Compilation, On the Divine Ipseity (Hūwīyyah) in the Bahá’í Writings

Annotated compilation on the mystical and metaphysical foundations of the 'Unknowable Essence'

Featured here is an annotated compilation on a central feature of Bahá’í theology, that ‘God’ is the Hidden, Unknowable Essence. The Writings of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh feature some of the most radically ‘apophatic’ passages on the Nature of Divinity to be found in world religious literature.

Introduced in this compilation is one of the key concepts used by the Bab and Baha’u’llah to discuss this: hūwīyyah, or ‘the Divine Ipseity’. This is a reference to God as the ‘Unknowable Essence’, beyond all conception, qualification, and paradoxically, by any reference entailed by this term. As a result, to even ‘talk’ about and ‘name’ this subject by this very term is fraught with challenge.

The resolution to this conundrum is via the notion of the Primal Will (aka the Universal Divine Intellect), the doctrine of Manifestation, and the schema of emanation. In other passages (not included here) they fiercely critique errors made by the philosophers and mystics in their attempts to resolve the tensions between absolute transcendence and radical immanence, so we must be aware of the possibility for mistakes.

Alongside quotes from the Bahá’í Writings, excerpts from notable thinkers are featured. Clarity on these metaphysical themes is essential for weighing the philosophical output of various traditions, and the diverse understandings and, at times, differing theological conclusions that religious communities have derived from what is ultimately a common framework for transcendent reality [say, Buddhist relational ontology vs the Abrahamic and Western ontology of essence or existence].

The selection from the Bahá’í Writings comprises only a fraction of a fraction on this theme and many further investigations remain to explore the full scope of the Writings on this particular topic.

“O CHILDREN OF THE DIVINE AND INVISIBLE ESSENCE! [al-hūwīyyah fī al-ghayb]”

يَا ابْناءَ الْهُوِيَّةِ فِي الْغَيْبِ

“Ye shall be hindered from loving Me and souls shall be perturbed as they make mention of Me. For minds [’uqūl] cannot grasp Me nor hearts [qulūb] contain Me.”

- Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words, Arabic, No. 66

al-Hūwīyyah [الْهُوِيَّةِ]: A Brief Introduction

[Arabic] 1. He-ness, It-ness, This-ness. 2. The Hidden, Unknowable Essence. the “Divine Ipseity”. Deus Absconditum. 3. selfhood; individual identity, essential identity. essence. substance.

Related concepts: ipseity • Haecceity • quiddity (māhiyyah) • essence (dhāt) • substance & substantiality (jawhar, ousía) • Theos Agnostos • Ahadīyyih and Wahidīyyih • ‘I-ness’ Innīyyah • Effulgences [Tajalliyat], Emanation, and Effusion • Manifestation

Hūwīyyah: an abstract concept formed from the Arabic third person singular pronoun “He” (Huwa), indicating the quality or abstract notion of being some him, it, or this particular thing. In theological & philosophical contexts applied to divinity, it indicates the Unseen, Unknowable Essence beyond all contemplation, conditioning, conception, and qualification. God in the purest, most abstracted, unconditioned sense; Divinity as the ‘Most Hidden of the Hidden’ beyond even the ‘Most Manifest of the Manifest’.

• The philosophical concept Huwiyyah more generally signals what it means to be ‘this very thing’, one’s essential identity as opposed to one’s quiddity (māhiyyah | ماهية), which is a thing’s ‘whatness’: what it is to be such a thing. The nearest concepts in English (from the Latin) are Ipseity and Haecceity, which, like Huwiyyah, signify the quality or aspects by which one is a particular instance of a certain genus, rather than the shared or universal qualities by which one is a thing.

• Each human has/is a certain ipseity; e.g. Socrates and ‘Socrates-ness’, which is simply ‘to be Socrates’, something which no one else shares. My ‘quiddity’ (whatness) is that I am a ‘human’, insofar as I am/have a ‘rational soul’, an essential quality I share with other human beings. As any person, such as myself, yourself, or Socrates, also participates in the genus or universal essence ‘humanness’, they each can be said to have a quiddity/māhiyyah (a ‘what-ness’) shared with others in the category ‘human’ by virtue of being human. By contrast, huwiyyah ‘He-ness’ or ‘this-ness’, is the special essence (to be Aaron, Aaron-ness) by which I am an entity, an individual, my self, singularly. In other words, that without which something loses its particular identity.

