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Gracious God! How far have that people strayed from the way of God! Although the Day of Resurrection was ushered in through the Revelation of Muḥammad, although His light and tokens had encompassed the earth and all that is therein, yet that people derided Him, gave themselves up to those idols which the divines of that age, in their vain and idle fancy, had conceived, and deprived themselves of the light of heavenly grace and of the showers of divine mercy. Yea, the abject beetle can never scent the fragrance of holiness, and the bat of darkness can never face the splendour of the sun.


"Gracious God!" Well, yes, He is, but this is not a reference to the Graciousness of our Lord, obviously. It is really an exclamation of exasperation. He is stunned and dumbfounded at the obtuseness of the people. Which people? Those people at the time of Muhammad, referred to in the previous few paragraphs, who did not see that the Day of Resurrection occurred at the time of the Prophet. This seems to totally mystify Him.

But then He makes an interesting comment that can be seen as a literal statement, as well as an oblique statement on the people of His day. He says they "gave themselves up to those idols which the divines of that age... had conceived". These were the very people who were so blinded that they preferred to worship the stone and wooden idols in the Kaaba, as opposed to the living Manifestation in their very midst.

It can also be seen as a condemnation of those similar divines who have made an idol of their interpretation of the prophecies and terms of the past. They are so in love with their understanding of such terms as resurrection, judgment, paradise and hell, that if anyone comes along with a different interpretation, they condemn him as a heretic. They have made an idol of their interpretations.

This is so important a theme that He spent almost all of Part 1 of this book talking about it. Remember, He took a single passage from Matthew and showed the many layers of meaning within it. Any single term had multiple definitions and could be seen in numerous ways, all of which led us to a better understanding of the world around us and prepared us for the coming Manifestation.

But again, Baha'u'llah is referring to those people who would deny this, or any interpretation that is not the exact same as theirs. When we fall prey to this form of egotism, believing that we have the answer and everyone else must be wrong, this is when we will find ourselves "deprived... of the light of heavenly grace and of the showers of divine mercy". We are so rapt in our own vain imaginings that we are unable to see the beautiful teachings that we may have missed. And as we get caught up in this egotistic net, we find that we will become more and more fanatical in our defense of this position, thus depriving ourselves of any mercy that we may so desperately need.

It is so easy to think of those poor souls who began with such a love for the sacred Text, but then became dogmatic in their belief. We can just see them frothing at the mouth, forgetting the initial beauty that attracted them, unaware of all that they have lost.

This is when they become like that "abject beetle", which destroys the agriculture in an area and is so hated by those around them. Of course, we are also reminded of those other beetles that live amidst the dung.

This is also when they become like the bat, virtually blind, flitting around in the darkness hoping to catch a few paltry insects to survive. They miss out on the radiant beauty and warmth of the sun.

As if this wasn't bad enough, they even drag so many of those people around them down to their own level. Gracious God, indeed.