One Common Faith | Page 7

their neighbours, Bahá'ís
will have to gain an in-depth understanding of the issues involved. The
effort of imagination this challenge requires can be appreciated from
the advice that is perhaps the most frequently and urgently reiterated
admonition in the writings of their Faith: to "meditate", to "ponder", to
"reflect".
A commonplace of popular discourse is that by "religion" is intended
the multitude of sects currently in existence. Not surprisingly, such a
suggestion at once arouses protest in other quarters that by religion is
intended rather one or another of the great, independent belief systems
of history that have shaped and inspired whole civilizations. This point
of view, in turn, however, runs up against the inevitable query as to
where one will find these historic faiths in the contemporary world.
Where, precisely, are "Judaism", "Buddhism", "Christianity", "Islám"
and the others, since they obviously cannot be identified with the
irreconcilably opposed organizations that purport to speak
authoritatively in their names? Nor does the problem end there. Yet
another response to the enquiry will almost certainly be that by religion
is intended simply an attitude to life, a sense of relationship with a
Reality that transcends material existence. Religion, so conceived, is an
attribute of the individual person, an impulse not susceptible of
organization, an experience universally available. Again, however, such
an orientation will be seen by a majority of religiously minded persons
as lacking the very authority of self-discipline and the unifying effect
that give religion meaning. Some objectors would even argue that, on
the contrary, religion signifies the lifestyle of persons who, like
themselves, have adopted severe regimens of daily ritual and
self-denial that set them entirely apart from the rest of society. What all
such differing conceptions have in common is the extent to which a
phenomenon that is acknowledged to completely transcend human

reach has nevertheless gradually been imprisoned within conceptual
limits--whether organizational, theological, experiential or
ritualistic--of human invention.
The teachings of Bahá'u'lláh cut through this tangle of inconsistent
views and, in doing so, reformulate many truths which, whether
explicitly or implicitly, have lain at the heart of all Divine revelation.
Although in no way a comprehensive reading of His intent, Bahá'u'lláh
makes it clear that attempts to capture or suggest the Reality of God in
catechisms and creeds are exercises in self-deception: "To every
discerning and illumined heart it is evident that God, the unknowable
Essence, the divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human
attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and
regress. Far be it from His glory that human tongue should adequately
recount His praise, or that human heart comprehend His fathomless
mystery."(9) The instrumentality through which the Creator of all
things interacts with the ever-evolving creation He has brought into
being is the appearance of prophetic Figures who manifest the
attributes of an inaccessible Divinity: "The door of the knowledge of
the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the face of all beings, the
Source of infinite grace ... hath caused those luminous Gems of
Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of
the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may
impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell
of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence."(10)
To presume to judge among the Messengers of God, exalting one above
the other, would be to give in to the delusion that the Eternal and
All-Embracing is subject to the vagaries of human preference. "It is
clear and evident to thee", are Bahá'u'lláh's precise words, "that all the
Prophets are the Temples of the Cause of God, Who have appeared
clothed in divers attire. If thou wilt observe with discriminating eyes,
thou wilt behold Them all abiding in the same tabernacle, soaring in the
same heaven, seated upon the same throne, uttering the same speech,
and proclaiming the same Faith."(11) To imagine, further, that the
nature of these unique Figures can be--or needs to be--encompassed
within theories borrowed from physical experience is equally

presumptuous. What is meant by "knowledge of God", Bahá'u'lláh
explains, is knowledge of the Manifestations Who reveal His will and
attributes, and it is here that the soul comes into intimate association
with a Creator Who is otherwise beyond both language and
apprehension: "I bear witness", is Bahá'u'lláh's assertion about the
station of the Manifestation of God, "...that through Thy beauty the
beauty of the Adored One hath been unveiled, and through Thy face the
face of the Desired One hath shone forth...."(12)
Religion, thus conceived, awakens the soul to potentialities that are
otherwise unimaginable. To the extent that an individual learns to
benefit from the influence of the revelation of God for his age, his
nature becomes progressively imbued with the attributes of the Divine
world: