Furthermore, among the “veils of glory” are such terms as the “Seal of the Prophets” and the like, the removal of which is a supreme achievement in the sight of these baseborn and erring souls. All, by reason of these mysterious sayings, these grievous “veils of glory,” have been hindered from beholding the light of truth. Have they not heard the melody of that bird of Heaven, uttering this mystery: “A thousand Fáṭimihs I have espoused, all of whom were the daughters of Muḥammad, Son of ‘Abdu’lláh, the ‘Seal of the Prophets’”? Behold, how many are the mysteries that lie as yet unraveled within the tabernacle of the knowledge of God, and how numerous the gems of His wisdom that are still concealed in His inviolable treasuries! Shouldest thou ponder this in thine heart, thou wouldst realize that His handiwork knoweth neither beginning nor end. The domain of His decree is too vast for the tongue of mortals to describe, or for the bird of the human mind to traverse; and the dispensations of His providence are too mysterious for the mind of man to comprehend. His creation no end hath overtaken, and it hath ever existed from the “Beginning that hath no beginning”; and the Manifestations of His Beauty no beginning hath beheld, and they will continue to the “End that knoweth no end.” Ponder this utterance in thine heart, and reflect how it is applicable unto all these holy Souls.
Moving right along, we find ourselves at paragraph 18 of these thirty paragraphs focusing on "pure abstraction and essential unity", the first of the two stations of the Manifestations of God.
The use of the word "Furthermore" indicates to us that He is now introducing another understanding of what He's just been discussing, so let's see what it is.
He's still talking about these "veils of glory", but now He's moved on from them referring to the mis-guided clerics, and is now showing how this phrase can also refer to such statements as "Seal of the Prophets".
But let's be clear here. While He cites this one phrase, the "Seal of the Prophets", He is actually referring to any phrase like it. In Christianity, for example, many have been veiled by the sentence, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." Different words, same veil.
While Baha'u'llah clarifies the former phrase, the Universal House of Justice explained the latter in the book One Common Faith. "If one is not to see in this assertion merely a dogmatic challenge", they write, "to other stages of the one ongoing process of Divine guidance, it is obviously the expression of the central truth of revealed religion: that access to the unknowable Reality that creates and sustains existence is possible only through awakening to the illumination shed from that Realm."
That second sentence in this parargaph, though, took us a while to understand what He was saying, just on a basic level, so let's unpack it, as they say. To refresh our memory, it reads, "All, by reason of these mysterious sayings, these grievous 'veils of glory,' have been hindered from beholding the light of truth." The basic essence of the sentence is "all have been hindered". Why have they been hindered? Because of "these mysterious sayings", which Baha'u'llah then says are "these grievous 'veils of glory'".
He then gives us another "mysterious saying", namely that quote from Imam Ali about Fatimih. He's married a thousand Fatimih's? And all of them were Muhammad's daughter? Obviously not, for Muhammad did not have a thousand daughters. But it does speak to the theme that Baha'u'llah is addressing here, the Return. It points to the return of the themes, such as the circumstances surrounding the Revelation and the followers, which has been His message for a number of paragraphs now.
If we ever think we understand all there is to know in any of the religions, we just need to remember that there are always more and more mysteries.
He concludes this paragraph by saying that if we were to "ponder this utterance", we would see how it is "applicable unto all these holy Souls". Which utterance is He referring to here? We think it's actually "the beginning that hath no beginning" and "the end that knoweth no end". This would go along with the theme of the Return, as well as the quote from Imam Ali. It's a mystery, for sure, and at the heart of His argument explaining the station of "pure abstraction and essential unity".
We should also note that when He asks us to ponder this, it is in our heart that we ponder it, not our mind. In many ways our mind can be another veil. But when we contemplate these things in our heart, detached from all that is in heaven and on earth, then we can see the beauty of these ideas more clearly.
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