G: > Thirdly, aside from the question of whether or not saying that the
> manifestation is "one and the same" with God is shirk or not, there is
> the even more bizzre claim that this is not only consistent with
> tawhid, but is actually the essence and definition of tawhid.
"The essence of belief in Divine unity [tawhid] consisteth in regarding Him Who is the Manifestation of God and Him Who is the invisible, the inaccessible, the unknowable Essence as one and the same." (Gleanings p. 166)Hi Gilberto, This email trail is really my fault by writing the subject line as I did. But as Ian so comically put it, I placed God in scare quotes to imply that what I meant by "God" is not literally God.
In my email to Ian, I stated that one has to look at the Revelation of Baha'u'llah as a whole and not take one sentence and hold it superior over other sentences He wrote. If one applies this to the quote from the Gleanings p. 166, one will realize that Baha'u'llah had something quite specific in mind, which has nothing to do with God being a man. If the verse from the Gleanings was the only statement made by Baha'u'llah about 'Tawhid' & the relationship between the Manifestation and God, then I would agree that Baha'u'llah taught Incarnation of God into a human being (the Manifestation).
If you consider all the writings of Baha'u'llah on the subject, you will see that there are places where He emphatically rejects incarnation of God, partnership with God, etc. So the question is, what in the world does Baha'u'llah mean here?
What are your ideas? HERE ARE MINE:
Although the Manifestation of God is not the same thing as the invisible, inaccessible, unknowable Essence, true belief in tawhid is dependent on accepting the Manifestation as God's PERFECT Representative. It is recognition of the idea that the Manifestation perfectly represents God on earth.
The Manifestation's Will is God's Will,
the Manifestation's speech is God's speech,
the Manifestation's laws are God's Laws,
the Manifestation's declarations are God's declarations,
without exception, without doubt, and without depreciation.
Rejection of the Manifestation's laws is rejection of God's Laws,
rejection of the Manifestation's command is rejection of God's Command,
rejection of the Manifestation's will is rejection of God's Will,
rejection of the Manifestation's authority is rejection of God's Authority,
rejection of the Manifestation's oneness is rejection of God's Oneness.
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