Give Ear, ESW, 3

At the end of the first two paragraphs of the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, I found myself thinking that Baha'u'llah was beginning on common ground because He didn't want to be confrontational. He begins with God, moves naturally to the Messenger, and describes things that a Muslim cleric such as Muhammad-Taqi could presumably accept.

Then I read paragraph 3.

Baha'u'llah doesn't avoid confrontation. He prepares the ground before confronting.

“Give ear, O distinguished divine...” He says. Listen. And then, curiously, He stops to explain why the ear exists in the first place: “The ear of man hath been created that it may hearken unto the Divine Voice on this Day...” Muhammad-Taqi presumably knows what an ear does, so this isn't an anatomy lesson. Baha'u'llah is telling him what his ear is for. More particularly, He is telling him what it is for “on this Day”.

And then comes “Purify thou, first, thy soul with the waters of renunciation...”

First.

Before Muhammad-Taqi can listen properly, he has to practise renunciation. And that's not quite the same word as detachment, the word Shoghi Effendi uses in the opening passages of the Iqan. To me, renunciation sounds more active. Detachment can describe my relationship to something, while renunciation seems to suggest giving something up, whether a habit, a possession, a claim, or perhaps even an assumption. I'm not sure why the Guardian chose this word here. But given the difference between the two recipients, I find the difference intriguing.

Then Baha'u'llah begins moving him, almost physically, through the rest of the paragraph. He moves from the ear to the soul, which we might think of as encompassing the whole person. From there He moves to the head, and then to the crown placed upon that head, bringing our attention back towards the ears with which the paragraph began. He then moves to the body, which is to be adorned with piety. And then the body itself begins to move. Muhammad-Taqi is told to arise and set his face towards the Most Great House. In turning his face, of course, he also turns his head and positions those ears towards a particular point. Baha'u'llah has prepared the ears and then positioned them.

This is where I began to feel that the ice was getting rather thin.

The language surely would have sounded familiar to a Muslim cleric. Muhammad-Taqi would have spent his entire life turning towards the Kaaba in prayer. Muslims throughout the world set their faces towards that House, and pilgrims physically circle it. And now Baha'u'llah tells him to set his face towards the Most Great House, “the Spot round which circle in adoration the denizens of the cities of Eternity, and which is the Source of joy unto such as dwell on earth and in heaven”.

I don't think Muhammad-Taqi would have understood “the Most Great House” as another name for the Kaaba. The phrasing is different. But the imagery seems difficult to miss. Set your face towards this House. All circle around it. Whatever else is happening here, Baha'u'llah has moved very quickly from the comfortable common ground of the first two paragraphs to language that seems to echo one of the most fundamental acts of Muhammad-Taqi's own religious life.

So perhaps I had it slightly wrong before. Baha'u'llah doesn't begin on common ground because He intends to remain there. He begins there because it gives Him somewhere from which to move.

But there is another movement in this paragraph that I find even more intriguing.

It begins with the ear. “Give ear.” Then Baha'u'llah draws our attention specifically to that ear and explains its purpose. From there He moves through the person: the soul is purified with renunciation, the head is crowned with the fear of God, the temple adorned with reliance on God, and then the whole person arises and turns. By setting his face towards the Most Great House, Muhammad-Taqi has also turned the ears with which the paragraph began.

And then comes the final word of the paragraph: “recite”.

At first I wondered if the whole paragraph almost travelled in one ear and out the other. But that's not quite right. It begins with the ear, travels through the person, and then ends with Muhammad-Taqi being told to speak. Assuming he actually recites the words aloud, they come out of his own mouth and go right back into his ears.

The paragraph seems to have come full circle.