II A-D: The lives of the prophets.

"Examine the wondrous behaviour of the Prophets, and recall the defamations and denials uttered by the children of negation and falsehood, perchance you may cause the bird of the human heart to wing its flight away from the abodes of heedlessness and doubt unto the nest of faith and certainty, and drink deep from the pure waters of ancient wisdom, and partake of the fruit of the tree of divine knowledge. Such is the share of the pure in heart of the bread that hath descended from the realms of eternity and holiness."

After telling us He will lead us to true understanding the Iqan turns directly to the lives of the Prophets and the indignities troubles and sacrifices heaped upon them. This section goes on for quite some time.

This is a curious turn when you think of it - how are the events of someones life the first response to the question of true knowledge?

As you might guess, each of the small sections of the lives of the prophets has particular lessons.

A. Noah

"He several times promised victory to His companions and fixed the hour thereof. But when the hour struck, the divine promise was not fulfilled. This caused a few among the small number of His followers to turn away from Him, and to this testify the records of the best-known books."

This is not out of context, but what seems to me to be an important lesson: that what the Messengers from God promise is not necessarily as important as what they say... that some of these promises (like the land of Milk and Honey) do not need to be fulfilled (40 years wandering the Sinai). Really in this is not that there is a lie here, but a misunderstanding; the tests of Faith may come from wishing too fondly for what we want rather than what we need to know, and its inner significance...but i'll have to come back to that some other time.

B. Abraham
"It is well known what a host of enemies besieged Him, until at last the fires of envy and rebellion were kindled against Him. And after the episode of the fire came to pass, He, the lamp of God amongst men, was, as recorded in all books and chronicles, expelled from His city."

C. Hud

"In like manner, those words that have streamed forth from the source of power and descended from the heaven of glory are innumerable and beyond the ordinary comprehension of man. To them that are possessed of true understanding and insight the Surah of Hud surely sufficeth. Ponder a while those holy words in your heart, and, with utter detachment, strive to grasp their meaning."

That is a red flag :"surely the Surah of Hud sufficeth" . Some essential message here is in the Seventh Surah of the Quran. We decide to read that Surah at the next meeting. That the Revelation of God is boundless and without number is certainly to be part of that.

D. Salih
"Even as it is revealed: "And unto the tribe of Thamud We sent their brother Salih. ‘O my people,’ said He, ‘Worship God, ye have none other God beside Him....’ They made reply: ‘O Salih, our hopes were fixed on thee until now; forbiddest thou us to worship that which our fathers worshipped? Truly we misdoubt that whereunto thou callest us as suspicious.’"[Qur’an 11:61, 62.] All this proved fruitless, until at last there went up a great cry, and all fell into utter perdition."

Salih's life is described also on the Surah of Hud. The theme of people choosing the religions of their Fathers over the religion of God is definitely a theme we see throughout the Iqan.

To be continued!

Iqan Para1-3: Opening

I. The Opening: True Understanding is rooted in detachment from all that is in heaven and earth.

The first three pargraphs of the Kitab-i-Iqan, as with the tablets of Baha'u'llah that I have actually read, are entirely condensed discussion of the overall theme of the tablet.

"IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD, THE EXALTED, THE MOST HIGH.

No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth. Sanctify your souls, O ye peoples of the world, that haply ye may attain that station which God hath destined for you and enter thus the tabernacle which, according to the dispensations of Providence, hath been raised in the firmament of the Bayan.

THE essence of these words is this: they that tread the path of faith, they that thirst for the wine of certitude, must cleanse themselves of all that is earthly—their ears from idle talk, their minds from vain imaginings, their hearts from worldly affections, their eyes from that which perisheth."

Almost all the tablets of Baha'u'llah, as with the Qu'ran begin with Godly attributes from which the discourse will emanate. (the opening).

Here we are promised that as the book unfolds, the grandeur of God will be shown to us, as will the humbleness of men.

How does this incline us to true understanding? what is true understanding? what does this have to do with our imaginings, affections and idle talk that is so earthly? does that mean that we will be living entirely without these things?