It is my understanding that this phrase, "joining partners with God,"
means making someone God's equal. In Section XCIV of the Gleanings,
Baha'u'llah addresses this subject.
In the Hidden Words "O Companion of My Throne," I personally think it is
Baha'u'llah addressing His followers. There are different ways of
viewing a "companion" to the throne. One way would be that someone is
seated on the throne with Him, but I have never viewed it this way. It
can mean someone who is before His throne, submissive to Him, yet near
to Him.
Also, the word translated here as "O companion" is translated as "O
friend" in the Book of Certitude. "O friend, it behoveth us not to
waive the injunction of God..."
Anyway, I do not personally view this use of "companion" to in any way
imply equality; but rather, as a loving admonition to a subordinate, an
encouragement intended to draw the believer closer.
---------
On the subject of the Hidden Words, I met a woman -- Helen Bishop -- who
told us in 1983 at Bosch that when she was on Pilgrimage Shoghi Effendi
asked her, "Mrs. Bishop, do the friends realize that the condemnations
in the Hidden Words are not addressed to them?" "No, Shoghi Effendi, I
don't think so." Then the Guardian pointed out that in the Epistle to
the Son of the Wolf, Baha'u'llah quotes four of the Hidden Words and
says they were addressed to the clergy of Persia:
"These thick clouds are the exponents of idle fancies and vain
imaginings, who are none other but the divines of Persia.. . . By
"divines" in the passage cited above is meant those men who outwardly
attire themselves with the raiment of knowledge, but who inwardly are
deprived therefrom. In this connection, We quote from the Tablet
addressed to His Majesty the Shah, certain passages from the "Hidden
Words" which were revealed by the Abha Pen under the name of the "Book
of Fatimih," the blessings of God be upon her!
"O ye that are foolish, yet have a name to be wise! Wherefore do ye wear
the guise of the shepherd, when inwardly ye have become wolves, intent
upon My flock? Ye are even as the star, which riseth ere the dawn, and
which, though it seem radiant and luminous, leadeth the wayfarers of My
city astray into the paths of perdition."
And likewise He saith: "O ye seeming fair yet inwardly foul! Ye are like
clear but bitter water, which to outward seeming is crystal pure but of
which, when tested by the Divine Assayer, not a drop is accepted. Yea,
the sunbeam falls alike upon the dust and the mirror, yet differ they in
reflection even as doth the star from the earth: nay, immeasurable is
the difference!"
And also He saith: "O essence of desire! At many a dawn have I turned
from the realms of the Placeless unto thine abode, and found thee on the
bed of ease busied with others than Myself. Thereupon, even as the flash
of the spirit, I returned to the realms of celestial glory, and breathed
it not in My retreats above unto the hosts of holiness."
And again He saith: "O bond slave of the world! Many a dawn hath the
breeze of My loving-kindness wafted over thee and found thee upon the
bed of heedlessness fast asleep. Bewailing then thy plight it returned
whence it came."
(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, pp. 14-16)
The first two of these are very similar in tone and content to Christ's
condemnation of the Pharisees, see Luke Chapter 11.
Brent
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