  • Quiddity is the answer to the question ‘what is [this thing]?’, a term derived literally from the Latin “quid est (what is)?”;

  • Ipseity is the totality of aspects or qualities, the nature by virtue of which Socrates is Socrates and not not Socrates, derived from the Latin ipse, indicating himself, herself, for his/her part, alone, by oneself, by one’s own accord, of virtue of one’s own nature. In other words, the answer to ‘who is he [this thing]?’ is an ipseity. This constitutes a distinct and singular essence. To the extent that any essence is directly unreachable¹ and may only be probed and understood with reference to its expressions, this is most true of the Divine Essence.
    

From Abd al-Razzaq Kāshānī’s “Lexicon of Sufi Technical Terminology”, the Isṭilaḥāt al-Ṣufiyya (12th/13th c.) | كتاب اصطلاحات الصوفية

الحقيقة : المطلقة المشتملة على الحقائق اشتمال النواة على الشجرة « في الغيب » المطلق ، ولحوق الواو من الحروف الدورية بهو ، دليل دور الهوية في تجليها أزلا ، وأبدا ، من نفسها على نفسها ، فإن الغيب المطلق من حيث هو غيب لا ينتهي إلى حد ينقلب فيه شهادة قطعا

From the Oxford Dictionary of Islam, p. 121

“Huwiyyah: He-ness or it-ness; means “identity” in modern Arabic. In classical Islamic philosophy it functioned as a technical term designating a thing’s ability to subsist on its own or to take on existence. It also signaled something’s essential identity as opposed to its quiddity (mahiyyah). In mystical thought the term differentiated the identity of the divine being from the “I-ness” (aniyyah) of the mystic’s ego.”

Hūwīyyah in the Bahá’í Writings

From the Kitáb-i-Íqán

Huwiyyah as the Ultimate Hidden and Unknowable Essence, Sanctified Beyond all Attribute, Praise, Understanding.

“To every discerning and illumined heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence [ghayb-i-hūvīyyah], the divine Being [dhāt-i ahadiyyah-yi-muqaddas], is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His glory that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery. He is and hath ever been veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men. “No vision taketh in Him, but He taketh in all vision; He is the Subtile, the All-Perceiving.”

- Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Íqán para. 104

Notwithstanding the Absolute Transcendence of the Hidden Essence, He existentiates the First Creation, the Primal Will and calls into Being all things from sheer nonexistence by virtue of His Command [Amr].

No tie of direct intercourse can possibly bind Him to His creatures. He standeth exalted beyond and above all separation and union, all proximity and remoteness. No sign can indicate His presence or His absence; inasmuch as by a word of His command [Amr] all that are in heaven and on earth have come to exist, and by His wish [arādih], which is the Primal Will itself [nafs-i-Mashiyyat], all have stepped out of utter nothingness into the realm of being [hasti], the world of the visible [shuhud].”

- Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Íqán para. 104

The Gates of Knowledge-Recognition of the Divine Essence are Impenetrable, and Irrevocably Blocked

Yet by the virtue of His Will, the Manifestations of God, ‘Daysprings’ or Fountainheads of the Hidden Essence, appear to impart the mysteries of the Imperishable Essence. They appear in the form of the ‘human temple’.

“The door of the knowledge [‘irfān] of the Ancient of Days [dhāt-i-azal] being thus closed in the face of all beings, the Source of infinite… hath caused those luminous Gems of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of the human temple [hayākil-i ‘izz-i insānī], and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence. These sanctified Mirrors, these Day-springs of ancient glory [maṭāliʿ-i-hūwīyyah] are one and all the Exponents on earth of Him Who is the central Orb of the universe [shams-i-wujūd], its Essence and ultimate Purpose. From Him proceed their knowledge and power; from Him is derived their sovereignty. The beauty of their countenance is but a reflection of His image, and their revelation [ẓuhūr] a sign of His deathless glory.”

- Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Íqán, para. 106

The Twofold Discourse of the Manifestations of the Divine Ipseity

“It is evident unto thee that the Birds of Heaven [aṭyār-i-hūwīyyah | اطيار هويّه] and Doves of Eternity speak a twofold language. One language, the outward language, is devoid of allusions, is unconcealed and unveiled; that it may be a guiding lamp and a beaconing light whereby wayfarers may attain the heights of holiness, and seekers may advance into the realm of eternal reunion. Such are the unveiled traditions and the evident verses already mentioned. The other language is veiled and concealed, so that whatever lieth hidden in the heart of the malevolent may be made manifest and their innermost being be disclosed… None apprehendeth the meaning of these utterances except them whose hearts are assured, whose souls have found favour with God, and whose minds are detached from all else but Him.”

- Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Íqán, para. 106

The Primal Sea branched from the Unseen Essence: from Opening Address of the Seven Valleys

“And I praise and glorify that primal Sea which hath branched out from the ocean of the unseen Essence [bihar al-hūwīyyah],…

و اسلّم علی اوّل بحر تشعّب من بحر الهويّة

…and that primal Morn which hath broken forth upon the horizon of Singleness [ufuq al-áhadiyyah]…

و اوّل صبح لاح عن افق الاحديّة

…that primal Sun which hath risen in the heaven of everlasting splendour…

و اوّل شمس اشرقت فی سمآء الازلیّة

…and that primal Fire which was kindled from the Lamp of eternity within the Niche of oneness [mishkat al-wáhidiyyah]”

و اوّل نار اوقدت من مصباح القدمیّة فی مشکوة الواحدیّة

- Bahá’u’lláh, the Seven Valleys

From the Valley of Unity [Tawḥīd], which is the First Station of Unity

In the upper reaches of the Journey of mystic ascent, one reaches a stage where one must look upon all things with the ‘eye of Unity’. One witnesses the Rays of the Sun of Truth shining reflected in all things, an essential relation to the Divine Essence:

After passing through the Valley of Knowledge, which is the last station of limitation, the wayfarer cometh to THE FIRST STATION OF UNITY and drinketh from the cup of oneness, and gazeth upon the manifestations of singleness. In this station he pierceth the veils of plurality, fleeth the realms of the flesh, and ascendeth unto the heaven of unity… He seeth in himself neither name nor fame nor rank, but findeth his own praise in the praise of God, and in the name of God beholdeth his own… He looketh upon all things with the eye of Unity, and seeth the effulgent rays of the Sun of Truth shining from the dayspring of the Divine Essence [mashriq-i-hūvīyyat] upon all created things alike, and beholdeth the lights of Unity reflected upon all creation.

-Bahá’u’lláh, the Seven Valleys

From the Valley of Contentment

“O friend, till thou enter the garden of these inner meanings [ma’ani], thou shalt never taste of the imperishable wine of this valley. And shouldst thou taste of it, thou wilt turn away from all else and drink of the cup of contentment; thou wilt loose thyself from all things and bind thyself unto Him, and lay down thy life in His path and offer up thy soul for His sake. And this, even though in this realm there is no “all else” that thou needst forget: “God was alone; there was none else besides Him.” For on this plane the traveller witnesseth the beauty of the Friend in all things. In fire he seeth the face of the Beloved; in illusion he beholdeth the secret of reality; in the attributes [ṣefat] he readeth the riddle of the Essence [از صفات سرّ هویّت مشاهده نماید]. For he hath burnt away all veils with a sigh, and cast aside all coverings with a glance. With piercing sight he gazeth upon the new creation, and with lucid heart he graspeth subtle verities. The words “And we have made thy sight sharp in this day” [Qur’án 50:21] are a sufficient proof of this assertion and a befitting description of this state.”

