Concerning the questions of Manakji Limji Hataria
MIRZA ABUL-FADL
126.
Another question:
"One group says that whatever is naturally and rationally acceptable is permitted and necessary
according to the divine law, and that which nature and reason reject should be avoided.
127.
Another faction asserts that whatever comes from the divine law and the holy Legislator
must be accepted without evidence, reason or natural proof,
and must be performed in a spirit of submissiveness and without question.
128.
These are matters such as trotting at Safa and Marwah, stoning the devil at Mina,
touching the foot during ablutions, and all such prescribed ritual acts.
129.
Which is acceptable?"
130.
Intellects have stations, just as the philosophers have pointed out in this regard.
131.
Whatever is such that its mention lieth outside this station hath been ignored.
132.
It is most clear and established that the intellects of all the people are not on one level.
133.
The perfect intellect is a sure guide and mentor.
134.
This exalted word hath been revealed in answer to this paragraph:
135.
"The tongue of wisdom saith:
`Whoso lacketh Me possesseth nothing.
136.
Cast aside all that existeth, and discover Me.
137.
I am the sun of vision and the ocean of knowledge.
138
I revive the withered and confer renewed life on the dead.
139.
I am the light that showeth the path,
and I am the falcon that percheth on the self-subsistent Hand,
releasing captive birds and teaching them to soar."
140.
Note well how clearly the answer to thy question hath been revealed from the kingdom of divine knowledge.
141.
Blessed are those endued with a discerning eye, and blessed are the thinkers and the learned.
142.
What is meant by intellect is the divine Universal Intellect.
143.
For how oft hath it been seen that some intellects are not reliable guides,
yet rather are obstacles who forbid the feet of seekers from following the straight path.
144.
The particular intellect is finite.
145.
Human beings must seek and probe,
until they discover the starting-point of the road, and then must recognize it.
146.
If knowledge of the Origin— about which the Universal Intellect itself doth circle—is acquired,
whatever it decreeth is, of course, among the requirements of mature wisdom.
147.
His Being is like unto the sun, and differeth from that of all else.
148.
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The foundation is recognition of Him; and after knowledge of Him,
whatever He doth decree is to be obeyed and is in harmony with the exigencies of divine wisdom.
149.
All the prophets of old, and of even more distant ages, have revealed commands and prohibitions.
150.
The intent of some of the acts that are performed today is to preserve the divine Name, and recompense for those who perform them hath been decreed by the Most High Pen.
151.
Should any soul bring another soul back to God,
naturally the recompense for this shall be given.
152.
For this supreme verse was revealed to the Lord of Mecca (Muhammad):
153.
"We appointed the Qiblah, which thou formerly hadst, [the center of Mecca]
only that we might know him who followeth the Apostle, from him who turneth on his heels."
154.
Were any individuals in this invincible dispensation to take thought
and to contemplate the verses that have been revealed,
they would bear witness that one who hesitateth in regard to this most great Manifestation
would prove unable to vindicate the truth of any other religion, either.
155.
Those deprived of the raiments of justice, who charge the Promised One with waywardness,
speak just as the hateful and malicious always have done.
Knowledge is with God, the All- Knowing, the All-Perceiving.
Tablet to Mirza Abu'l-Fadl CHAPTER SIX
Divisions 156-1
Concerning the questions of Manakji Limji Hataria
MIRZA ABUL-FADL
156.
(One day this Servant (Khadimu'llah) had come before the Visage of Bahá-ulláh.
157.
He said, "O servant in My presence, with what wast thou busying thyself?"
158.
I said, "I was writing a reply to Mirza Abu'l-Fadl."
159.
He said, "Write to Mirza Abu'l-Fadl—may My glory be upon him—
that I swear an oath that the people of this age have taken waywardness as their boon companion and have altogether forsaken equity.
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160.
For they have sometimes branded as a sun-worshipper and at other times as a fire-worshipper
a Manifestation of whom God Himself hath spoken with the grandest of language,
a Manifestation Who hath borne witness to God's sentiency,
and recognized the holiness and purity of the divine essence above all things and all likenesses.
161.
What great Manifestations there are, of whose stations and bounties they remain ignorant and deprived, and upon Whom, to the contrary, they heap curses and imprecations!
162.
One of the great Messengers, whom the ignorant among the Persians in this day reject,
spoke forth with these sublime words:
163.
`The sun is a turbid, round globe,
and is not deserving of being being termed a deity or called a god.
164.
The Lord is a sentient person, who cannot be perceived,
and Whom all the knowledge of the learned cannot encompass.
165.
No one knoweth, and no one shall ever know, his modality.'
166.
Note well, how eloquently He hath borne witness to what the Eternal Truth hath proclaimed in this Day.
167.
Nevertheless, He is not recognized as a believer by this abject rabble,
whatever high stations He might reach.
168.
"Elsewhere the same Figure said,
`Being appeared by virtue of His Being.
169.
Were the Lord not to exist, none of His creation would possess being,
nor be adorned by the robe of existence.'
170.
God is our refuge from the evil of those that repudiate the truth of God and His loved ones
and that have turned away from a horizon
to which have borne witness the books of God, the Help in Peril, the Everlasting.")
171.
From what hath gone before it hath become apparent
that not every intellect can serve as a criterion.
172.
The first rank of intellect is that of the beloved ones of God,
those whom He hath rendered treasureholds of His knowledge,
recipients of His revelation, and dawning-places of His Cause and His wisdom.
173.
They are the ones whom God hath appointed to stand in His own stead upon earth,
and by them whatever He willeth becometh manifest.
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174.
Whoso advanceth toward them hath advanced toward God,
and whoso turneth away hath no mention before God, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
175.
The universal criterion is this station, which hath been discussed.
176.
In addition, whoso attaineth and recognizeth the dayspring of manifestation,
such a one hath been inscribed in the divine Book as endued with intellect.
177.
All others have been recorded among the ignorant,
even though they believe themselves the foremost intellects in the world.
178.
For if a soul placeth itself in God's hands,
purifieth itself of all opposition and base designs,
and contemplateth what hath been revealed
from the beginning until the present moment in this Most Great Manifestation,
179.
it would bear witness that the pure spirits, perfect intellects, refined souls,
as well as those with hearing ears, sharp vision, eloquent tongues, and illumined hearts—
all are circling about and obedient to the divine throne of grandeur.
180.
Nay, they are bowing down before it.
Tablet to Mirza Abu'l-Fadl CHAPTER SEVEN
Divisions 181-205
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