Postby Dorumerosaer » Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:41 pm
O DWELLERS OF MY PARADISE!
With the hands of loving-kindness I have planted in the holy garden of paradise the young tree of your love and friendship, and have watered it with the goodly showers of My tender grace; now that the hour of its fruiting is come, strive that it may be protected, and be not consumed with the flame of desire and passion.
(Baha'u'llah, The Persian Hidden Words 4)
O YE SONS OF SPIRIT!
Ye are My treasury, for in you I have treasured the pearls of My mysteries and the gems of My knowledge. Guard them from the strangers amidst My servants and from the ungodly amongst My people.
(Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words 69)
One of the important principles related to our faith in Baha'u'llah is to guard it. We are repeatedly admonished to seek out those who are steadfast and pure, and to avoid those who test our faith. There is a time for everything. However, when you are a new recruit, that's not the time to go out on the battlefield and challenge a veteran. That over-confidence is a sign of immaturity, not a sign of strength.
But we are tested by our minds, which say "Oh, but we must face these people. We cannot be like those who go and hide. We have to confront them. We can handle any challenge, and it will strengthen us." But the soul is not yet ready for this.
If a believer who is well-informed, not only with facts, but with spiritual proofs of the Cause from his or her own life; then the bite of the snake does not kill him. Rather, it makes his blood a healing remedy for others who are bitten. But it is a dangerous dance, and if you go out and get bitten too soon, you get killed.
These websites take some fact, some fiction, and a lot of innuendo and suspicion, to weave a story of doubt.
What does Baha'u'llah tell the new believer to do? To pray, to study the Writings, to ponder them, to apply them in his or her life, and to serve the world with them. In this way, certitude develops. Then, gradually, the believer can face the challenger and the critic.
What does the mind say? "There's not enough time to read the Baha'i Writi9ngs. Here. Go read this website, it can't hurt you."
And because the believer is disobedient, and does not focus on strengthening his faith; and is susceptible to the taunting; he wanders out into a field that he is not yet ready for, and gets clobbered.
There is a time for everything. When the time is ripe, then, deadly poison becomes a healing remedy. Before that time -- it's just poison.
Loyalty to Moses and Jesus would lead that person, not to stay a Jew or a Christian, but to recognize and embrace the Prophet Muhammad, who fulfilled prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments, and brought a pure Revelation from God. Moses and Christ are not pleased when one of their followers rejects Muhammad.
Likewise, loyalty to Muhammad does not mean to remain a Muslim, but to recognize the fulfilment of Islam in the Persons of the Bab and Baha'u'llah. And those who spread fear of Baha'u'llah, who smear Him, are rendering a service to no one including themselves.
"Thy vision is obscured by the belief that divine revelation ended with the coming of Muhammad, and unto this We have borne witness in Our first epistle. Indeed, He Who hath revealed verses unto Muhammad, the Apostle of God, hath likewise revealed verses unto Ali-Muhammad. For who else but God can reveal to a man such clear and manifest verses as overpower all the learned? Since thou hast acknowledged the revelation of Muhammad, the Apostle of God, then there is no other way open before thee but to testify that whatever is revealed by the Primal Point hath also proceeded from God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting."
(Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 31)
"Ye have disbelieved your Lord. If ye are truly faithful to Muhammad, the Apostle of God and the Seal of the Prophets, and if ye follow His Book, the Qur'án, which is free from error, then here is the like of it -- this Book, which We have, in truth and by the leave of God, sent down unto Our Servant. If ye fail to believe in Him, then your faith in Muhammad and His Book which was revealed in the past will indeed be treated as false in the estimation of God."
(Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 46)
One more point on these websites. They offer the ability to provide feedback -- this is purely cosmetic, not real. If they were real, they would post the comments of others. But they do not want the reader to see the challenges to their website, to have the weaknesses exposed. So they give the *appearance* of open-mindedness. They ignore the comments entirely, share them with no one, and continue on their way.
"It is clear and evident that the object of all preceding Dispensations hath been to pave the way for the advent of Muhammad, the Apostle of God. These, including the Muhammadan Dispensation, have had, in their turn, as their objective the Revelation proclaimed by the Qá'im. The purpose underlying this Revelation, as well as those that preceded it, has, in like manner, been to announce the advent of the Faith of Him Whom God will make manifest."
(Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 105)
Brent