- Bahá’u’lláh, the Seven Valleys

From the Gems of Divine Mysteries

The metaphor of the Sun reigns supreme as the best symbol for these impenetrable mysteries. the ‘Sun of the Unseen’ is another term indicative of the ‘Huwiyyah’. Ultimately, these mysteries will always remain unreachable.

“the sun of the Unseen [shams al-ghayb] shineth resplendent above the horizon of the Unseen [ufuq al-ghayb], a sun that hath its own heavens and its own moons, which partake of its light and which rise from and set upon the ocean of the Unseen [bihar al-ghayb]. Nor can I ever hope to impart even a dewdrop of that which hath been decreed therein, as none is acquainted with its mysteries save God, its Creator and Fashioner, and His Manifestations.”

- Bahá’u’lláh, “Gems of Divine Mysteries” para. 114

Huwiyyah at the Heart of an Exposition From the Súriy-i-Haykal (Surah of the Temple)

The Living Temple [Haykal], the Manifestation of God, appears in the Form of the Human Being, Who is the Sign of Divine Majesty:

“O Living Temple! We have, in very truth, appointed Thee to be the sign of My majesty amidst all that hath been and all that shall be, and have ordained Thee to be the emblem of My Cause betwixt the heavens and the earth, through My word “Be”, and it is!

ان یا هذا الهیکل قد جعلناک آیة عزّی بین ما کان و ما یکون و جعلناک آیة امری بین السّموات و الأرض بقولی کن فیکون

In a series of passages following this, Bahá’u’lláh proceeds with a mystical exposition of the four letters of the Arabic word haykal [temple, form, archetypal human being, talisman], an exposition which forms the heart of the entire Surih. These four letters appear in a special and subtle recursive sequence.

The First Letter, ‘Há’, indicating the Divine Ipseity

“O First Letter of this Temple, betokening the Essence of Divinity یا هآء] الهویّة]! We have made thee the treasury of My Will [mashiyyati] and the repository of My Purpose [aradati] unto all who are in the kingdoms of revelation and creation. This is but a token of the grace of Him Who is the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.

First, in the Letter ‘Há’, we see the original emergence and efflorescence of the Divine Names from the positionality of the Divine Ipseity as the ‘treasury’ and ‘repository’ of Divine Will [Mashiyyah] & Purpose [Aradih] itself. In other words, with respect to Mashiyyah and Aradih, Huwiyyah is the ‘treasury’ of their substantiation. This then proceeds ‘unto’ the kingdom of Revelation and Creation. The notion of being a ‘token’, speaks to the idea that outer, manifest realities as exchangeable (fungible) with but not directly equivalent to the inner reality. Bahá’u’lláh’s regular use of the notion of the ‘tokens’ and ‘signs’ of God’s will, action, and creation is a corrective to certain understandings of pantheism or interpretations of the doctrine of the ‘unicity of being’.

Proceeding from here we then behold this same ‘unfolding’ of the effulgences of God in the second, third, and fourth letters with respect to certain previously indeterminate Divine Names (the Almighty, the All-Bountiful, and finally His attribute Grace). Each of these is in succession received by His First Creation, described variously as His “treasury”, “manifestation”, “dayspring”, “dawning-place”, “fountainhead”, the source of “generation” and “origination”, mirroring forth all that emanates to the world of being. The manifestations are both the recipients of that sequence of unfolding-creation, but also recursively depicted as the self-same Point of Origin from which all Grace and Creation proceed, and then that unto which all things in the world of being incline towards and ultimately return.

The Second Letter, Ya, Indicating al-Qadír (the Almighty)

“O Second Letter of this Temple, betokening My name, the Almighty (al-Qadír)! We have made thee the manifestation of Our sovereignty and the dayspring of Our Names. Potent am I to fulfil that which My tongue speaketh.”

