"No God is there but God"

Ahanu

Ahanu

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Baha'u'llah's allusion to the Muslim profession of faith or the first shahada ("There is no god but God") in "From the Letter Bá’ to the Letter Há’" is certainly interesting, because it's restated in terms of expressing levels of being here:

"Perchance thou mayest become pure spirit; attain, without taking a single step, the loftiest stations of mystic ascent; and explore, without leaving thine outward habitation, the furthermost reaches of the worlds of inner significance. Thereupon wouldst thou, with a divine rapture, experience true spiritual attraction, lay down thy life in the path of the Friend, and sacrifice thy soul in the wilderness of His love. This indeed is the meaning of stillness in flight and flight in stillness, of fluidity in solidity and solidity in fluidity.

To continue: It is clear that the wayfarers in the wilderness of search and longing, of attainment and reunion, have numerous degrees and countless stations. Some, after spiritual struggle and physical toil, ascend from the lower reaches of “no God is there” to the lofty bowers of “but God”, flee from the shadow of negation to abide in the limitless realm of affirmation, and abandon the privation of a transient existence for the bountiful assemblage of reunion. This is the uttermost limit of the realm of effort and striving.

Others, without receiving the least intimation of “no God is there”, pass beyond the highest horizon of “but God”; without even tasting a dewdrop of the degrees of self-surrender ascend unto the kingdom of life everlasting; and without partaking from the wellspring of utter abnegation quaff the wine of the Ancient of Days. These souls, as they traverse the stages of wayfaring and ascend unto the stations of reunion, walk a different path and occupy a different rank.

Still others, without having perused a single letter of the kingdom of names or acquired the faintest intimation from the realm of attributes, which pertaineth to this world, dawn above the invisible horizon of eternity and return again thereunto. A hundred thousand seas of glory surge in their luminous hearts, and yet to outward seeming their lips are parched; a myriad rivers of holiness stream within their breasts, and yet no trace thereof is to be seen; the books of God’s consummate wisdom are recorded upon the tablets of their hearts, and yet they breathe not a word thereof in the world of appearances. They dwell in the Egypt of certitude and journey in the lands of resignation. They are intoxicated with the beauty, and entranced by the glory, of Him Who is the All-Glorious. Heart to heart they whisper hidden secrets; soul to soul they unfold abstruse matters. The mysteries of the Divine Essence glow upon their brows, and the lights of Divine Unity shine from their peerless faces. They clothe themselves in the robe of concealment and cast their sleeves over both this world and the world to come. Without wings they soar, without feet they walk, without hands they grasp and hold. They speak an unknown tongue and observe an unseen grammar, of which all the world’s inhabitants know not a single letter, save those whom thy Lord hath willed. Unto each hath a share been vouchsafed in His Book, and they shall all attain unto that which hath been destined for them."

(The Call of the Divine Beloved)
www.bahai.org/r/571080416
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Additional information about the shahada from The Vision of Islam provides some background:

"The Koranic usage of the term shahada throws interesting light on its significance. One of God's Koranic names is "Knower of the ghayb and the shahada." Ghayb means "the absent, the unseen, the invisible, the hidden." Shahada means "that which is visible or witnessed." By employing this divine name and in other ways as well, the Koran divides reality into two realms, that which is absent from our senses, and that which our senses are able to witness. We know only the witnessed realm, while God knows both the witnessed and the invisible realms."

"God is the Real; there is nothing real but the Real; everything other than God is unreal, ephemeral, transitory, illusory, vanishing, nothing. In short, every quality and characteristic of things that has a positive side to it derives from a divine quality and owes its existence to God. Everything good, praiseworthy, permanent, and real belongs to God. Therefore "Praise belongs to God," and to no one else.

The cosmos or universe is commonly defined as "everything other than God." The first Shahadah means that the cosmos is unreal. In the last analysis, it is nothing compared to the Real, but this perspective does not lead to nihilism. Nihilism demands that the nothingness and illusory nature of our existence yield a sense of meaninglessness and despair, but tawhid leads to confidence, faith, and joy.

If the world and ourselves are unreal, how do we explain the fact that we are here, aware of our own unreality? How can we say we are unreal when we are saying it? Our selves, our speech, and our understanding must have some sort of reality, or else the self could never understand and never say that it is unreal. Hence, in the midst of the unreality of the world, there is some sort of reality. If there were no reality whatsoever, why would God bother talking to us? However, this reality that is found in the world does not belong to ourselves or to the world. The reality belongs to God—"Praise belongs to God." We are — as "we" —unreal, but inasmuch as God shows mercy and generosity to us, we are real as a result of mercy and generosity.

One way to sort out this confusing situation is to say that God's reality is absolute, but our reality is relative. God's reality is permanent and unchanging; it is the standard by which all things are judged. All other realities exist as a function of God's reality. Hence other things can only be understood in relation to God—their reality is relative. "There is no god but God" means that everything other than God has to be understood in relation to God.

