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darkened; and just in the same way, if a man's intellect aim at fully
beholding the holy nature of the True Spiritual Sun, nought but darkness will be
the result. For sun, moon and stars in all their brightness are but drops from
the ocean of that Sun's glory, they are but motes in the atmosphere of His
greatness. So it was that a sage of olden times, when asked, 'What is God?',
confessed that, the more he pondered that question, the less could he answer it.
Every wise man of our own times, if he depends for a knowledge of God's nature
only upon his own intellect, will say the same.
We conclude, therefore, that, if God Most High reveals nothing regarding His
own Most Holy Nature in His word, then man can say nothing certain about it;
and, although in His word He has given us certain teaching about Himself, yet
man has no power to add anything to what has thus been divinely revealed. Nay
more, the truth is that, however much all sages together have ever said or will
ever say about God's Most Holy Nature, basing their teaching on their own
intellects, the statements of the word of God and the teaching of Christ Himself
are infinitely more reliable than it all. What man cannot discover for himself,
however, he yet can accept and believe when God has taught it to him; and if man
in his pride of intellect and foolish self-confidence rejects what God has
revealed, then he condemns himself and is in |
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God's sight responsible for his wilful ignorance and blindness.
It has been supposed, and it seems quite possible, that in God's word such
subjects may be sometimes mentioned and such subtle distinctions in God's holy
nature revealed, that man's feeble and finite intellect may be unable to grasp
them in their entirety; for man is entirely unable fully to comprehend that
eternally existent nature and that absolute wisdom. Besides this, man is so
circumstanced that in this lower world he acquires all knowledge by outward
observation and inward induction, that is to say, all his sciences are based
upon seeing things and reflecting upon them. So it is also with the science of
theology. For example, from the power and wisdom manifested in creation, and
from the intelligence, love, justice, mercy, and other good attributes which are
found in some measure in man himself, we may trace our way back towards our
Creator, and, by ascribing to Him these good attributes in absolute perfection,
we can thus, and only thus, conceive to ourselves in some slight degree what is
meant by speaking of these good attributes as existing in God. But men of
intelligence are well aware that in the unseen world, and therefore in God's
Most Holy Nature also, there must needs be innumerable subtle distinctions and
particular points
(نكته) of which man is quite unaware, and which have nothing
similar or analogous in the visible creation. If,
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