The Third Letter, Kaf, Indicating al-Karím (the All Bountiful)

“O Third Letter of this Temple, betokening My name, the All-Bountiful (al-Karím)! We have made thee the dawning-place of Our bounty amidst Our creatures and the fountainhead of Our generosity amidst Our people. Powerful am I in My dominion. Nothing whatsoever of all that hath been created in the heavens or on the earth can escape My knowledge, and I am the True One, the Knower of things unseen.”

the Fourth Letter, Lam, Indicating Faḍl (Grace)

“O Fourth Letter of this Temple, betokening the attribute of Grace! We have made thee the manifestation of grace betwixt earth and heaven. From thee have We generated all grace in the contingent world, and unto thee shall We cause it to return. And from thee shall We manifest it again, through a word of Our command. Potent am I to accomplish whatsoever I desire through My word “Be”, and it is! Every grace that appeareth in the world of being hath originated from thee, and unto thee shall it return. This, verily, is what hath been ordained in a Tablet which We have preserved behind the veil of glory and concealed from mortal eyes. Well is it with them that deprive themselves not of this conferred and unfailing grace.

A very careful reading of the above involves the understanding that the very fact of this exposition being ‘rendered’ discursively means it is a ‘contingent’ exposition, not an absolute one. Even the ‘Ha’ of Haykal, spoken of as a ‘sign’ or ‘token’ indicative of the Essence, is described as having been ‘made’ to be this way. “O First Letter of this Temple, betokening the Essence of Divinity [یا هآء الهویّة]! We have made thee the treasury…”. We recognize that having been ‘made’ is an attribute of created things, and cannot be applied to the Essence of Divinity itself. Instead, this device is used to express certain mysteries of this process; as a token, it stands in for the role of the Huwiyyah in the above depiction, but cannot be said to exhaust or encompass it by any means.

'Huwiyyah’ and the Haykal-Star in the Writings of the Báb

The above connection between ‘Há’ and Huwiyyah is further solidified in the Abjad (numerological) properties of the symbol of the five-pointed haykal-star and its key referent (Huwa).

Besides meaning temple and human form, Haykal is also the 5-pointed star, created by drawing intersecting straight 5 lines. The principle meaning of the Haykal as attested above in the Surah Haykal is the Manifestation of God in their appearance in the Human Form (picture the ‘Vitruvian Man, standing with all limbs outward, evoking a star). The overt value of the five-pointed star is 5, and this accords with the abjad value of the letter ‘Ha’ [=5], which begins the word ‘haykal’. When drawn out, the 5 lines of the haykal-star create 6 ‘inner chambers’. The letter ‘Waw’ has the abjad value 6. It indicates ‘Wahidiyyih’, or ‘inclusive Divine Unity’. With these taken together the symbol of the Haykal amounts to an expression of ‘Huwa’ (Ha + Waw = Huwa), and as a combination Huwiyyah + Wahidiyyah.

The Báb makes this symbolism explicit in Bayan 4:5 where He describes haykal stars in this exact manner (5 lines creating the star with 6 inner chambers).² A complementary symbol is the “da’irah”, which are circle talismans composed of 6 concentric circles with 5 inner spaces (thus an inversion of the star). As mentioned, the Haykal principally symbolizes the human temple and the ‘Perfect Man’, e.g. the Manifestations of God. Circles symbolize the Sun of Truth directly.

‘He-ness’ and ‘I-ness’: Positionalities of Manifestation and the Profession of Divine Unity

Essential to the concept of ‘Huwiyyah’ is an inherent affirmation of Divine Unity (tawḥīd), on account of the omnipresent attestation ‘Huwa Allah’ (He is God!), found throughout the Qur’án and the Bahá’í Writings. All expressions of ‘the Divine Names’ can be expressed either with reference to Allah or exchanged with the phrase ‘He is’. Below, we see both:

“For Allah is your Guardian [mawlá’ikum, Lord, Master, Protector]. And He is [Hūwa] the All-Knowing, All-Wise.”"

وَٱللَّه مَوْلَىٰكُمْ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَلِيمُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ

- Qu’rán 66:2

“God is He [of Whom it is said], ‘No God is there except Him’, and no likeness is there like unto Him, for He is God, who holdeth sway over all things!

الله الّذي لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ لیس کمثله شيء و هو الله کان علی کلّ شيء قدیراً

- the Báb Qayyúm al-Asmá’, Surah 26:25, provisional translation by Aaron Ferguson

Embedded within this affirmation of ‘He is’ is the positionality of a subject other than ‘He’, attesting to Him.

