Paragraph 169

Therefore, those who in every subsequent Dispensation preceded the rest of mankind in embracing the Faith of God, who quaffed the clear waters of knowledge at the hand of the divine Beauty, and attained the loftiest summits of faith and certitude, these can be regarded, in name, in reality, in deeds, in words, and in rank, as the “return” of those who in a former Dispensation had achieved similar distinctions. For whatsoever the people of a former Dispensation have manifested, the same hath been shown by the people of this latter generation. Consider the rose: whether it blossometh in the East or in the West, it is nonetheless a rose. For what mattereth in this respect is not the outward shape and form of the rose, but rather the smell and fragrance which it doth impart.

 

Here we are at the ninth of thirty paragraphs looking at the first of the two stations of the Manifestations of God, that of "pure abstraction and essential unity". And we thought it might be a good idea to review how we got here.

Part 1, as you may recall, was essentially about how to recognize a Messenger of God. By looking at how a passage from Jesus related to Muhammad, Baha'u'llah showed us that it also related to all the Messengers. He showed us the pattern they follow in their lives, allowing us to apply that recognition to Muhammad, and therefore to the Bab, too. Incidentally, it also works for recognizing Baha'u'llah, so He is giving us a great bit of foreshadowing there.

Part 2 begins with a recognition of the sovereignty of the Messengers of God, which you may recognize as the basis of a question from the uncle of the Bab that led to this book. He then points out that we can never directly know God, but can learn about Him through His Messengers. Everything in creation shows a sign of God. Humanity shows all the signs of God. And the Messengers show those signs to the highest degree. This, basically, is a hierarchy of creation helping us understand why we follow them. It is a defense of their sovereignty. He then points out that all the Manifestations show all the attributes, to a greater or lesser degree depending on the needs of the age in which they appeared.

From there He demonstrates, quite clearly, how this sovereignty is not the earthly sovereignty that we often imagine. He spends many paragraphs demonstrating that their sovereignty is of a spiritual nature, and includes all the aspects of an earthly sovereignty, such as enacting laws, making pronouncements of judgement, and so forth.

To get to where we are now in the book, He talks about what it means to "attain the presence of God" and how it really means attaining the presence of the Manifestation in their lifetime. This leads to a discussion of their lifetime, and how it includes the return of all the things that happen in the life of a Messenger. Not only is it about their return, but also the return of the social circumstances in their life, as well as a return of the type of people that become their followers. And that, pretty much, is where we are now.

In the first sentence, He essentially points out that those believers in each Dispensation that arose during the life of the Messenger, and showed those qualities of heroism and wisdom that we honour, can be seen as the "return" of those similar followers  from the past. His definition of "return" is, in short, a return of those same qualities.

This is further emphasized by His observation of the rose. A rose is a rose, as Shakespeare famously said, no matter where it grows. Those distinguishing characteristics, such as its beautiful scent are what define it, and allow us to recognize it wherever it may be.

He also mentions some ways in which we can regard these followers throughout history. He says that we can see them all as having the same name, reality, deeds, words, and rank. It's an interesting list that we want to look at a bit more closely, as we always do when we see a list like this.

In name, we can say that they are all the "apostles" of that Messenger. Their "reality" is that spiritual reality that He talks about so often. They themselves have recognized that aspect of their being, and that is why they were willing to arise and sacrifice what they did. Those are their deeds. As for their words, they all speak of love, compassion, devotion, and all the other eternal teachings of the Messengers throughout the ages. Their rank is that high station to which they have all been hailed and lauded throughout history, which is a direct result of their deeds and words.

Do we not wish to attain to such a lofty station, too? Do we not want to be seen through the lens of history as a rose? The choice is ours, and much will depend on how we see ourselves, what we do, and what we say.