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The manifestation of a Manifestation of God
A Manifestation of God is always a Manifestation of God. The physical bodies of the Manifestations of God are like the rest of us humans, but their Souls are not the same as our human souls. Their Souls are pre-existent.
Bahá’u’lláh was aware of His own Station before 1852. Nabíl gives examples of individuals who recognized the Station of Bahá’u’lláh before 1852 [Act 15, Chapter 1; including e.g. Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunúzí, whom Bahá’u’lláh tells not to tell others because the time has not yet come to do so]. It was however in the Síyáh-Chál, that Bahá’u’lláh received the intimation that the time to manifest His Revelation in this realm had come.
The Manifestation of Bahá
Bahá’u’lláh Himself, in later years, described the experience He had in the Síyáh-Chál of the Call of Manifestation:
During the days I lay in the prison of Tihrán, though the galling weight of the chains and the stench-filled air allowed Me but little sleep, still in those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of My body would, as a result, be set afire. At such moments My tongue recited what no man could bear to hear.
One night, in a dream, these exalted words were heard on every side: “Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety. Erelong will God raise up the treasures of the earth — men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through Thy Name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized Him.”
While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden — the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord — suspended in the air before Me. So rejoiced was she in her very soul that her countenance shone with the ornament of the good pleasure of God, and her cheeks glowed with the brightness of the All-Merciful. Betwixt earth and heaven she was raising a call which captivated the hearts and minds of men. She was imparting to both My inward and outer being tidings which rejoiced My soul, and the souls of God’s honoured servants.
Pointing with her finger unto My head, she addressed all who are in heaven and all who are on earth, saying: By God! This is the Best-Beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but understand. This is the Mystery of God and His Treasure, the Cause of God and His glory unto all who are in the kingdoms of Revelation and of creation, if ye be of them that perceive. This is He Whose Presence is the ardent desire of the denizens of the Realm of eternity, and of them that dwell within the Tabernacle of glory, and yet from His Beauty do ye turn aside.
The Divine Call had been issued for the Sun of Bahá to rise above the horizon!
“Him Whom God shall manifest” hath been manifested.
“A Revelation, hailed as the promise and crowning glory of past ages and centuries, as the consummation of all the Dispensations within the Adamic Cycle, inaugurating an era of at least a thousand years’ duration, and a cycle destined to last no less than five thousand centuries, signalizing the end of the Prophetic Era and the beginning of the Era of Fulfillment. … such a Revelation was … born amidst the darkness of a subterranean dungeon in Tihrán.”
However, it will be another decade, before this Call will be announced publicly by Bahá’u’lláh. That will be on 21 April – 2 May 1863 in the Garden of Ridván, Baghdád [commemorated as the Festival of Ridván]. During this ten-year period, before the announcement, many will recognize the Station of Bahá’u’lláh and copious will be the revelation of Divine verses by Him.
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