This speaks to the primordial emergence of multiplicity in the origination of existence, the very determination entailing the possibility of an ‘I-thou’ or ‘subject-object’ dichotomy. When the Manifestation of God refers to God with respect to ‘He is’, as we see in the above excerpts from the Qu’rán and the Báb’s Qayyúm al-Asmá’, they are doing so with respect to themselves as Mirrors or Manifestations downstream of multiplicity and all ‘determination’ itself. ‘Huwa’ thus embeds within it an affirmation of the Ipseity [He] and Existence [Is] of the Inaccessible Reality. This is part of why Huwiyyah, as the abstract notion of Huwa, comes to refer primarily to the Hidden Essence and acts as an absolute attestation of Divine Singularity. It is also why it received frequent devotional contemplation, given the constancy of attesting ‘Huwa Allah’.

However, this attestation of ‘He is’ in Revelation is counterposed in very their own revelatory discourse when the Manifestations attest instead to their station of equivalence to the Godhead:

“…so then listen attentively to the Call of God: “Verily, I am God—No God is there but me! And I am the Most Exalted and have, of a certainty, ever been Great!”

فاستمع نداء الله إنّي أنا الله الّذي لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا أنا و أنا العليّ قد کنت کبیراً…

- the Báb Qayyúm al-Asmá’, Surah 110:4b, provisional translation by Aaron Ferguson

“He is God!”, [Hūwa Allah], besides whom there is none other! He indeed hath revealed unto my inmost Heart [causing me to utter], ‘I am indeed God, the True One (ana Allah al-haqq)!’ No God is there except Him...”

هو الله الّذي لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ هو قد أوحی إليّ إنّي أنا الله الحق لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ

- the Báb, Qayyúm al-Asmá’, Surah 46:4a, provisional translation by Aaron Ferguson

This statement, ‘I am God, the True One’ is a statement that, outside the context of revelatory discourse, and except for the hypostatic union inherent to the ‘Greater Theophany’ that constitutes their Being, would constitute a violation of Divine Unity, since it posits self-similarity with the Divine. It calls to mind the ecstatic statement (“Ana al-Haqq” | “I am the True One”) that led to the execution of the 10th-century Baghdadi Sufi mystic Mansūr al-Hallāj. Does not such a statement, even more radical than that of al-Hallaj, contradict the prior statement by the Báb Himself, “no likeness is there like unto Him [God]”?

We’ve already considered the mystic path in the Seven Valleys above, involving as it does in the upper stages and ‘Stations’ of the journey the very dissolution of Names, of dichotomy, of multiplicity and separateness: “He seeth in himself neither name nor fame nor rank, but findeth his own praise in the praise of God, and in the name of God beholdeth his own…”. This is one hint towards how such a statement is possible.

But the mystery of the supreme relation of the Manifestation of God with Divinity is best explained by Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitáb-i-Íqán. Here, He discusses their station with respect to ‘essential unity, pure abstraction, and absolute servitude’. This provides them the capacity to utter Speech not just from the positionality of ‘Huwiyyah’ [He is] but also from the positionality of ‘I am’ [Aná]. We return to para. 106 cited above, which ends:

They [the Manifestations of God] are the Treasuries of divine knowledge, and the Repositories of celestial wisdom. Through them is transmitted a grace that is infinite, and by them is revealed the light that can never fade. Even as He hath said: “There is no distinction whatsoever between Thee and them; except that they are Thy servants, and are created of Thee.” This is the significance of the tradition: “I am He, Himself, and He is I, myself.”

Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Íqán, para. 106

Further on, we see even more precise explication: that the reality of the Manifestation encompasses two stations, one of absolute unity, one of distinction:

“viewed from the standpoint of their oneness and sublime detachment, the attributes of Godhead, Divinity, Supreme Singleness, and Inmost Essence, have been and are applicable to those Essences of being [the Manifestations off God], inasmuch as they all abide on the throne of divine Revelation, and are established upon the seat of divine Concealment. Through their appearance the Revelation of God is made manifest, and by their countenance the Beauty of God is revealed. Thus it is that the accents of God Himself have been heard uttered by these Manifestations of the divine Being.”