If we do not take God—the absolute point of reference—into account when trying to understand something, we can only understand that thing in relation to other unreal things. Our knowledge will remain unreal, uncertain, changing, and undependable. We will be thrown into doubt and perplexity. People can have sure knowledge only if they have perceived the absolute point of reference, and this depends upon tawhid. Tawhid, in turn, brings about a commitment known as faith."​
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Ahanu said:
Baha'u'llah's allusion to the Muslim profession of faith or the first shahada ("There is no god but God") in "From the Letter Bá’ to the Letter Há’" is certainly interesting, because it's restated in terms of expressing levels of being here:


​
Additional information about the shahada from The Vision of Islam provides some background:


​
Click to expand...

I can see both the ghayb and the shahadah, I am in both places at the same time, I do not believe this is only for god to understand.

To understand why they say god is the real is to understand that he is something all the time he cannot become nothing and nothing cannot figure him out, and nothing is also inside him. This universe is not real because we can become nothing here, we are not something all the time.

Thank you for sharing

powessy
 
Ahanu said:
Additional information about the shahada from The Vision of Islam provides some background
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Corresponds with formal and formless, visible and invisible in many if not all traditions?

The discussion of God alone is Good/Real and so on is broad and nuanced. It's not denying the reality of the world, rather that the world is not self-subsistent; it is not its own cause. (Of course, the physical sciences would dispute this, or find ways to explain – or explain away – a First Cause.)
 
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Thomas said:
(Of course, the physical sciences would dispute this, or find ways to explain – or explain away – a First Cause.)
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A good scientist would point out the current lack of evidence, and the inherent difficulties in obtaining evidence, for a first cause.

The dispute would have to take place on philosophical grounds, not those of the science of physics. This is what t Russell's parable of the undetectable teapot is pointing at, I think.
 

An excerpt from an article in Wikipedia...

Baháʼís believe in Muhammad as a prophet of God, and in the Qurʼan as the Prophet of God. Bahá'í teachings "affirm that Islam is a true religion revealed by Allah"; accordingly, members of the faith can give full assent to the traditional words of the Shahadah.[2] Muhammad is taken to be one of the most important messengers of God as an "independent" Manifestation of God. Furthermore, Baháʼís believe that the Báb, a central figure in the Baháʼí Faith, was a descendant of Muhammad through Imam Husayn,[3] whose coming was foretold by Muhammad. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the son and successor of Baháʼu'lláh, wrote that "His Holiness the Prophet Muhammad made a covenant concerning His Holiness the Báb and the Báb was the One promised by Muhammad, for Muhammad gave the tidings of his coming."[4]

In the Baháʼí writings Muhammad is known by the titles the "Apostle of God", the "Seal of the Prophets" and the "Day-Star of Truth".[5] Writing of Muhammad, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá states that through God's aid, he was able to unite the warring tribes of the Arabian Peninsula "to such an extent that one thousand tribes were welded into one tribe".[6] This, he writes, despite the fact that he (Muhammad) was an illiterate man born into a cruel and barbarous culture. He was nevertheless responsible for producing "a book in which, in a perfect and eloquent style. He explained the divine attributes and perfections, the prophethood of the Messengers of God, the divine laws, and some scientific facts."[7] Abdu'l-Baha believed that one of the proofs that the Qurʼan is a product of the divine are the facts about the workings of nature contained therein, facts which he believed were not known in Muhammad's own time. He claimed, for example, that Sura 36 of the Qurʼan depicts a heliocentric understanding of the solar system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muham...ffirm that,"independent" Manifestation of God.
 
arthra said:
An excerpt from an article in Wikipedia...

Baháʼís believe in Muhammad as a prophet of God, and in the Qurʼan as the Prophet of God. Bahá'í teachings "affirm that Islam is a true religion revealed by Allah"; accordingly, members of the faith can give full assent to the traditional words of the Shahadah.[2] Muhammad is taken to be one of the most important messengers of God as an "independent" Manifestation of God. Furthermore, Baháʼís believe that the Báb, a central figure in the Baháʼí Faith, was a descendant of Muhammad through Imam Husayn,[3] whose coming was foretold by Muhammad. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the son and successor of Baháʼu'lláh, wrote that "His Holiness the Prophet Muhammad made a covenant concerning His Holiness the Báb and the Báb was the One promised by Muhammad, for Muhammad gave the tidings of his coming."[4]

In the Baháʼí writings Muhammad is known by the titles the "Apostle of God", the "Seal of the Prophets" and the "Day-Star of Truth".[5] Writing of Muhammad, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá states that through God's aid, he was able to unite the warring tribes of the Arabian Peninsula "to such an extent that one thousand tribes were welded into one tribe".[6] This, he writes, despite the fact that he (Muhammad) was an illiterate man born into a cruel and barbarous culture. He was nevertheless responsible for producing "a book in which, in a perfect and eloquent style. He explained the divine attributes and perfections, the prophethood of the Messengers of God, the divine laws, and some scientific facts."[7] Abdu'l-Baha believed that one of the proofs that the Qurʼan is a product of the divine are the facts about the workings of nature contained therein, facts which he believed were not known in Muhammad's own time. He claimed, for example, that Sura 36 of the Qurʼan depicts a heliocentric understanding of the solar system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_in_the_Baháʼí_Faith#:~:text=Bahá'í teachings "affirm that,"independent" Manifestation of God.
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If that's the case then Baháʼí is based on a Muslim story that was based on a Christian story, that was based on a Jewish story, that was based on an Egyptian story, a Persian story, and a Mesopotamian story.
 
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