Turning

Turning at the Birth of Baha'u'llah, 164 BE

 By John Taylor; 2007 Nov 11, 08 Qudrat, 164 BE

 "And if thou dwellest in the land of testimony, content thyself with that which He, Himself, hath revealed: `Is it not enough for them that We have sent down unto Thee the Book?' (Q29:51) This is the testimony which He, Himself, hath ordained; greater proof than this there is none, nor ever will be: `This proof is His Word; His own Self, the testimony of His truth.'" (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 91)

 It is a holy day today for Baha'is, time to call to mind the entry into this world of a babe named Husayn Ali, later entitled Baha'u'llah, Glory of God. We know a little more about the circumstances of Baha'u'llah's birth in 1819 than we do about most earlier Manifestations of God, but not all that much more. Baha'u'llah was born before the invention of photography, even in its earliest forms. It seems strange then for us inhabitants of a digital age, we who are raising the most photographically documented generation of children in history, to think that we have no portraits of Baha'u'llah as a child, or of his family members, other than a drawing of His father, Mirza Bozorg, a prominent luminary in the court of the shah.

 We could conceivably make up for this deficit by going on pilgrimage to Tehran to see the mansion in which Baha'u'llah was born, and perhaps also visit the country estates where the family spent their summer holidays, surroundings where Baha'u'llah no doubt acquired His life-long love of gardens and greenery. We may not see snapshots of the newborn baby, but imagination gains grounding of by walking in the same locales. Unfortunately, the spiteful fanatic has made such a pilgrimage impossible, at least for the time being.

 From this the ardent lover of Baha'u'llah derives the only lesson possible, radiant acquiescence, contentment with the Will of God. At our Birth celebration we assert our undying faith that however small the quantity of data we have about the birth and childhood of Baha'u'llah, it is not inadequate, it is enough. "He is, in Himself ... the All-Sufficing." As Baha'u'llah Himself affirms in the Iqan, there are only two possible legacies of a Manifestation, His family and His Book, and the greatest of these is the Word in the Book, for spirit operates through the Word.

 So the true birth that took place on this day was not a physical parturition that could be captured in words, images or recordings, what we are celebrating is the birth of Spirit through a human Vehicle, a Vehicle that performed all He was assigned. That was enough for Him, but is it enough for us.

 So, at the Birth the question should not be is it enough but am I enough? Am I performing as His chosen vehicle all that He assigned unto us? No photograph could ever be taken of the answer to that! No mirror could do anything but obstruct questions like, Am I content with the modicum God gave me? Do I really believe I have been given all I need? Am I swimming in the ocean of His Word, and if I am, am I applying it, am I living up to its spirit? Is it enough for me?

 Christ said that spirit is born of spirit. It that is so, then even the tiniest quantity of spirit suffices, since it is by nature self-replicating, self-referential and recursive. In the same way, any profit we derive from contentment with the Will of God is conditional upon pre-existing contentment itself, as the Hidden Word teaches,

 "Ask not of Me that which We desire not for thee, then be content with what We have ordained for thy sake, for this is that which profiteth thee, if therewith thou dost content thyself." (AHW 18)

 The kind of knowledge we derive at the birth of Baha'u'llah does not come of seeing a snapshot of Him as a baby. No, nor a thousand snaps, or a slide show with million images, no matter how high the resolution may be. Such intimacy comes not of data input, it comes of what is termed in philosophy "turning." Since Plato told the story of the cave or den, it has been recognized that education has little to do with the amount of outer information a student takes in, or even with the acuity of his or her faculty of vision. The slaves chained to a cave wall could see nothing but shadows until they turned their whole bodies and worked their way out of the shadows into the light of the sun of goodness. Little as data input has to do with the education of the body, it has less still to do with education of spirit. Only "turning" is enough. In the Republic, just after telling the story of the den, Plato explains the implications of "turning" for true education,

 "Education is not what some people declare it to be, namely, putting knowledge into souls that lack it, like putting sight into blind eyes. ... the power to learn is present in everyone's soul and ... the instrument with which each learns is like an eye that cannot be turned around from darkness to light without turning the whole body. This instrument cannot be turned around from that which is coming into being without turning the whole soul until it is able to study that which is, and the brightest thing that is, namely, the one we call the good." (518c,d, G.M.A. Grube, translator)

 This later became the basis of Christian faith when Jesus on the Mount declared, "But seek first God's Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be added to you." (Matt 6:33, WEB) And we saw in the headpiece of this essay how Baha'u'llah in the Iqan holds up a very similar statement in the Qu'ran. Another Qu'ranic passage, from the Surih of Thunder, goes further, saying that we who learn and apply the Book can stand with God in testifying to the truth of the Manifestation of God,

 "The Unbelievers say: `No apostle art thou.' Say: `Enough for a witness between me and you is God, and such as have knowledge of the Book.'" (Q13:43, Yusuf Ali)

 Anything we gain at today's celebration to help us turn, break out into the light of the good, and then do our duty by going back into the dark to bear witness, that surely suffices.