However, “Viewed in the light of their second station—the station of distinction, differentiation, temporal limitations, characteristics and standards—they manifest absolute servitude, utter destitution and complete self-effacement. Even as He saith: “I am the servant of God. I am but a man like you.”

We can view this in the light of absolute ‘Servitude’ and in terms of Messengership:

“For they have been made manifest in the uttermost state of servitude, a servitude the like of which no man can possibly attain. Thus in moments in which these Essences of being were deeply immersed beneath the oceans of ancient and everlasting holiness, or when they soared to the loftiest summits of divine mysteries, they claimed their utterance to be the Voice of divinity, the Call of God Himself. Were the eye of discernment to be opened, it would recognize that in this very state, they have considered themselves utterly effaced and nonexistent in the face of Him Who is the All-Pervading, the Incorruptible. Methinks they have regarded themselves as utter nothingness, and deemed their mention in that Court an act of blasphemy. For the slightest whispering of self, within such a Court, is an evidence of self-assertion and independent existence. In the eyes of them that have attained unto that Court, such a suggestion is itself a grievous transgression. How much more grievous would it be, were aught else to be mentioned in that Presence, were man’s heart, his tongue, his mind, or his soul, to be busied with anyone but the Well-Beloved, were his eyes to behold any countenance other than His beauty, were his ear to be inclined to any melody but His voice, and were his feet to tread any way but His way….

By virtue of this station, they have claimed for themselves the Voice of Divinity and the like, whilst by virtue of their station of Messengership, they have declared themselves the Messengers of God.”

Hence, paradoxically, to solely maintain differentiation and counterposition of the ‘I’ from the ‘He’ of ‘He is’, even if only to attest ‘He is’, for such souls would actually be an unconscionable affirmation of self and of independent existence. Therefore, we find both statements in the Books of Revelation: ‘I am’ and ‘He is’, and the attribution of Divinity is what constitutes true piety and faithfulness from the position of the ‘Apex of Reality’.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions

the Essential Names and Attributes of God are identical with His Essence

the essential names and attributes of God are identical with His Essence, and His Essence is above all comprehension. If the attributes are not identical with the Essence, there must also be a multiplicity of preexistences, and differences between the attributes and the Essence must also exist; and as Preexistence is necessary, therefore, the sequence of preexistences would become infinite. This is an evident error.​

- ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, No. 37 ‘The Connection between God and His Manifestations’

Other Traditions & Philosophies

The One in the Abyss, The Hidden All-Encompassing Essence of Neoplatonism

“...it is the outside, embracing all things, and the measure of all things. In fact, it is inside the abyss, and on the outside lies all that is reason and Intellect, touching it in a sort of circle, and dependent on it.”

- Plotinus, Ennead VI.8.18, Gerson p. 875

The One is Beyond ‘Substance’ and ‘Form’: The One is not graspable as a determinate ‘this’ [Huwa]

“Since the Substantiality (ousia) that is generated is form [...] the One is necessarily formless. And being without form, it is not Substance (ousia). For Substance must be a ‘this something”, and this is defined. But it is not possible to grasp the One as a “this”. For in that case it would no longer be a principle, but only that thing which you said was a ‘this”. But if all things are found within that which is generated, which among these will you say that the One is? Since it is no one of these, it can only be said to transcend them. These are Beings, that is, Being. It, therefore, transcends Being.”

- Plotinus, Enneads V.5.6.2

Archetypes within the One, the Analogy of the Center of the Circle as Generative of the Totality

Below we can take the ‘One’ to be indicative of the Inaccessible Essence, and the reference to ‘Intellect’ [Nous] as equivalent to ‘the Primal Will [Mashiyyah]’, aka the ‘First Creation/Emanation’ of ‘the One’.

