The First Intellect and the Primal Will in the Bahá'í Writings
A compilation on the mystical and metaphysical foundations of the 'First Intellect', across religions & philosophies
Featured here is an annotated compilation on a theme of tremendous significance for our understanding of Divinity and the fundamental ontology animating all of existence.
Of importance is the clear identification of the First Intellect (or Universal Divine Intellect) with the ‘Primal Will’ in the excerpt by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; the concept of the ‘Primal Will’ is of paramount importance in the Bahá'í Writings, especially in the works of the Báb, whose treatment of the theme is uniquely fervent.
This co-identification of the Primal Will with the First Intellect opens the door for drawing on and correlating a range of philosophical and esoteric writings from the past, including Platonism/Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, Islamic philosophy, and others, as the notion of the First Intellect is threaded through the work of centuries and millennia of thinkers across different traditions. Alongside quotes from the Bahá'í Writings, some excerpts from notable past thinkers are featured. Clarity on these metaphysical themes is essential for weighing the philosophical output of these traditions, with the various understandings and, at times, differing theological conclusions that religious communities have derived from what is ultimately a common framework for transcendent reality.
In that light, we can begin to assess the unique contribution of Bahá'í philosophy to this discourse. The selection from the Bahá'í Writings comprises only a fraction of a fraction on this theme but demonstrates clear parallels with the excerpts from prior philosophical and esoteric traditions and opens a productive dialogue for advancing personal and collective understanding.
“If the wayfarers be among them that dwell in the court of the All-Praised, this is the station of the Intellect, which is known as the messenger of the realm of the body and the most great pillar. That which is intended, however, is the universal divine Intellect [‘aql-i-kullíy-i-ilahí], whose sovereignty fostereth the growth of all things, and not every vain and feeble mind.”
~ Bahá’u’lláh, The Four Valleys (Chehar Vadi)
“God, the Most High, hath placed these signs in men so that veiled minds might not deny the mysteries of the life beyond, nor belittle that which hath been promised them. For some hold fast to reason and deny whatever reason comprehendeth not, and yet feeble minds can never grasp the reality of the stages that we have related: The universal divine Intellect alone can comprehend them.”
~ Bahá’u’lláh, The Seven Valleys (Haft Vadi)
"Intellect hath various degrees… It is nonetheless indisputably clear and evident that the minds of men have never been, nor shall they ever be, of equal capacity. The Perfect Intellect [‘aql-i kámil] alone can provide true guidance and direction…
By the Intellect mentioned above is meant the universal divine Mind [‘aql-i-kullíy-i-ilahí]. How often hath it been observed that certain human minds, far from being a source of guidance, have become as fetters upon the feet of the wayfarers and prevented them from treading the Straight Path [sirát-i-mustaghim]! The lesser intellect being thus circumscribed, one must search after Him Who is the ultimate Source of knowledge and strive to recognize Him.”
~ Bahá’u’lláh, Tabernacle of Unity
"The universal divine Intellect [‘aql-i-kullíy-i-ilahí], which transcends nature, is the outpouring grace [fayd] of the pre-existent Power. It encompasses all existing realities and receives its share of the lights and mysteries of God. It is an all-knowing power, not a power of investigation and sensing. The spiritual power associated with the world of nature is the power of investigation, and it is through investigation that it discovers the realities and properties of things. But the heavenly intellectual power, which is beyond nature, encompasses, knows, and comprehends all things; is aware of the divine mysteries, truths, and inner meanings; and discovers the hidden verities of the Kingdom. This divine intellectual power is confined to the holy Manifestations and the Daysprings of prophethood. A ray of this light falls upon the mirrors of the hearts of the righteous, that they may also receive, through the holy Manifestations, a share and benefit of this power."
~ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, No. 58
"If we look objectively upon the world of being, it will become apparent that from age to age, the temple of existence has continually been embellished with a fresh grace, and distinguished with an ever-varying splendor, deriving from wisdom and the power of thought. This supreme emblem of God stands First in the order of creation and First in rank, taking precedence over all created things. Witness to it is the Holy Tradition [hadith], ‘Before all else, God created the mind (‘aql) [awwal u mā khalaqa allāh al-ʿaql-u].’"
~ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 1
“It follows that all things have emanated from God; that is, it is through God that all things have been realized, and through Him that the contingent world has come to exist. The first thing to emanate from God is that universal reality which the ancient philosophers termed the “First Intellect” [‘aql-i-avval] and which the people of Bahá call the “Primal Will” [mashíyyat-i-avvaliyyih]. This emanation [sudūr], with respect to its action in the world of God, is not limited by either time or place and has neither beginning nor end, for in relation to God the beginning and the end are one and the same. The pre-existence of God is both essential and temporal, while the origination of the contingent world is essential but not temporal.”
“Though the First Intellect is without beginning, this does not mean that it shares in the pre-existence of God, for in relation to the existence of God the existence of that universal Reality is mere nothingness—it cannot even be said to exist, let alone to partake of the pre-existence of God.”
~ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, No. 53
"This is the fruit of the existence of all things [all humans], since all things depend upon the Primal Will for their existence, and naught is seen in everything but the revelation of God, in accordance with the degree of the reality of any entity which beareth the divine revelation."
~ The Báb, Persian Bayán 2:8, provisionally translated by Nader Saiedi, Gate of the Heart, p. 184
“That which hath been mentioned in the Heavenly Books concerning 'attainment unto His presence' [liqā’-i-ū]* is attainment to the presence of God's Manifestation who is none other than the Point of Truth [Nuqtiyih Haqíqat] and His Primal Will [Mashíyyat-i-Avvalíyyih].”
~ the Bab, Persian Bayan 3:7, provisionally translated by Shahrouk Monjazeb
* see Surah 13:2 or Surah 33:44 on the concept of ‘Attaining His Presence’, the Eschatological meeting with God
The Correlation of Intellect and the Primal Will with the Realms (ontological categories, hypostases) of ‘the Universal Manifestation’ [Láhút] and of Dominion [Jabarút]
“These Suns of Truth are the universal Manifestations of God in the worlds of His attributes and names”* … "These Manifestations of God have each a twofold station. One is the station of pure abstraction and essential unity*.... The other station is the station of distinction, and pertaineth to the world of creation [‘alam al khalq], and to the limitations thereof."
~Bahá’u’lláh, the Kitab-i-Iqán, paragraphs 31 & 161
*e.g. the unity of the Manifestations in the ‘station of pure abstraction’ pertains to Láhút, the level of reality where the Names and Attributes are united in the Universal Manifestation, that is, the Universal Divine Intellect or Primal Will. Their differentiation and distinction unfolds afterwards, from whence they obtain individuation, a reality that obtains in Jabarút
"Know thou that each letter thereof [the Morning Prayer of Imam 'Ali] pertaineth to seven stations that were enjoined by the Imam to Jabir in reference to true recognition. Every one of these stations referreth to the four worlds that are at times referred to as Divinity (Lahut), which is the realm of the heart… Dominion (Jabarut), which is the realm of the Intellect... and the Contingent Kingdom (Mulk), which is the realm of the soul as well as the third witnessing spot and the declarative word of Divine Unity; and finally the Kingdom (Malakut), which is the station of testimony as well as the fourth witnessing spot and the world of magnification. Each one of these realms applieth to all the eight rings of the chain of being, as realized by the people of truth."
~ The Báb, provisional translation by Nader Saiedi, Gate of The Heart, p. 117
The Origins of the conception of the ‘First Intellect’ in Plato, its Exegesis and Formalization in Neoplatonic Philosophy
Some of the foregrounding of the concept of the ‘First Intellect’ in relation to the One, or 'the Good’, can be found in Book VI of Plato’s Republic, in a largely allegorical discussion. Reasoning from the general category of beautiful and good things to the form or Idea of Beauty and Good, and examining their relationship via a useful metaphor of the sun and sight, Plato then establishes that:
"For the things which are known [i.e. that are intelligible - or have their ground in Intellect], say not only that their being known comes from the Good, but also that they get their existence and their being from it as well - though the Good is not being, but something far surpassing being in rank and power.”
