the Testimony of Creation

This is the ninth passage of the Long Obligatory Prayer. It is said seated, just after coming out of prostration.

I testify unto that whereunto have testified all created things, and the Concourse on high, and the inmates of the all-highest Paradise, and beyond them the Tongue of Grandeur itself from the all-glorious Horizon, that Thou art God, that there is no God but Thee, and that He Who hath been manifested is the Hidden Mystery, the Treasured Symbol, through Whom the letters B and E (Be) have been joined and knit together. I testify that it is He whose name hath been set down by the Pen of the Most High, and Who hath been mentioned in the Books of God, the Lord of the Throne on high and of earth below.



Just to simplify things a bit, the performer testifies to three things: that 1. Thou art God 2. there is no God but Thee 3) He Who hath been manifested is the Hidden Mystery, the Treasured Symbol, through Whom the letters B and E (Be) have been joined and knit together.



What I find most interesting about this passage is that all created things are also said to have made this testimony. In light of this, I want to make a simple claim. That inasmuch as we witness the conditioned and circumscribed nature of the world around us, even our very selves, this bears witness to an unconditionality that is necessarily the flip side of conditioned existence. This is what it means for all created things to testify that Thou art God.


Further on, the performer testifies that He Who hath been manifested (presumably the Manifestation of God) is the Hidden Mystery, the Treasured Symbol. This image of the Treasured Symbol is the one that most interests me. For some time we have been pursuing this prayer in terms of the 99 names of God, and their manifestation in creation. To invoke the Manifestation as a symbol is to set up a distinction between the symbol and that to which it refers: the referent, in this case God. The referent cannot become intelligible as Himself. This is because He is heterogeneous to being-as-we-know-it, which becomes demarcated in thought through language. Hence, the need for a symbol, who is homogeneous in some way to being-as-we-know-it, hence the Manifestations of God, the historical founders of the world's religions.

Once these images have been invoked the performer testifies that the Hidden Mystery, the Treasured Symbol is one through Whom the letters B and E (Be) have been joined and knit together. Being then is somehow produced by way of the Manifestation of God. I don't know the Arabic for this passage. Someday soon I will. For one, I'm not even sure if the Arabic translates roughly into the English verb Be. I wonder about this because the sentence is so dependent on the specific form of the language in which it is spoken. For example this wouldn't translate so well into a language that doesn't really even use letters, Chinese comes to mind. (Thanks Shannon for the tip on that one. BTW Correct me if I'm not getting this right.) Anyway, regardless of what it says in the Arabic it is still very revealing in the English. If the word Be is in the imperative, and thus a commandment (Hey you, Be!) then this would be a direct reference to the Qur'an. On numerous occassions the claim is made that God's utterance of the word Be! brought the universe into existence. Since the letters B and E have been joined and knit together through the Manifestation of God this would indicate that they have a part in the production of all created things. Baha'u'llah states this elsewhere. One of these instances is in passage 109 of the Kitab-i-Iqan.

Man, the noblest and most perfect of all created things, excelleth them all in the intensity of this revelation, and is a fuller expression of its glory. And of all men, the most accomplished, the most distinguished and the most excellent are the Manifestations of the Sun of Truth. Nay, all else besides these Manifestations, live by the operation of their Will, and move and have their being through the outpourings of their grace.

That's all I have to say regarding this passage for now. I've tacked on another quote which I thought last night that I might want to include in this entry. It obviously has a lot to do with the ideas expressed above, but it stands on its own in the way it invokes the name of God, the Educator.

Gleanings XCIII

He is really a believer in the Unity of God who recognizeth in each and every created thing the sign of the revelation of Him Who is the Eternal Truth, and not he who maintaineth that the creature is indistinguishable from the Creator.
Consider, for instance, the revelation of the light of the Name of God, the Educator. Behold, how in all things the evidences of such a revelation are manifest, how the betterment of all beings dependeth upon it. This education is of two kinds. The one is universal. Its influence pervadeth all things and sustaineth them. It is for this reason that God hath assumed the title, “Lord of all worlds.” The other is confined to them that have come under the shadow of this Name, and sought the shelter of this most mighty Revelation.

So how about that. Teaching the faith of God, and God's maintenance of creation are akin to each other inasmuch as they both derive from the name of God, the educator.