Quotes from Baha'i sources:

Science may be likened to a mirror

Science may be likened to a mirror wherein the images of the mysteries of outer phenomena are reflected. It brings forth and exhibits to us in the arena of knowledge all the product of the past. It links together past and present.

The philosophical conclusions of bygone centuries, the teachings of the prophets and wisdom of former sages are crystallized and reproduced in the scientific advancement of today.

Science is the discoverer of the past. From its premises of past and present we deduce conclusions as to the future.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 242
 
Is the Divine Manifestation, God?

Is the Divine Manifestation, God?

Yes, and yet not in Essence. A Divine Manifestation is as a mirror reflecting the light of the Sun. The light is the same and yet the mirror is not the Sun. All the Manifestations of God bring the same Light; they only differ in degree, not in reality. The Truth is one. The light is the same though the lamps may be different; we must look at the Light not at the Lamp. If we accept the Light in one, we must accept the Light in all; all agree, because all are the same. The teaching is ever the same, it is only the outward forms that change.

The Manifestations of God are as the heavenly bodies. All have their appointed place and time of ascension, but the Light they give is the same. if one wishes to look for the sun rising, one does not look always at the same point because that point changes with the seasons. When one sees the sun rise further in the north one recognizes it, though it has risen at a different point.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 66-68
 
Tablet revealed by Baha'u'llah on leaving Baghdad:

Time passed, Bahá'u'lláh was called to Istanbul, and on the twelfth
day of Ridvan, as He was about to leave the Garden of Najibiyyah
and take the road to the capital of the Ottoman Empire, He revealed a Tablet which exists in His own handwriting addressed to Aqa Mirza Aqa, reading thus:

Aqa in Shin[1]

[1. Sh, the 15th letter of the Persian alphabet, is pronounced
Shin. Here the city of Shiraz is indicated.]

He is the Glorious!

Hearken to what the departing Dove revealeth unto thee, as He
prepareth to leave the realm of 'Iraq -- such are the methods of God decreed for His Messengers. Let this not cause thee sorrow.

Put thy trust in thy Lord and the Lord of thy forefathers... Those who are endowed with the insight of the spirit are independent of all that was and shall be created, and are able to behold the mysteries of the Cause behind the thickest veils.

Say, 0 beloved of God!

Fear none and let nothing grieve thee; be steadfast in the Cause. By
God, those who have drunk of the love of God, the Glorious, the
Effulgent, have no fear of anyone, and show patience in calamity,
like unto the patience of the lover toward the good-pleasure of the
beloved. With them affliction ranketh greater than that which the
lovers perceive in the countenance of the beloved.

Say, 0 concourse of evil-doers!

Ere long the Cause of God will, in truth, be
exalted, and the standards of those who join partners with God will
perish, and the people shall enter the Faith of God, the Sovereign,
the Supreme, the Ancient of Days.

Well is it with those who have now hastened forth in the love of God and received the tidings of the breath of the Holy Spirit. Glory be unto you, 0 concourse of believers in the unity of God.

From H.M. Balyuzi, "Eminent Baha'is in the Time of Baha'u'llah" p. 228
 
Inhale the fragrances of the Ridwan...

Inhale the fragrances of the Ridvan from His roses and be not of those who are deprived. Appreciate the bounty of God upon you and be not veiled therefrom - and, verily, We have sent Him forth in the temple of man. Thus praise ye the Lord, the Originator of whatsoever He willeth through His wise and inviolable Command!

Verily, those who withhold themselves from the shelter of the Branch are indeed lost in the wilderness of perplexity; and are consumed by the heat of self-desire, and are of those who perish.

Hasten, O people, unto the shelter of God, in order that He may protect you from the heat of the Day whereon none shall find for himself any refuge or shelter except beneath the shelter of His Name, the clement, the forgiving! Clothe yourselves, O people, with the garment of assurance, in order that He may protect you from the dart of doubts and superstitions, and that ye may be of those who are assured in those days wherein none shall ever be assured and none shall be firmly established in the Cause, except by severing himself from all that is possessed by the people and turning unto the holy and radiant Outlook.

~ Baha'u'llah, The Tablet of the Branch
 
"Now what He intended..."

