All Praise And Glory Be To God Who

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

All praise and glory be to God Who, through the power of His might, hath

delivered His creation from the nakedness of non-existence, and clothed it

with the mantle of life. From among all created things He hath singled out

for His special favor the pure, the gem-like reality of man, and invested

it with a unique capacity of knowing Him and of reflecting the greatness

of His glory. This twofold distinction conferred upon him hath cl ansed

away from his heart the rust of every vain desire, and made him worthy of

the vesture with which his Creator hath deigned to clothe him. It hath

served to rescue his soul from the wretchedness of ignorance.



This robe with which the body and soul of man hath been adorned is the

very foundation of his well-being and development. Oh, how blessed the day

when, aided by the grace and might of the one true God, man will have

freed himself from the bondage and corruption of the world and all that is

therein, and will have attained unto true and abiding rest beneath the

shadow of the Tree of Knowledge!



The songs which the bird of thine heart had uttered in its great love for

its friends have reached their ears, and moved Me to answer thy questions,

and reveal to thee such secrets as I am allowed to unfold. In thine

esteemed letter thou hadst inquired which of the Prophets of God should be

regarded as superior to others. Know thou assuredly that the essence of

all the Prophets of God is one and the same. Their unity is absolute. God,

the Creator, saith: There is no distinction whatsoever among the Bearers

of My Message. They all have but one purpose; their secret is the same

secret. To prefer one in honor to another, to exalt certain ones above the

rest, is in no wise to be permitted. Every true Prophet hath regarded His

Message as fundamentally the same as the Revelation of every other Prophet

gone before Him. If any man, therefore, should fail to comprehend this

truth, and should consequently indulge in vain and unseemly language, no

one whose sight is keen and whose understanding is enlightened would ever

allow such idle talk to cause him to waver in his belief.



The measure of the revelation of the Prophets of God in this world,

however, must differ. Each and every one of them hath been the Bearer of a

distinct Message, and hath been commissioned to reveal Himself through

specific acts. It is for this reason that they appear to vary in their

greatness. Their Revelation may be likened unto the light of the moon that

sheddeth its radiance upon the earth. Though every time it appeareth, it

revealeth a fresh measure of its brightness, yet its inherent splendor can

never diminish, nor can its light suffer extinction.



It is clear and evident, therefore, that any apparent variation in the

intensity of their light is not inherent in the light itself, but should

rather be attributed to the varying receptivity of an ever-changing world.

Every Prophet Whom the Almighty and Peerless Creator hath purposed to send

to the peoples of the earth hath been entrusted with a Message, and

charged to act in a manner that would best meet the requirements of the

age in which He appeared. God's purpose in sending His Prophets unto men

is twofold. The first is to liberate the children of men from the darkness

of ignorance, and guide them to the light of true understanding. The

second is to ensure the peace and tranquillity of mankind, and provide all

the means by which they can be established.



The Prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to

foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the

spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity. To

none is given the right to question their words or disparage their

conduct, for they are the only ones who can claim to have understood the

patient and to have correctly diagnosed its ailments. No man, however

acute his perception, can ever hope to reach the heights which the wisdom

and understanding of the Divine Physician have attained. Little wonder,

then, if the treatment prescribed by the physician in this day should not

be found to be identical with that which he prescribed before. How could

it be otherwise when the ills affecting the sufferer necessitate at every

stage of his sickness a special remedy? In like manner, every time the

Prophets of God have illumined the world with the resplendent radiance of

the Day Star of Divine knowledge, they have invariably summoned its

peoples to embrace the light of God through such means as best befitted

the exigencies of the age in which they appeared. They were thus able to

scatter the darkness of ignorance, and to shed upon the world the glory of

their own knowledge. It is towards the inmost essence of these Prophets,

therefore, that the eye of every man of discernment must be directed,

inasmuch as their one and only purpose hath always been to guide the

erring, and give peace to the afflicted.... These are not days of

prosperity and triumph. The whole of mankind is in the grip of manifold

ills. Strive, therefore, to save its life through the wholesome medicine

which the almighty hand of the unerring Physician hath prepared.



And now concerning thy question regarding the nature of religion. Know

thou that they who are truly wise have likened the world unto the human

temple. As the body of man needeth a garment to clothe it, so the body of

mankind must needs be adorned with the mantle of justice and wisdom. Its

robe is the Revelation vouchsafed unto it by God. Whenever this robe hath

fulfilled its purpose, the Almighty will assuredly renew it. For every age

requireth a fresh measure of the light of God. Every Divine Revelation

hath been sent down in a manner that befitted the circumstances of the age

in which it hath appeared.



As to thy question regarding the sayings of the leaders of past religions.

Every wise and praiseworthy man will no doubt eschew such vain and

profitless talk. The incomparable Creator hath created all men from one

same substance, and hath exalted their reality above the rest of His

creatures. Success or failure, gain or loss, must, therefore, depend upon

man's own exertions. The more he striveth, the greater will be his

progress. We fain would hope that the vernal showers of the bounty of God

may cause the flowers of true understanding to spring from the soil of

men's hearts, and may wash them from all earthly defilements.