Appendix 3
Progressive
Revelation
Abraham, on
Him be peace, made a covenant
concerning Moses and gave the glad-tidings of His coming. Moses made a covenant concerning the promised Christ,
and announced the good news of His advent to the world. Christ made a covenant concerning the
Paraclete and gave the tidings of His coming. The Prophet Muhammad made a covenant
concerning the Báb, and the Báb was the One
promised by Muhammad, for Muhammad gave the tidings of His coming. The Báb made a Covenant concerning
the Blessed Beauty, Bahá'u'lláh, and gave the
glad-tidings of His coming for the Blessed Beauty was the One promised
by the Báb. Bahá'u'lláh
made a covenant concerning a Promised One Who will become manifest
after one thousand or thousands of years. That Manifestation is
Bahá'u'lláh's Promised One, and will appear after a
thousand or thousands of years. He, moreover, with His Supreme Pen,
entered into a great Covenant and Testament with all the Baha'is
whereby they were all commanded to follow the Centre of the Covenant
after His ascension, and depart, not even to a hair's breadth, from
obeying Him.
(`Abdu'l-Bahá : translated from the Persian,
pub. in Baha'i World Faith , p 358)
12 I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
13 Howbeit when he,
the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:
for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that
shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of
mine, and shall shew it unto you.
15 All things that the Father hath are mine:
therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto
you.
(King James Bible,
John 16)
The Blessed Lord said:
5 Many a birth have I passed through, and many came
to you, yet all of Mine I know but yours you do not know.
6 My self is changeless and unborn, and I am Lord of
beings, but using Nature, which is Mine, by My own power I come into
being.
7 Whenever there
appears on earth decline of Righteousness, uprising of Unrighteousness,
I send Myself to birth.
8 For protection of the good, the wicked put to
flight, I come into being age by age establishing the Right.
(The Bhagavad Gita,
4 Wisdom, tr: Geoffrey Parrinder)
Religion is the
outer expression of the divine reality. Therefore it must be living,
vitalized, moving and progressive. If it be without motion and
non-progressive it is without the divine life; it is dead. The
divine institutes are continuously active and evolutionary; therefore
the revelation of them must be progressive and continuous. All things
are subject to re-formation. This is a century of life and renewal.
Sciences and arts, industry and invention have been reformed. Law and
ethics have been reconstituted, reorganized. The world of thought has
been regenerated. Sciences of former ages and philosophies of the past
are useless today. Present exigencies demand new methods of solution;
world problems are without precedent. Old
ideas and modes of thought are fast becoming obsolete. Ancient laws and
archaic ethical systems will not meet the requirements of modern
conditions, for this is clearly the century of a new life, the century
of the revelation of the reality and therefore the greatest of all
centuries. Consider how the scientific developments of fifty
years have surpassed and eclipsed the knowledge and achievements of all
the former ages combined. Would the announcements and theories of
ancient astronomers explain our present knowledge of the sun-worlds and
planetary systems? Would the mask of obscurity which beclouded
mediaeval centuries meet the demand for clear-eyed vision and
understanding which characterizes the world today? Will the despotism
of former governments answer the call for freedom which has risen from
the heart of humanity in this cycle of illumination? It is evident that
no vital results are now forthcoming from the customs, institutions and
standpoints of the past. In view of this, shall blind imitations of
ancestral forms and theological interpretations continue to guide and
control the religious life and spiritual development of humanity today?
Shall man gifted with the power of reason unthinkingly follow and
adhere to dogma, creeds and hereditary beliefs which will not bear the
analysis of reason in this century of effulgent reality? Unquestionably
this will not satisfy men of science, for when they find premise or
conclusion contrary to present standards of proof and without real
foundation, they reject that which has been formerly accepted as
standard and correct and move forward from new foundations.
The divine prophets
have revealed and founded religion. They have laid down certain laws
and heavenly principles for the guidance of mankind. They have taught
and promulgated the knowledge of God, established praiseworthy ethical
ideals and inculcated the highest standards of virtues in the human
world. Gradually these heavenly teachings and foundations of
reality have been beclouded by human interpretations and dogmatic
imitations of ancestral beliefs. The essential realities which the
prophets labored so hard to establish in human hearts and minds while
undergoing ordeals and suffering tortures of persecution, have now well
nigh vanished. Some of these heavenly messengers have been killed, some
imprisoned; all of them despised and rejected while proclaiming the
reality of divinity. Soon after their departure from this world, the
essential truth of their teachings was lost sight of and dogmatic
imitations adhered to.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i
World Faith, p. 224-226)
1670. Muhammadanism is a Fuller Revelation than any
one Preceding it
"... Muhammadanism is not only the last of the world
religions, but are fuller Revelation than any one preceding it. The
Qur'án is not only more authoritative than any previous
religious gospel, but it contains also much more ordinances, teachings
and precepts, which taken together constitute a fuller Revelation of
God's purpose and law to mankind than Christianity, Judaism or any
other previous Dispensation. This view is in complete accord with the
Bahá'í philosophy of progressive revelation, and should
be thoroughly accepted and taught by every loyal Christian
Bahá'í."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to
an individual believer, November 12, 1933, Lights of Guidance, p. 497)
In conclusion of this theme, I feel, it should be
stated that the Revelation identified with Bahá'u'lláh
abrogates unconditionally all the Dispensations gone before it, upholds
uncompromisingly the eternal verities they enshrine, recognizes firmly
and absolutely the Divine origin of their Authors, preserves inviolate
the sanctity of their authentic Scriptures, disclaims any intention of
lowering the status of their Founders or of abating the spiritual
ideals they inculcate, clarifies and correlates their functions,
reaffirms their common, their unchangeable and fundamental purpose,
reconciles their seemingly divergent claims and doctrines, readily and
gratefully recognizes their respective contributions to the gradual
unfoldment of one Divine Revelation, unhesitatingly acknowledges itself
to be but one link in the chain of continually progressive Revelations,
supplements their teachings with such laws and ordinances as conform to
the imperative needs, and are dictated by the growing receptivity, of a
fast evolving and constantly changing society, and proclaims its
readiness and ability to fuse and incorporate the contending sects and
factions into which they have fallen into a universal Fellowship,
functioning within the framework, and in accordance with the precepts,
of a divinely conceived, a world-unifying, a world-redeeming Order.
