminding us of the importance of looking at things with a spiritual eye, as well as recognizing the oneness of the teachings between these two faiths.

He also seems to be showing us two marvelous examples of taking mundane things, a funeral and a house sale, and showing how they can be used to teach much more important spiritual lessons. In other words, He is showing us two fine examples of elevated conversations.

Paragraph 126

In another passage of the Gospel it is written: “And it came to pass that on a certain day the father of one of the disciples of Jesus had died. That disciple reporting the death of his father unto Jesus, asked for leave to go and bury him. Whereupon, Jesus, that Essence of Detachment, answered and said: “Let the dead bury their dead.”

Wow. What an interesting quote to put here. As we just saw, the previous paragraph references these two possible paths that we can tread. The first began with our spiritual life, while the second started with our spiritual death. Is Baha'u'llah reminding us of what the ramifications of this second path are?

Possibly.

But before we get into that, let's think about how this passage has been traditionally understood. In many churches, it is defense for a non-compassionate, condemnatory attitude. There is a story of a missionary in one such organization whose father had passed away while they were on mission overseas. They asked for permission to fly home to attend the funeral, but the church fathers said no, citing this reference. They felt that it was not a worthy use of the money. Needless to say, when this missionary did go home later, they left that particular church.

Is this what Jesus would have wanted? Was He so unconcerned about those who did not follow Him that He felt His followers shouldn't care about them either?

This doesn't seem likely.

In fact, it seems quite remote from what we know of Him.

So what else could it be?

To begin to get a better idea, we feel that we need to look back at the original reference in the Bible, Luke 9:60. In fact, we really need to look at all of Luke 9.

This is a chapter in which Jesus sends the disciples out to go teach His Cause. Peter has already recognized Him as the Messiah. Jesus has healed people and cast out demons. He has even predicted His own impending martyrdom. Finally, at the very end of this chapter, He points out to these disciples the full cost of truly following Him. He says that they will have no place to lay their head. Then He offers this line, followed by the idea that they will even have to leave their families behind.

But let's look again. The full statement, of which Baha'u'llah only quotes the first half, is "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

When read in the full context of that chapter, it is not a condemnation of those who may be seen as unworthy, but rather a caution of what it will cost them, the disciples, if they really want to follow Him.

Again, looking at this quote once more, it is even possible to read it as a command to go and attend the funeral. "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go...", He says. And while you are there, raise the dead. "...Proclaim the kingdom of God." Waste no opportunity.

This seems more likely. It feels more congruent with the full teachings of all the Messengers of God.

In fact, this notion of offering a choice, to both the disciples as well as the funeral attendees, makes even more sense when we look at the next paragraph.

Finally, by only quoting the first half of this statement of Jesus, Baha'u'llah has prompted us to go back and look at the entire context of the quote. With the simple method of using only a partial quote, He is helping us go back and review sacred Scripture.

Paragraph 125

Such things have come to pass in the days of every Manifestation of God. Even as Jesus said: “Ye must be born again.” Again He saith: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The purport of these words is that whosoever in every dispensation is born of the Spirit and is quickened by the breath of the Manifestation of Holiness, he verily is of those that have attained unto “life” and “resurrection” and have entered into the “paradise” of the love of God. And whosoever is not of them, is condemned to “death” and “deprivation,” to the “fire” of unbelief, and to the “wrath” of God. In all the scriptures, the books and chronicles, the sentence of death, of fire, of blindness, of want of understanding and hearing, hath been pronounced against those whose lips have tasted not the ethereal cup of true knowledge, and whose hearts have been deprived of the grace of the holy Spirit in their day. Even as it hath been previously recorded: “Hearts have they with which they understand not.”

"Such things have come to pass..." What things? Perhaps those things He has mentioned in paragraph 124. The "people strayed from the way of God". The Day of Resurrection has been ushered in. His light and tokens have encompassed everything. The people have "derided Him, gave themselves up to those idols which the divines of that age... had conceived, and deprived themselves of the light of heavenly grace and of the showers of divine mercy." This is the pattern. We saw it in the very beginning of the book when He described the other Messengers of the past, and we are seeing it again.

We also notice that throughout this book, Baha'u'llah has continually referenced the relation between Jesus' prophecies and the Revelation of Muhammad. Here He is doing the same thing. He is quoting Jesus, but now goes a step further. This isn't just in relation to Muhammad, but occurs "in the days of every Manifestation of God". Presumably, if we are seeing a similar occurrence today in the way people are acting, we might be able to presume the cause. By showing us this pattern, He is opening our awareness to look for it.

Here, in the middle of this paragraph, Baha'u'llah offers us two paths, from which we can choose which one we wish to walk. The first is "life", "resurrection", and "paradise". The second is "death", "deprivation", "fire", and "wrath".

This first one begins with our life. It can be likened to the very beginning of this book, in which it is up to us to sanctify our soul, "that haply (we) may attain that station which God hath destined for" us. If we do this, then, with luck, we can be resurrected and find that paradise of nearness to our Creator. This, obviously, is the path that we all wish to walk.

The second path, though, begins with our death. If we are not living a spiritual life, as those first quotes from Jesus point out, then we can be seen as dead. This lack of spirituality leads to our deprivation. We are deprived of the development of our virtues, of the understanding of these spiritual issues, and of so much that can contribute to both our well-being and our happiness. This, quite naturally, will lead to our misery, both in this life and the next. It can truly be seen as a fire. The very fact that we do not believe in the Manifestation for today leads us to so many questions that only He can answer. And this misery of searching in vain leads us to feel as if our very soul is on fire. We search for something that we know is there, but we adamantly deny it when it is presented to us. This is a true torture. The denial itself becomes the source of that wrath of God.

Of course, this word, "wrath" also reminds us of that Hidden Word, "How couldst thou forget thine own faults and busy thyself with the faults of others? Whoso doeth this is accursed of Me." We were wondering about this word "accursed", when we read it. It seemed so strong here, yet, when we examined the context, we realized that it was perfectly appropriate. We are not, for example, merely noting someone else's faults, but busying ourselves with them. There is an extremeness to it. When we do this, then they, quite naturally, won't want to be around us. They will avoid us. We will be miserable, by only seeing the faults of others. This, it seems to us, would be a fairly good definition of being under a curse. We are, in fact, the very cause of our own cursing.

When we deny the Manifestation of God in Their Day, and act as the fanatics of old have done, we become the very embodiment of that wrath of God, inflicting all that pain upon ourselves.

This, it seems to us, is our choice. We can choose either of these paths, whichever we prefer.

All this is bracketed by those quotes from Jesus. We are reminded at the beginning that this is all referring to a spiritual state, not a physical one, being of the spirit and not of the flesh. And it ends with the reminder that it is the state of our heart that determines our ability to choose.