Enlightenment Part I

What is Enlightenment? Part I

By John Taylor; 2006 June 08

The Bab, at the end of the paragraph following the passage we looked at yesterday, says: "Through the radiance of His light God imparteth illumination to your hearts and maketh firm your steps, that perchance ye may yield praise unto Him." (The Bab, Selections, 155) The Bab's slant on enlightenment, then, is that it has a purpose, to help us on our path, ultimately so that we will be in a position to worship God. As a slogan: "knowledge is for love."

His answer was to a question that had came to prominence in the previous century, an age when Europeans began to cast off superstition and seek truth independently of revealed, traditional religion. It was an age flattered themselves with the title, "The Enlightenment." It was almost over when Immanuel Kant in 1784 wrote a short essay, his most important popular work, called "What is Enlightenment?" This essay with its pregnant question has mesmerized me for over a week, since I returned from the Inter-institutional conference in Toronto last week. Our determination to initiate entry by troops will, I began to think, constitute a kind of recognition of the Bab's answer to that question, "What does it mean to be enlightened?" Like Tahirih at Badasht, we need only tear away our veil and light will shine in and away, of itself. The Master said,

"Today the call of the Kingdom is the magnetic power which draweth to itself the world of mankind, for capacity in men is great. Divine teachings constitute the spirit of this age, nay rather the sun of this age. Every soul must endeavour that the veils that cover men's eyes may be torn asunder and that instantly the sun may be seen and that heart and sight may be illumined thereby. (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections, 310)

The secular Enlightenment divorced orthodox, devotional religion from science and reason, and now even religious people willingly divorce religion from spirituality; but such separations soon will be reconciled. In view of that, let us return to the balance of the paragraph cited above; the Bab wrote,

"This is the divinely-inscribed Book. This is the outspread Tablet. Say, this indeed is the Frequented Fane, the sweet-scented Leaf, the Tree of divine Revelation, the surging Ocean, the Utterance which lay concealed, the Light above every light... Indeed every light is generated by God through the power of His behest. He of a truth is the Light in the kingdom of heaven and earth and whatever is between them." (Selections, 154-155)

Enlightenment, then, is not an abstraction. It may be compared to a book, a temple, a leaf, a tree, an ocean, but all these are metaphorical personifications of the Manifestation, a human being, albeit a unique, chosen One. His Instruction is a light that transcends all other lights. He is the light. Any indirect enlightenment derives from the Will of God, and is instantiated in Him, for what makes one Man good makes all good.

Here is the value and justification of the institution of royalty. An enlightened monarch submits to laws and the constitution and in her munificent influence demonstrates the illumination of the rule of law. The law is the educator of the monarch, and by extension all of us, in the same way that the Will of God educates and informs the Manifestation.

"Clearly then in the same manner, and by the same means through which a man becomes truly good, he will frame a state that is to be ruled by an aristocracy or by a king, and the same education and the same habits will be found to make a good man and a man fit to be a statesman or a king." (Aristotle, Politics, Book IV)

The Manifestation enlightens by modeling truth. One cannot prove God to limited, finite minds, or demonstrate holy truths like a mathematical equation. Instead the Manifestation shows truth in human form in His own Person. The wonder and the glory of the Baha'i Era is that we have the prophet, we have more than a prophet, and we have the Son. We have `Abdu'l-Baha, our perfect exemplar or model of how to be a believer.

Early in the Baghdad period, that is, after the annunciation in the Siyyih Chal but well before the proclamation of the word "Baha'i," Baha'u'llah insisted on everyone calling His eldest son "Master." He is reported to have said at the time, "There is one and only one Aqa and He is the Most Great Branch, others should be addressed by their names..." (Adib Taherzadeh, Child of the Covenant, 232) Thus soon after the Covenant was established and well before it was outwardly known to anyone outside the holy family, `Abdu'l-Baha was the Center of the Covenant. A boy not yet a teenager, was to be called "Master." The Ascension of Baha'u'llah took place when He was forty eight years old, during which time He had refrained from writing anything save at the express bidding of Baha'u'llah. His tutelage was long and His obedience complete. When He emerged as leader then He did the reverse of what most do upon coming of age, He incorporated servitude in His very name, He went from being called master to "Servant of Baha."

His biography sets up a paradoxical model. It demonstrates how to liberate by serving, how to gain wealth by giving it all away constantly, to the privileged as well as the poor. He is enlightenment on every level, from practical to spiritual; His ethical standard was never seen on the face of the earth before, but because He was also the consummate teacher He made His model into something like a scientific discovery, that is, once confirmed it spreads to others quickly. With entry by troops it will spread to every soul on earth. As the standard of the Covenant is raised, His high ethical standard will become the norm.

It is in the light of this Man, this model centering the Covenant, that Kant's answer to the question, "What is enlightenment?" in his essay of that name can be understood. I will dive into that tomorrow.

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John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com