Now what He intended by the term Báb [Gate] was this, that He was the channel of grace from some great Person still behind the veil of glory, Who was the possessor of countless and boundless perfections, by Whose will He moved, and to the bond of Whose love He clung. And in the first book which He wrote in explanation of the Surih of Joseph,* He addressed Himself in all passages to that Person unseen from Whom He received help and grace, sought for aid in the arrangement of His preliminaries, and craved the sacrifice of life in the way of His love.

Amongst others is this sentence: "O Remnant of God, I am wholly sacrificed to Thee; I am content with curses in Thy way; I crave naught but to be slain in Thy love; and God the Supreme sufficeth as an Eternal Protection."

He likewise composed a number of works in explanation and elucidation of the verses of the Qur'án, of sermons, and of prayers in Arabic; inciting and urging men to expect the appearance of that Person; and these books He named "Inspired Pages" and "Word of Conscience." But on investigation it was discovered that He laid no claim to revelation from an angel.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, A Traveller's Narrative, p. 4
 
One Faith; One Divine Light..

All the teaching of the Prophets is one; one faith; one Divine light shining throughout the world. Now, under the banner of the oneness of humanity all people of all creeds should turn away from prejudice and become friends and believers in all the Prophets. As Christians believe in Moses, so the Jews should believe in Jesus. As the Muhammadans believe in Christ and Moses, so likewise the Jews and the Christians should believe in Muhammad. Then all disputes would disappear, all then would be united. Bahá'u'lláh came for this purpose. He has made the three religions one. He has uplifted the standard of the oneness of faith and the honour of humanity in the centre of the world. Today we must gather round it, and try with heart and soul to bring about the union of mankind.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 42
 
Baha'u'llah unsealed the Holy Books...

BAHA'O'LLAH unsealed the holy books and revealed laws through which mankind can attain to a high state of spiritual civilization. These new laws will go into effect after the great readjustment, when wars, cataclysms, famine, labor troubles, etc., have done their work of equalization!

From the prison of Acca, BAHA'O'LLAH issued proclamations to the crowned heads of Europe, and to the Pope, exhorting them to cease from their injustice and oppression and hasten to the tent of unity and consultation -- that the reality of each matter might become disclosed. These epistles (copies of which are to be found in the British Museum) were dispatched by personal messengers, volunteers from his little band of exiles.

His commands, like a resonant call upraised from a land of oppression to the confused and sorrowful world -- stern, irrefutable, immutable -- stand out against the bloody background of Europe. Those who are following this call declare that the soundless voice will be heard throughout the ages, for they believe the words to be creative, and affirm that, notwithwstanding this banishment and incarceration, BAHA'O'LLAH has been able to impress every nation on earth with a glory and universality of thought that promises the loosening of the shackles which have held mankind in the political, ecclesiastical and financial slavery of the times.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, p. 6
 
"... We repaired unto Our Green Island..."

"We will now mention unto thee Trustworthiness and the station thereof in the estimation of God, thy Lord, the Lord of the Mighty Throne.



One day of days We repaired unto Our Green Island. Upon Our arrival, We beheld its streams flowing, and its trees luxuriant, and the sunlight playing in their midst.



Turning Our face to the right, We beheld what the pen is powerless to describe; nor can it set forth that which the eye of the Lord of Mankind witnessed in that most sanctified, that most sublime, that blest, and most exalted Spot.



Turning, then, to the left We gazed on one of the Beauties of the Most Sublime Paradise, standing on a pillar of light, and calling aloud saying:



'O inmates of earth and heaven! Behold ye My beauty, and My radiance, and My revelation, and My effulgence. By God, the True One! I am Trustworthiness and the revelation thereof, and the beauty thereof. I will recompense whosoever will cleave unto Me, and recognize My rank and station, and hold fast unto My hem. I am the most great ornament of the people of Baha, and the vesture of glory unto all who are in the kingdom of creation. I am the supreme instrument for the prosperity of the world, and the horizon of assurance unto all beings.'



Thus have We sent down for thee that which will draw men nigh unto the Lord of creation."

(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 136
 
The beauty of the contenance of the Friend of God...

