Parargaph 222

Muḥammad, Himself, as the end of His mission drew nigh, spoke these words: “Verily, I leave amongst you My twin weighty testimonies: The Book of God and My Family.” Although many traditions had been revealed by that Source of Prophethood and Mine of divine Guidance, yet He mentioned only that Book, thereby appointing it as the mightiest instrument and surest testimony for the seekers; a guide for the people until the Day of Resurrection.

This paragraph, and the next, will complete the introduction to this section of the Iqan, in which Baha'u'llah looks at various proofs from the Qur'an regarding the Bab and His mission. He will look at more than a dozen different passages in support of His argument, taking us all the way to paragraph 245.

It is interesting to note that the majority of the questions posed by the uncle revolved around the traditions, and a literal interpretation of them. This was the basis of the majority of his confusion. Part One, of course, dealt with the basics of that, helping the uncle see how to read sacred text and gain meaningful understanding from it. The entirety of the explanation of the quote from Jesus related to this issue.

Here, Baha'u'llah is pointing out that Muhammad, Himself, specifically told His followers where to look for guidance in the future: His Family and the Qur'an. Nothing else is mentioned. Nothing else can be held to that high standard.

Even then, we still need to be cautious to not "regard the words and deeds of mortal men as a standard for the true understanding and recognition of God and His Prophets." It seems as if the traditions might fall into that category, especially with the myriad interpretations of them. After all, as we just read, "the traditions themselves grievously differ".

And so Baha'u'llah directs the attention of the uncle back to those two infallible sources of guidance, as offered by Muhammad.

Aside from this basic understanding of the text itself, there are two other things that stand out to us: "the Source of Prophethood", and "the Mine of divine Guidance". A "source" generally refers to a spring, from which we get fresh water. A mine, of course, is where we get gems. Both of these, of course, refer to Muhammad.

In terms of the former, it says that all the Prophets of God arose from Muhammad, for he is their Source. But since they all share that first station of "pure abstraction and essential unity", they all arise from each other. We cannot make any distinction between any of them, except that they all partake of that second station, "that of distinction" due to where and when they arose. Jesus, for example, said that if we had known Moses, we would have known Him. This all relates to the concept of how they are all essentially one and the same. To truly recognize one is to recognize them all. They are, each and all, the Source of Prophethood.

As to the second point, that of Muhammad being the Mine of divine Guidance, that speaks to our duty to explore His words and seek out those gems of divine wisdom.

So, first, recognize all the Manifestations, and then seek out those gems of divine wisdom in their Writings.

It's interesting how all these little details throughout the Iqan continually lead us back to these essential ideas.

Finally, there is that reference to "instrument". Of course, we know that in this context it means a tool or an implement, but it reminded us of music. Following that train of thought, it occurred to us that we can think of this as part of the "divine melody" composed by God. All the various musicians would be playing with the same score, in harmony with one another. The conductor could be seen as the Manifestation, while all the various instruments are the followers, the sacred book, and anything else to do with the faith at any given moment. And what would the "mightiest instrument" be? Whichever one is playing the solo at the time.

That's just another fun example of where our minds go when we're reading this incredible book.