“In this way, one should grasp that Intellect, that is, Being, which comes about from the Good, and is, in a way, poured out, and developed from it and depends on it, gives evidence by its intelligent nature of a sort of intellect in the One although this [One] is not Intellect, for it is one. Just as in the case of the circle, the centre is neither lines nor circle, but is the father of lines and circle, by giving traces of itself, and produces lines and circle with a persisting power; they come about from a kind of strength without being cut off from it at all. So, too, with the Good; it serves as the archetype of the image of itself, when the intellectual power is running around it, whereas Intellect comes about by being overcome by the many, and turning into the many Beings. The Good persists all the while its power generates Intellect.”

- Plotinus, Enneads VI.8.18, Gerson pp. 875-876

The Relationship of the Hidden Essence to the First Creation as being like the Light Source and the Intellect as Scattered Light

“For what is in the One is many times greater than what is, in a way, in Intellect. It is just as when light is scattered abroad from a single source, which in itself is luminous. The scattered light is an image, its source is the true original. The scattered image, Intellect, does not differ in form; it is not chance [AF: which is to say it is ‘Willful’], but each [element] in it is an expressed principle and a cause but the Good is the cause of this cause. It is, therefore, to a greater degree in a way more causal, indeed more truly a cause, since it contains all together the intelligible causes which are about to come to be from it. It is generative, not just as chance will have it but as it wants. Its wishing is not non-rational, nor is it arbitrary, and not forced on it, but as it ought to be, since nothing there is without purpose.”

- Plotinus, Enneads VI.8.18, Gerson p. 876

Conclusion

Ultimately, the analogy of the center of a circle and the circumference generated by it, and the analogy of the sun and its rays, are one and the same. Whenever we gaze upon the sun from the earth, we do indeed “see” the sun, and in a sense it is present to us; but we are actually far from its true Reality and occupy only a single position illuminated by the rays emanating from it, which alone present its reality to us. The sun is no more present to us than it is to any other similar vantage point. Through its rays, the sun produces a constant effusion that illuminates and ennervates everything its light reaches within a broad and expansive sphere—constituting a circle much like the point that generates every radius forming the circle of which it is the center.

From the perspective of differentiation, we can distinguish between the rays and the sun. But from the standpoint of Unity gazing upon the totality, the rays are nothing but the action and expression of the sun and can be regarded as equivalent to its essence as a giver of light. To look upon the sun at all is always to behold it through the instrumentality of its rays.

Finally, to the extent that the metaphor of the Sun is a vehicle for true understanding, a ‘Sign’ for understanding that which it signifies [the unreachable essence of Divinity], this is the same role played by the Manifestations of God. They are both to be taken as the Sun and as its rays. It is thus a nested metaphor. The Sun symbolizes the Hidden Essence, to be understood only via its emanations, its rays, equivalent to the Manifestations, who are the only way we experience and understand the Sun itself.

But the very fact that ‘the Sun’ is something ‘intelligible’, ‘referable’ at all, a sign of something signified, means that the Manifestations of God are also the Sun in this metaphor, because they are the furthest limit of all signification, the furthest limit of all experience. To be capable of considering such a thing with one’s inner sight or intellect brings with it intelligibility, but the essence signified here is neither reachable, nor intelligible. This evokes the same recursiveness in the discourse from the Surah Haykal: the Manifestations are described as both recipient of and substantiated by the Grace of Huwiyyah, but also then as Points of Origination and Return for all Creation. But as discursive expressions, these are but limited ‘tokens’, emblems, signifiers, not the signified.

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1. See Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings LXXXII: “Verily I say, the human soul is, in its essence, one of the signs of God, a mystery among His mysteries” Verily I say, the human soul is, in its essence, one of the signs of God, a mystery among His mysteries.” See also ‘Abdu’l-Baha in Some Answered Questions No. 59: “As our knowledge of things, even of created and limited ones, is of their attributes and not of their essence, how then can it be possible to understand in its essence the unbounded Reality of the Divinity? For the inner essence of a thing can never be known, only its attributes.”

2. For more on this see The Star Tablet of the Bab, Moojan Momen, published in Asian and African Studies Blog, British Library, 2019-10-29,