Later, the beauty of the countenance of the Friend of God+F2 appeared from behind the veil, and another standard of divine guidance was hoisted. He invited the people of the earth to the light of righteousness. The more passionately He exhorted them, the fiercer waxed the envy and waywardness of the people, except those who wholly detached themselves from all save God, and ascended on the wings of certainty to the station which God hath exalted beyond the comprehension of men.

It is well known what a host of enemies besieged Him, until at last the fires of envy and rebellion were kindled against Him. And after the episode of the fire came to pass, He, the lamp of God amongst men, was, as recorded in all books and chronicles, expelled from His city.

[2 Abraham.]

~ Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 9
 
"I shall restate here My theme..."

I shall restate here My theme, that perchance this may assist thee in recognizing thy Creator. Know thou that God - exalted and glorified be He - doth in no wise manifest His inmost Essence and Reality. From time immemorial He hath been veiled in the eternity of His Essence and concealed in the infinitude of His own Being. And when He purposed to manifest His beauty in the kingdom of names and to reveal His glory in the realm of attributes, He brought forth His Prophets from the invisible plane to the visible, that His name "the Manifest" might be distinguished from "the Hidden" and His name "the Last" might be discerned from "the First", and that there may be fulfilled the words: "He is the First and the Last; the Seen and the Hidden; and He knoweth all things!"33 Thus hath He revealed these most excellent names and most exalted words in the Manifestations of His Self and the Mirrors of His Being.

~ Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, p. 34
 
Ringing calls!

The beloved Guardian was so deeply moved and
stirred by one of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's ringing Calls to North America, that he, himself, cried out to each one of His soldiers:

"To his valiant combatants on earth, who at times may feel disheartened, our ever-victorious Commander, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, gives you the following assurance:

'The triumphant Hosts of the Celestial Con-
course, arrayed and marshal led in the Realms
above, stand ready and expectant to assist and
assure victory to that valiant horseman who
with confidence spurs on his charger into the
arena of service . . . He heath achieved a glorious
triumph and obtained the true victory ...'

"With such inspiring words as these, are we to
remain any longer unmoved and inactive? His
trumpet-call resounds on every side, and summons us to service; are we to tarry and hesitate?

His voice is calling aloud from every land; let us march on, unfettered and unafraid, and fulfill our glorious Destiny."
 
Every fixed star hath its own planets...

Thou hast, moreover, asked Me concerning the nature of the celestial spheres. To comprehend their nature, it would be necessary to inquire into the meaning of the allusions that have been made in the Books of old to the celestial spheres and the heavens, and to discover the character of their relationship to this physical world, and the influence which they exert upon it.

Every heart is filled with wonder at so bewildering a theme, and every mind is perplexed by its mystery.

God, alone, can fathom its import. The learned men, that have fixed at several thousand years the life of this earth, have failed, throughout the long period of their observation, to consider either the number or the age of the other planets.

Consider, moreover, the manifold divergencies that have resulted from the theories propounded by these men.

Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet its own creatures, whose number no man can compute.

~ Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 162
 
Lauded be Thy Name, O Lord our God! Thou art in truth the Knower of things unseen. Ordain for us such good as Thine all-embracing knowledge can measure. Thou art the sovereign Lord, the Almighty, the Best-Beloved.

All praise be unto Thee, O Lord! We shall seek Thy grace on the appointed Day and shall put our whole reliance in Thee, Who art our Lord. Glorified art Thou, O God! Grant us that which is good and seemly that we may be able to dispense with everything but Thee. Verily, Thou art the Lord of all worlds.

O God! Recompense those who endure patiently in Thy days, and strengthen their hearts to walk undeviatingly in the path of Truth. Grant then, O Lord, such goodly gifts as would enable them to gain admittance into Thy blissful Paradise. Exalted art Thou, O Lord God. Let Thy heavenly blessings descend upon homes whose inmates have believed in Thee. Verily, unsurpassed art Thou in sending down divine blessings. Send forth, O God, such hosts as would render Thy faithful servants victorious. Thou dost fashion the created things through the power of Thy decree as Thou pleasest. Thou art in truth the Sovereign, the Creator, the All-Wise.

