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Fundamental Principle of Religious Truth
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Let no one, however, mistake my purpose. The Revelation, of
which Bahá'u'lláh is the source and center, abrogates none of the
religions that have preceded it, nor does it attempt, in the slightest
degree, to distort their features or to belittle their value. It disclaims
any intention of dwarfing any of the Prophets of the past,
or of whittling down the eternal verity of their teachings. It can,
in no wise, conflict with the spirit that animates their claims, nor
does it seek to undermine the basis of any man's allegiance to their
cause. Its declared, its primary purpose is to enable every adherent
of these Faiths to obtain a fuller understanding of the religion with
which he stands identified, and to acquire a clearer apprehension
of its purpose. It is neither eclectic in the presentation of its truths,
nor arrogant in the affirmation of its claims. Its teachings revolve
around the fundamental principle that religious truth is not absolute
but relative, that Divine Revelation is progressive, not final. Unequivocally
and without the least reservation it proclaims all established
religions to be divine in origin, identical in their aims,
complementary in their functions, continuous in their purpose, indispensable
in their value to mankind.
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"All the Prophets of God," asserts Bahá'u'lláh in the Kitáb-i-Íqán,
"abide in the same tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are
seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech, and proclaim
the same Faith." From the "beginning that hath no beginning," these
Exponents of the Unity of God and Channels of His incessant
utterance have shed the light of the invisible Beauty upon mankind,
and will continue, to the "end that hath no end," to vouchsafe fresh
revelations of His might and additional experiences of His inconceivable
glory. To contend that any particular religion is final, that
"all Revelation is ended, that the portals of Divine mercy are closed,
that from the daysprings of eternal holiness no sun shall rise again,
that the ocean of everlasting bounty is forever stilled, and that out
of the Tabernacle of ancient glory the Messengers of God have
ceased to be made manifest" would indeed be nothing less than
sheer blasphemy.
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"They differ," explains Bahá'u'lláh in that same epistle, "only
in the intensity of their revelation and the comparative potency of
their light." And this, not by reason of any inherent incapacity of
any one of them to reveal in a fuller measure the glory of the Message
with which He has been entrusted, but rather because of the
immaturity and unpreparedness of the age He lived in to apprehend
and absorb the full potentialities latent in that Faith.
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"Know of a certainty," explains Bahá'u'lláh, "that in every Dispensation
the light of Divine Revelation has been vouchsafed to men
in direct proportion to their spiritual capacity. Consider the sun.
How feeble its rays the moment it appears above the horizon. How
gradually its warmth and potency increase as it approaches its zenith,
enabling meanwhile all created things to adapt themselves to the
growing intensity of its light. How steadily it declines until it
reaches its setting point. Were it, all of a sudden, to manifest the
energies latent within it, it would, no doubt, cause injury to all
created things.... In like manner, if the Sun of Truth were suddenly
to reveal, at the earliest stages of its manifestation, the full
measure of the potencies which the providence of the Almighty has
bestowed upon it, the earth of human understanding would waste
away and be consumed; for men's hearts would neither sustain the
intensity of its revelation, nor be able to mirror forth the radiance
of its light. Dismayed and overpowered, they would cease to exist."
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It is for this reason, and this reason only, that those who have
recognized the Light of God in this age, claim no finality for the
Revelation with which they stand identified, nor arrogate to the
Faith they have embraced powers and attributes intrinsically superior
to, or essentially different from, those which have characterized
any of the religious systems that preceded it.
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Does not Bahá'u'lláh Himself allude to the progressiveness of
Divine Revelation and to the limitations which an inscrutable Wisdom
has chosen to impose upon Him? What else can this passage
of the Hidden Words imply, if not that He Who revealed it disclaimed
finality for the Revelation entrusted to Him by the Almighty?
"O Son of Justice! In the night-season the beauty of the
immortal Being hath repaired from the emerald height of fidelity
unto the Sadratu'l-Muntahá, and wept with such a weeping that
the concourse on high and the dwellers of the realms above wailed
at His lamenting. Whereupon there was asked, Why the wailing
and weeping? He made reply: As bidden I waited expectant upon
the hill of faithfulness, yet inhaled not from them that dwell on
earth the fragrance of fidelity. Then summoned to return I beheld,
and lo! certain doves of holiness were sore tried within the claws
of the dogs of earth. Thereupon the Maid of Heaven hastened forth,
unveiled, and resplendent, from Her mystic mansion, and asked of
their names, and all were told but one. And when urged, the first
Letter thereof was uttered, whereupon the dwellers of the celestial
chambers rushed forth out of their habitation of glory. And whilst
the second letter was pronounced they fell down, one and all, upon
the dust. At that moment a Voice was heard from the inmost shrine:
`Thus far and no farther.' Verily we bear witness to that which they
have done and now are doing."
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"The Revelation of which I am the bearer," Bahá'u'lláh explicitly
declares, "is adapted to humanity's spiritual receptiveness
and capacity; otherwise, the Light that shines within me can neither
wax nor wane. Whatever I manifest is nothing more or less than
the measure of the Divine glory which God has bidden me reveal."
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If the Light that is now streaming forth upon an increasingly
responsive humanity with a radiance that bids fair to eclipse the
splendor of such triumphs as the forces of religion have achieved
in days past; if the signs and tokens which proclaimed its advent
have been, in many respects, unique in the annals of past Revelations;
if its votaries have evinced traits and qualities unexampled
in the spiritual history of mankind; these should be attributed not
to a superior merit which the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, as a Revelation
isolated and alien from any previous Dispensation, might possess,
but rather should be viewed and explained as the inevitable outcome
of the forces that have made of this present age an age infinitely
more advanced, more receptive, and more insistent to receive an
ampler measure of Divine Guidance than has hitherto been vouchsafed
to mankind.
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