Daily Lessons Received at ‘Akká, January 1908/Essence of the Material Creation
| Daily Lessons Received at ‘Akká, January 1908 Essence of the Material Creation |
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ESSENCE OF THE MATERIAL CREATION
[edit]Question: Is the essence of the material creation the Spirit of God?
Answer: No, it is not the Spirit of God, but it is the Bounty of God. It is not a part of God, for it is His creation.
To illustrate: Take a lamp; its light is created by the sun but is no part of the light of the sun. The action of the sun upon the earth produced the petroleum that gives the light. Neither the petroleum nor the light is any part of the sun.
And so it is with the life, or essence, of all creation.
God has created all beings, but their life, or essence, is not the Life of the Spirit.
The Bounty of God is bestowed upon the mineral, the vegetable, animal, and man, but their life, or essence, is not the Spirit of God.
But when the spirit of man awakens to the consciousness of the Spirit of God and becomes imbued with the Light of the Sun of Truth, that Light in him is of the Spirit of God and is immortal with God. But the man who is not endowed with this Light remains as a lamp whose light may be extinguished.
Question: Suppose a man is ill and dies, not having summoned a physician. Had his time come to die, or would he with proper care have recovered?
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Answer: There are two kinds of death. One is preordained, and the other is dependent upon many things. For example, a lamp is filled with oil, and it will burn as long as the oil will last. This is preordained. (If the lamp is filled with oil to burn five hours, it will not burn six hours.) Another lamp may be filled, but a strong wind arising may put out the light. This is the other kind of death—dependent upon circumstances.
It is certain that if a babe be thrown into the sea, it will die. This is not preordained death, for the child had just begun its life.
Question: Then these circumstances are somewhat dependent upon the will of man?
Yes, but God has given him that will.
Question: Can any of these circumstances be changed by prayer?
Yes, prayer might prevent the strong wind from blowing out the light of the lamp—but it could never change the amount of oil in the lamp—that is preordained.
Question: Do animals have an existence after this life?
Answer: The love shown by animals is instinctive and not dependent upon their own will—that is, they are endowed with their qualities and use them in a natural way, but not by their own will. As these
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qualities are instinctive and not voluntary, animals will not be rewarded. Their benefits are confined to this world only.
Take a flower; it gives forth a fragrance not of its own will but because it has been naturally endowed. It has no power to withhold the fragrance, so it is compelled to give it out.
This piece of bread gives strength to the body, not by its own will, but because it must. This is of the Bounty of God; therefore, the bread has no reward.
A dog shows affection by instinct and not by will.
A rich man gives a bounty to a poor man. Should the rich man also give him a reward because he has received a bounty? It is the same with the animals. Their qualities are bestowed by God. Shall He give them reward for this Bounty?
Man is the only creature who can receive reward, because he has the power of choice—whether he will show forth love or withhold it. He has the power to choose immortal life or to reject it, while the animals have no qualities that are immortal.
For fresh air and exercise we were sometimes permitted to walk on the housetop.
The view from there was superb. Toward the west lay the blue Mediterranean, south of us was the Bay of ‘Akká, Haifa, and beautiful Mt. Carmel. To the north and east was the rolling country where the shepherds were tending their sheep as in the olden time, in the same flowing garments, and carrying their shepherds’ crooks in the same old way.
From the minarets was heard the call to prayer. How we longed to shout to the muezzin that a “New
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Call” had been “vociferously raised” and to the shepherds—the “True Shepherd” hath appeared!
At table one day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asked, “If the people here should not let you leave ‘Akká, what would you do—how would you feel?”
We answered, “We would stay here always and be perfectly happy.” He smiled at this and said, “Suppose they should ask you why you came here? They might say, ‘These prisoners are Persians. What have Americans and Persians to say to one another?’”
We answered that we should like nothing better than to mount the housetop and shout to all the people the reason of our coming. He smiled again and said, “You are shouting although you are silent, but your words will be heard in the future. The words of Christ were not heard until three hundred years after His death.
“There is a Persian story of a thief who, in order to rob a certain house, went to work to undermine the foundation. The owner of the house happened to be on the roof and looking down discovered the thief and asked what he was doing. The man replied, ‘I am trumpeting.’ ‘Trumpeting!’ exclaimed the owner, ‘Why, you are not making any noise.’ ‘Oh no,’ answered the thief, ‘you will hear the noise tomorrow!’”