Say: God is indeed the Maker of all things. He giveth sustenance in plenty to whomsoever He willeth. He is the Creator, the Source of all beings, the Fashioner, the Almighty, the Maker, the All-Wise. He is the Bearer of the most excellent titles throughout the heavens and the earth and whatever lieth between them. All do His bidding, and all the dwellers of earth and heaven celebrate His praise, and unto Him shall all return.

- The Bab
 
I have come from distant lands...

I have come from distant lands to visit the meetings and assemblies of this country. In every meeting I find people gathered loving each other; therefore I am greatly pleased. The bond of union is evidenced in this assembly today where the power of God has brought together in faith, agreement and concord those who are engaged in furthering the development of the human world. It is my hope that all mankind may become similarly united in the bond and agreement of love. Unity is the expression of the loving power of God and reflects the reality of divinity. It is resplendent in this day through the bestowals of light upon humanity.

Throughout the universe the divine power is effulgent in endless images and pictures. The world of creation, the world of humanity may be likened to the earth itself and the divine power to the sun. This Sun has shone upon all mankind. In the endless variety of its reflections the divine will is manifested. Consider how all are recipients of the bounty of the same Sun. At most the difference between them is that of degree, for the effulgence is one effulgence, the one light emanating from the Sun. This will express the oneness of the world of humanity. The body-politic or the social unity of the human world may be likened to an ocean and each member, each individual a wave upon that same ocean.

The light of the sun becomes apparent in each object according to the capacity of that object. The difference is simply one of degree and receptivity. The stone would be a recipient only to a limited extent; another created thing might be as a mirror wherein the sun is fully reflected; but the same light shines upon both.

The most important thing is to polish the mirrors of hearts in order that they may become illumined and receptive of the divine light. One heart may possess the capacity of the polished mirror; another be covered and obscured by the dust and dross of this world. Although the same Sun is shining upon both, in the mirror which is polished, pure and sanctified you may behold the Sun in all its fullness, glory and power revealing its majesty and effulgence, but in the mirror which is rusted and obscured there is no capacity for reflection although so far as the Sun itself is concerned it is shining thereon and is neither lessened nor deprived. Therefore our duty lies in seeking to polish the mirrors of our hearts in order that we shall become reflectors of that light and recipients of the divine bounties which may be fully revealed through them.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith p. 216
 
"... We repaired unto Our Green Island..."

"We will now mention unto thee Trustworthiness and the station thereof in the estimation of God, thy Lord, the Lord of the Mighty Throne. One day of days We repaired unto Our Green Island. Upon Our arrival, We beheld its streams flowing, and its trees luxuriant, and the sunlight playing in their midst. Turning Our face to the right, We beheld what the pen is powerless to describe; nor can it set forth that which the eye of the Lord of Mankind witnessed in that most sanctified, that most sublime, that blest, and most exalted Spot. Turning, then, to the left We gazed on one of the Beauties of the Most Sublime Paradise, standing on a pillar of light, and calling aloud saying: 'O inmates of earth and heaven! Behold ye My beauty, and My radiance, and My revelation, and My effulgence. By God, the True One! I am Trustworthiness and the revelation thereof, and the beauty thereof. I will recompense whosoever will cleave unto Me, and recognize My rank and station, and hold fast unto My hem. I am the most great ornament of the people of Baha, and the vesture of glory unto all who are in the kingdom of creation. I am the supreme instrument for the prosperity of the world, and the horizon of assurance unto all beings.' Thus have We sent down for thee that which will draw men nigh unto the Lord of creation."

~ Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 133
 
"... Send down Thy calm among them..."

O Thou Who art the Ruler of earth and heaven and the Author of all names! Thou hearest the voice of my lamentation which from the fortress-town of 'Akká ascendeth towards Thee, and beholdest how my captive friends have fallen into the hands of the workers of iniquity.

We render Thee thanks, O our Lord, for all the troubles which have touched us in Thy path. Oh, that the span of my earthly life could be so extended as to embrace the lives of the former and the latter generations, or could even be so lengthened that no man on the face of the earth could measure it, and be afflicted every day and every moment with a fresh tribulation for love of Thee and for Thy pleasure's sake!

Thou well knowest, however, O my God, that my wish is wholly dissolved in Thy wish, and that Thou hast irrevocably decreed that my soul should ascend unto the loftiest mansions of Thy Kingdom, and pass into the presence of my all-glorious Companion.

Hasten, by Thy grace and bounty, my passing, O my Lord, and pour forth upon all them that are dear to Thee what will preserve them from fear and trembling after me. Powerful art Thou to do whatsoever may please Thee. No God is there except Thee, the All-Glorious, the All-Wise.

Thou seest, O my Lord, how Thy servants have left their homes in their longing to meet Thee, and how they have been hindered by the ungodly from looking upon Thy face, and from circumambulating the sanctuary of Thy grandeur. Pour out Thy steadfastness and send down Thy calm upon them, O my Lord! Thou art, in truth, the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Compassionate.

~ Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 17
 
"I ask God to make ye lamps..."

I ask God to make ye lamps ignited by the great Light, so that ye may stand with all power, meekness, humbleness, sacrifice and self-resignation and thus become examples for the people and pure types for the world, be salt of the earth, stars of guidance, great trees with broad foliage and excellent fruits of fragrant scent, growing by the bounty of the cloud of the Kingdom of El-ABHA.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v1, p. 7
 
What thou hast written was perused. Thou hast written concerning the meeting of His Highness Christ after the crucifixion and that some of the apostles perceived Him but did not recognize Him; but that they did recognize Him after the breaking of bread.

Know thou that the Messianic Spirit and the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit is always manifest, but capacity and ability (to receive it) is more in some and less in others.

After the crucifixion the apostles had not in the beginning the capacity and ability of witnessing the Messianic reality. For they were agitated. But when they found firmness and steadfastness, their inner sight became opened, and thy saw the reality of the Messiah as manifest. For the body of Christ was crucified and vanished, but the Spirit of Christ is always pouring upon the contingent world, and is manifest before the insight of the people of assurance.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v1, p. 192-194
 
The Exalted Nature of the Soul of Man:

Thou hast asked Me whether man, as apart from the Prophets of God and His chosen ones, will retain, after his physical death, the self-same individuality, personality, consciousness, and understanding that characterize his life in this world. If this should be the case, how is it, thou hast observed, that whereas such slight injuries to his mental faculties as fainting and severe illness deprive him of his understanding and consciousness, his death, which must involve the decomposition of his body and the dissolution of its elements, is powerless to destroy that understanding and extinguish that consciousness? How can any one imagine that man's consciousness and personality will be maintained, when the very instruments necessary to their existence and function will have completely disintegrated?

Know thou that the soul of man is exalted above, 154 and is independent of all infirmities of body or mind. That a sick person showeth signs of weakness is due to the hindrances that interpose themselves between his soul and his body, for the soul itself remaineth unaffected by any bodily ailments. Consider the light of the lamp. Though an external object may interfere with its radiance, the light itself continueth to shine with undiminished power. In like manner, every malady afflicting the body of man is an impediment that preventeth the soul from manifesting its inherent might and power. When it leaveth the body, however, it will evince such ascendancy, and reveal such influence as no force on earth can equal. Every pure, every refined and sanctified soul will be endowed with tremendous power, and shall rejoice with exceeding gladness.

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 153)
 
"As to you, O friends of God..."

As to you, O friends of God: Make firm your feet in the Cause of God with such firmness as cannot be shaken by the most great disasters of the world. Be not troubled by anything under any condition. Be as lofty mountains, dawning-stars from the horizon of existence, brilliant lamps in the assemblies of oneness and lowly souls, pure hearted, with the friends.

Be signs of guidance; lights of piety; severed from the world, holding fast to the firm rope; spreaders of the spirit of life; abiders in the ark of safety; manifestations of mercy; dawning-stars of the mysteries of existence; points of revelation; day-springs of light; strengthened by the Holy Spirit; attracted toward God; sanctified from all things and from the (natural) qualities of people, and characterized with the attributes of the angels of heaven -- so ye may attain to the greatest gift in this great century and new age.

By the life of El-Baha! No one will obtain this great favor save he who cuts himself from this world, being attracted by the love of God, who is dead to the desires and appetites of self, sincere to God in all things and meek, humble, imploring, pleading and lowly before God.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v1, p. 5
 
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