Well, here is the next paragraph from that same quote:
This is the Day whereon the All-Merciful hath come down in the clouds of knowledge, clothed with manifest sovereignty. He well knoweth the actions of men. He it is Whose glory none can mistake, could ye but comprehend it. The heaven of every religion hath been rent, and the earth of human understanding been cleft asunder, and the angels of God are seen descending. Say: This is the Day of mutual deceit; whither do ye flee? The mountains have passed away, and the heavens have been folded together, and the whole earth is held within His grasp, could ye but understand it. Who is it that can protect you? None, by Him Who is the All-Merciful! None, except God, the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the Beneficent. Every woman that hath had a burden in her womb hath cast her burden. We see men drunken in this Day, the Day in which men and angels have been gathered together.
"This is the Day whereon the All-Merciful hath come down in the clouds of knowledge..." Today. Not tomorrow. Not some time in the distant future. Now. This is wonderful news. Shocking. Surprising. But He hasn't just given us this knowledge. No. He has descended amidst the clouds of this knowledge. So it is as if this knowledge that He has given us is actually, in some way, a barrier to seeing Him. Of course, given the racism and sexism that is rampant, anyone who claims racial unity, or gender equality, automatically has a barrier between them and their audience. However, and I feel this is important, that barrier is caused by the prejudice of the listener, not the speaker. it goes back to "Love Me that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in wise reach thee." If we don't love God, then His love cannot reach us. We have placed ourselves in a position whic hit cannot reach.
"...clothed with manifest sovereignty." Well, this is interesting. Looking at the Kitab-i-Iqan, it seems that this concept of sovereignty was a big one. So much of that incredible book deals with the concern from the uncle of the Bab, trying to understand how the Bab demonstrated His sovereignty. And you will recall, of course, that the sovereignty was not what he thought. it was the same sovereignty shown by all the Manifestations, visible so clearly throughout history, not necessarily at the time of Their presence here on this planet. Today the sovereignty of Jesus, or Muhammad, or Moses or Buddha is beyond any shadow of doubt. Even though we cannot quite so clearly see that same sovereignty of Baha'u'llah yet, we are certain that it will be blindingly evident in the years to come.
"He well knoweth the actions of men." Ok. This is where I'm in trouble. I think I'll just leave it at that.
"He it is Whose glory none can mistake, could ye but comprehend it." None can mistake this glory? That's wonderful. I'll put it in the same category as the sovereignty mentioned above.
But what about "The heaven of every religion hath been rent"? "The earth of human understanding hath been cleft asunder"? I mean, "the angels of God are descending" sounds good. But what about those first two?
Well, "rent" means to be split, torn apart, or divided. So, the heaven of every religion has been ripped open. That doesn't sound too good, but then again, if we look in the Kitab-i-Iqan, then we get a different understanding of it. "By 'heaven'", He says there, "is meant the heaven of divine Revelation, which is elevated with every Manifestation, and rent asunder with every subsequent one. By "cloven asunder" is meant that the former Dispensation is superseded and annulled."
Fair enough. That's one of the special powers of a Manifestation, isn't it? To change the laws of the previous dispensation? All right.
And we can see what has happened to human understanding since this was written. That's a no brainer.
But "the angels of God are descending"? Well, that sounds like a promise, or more accurately a statement of what is happening. I'm not sure what it means, but it sounds good. Perhaps He is referring to those angels He describes in the Kitab-i-Iqan: "By 'angels' is meant those who, reinforced by the power of the spirit, have consumed, with the fire of the love of God, all human traits and limitations, and have clothed themselves with the attributes of the most exalted Beings and of the Cherubim." It seems to me that as we continue to teach, continue to study the Word of God, continue to really dive into the Writings and apply them in our lives, more and more of this new generation of Baha'is are exemplifying these words describing what a true angel looks like.
As we move on in the paragraph, we see that "This is the Day of mutual deceit; whither do ye flee?" Wow. What an indictment. "Mutual deceit". It's not just one side, or another, but all sides, and to each other. That sounds so much like what I'm seeing out there, whether in politics or the interpersonal stuff on the various social media sites.
"The mountains have passed away..." Here I'm reminded of what I wrote yesterday. Going back to that, the mountains could be those people we look up to. Now, not only are they like flocks of wool, they are dead, too. They have passed away. Well, that doesn't mean dead, does it? It could be that they have eroded away. Either way, they ain't there now.
"...and the heavens have been folded together..." If we look at the Kitab-i-Iqan again, we see that the heavens could refer to "the heaven of Divine Revelation, which is elevated with every Manifestation". And isn't this just what Baha'u'llah has done? He has folded all the Divine Revelations into one. He has helped us understand the continuity and singularity of all of the Divine Messages.
"...and the whole earth is held within His grasp, could ye but understand it." Once again, He is reminding us that we are not in charge. We do not hold supreme sway over what happens. That is God. Everything is in His power. Doesn't that just get us off our high horse? "Who is it that can protect you? None, by Him Who is the All-Merciful! None, except God, the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the Beneficent." This is always a good reminder.
"Every woman that hath had a burden in her womb hath cast her burden. We see men drunken in this Day, the Day in which men and angels have been gathered together." What a day indeed. A day in which the women have suffered such untold hardships that they have literally had a miscarriage. Men are drunk, too besotten to be able to hold reasonable discourse, even though this is the very day in which they could, if they were sober, actually converse with those divine beings, the angels.
That's kind of what I think of when I read this: missed opportunity.
And yes, I know, I'm only touching the merest bit on the surface. But trying to write an article this quickly, this late at night, after coming home from the Feast, knowing I have to get some sleep, what do you expect?
I'd be very curious to see what you think, dear Reader, of this paragraph.
No comments:
Post a Comment