Dominion of Oneness

The Dominion of Oneness

By John Taylor; 2006 Apr 05

In the early 1860's Canadians had their safety and sovereignty gravely
threatened by the American Civil War. Young men walking the streets of
many Canadian cities, including my home town of Hamilton, were being
shanghaied by Union Army recruiters with urgent quotas to meet. Many
were seduced, others were plied with free alcohol and woke up the next
day as soldiers in the great power to the south. One day a boy or
young man was free and two weeks later he was dying the violent,
obscure death of a front line soldier in a foreign war. It is still
not known precisely how many were lost; most fought for the North but
others, willingly or not, somehow turned up in the dead lists of the
Confederate Army. This, combined with threats and saber rattling after
the war by the arrogantly victorious American government, persuaded
the Canadian government that, in spite of their reservations, they had
no choice but to confederate. In 1867 the provinces merged a single
country that they called the "Dominion of Canada."

They used the word "Dominion" because it described perfectly their
desire to be an independent entity with the due rights of a nation,
but also one whose sovereignty was not absolute. Canadian leaders were
fiercely loyal to the British Empire and wished to leave all final
decisions to the parliament in London. They persisted in this
reluctance to take the reigns completely for many decades afterwards.
But one cannot ignore the fact that our Fathers of Confederation were
far from ignorant of the Bible. They clearly viewed this word
primarily as a Biblical term with far reaching millennial
implications. A Psalm speaks of the power of God reaching out
everywhere, without limit, as a dominion from sea to sea, just like
Canada extends from Atlantic to Pacific.

"He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the
ends of the earth. Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before
him. His enemies shall lick the dust." (Ps 72:8-9, WEB)

The river in their view would be our largest river, the St. Laurence.
What is more, many of our pioneers still lived as subsistence farmers
lost in the wilderness, the endless forests of the north. Canadians
were used to a hard life and doubtless looked forward with longing
eyes to permanence and compassion, to absolute over-lordship of God's
kingdom. "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion
endures throughout all generations." (Ps 145:13, WEB) Having been
tossed in the wake of the terrible Civil War so close to home, the
word dominion also gave a promise of peace.

"...the battle bow will be cut off; And he will speak peace to the
nations: And his dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River
to the ends of the earth." (Zech 9:10, WEB)

At the same time, dominion as scriptural term implies moral rule,
placing the Word and teachings of God first, and putting them into
action in our lives. "Establish my footsteps in your word. Do not let
any iniquity have dominion over me." (Ps 119:133, WEB) This moral
nuance shows in the prophesies of Amos, who predicted the desolation
of materialism that now grips the world, from sea to sea.

"Behold, the days come," says the Lord Yahweh, "That I will send a
famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but
of hearing the words of Yahweh. They will wander from sea to sea, and
from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek
the word of Yahweh, and will not find it." (Amos 8:11-12, WEB)

This leads me to `Abdu'l-Baha. During the pall of the First World War
He wrote the Tablets of the Divine Plan, His call to spread the word
of Baha'u'llah to the four corners of the earth. When He turned to
Canada, a nation He had visited only a few years before, He clearly
had been looking at a map with the correct name at the time of our
nation, "The Dominion of Canada." The Arabic word for Dominion is
Mulk. So as His words indicate He reflected upon the implications for
equality of that fateful word, Mulk, or "dominion." His conclusion in
this Tablet is all but memorized by many Canadian Baha'is.

"In the great Qur'an, God says: "Thou shalt see no difference in the
creatures of God." (Q67:3) In other words, He says: From the ideal
standpoint, there is no variation between the creatures of God,
because they are all created by Him. From the above premise, a
conclusion is drawn, that there is no difference between countries.
The future of the Dominion of Canada, however, is very great, and the
events connected with it infinitely glorious. It shall become the
object of the glance of providence, and shall show forth the bounties
of the All-Glorious." (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of the Divine Plan, p. 93)

The Qu'ranic passage that the Master cites is from the chapter called
Al-Mulk, usually translated by "kingdom" or "sovereignty," but of
course Mulk is a Baha'i month that the Guardian translated by
"Dominion." I have not found any other translator who uses the word
"difference," as found above. Here is how Yusuf Ali translates the
passage in question:

"He Who created the seven heavens one above another; no want of
proportion wilt thou see in the Creation of (Allah) Most Gracious, so
turn thy vision again: Seest thou any flaw?"

Most translators use "defect," while Shakir prefers "incongruity" for
the Arabic word translated as "difference" above. In any case, none of
these alternatives are entirely incompatible with the Master's
explanation of the implication of the passage that belief in God wipes
out all notions of inequality between creatures. Since the Civil War
was a big fight over race, inequality, slavery and differences between
people, the Master's choice of this passage is entirely apropos to the
reasons that Canadians called their country a dominion, and to the
reasons that we did not imagine.

I may continue with OG and Dominion next time.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com