|
Why has creation been called into being, and why is it sustained? What is the purpose of God's great work? (137:3) The scriptures tell us that the answer is love. Out of His love we were created, and He wishes us to return that love: (137:4) O Son of Man! I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life. Arabic Hidden Words, No. 4 (137:5) To love Him, we must know Him, for we cannot love a thing that we do not know. For this reason, God has given us the capacity to know Him: (137:6) From among all created things He hath singled out for His special favor the pure, the gem-like reality of man, and invested it with a unique capacity of knowing Him and of reflecting the greatness of His glory. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 77 (137:7) God Himself is the purpose of creation. He wishes to be known and loved. He is not only the Source, but also the Goal of creation. We proceed from Him, and we return unto Him (137:8) But how can we know God? Can a blade of grass comprehend the sun? Can a painting understand the one who painted it? Or a sculpture imagine the sculptor? (137:9) How can we, His creatures, know Him, when we can not even fathom His creation! We who do not even know the hairs of our own head, much less the wonders of the universe; are we to understand the infinite Creator? (137:10) No. We have been bound by limits that we can never transcend. God is far too great to be comprehended of Himself. However, we are not cut off from Him; His mercy does not fail to reach us. Although we cannot know Him directly, He has allowed a way for His eternal love to reach us, for His attributes to be manifested in His creation. It is His attributes, not His essence, that we can know; and thereby is He known (137:11) The truth that we know God through His attributes, but not in His essence, will become clearer if we consider, by way of analogy, a blade of grass. A blade of grass can never know the inner workings of the sun. According to its limited capacity as ordained by God, however, a blade of grass can benefit from the life-giving rays of the sun, and can manifest the qualities of those rays in its growth. The blade of grass does not know the sun directly, but it can experience and become imbued with its qualities; thus, what the blade of grass knows of the sun are its rays, its qualities, but not its essence. The blade of grass cannot go to the sun, neither can the sun descend in its essence into the blade of grass. Neither the nature of the sun nor the nature of the blade of grass would permit this
(137:12)
|