~ Plato, Republic, Book 6.507
In the Timaeus, the epitome of Plato’s cosmology (at least insofar as his exoteric teachings concern), Plato envisions the creation of the universe by the hands of a ‘demiurge’ or ‘Divine Craftsmen’, depicted as the benevolent, rational, and purposive causal agent behind the genesis of reality. This demiurge ultimately appears to be a manifestation of the Intellect and the account laid the seeding ground for the consolidation of the Three Hypostases (the One, the Intellect, the World-Soul) of later Platonists (so-called Neoplatonism), most notably Plotinus:
“…the One, perfect because it seeks nothing, has nothing, and needs nothing, overflows, as it were, and its superabundance makes something other than itself. This, when it has come into being, turns back upon the One and is filled, and becomes Intellect by looking towards it.”
~ Plotinus, Enneads V 2.1
“We are saying that Intellect is an image of the One, first - for we should express ourselves more clearly - because that which is produced must somehow be the One and preserve many of its properties, that is, be the same as it, just like the light that comes from the sun. But the One is not Intellect. How, then, does it generate Intellect? In fact, by its reversion to it, Intellect saw the One, and this seeing is Intellect.”
~ Plotinus, Enneads V 1.7
The Co-identification of Nous with Hermes Trismegistus as a Revelatory Figure in a manner not unlike the Bahá'í notion of the Manifestation of God as a Theophany of the Primal Will/Intellect
The ‘Way of Hermes’ and the Hermetic teachings (circa 1st-3rd c. CE) mark the emergence of an altogether more mystical, theological, and devotional approach to this concept, that laid a foundation for the many esoteric traditions/movements that followed:
In revelatory dialogue and ecstatic vision conveyed to His son (‘Tat’), Hermes Trismegistus states: “Rejoice over this … For I see! I see indescribable depths. How shall I tell you, my son? How shall I describe the universe? I am Mind [νοῦς - Nous] and see another Mind, the one that moves the soul! I see the one that moves me... I have found the beginning of the power that is above all powers, the one that has no beginning. I see a fountain bubbling with life… Language is not able to reveal this… And I, Mind understand… Concerning these things I do not say anything, my son. For it is right before God that we keep silent about what is hidden.”
~ words traditionally attributed to the ‘Father of Philosophy’, Hermes Trismegistus, the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, Nag Hammadi Library, Codex VI
“Consciousness [Nous], O Tat, comes from the very essence of God… Mind, then, has not been cut off from the God’s essentiality; it has expanded [or emanated], as it were, like the light of the sun.”
~ Corpus Hermeticum, Book XII (Copenhaver)
“Mind [Nous] as a whole, wholly enclosing itself, free of all body, unerring, unaffected, untouched, at rest in itself, capable of containing all things and preserving all that exists, and its rays [ἀκτῖνες - aktínes - or perhaps effulgences] … are the good, the truth, the archetype of spirit, the archetype of soul…
What then is God [θεός - theós]? God is what does not subsist [ὑπάρχων - hupárkhōn] as any of these since He is the cause [αἰτῐ́ᾱς - aitíās*] of their being, for all of them and for each and every one of them that exists… God is not Mind, but he is the cause of Mind’s being.”
~words traditionally attributed to the ‘Father of Philosophy’, Hermes Trismegistus, Corpus Hermeticum, Book II (as translated by Copenhaver, p. 11)
*from whence we get ‘etiology’
The Uptake of the Concept of ‘First Intellect’ in Islamic Philosophy
Greek philosophy, and Neoplatonism especially, went on to have a decisive influence on Islamic philosophy, which found many productive interfaces with Quranic concepts (the Muhammadan Light [nur-i-muhammadi], the Preserved Tablet [Lawh-i-Mahfuz], the Quran as Word of God, and others). The following extracts some examples from Ibn Sina, al-Sijistani, and Suhrawardi:
“From the One, only one proceeds [emanates] (lā yasdur ʿan al-wāhid illā l-wāhid)”*
~ Ibn Sina (d. 980), quoted in Wahid M. Amin “From the One, