With unswerving vision, with pure heart, and sanctified spirit, consider attentively what God hath established as the testimony of guidance for His people in His Book, which is recognized as authentic by both the high and lowly. To this testimony we both, as well as all the peoples of the world, must cling, that through its light we may know and distinguish between truth and falsehood, guidance and error. Inasmuch as Muḥammad hath confined His testimonies to His Book and to His Family, and whereas the latter hath passed away, there remaineth His Book only as His one testimony amongst the people.
This paragraph completes the introduction to this section of the Iqan, in which Baha'u'llah begins His actual argument concerning the Bab and His mission. As we have said a few times now, the first of these major themes in His argument looks at a dozen different passages from the Qur'an, taking us all the way to paragraph 245, before continuing with the other two arguments, namely the transformation of His followers and His own life.
Before launching us on this marvelous journey of exploration, Baha'u'llah gives us yet another piece of advice on what it is we are to do. After all the reminders throughout this volume, the final piece of guidance is to use our "unswerving vision", our "pure heart", and our "sanctified spirit" to consider the truth. While these tools obviously are bestowed upon us by God, we have the very important duty of ensuring that these tools are in the best condition possible. Remember, this whole book began with the admonition to "Sanctify (our) souls". Now that we have been told just how it is that we can do that, it is time to put these tools to their intended use.
But how? What is it that we are to do with these tools? We are to "consider attentively" what has been given to us in the Qur'an.
In this paragraph, we are told to meticulously review what has been told to us in the Qur'an. Why the Qur'an? Because it is recognized as the "established... testimony of guidance" from Muhammad to His followers. Nobody disputes this. He also left His family as an additional testimony, but they've passed away, so it is only to the Qur'an we can look with any degree of confidence. And that is just what we will do over the next couple dozen paragraphs.
For now, though, let's look at this one again.
When He qualifies a phrase with an adverb, it is worth noting it, and asking ourselves why the qualification. Here we are not to merely consider the Qur'an, we are to consider it attentively. We are not just to read it, but to really pay attention as we do so. After all, this isn't just for the "learned", or those who are influential in the world. It is for everybody. Not only do the "high" in society recognize the validity of the Qur'an, the "lowly" do, too. Everyone has the capacity to recognize the light of God, to distinguish truth from falsehood, and to understand the difference between good guidance and that which is leading us to error. It is a universal capacity, part of what it means to be human. The greatest limitation is, quite simply, how well we have maintained those tools we have been given by our Creator.
Even if we are not pure in heart at this moment, and who of us is, we can always purify it. If our soul is not quite sanctified, and who could possibly claim such a thing, we can always better sanctify it.
Then, once we have done our job of taking care of all this, as so beautifully outlined in the previous section describing the true seeker, then we can turn our attention to the Qur'an. Every Muslim, whether or not they accept the validity of His family, that basic distinguishing difference between the Shiites and the Sunnis, accepts the Qur'an. It is the central and major feature of Islam, and by reminding us to turn to the Qur'an, and the Qur'an alone, Baha'u'llah is helping us find that commonality uniting all Muslims.
It is worth noting that this other "testimony", His family, is not universally accepted by Muslims, and if we were to try and use the statements of the Imams to prove the validity of the Bab and His Cause, then only a fraction of the Muslims would be able to accept it.
The other aspect is that of the traditions, the Hadith. Most of the questions of the uncle were based on this. But by recognizing that Muhammad did not consider these as part of His testimony, to use them as a consideration for proof would not be appropriate. And as Baha'u'llah said just a few paragraphs ago, these traditions "grievously differ, and their obscurities are manifold." The Qur'an, though, does not differ between groups, nor does He consider it obscure. He spent the vast majority of Part One teaching us how to read sacred text, so by now, anything we may have felt was obscure has already been explained.
With all of this in mind, we are now ready to take the next step and begin looking at specific quotes from the Book of God, and see how they lead us to this Most Great Revelation.
