The Tablet of the World

I read this passage from the Tablets of Bah?’u'll?h the other day. It seems highly relevant to the danger that the world faces from religious fanaticism and terrorist action that claims religious justification. Bah?’u'll?h Himself was persecuted by fanatical Shi’ih clerics, while He constantly called humanity to the remembrance of God.

My (fallible) understanding is that by “the unbelievers and the faithless” Bah?’u'll?h means those who claim to speak for God and yet turn their back on Him, preferring their own opinions and inclinations to His healing message for this latest stage in humankind’s spiritual evolution.

The unbelievers and the faithless have set their minds on four things: first, the shedding of blood; second, the burning of books; third, the shunning of the followers of other religions; fourth, the extermination of other communities and groups. Now however, through the strengthening grace and potency of the Word of God these four barriers have been demolished, these clear injunctions have been obliterated from the Tablet and brutal dispositions have been transmuted into spiritual attributes. Exalted is His purpose; glorified is His power; magnified is His dominion! Now let us beseech God?praised be His glory?to graciously guide aright the followers of the Shi??ih sect and to purge them of unseemly conduct. From the lips of the members of this sect foul imprecations fall unceasingly, while they invoke the word ?Mal?u?n? (accursed)?uttered with a guttural sound of the letter ?ayn? as their daily relish.

O God my God! Thou hearest the sighing of Him Who is Thy Light (Baha?), hearkenest unto His lamentations in the daytime and in the night season and knowest that He desireth naught for Himself but rather seeketh to sanctify the souls of Thy servants and to deliver them from the fire with which they are beset at all times. O Lord! The hands of Thy well-favoured servants are raised towards the heaven of Thy bounty and those of Thy sincere lovers are lifted up to the sublime heights of Thy generosity. Disappoint them not, I entreat Thee, in that which they seek from the ocean of Thy favour and from the heaven of Thy grace and the day-star of Thy bounty. Aid them, O Lord, to acquire such virtues as will exalt their stations among the peoples of the world. Verily Thou art the Powerful, the Mighty, the Most Generous.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Baha’u'llah, Bahai, Bahaullah, Islam, Muslim, Shi’ih, Shia

Technorati Tags: fanaticism, Bah?’u'll?h, Shi’ih, spiritual