Consider The Rational Faculty With Which

Sources: Gleanings From The Writings Of Baha'u'llah

Consider the rational faculty with which God hath endowed the essence of

man. Examine thine own self, and behold how thy motion and stillness, thy

will and purpose, thy sight and hearing, thy sense of smell and power of

speech, and whatever else is related to, or transcendeth, thy physical

senses or spiritual perceptions, all proceed from, and owe their existence

to, this same faculty. So closely are they related unto it, that if i

less than the twinkling of an eye its relationship to the human body be

severed, each and every one of these senses will cease immediately to

exercise its function, and will be deprived of the power to manifest the

evidences of its activity. It is indubitably clear and evident that each

of these afore-mentioned instruments has depended, and will ever continue

to depend, for its proper functioning on this rational faculty, which

should be regarded as a sign of the revelation of Him Who is the sovereign

Lord of all. Through its manifestation all these names and attributes have

been revealed, and by the suspension of its action they are all destroyed

and perish.



It would be wholly untrue to maintain that this faculty is the same as the

power of vision, inasmuch as the power of vision is derived from it and

acteth in dependence upon it. It would, likewise, be idle to contend that

this faculty can be identified with the sense of hearing, as the sense of

hearing receiveth from the rational faculty the requisite energy for

performing its functions.



This same relationship bindeth this faculty with whatsoever hath been the

recipient of these names and attributes within the human temple. These

diverse names and revealed attributes have been generated through the

agency of this sign of God. Immeasurably exalted is this sign, in its

essence and reality, above all such names and attributes. Nay, all else

besides it will, when compared with its glory, fade into utter nothingness

and become a thing forgotten.



Wert thou to ponder in thine heart, from now until the end that hath no

end, and with all the concentrated intelligence and understanding which

the greatest minds have attained in the past or will attain in the future,

this divinely ordained and subtle Reality, this sign of the revelation of

the All-Abiding, All-Glorious God, thou wilt fail to comprehend its

mystery or to appraise its virtue. Having recognized thy powerlessness to

attain to an adequate understanding of that Reality which abideth within

thee, thou wilt readily admit the futility of such efforts as may be

attempted by thee, or by any of the created things, to fathom the mystery

of the Living God, the Day Star of unfading glory, the Ancient of

everlasting days. This confession of helplessness which mature

contemplation must eventually impel every mind to make is in itself the

acme of human understanding, and marketh the culmination of man's

development.