(Shoghi Effendi, God
Passes By, p. 100)
Then, and only then, will the vast, the majestic
process, set in motion at the dawn of the Adamic cycle, attain its
consummation - a process which commenced six thousand years ago, with
the planting, in the soil of the divine will, of the tree of divine
revelation, and which has already passed through certain stages and
must needs pass through still others ere it attains its final
consummation. The first part of this process was the slow and steady
growth of this tree of divine revelation, successively putting forth
its branches, shoots and offshoots, and revealing its leaves, buds and
blossoms, as a direct consequence of the light and warmth imparted to
it by a series of progressive dispensations associated with Moses,
Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and other Prophets, and of the
vernal showers of blood shed by countless martyrs in their path. The
second part of this process was the fruition of this tree, "that
belongeth neither to the East nor to the West," when the Báb
appeared as the perfect fruit and declared His mission in the Year
Sixty in the city of Shiraz. The third part was the grinding of this
sacred seed, of infinite preciousness and potency, in the mill of
adversity, causing it to yield its oil, six years later, in the city of
Tabriz. The fourth part was the ignition of this oil by the hand of
Providence in the depths and amidst the darkness of the Siyah-Chal of
Tihran a hundred years ago. The fifth, was the clothing of that
flickering light, which had scarcely penetrated the adjoining territory
of Iraq, in the lamp of revelation, after an eclipse lasting no less
than ten years, in the city of Baghdad.
(Shoghi Effendi, Messages
to the Baha'i World - 1950-1957, p. 153-154)
The fundamental
principle enunciated by Bahá'u'lláh, the followers of His
Faith firmly believe, is that Religious truth is not absolute but
relative, that Divine Revelation is a continuous and progressive
process, that all the great religions of the world are divine in
origin, that their basic principles are in complete harmony, that their
aims and purposes are one and the same, that their teachings are but
facets of one truth, that their functions are complementary, that they
differ only in the non-essential aspects of their doctrines and that
their missions represent successive stages in the spiritual evolution
of human society.
(Shoghi Effendi, Summary
Statement - 1947, Special UN Committee on Palestine)
Just as the organic
evolution of mankind has been slow and gradual, and involved
successively the unification of the family, the tribe, the city-state,
and the nation, so has the light vouchsafed by the Revelation of God,
at various stages in the evolution of religion, and reflected in the
successive Dispensations of the past, been slow and progressive. Indeed
the measure of Divine Revelation, in every age, has been adapted to,
and commensurate with, the degree of social progress achieved in that
age by a constantly evolving humanity.
"It hath been decreed by Us," explains
Bahá'u'lláh, "that the Word of God, and all the
potentialities thereof, shall be manifested unto men in strict
conformity with such conditions as have been foreordained by Him Who is
the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.... Should the Word be allowed to release
suddenly all the energies latent within it, no man could sustain the
weight of so mighty a Revelation." "All created things,"
‘Abdu'l-Bahá, elucidating this truth, has affirmed, "have their
degree or stage of maturity. The period of maturity in the life of a
tree is the time of its fruit-bearing.... The animal attains a stage of
full growth and completeness, and in the human kingdom man reaches his
maturity when the light of his intelligence attains its greatest power
and development. ...Similarly there are periods and stages in the
collective life of humanity. At one time it was passing through its
stage of childhood, at another its period of youth, but now it has
entered its long-predicted phase of maturity, the evidences of which
are everywhere apparent.... That which was applicable to human needs
during the early history of the race can neither meet nor satisfy the
demands of this day, this period of newness and consummation. Humanity
has emerged from its former state of limitation and preliminary
training. Man must now become imbued with new virtues and powers, new
moral standards, new capacities. New bounties, perfect bestowals, are
awaiting and already descending upon him. The gifts and blessings of
the period of youth, although timely and sufficient during the
adolescence of mankind, are now incapable of meeting the requirements
of its maturity." "In every Dispensation," He moreover has written,
"the light of Divine Guidance has been focused upon one central
theme.... In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious century, the
foundation of the Faith of God, and the distinguishing feature of His
Law, is the consciousness of the oneness of mankind."
(Shoghi Effendi, The
Promised Day is Come, p. 118-119)
Progression within a Revelation:
This divinely-purposed delay in the revelation of
the basic laws of God for this age, and the subsequent gradual
implementation of their provisions, illustrate the principle of
progressive revelation which applies, as Bahá'u'lláh
Himself explained, even within the ministry of each Prophet. "Know of a certainty that in every
Dispensation the light of Divine Revelation hath been vouchsafed to men
in direct proportion to their spiritual capacity. Consider the
sun. How feeble its rays the moment it appeareth above the horizon. How
gradually its warmth and potency increase as it approacheth its zenith,
enabling meanwhile all created things to adapt themselves to the
growing intensity of its light. How steadily it declineth until it
reacheth 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 hath 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."
(Baha'u'llah, Synopsis
and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 4)
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