23 Say: God Hath Made My Hidden Love The Key To The Treasure #15

Categories: NOTES
Sources: The Kitab-i-aqdas

There is a well-known Islamic tradition concerning God and His creation:





I was a Hidden Treasure. I wished to be made known, and thus I

called creation into being in order that I might be known.





References and allusions to this tradition are found throughout the Baha'i

Writings. For example, in one of His prayers, Baha'u'llah reveals:





La ded be Thy name, O Lord my God! I testify that Thou wast a

hidden Treasure wrapped within Thine immemorial Being and an

impenetrable Mystery enshrined in Thine own Essence. Wishing to

reveal Thyself, Thou didst call into being the Greater and the

Lesser Worlds, and didst choose Man above all Thy creatures, and

didst make Him a sign of both of these worlds, O Thou Who art our

Lord, the Most Compassionate! Thou didst raise Him up to occupy

Thy throne before all the people of Thy creation. Thou didst

enable Him to unravel Thy mysteries, and to shine with the lights

of Thine inspiration and Thy Revelation, and to manifest Thy names

and Thine attributes. Through Him Thou didst adorn the preamble of

the book of Thy creation, O Thou Who art the Ruler of the universe

Thou hast fashioned! (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah)





Likewise, in the Hidden Words, He states:





O Son of Man! I loved thy creation, hence I created thee.

Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy

soul with the spirit of life.





'Abdu'l-Baha, in His commentary on the above-cited tradition, wrote:





O wayfarer in the path of the Beloved! Know thou that the main

purpose of this holy tradition is to make mention of the stages of

God's concealment and manifestation within the Embodiments of

Truth, They who are the Dawning-places of His All-Glorious Being.

For example, before the flame of the undying Fire is lit and

manifest, it existeth by itself within itself in the hidden

identity of the universal Manifestations, and this is the stage of

the Hidden Treasure. And when the blessed Tree is kindled by

itself within itself, and that Divine Fire burneth by its essence

within its essence, this is the stage of I wished to be made

known. And when it shineth forth from the Horizon of the universe

with infinite Divine Names and Attributes upon the contingent and

placeless worlds, this constituteth the emergence of a new and

wondrous creation which correspondeth to the stage of Thus I

called creation into being. And when the sanctified souls rend

asunder the veils of all earthly attachments and worldly

conditions, and hasten to the stage of gazing on the beauty of the

Divine Presence and are honoured by recognizing the Manifestation

and are able to witness the splendour of God's Most Great Sign in

their hearts, then will the purpose of creation, which is the

knowledge of Him Who is the Eternal Truth, become manifest.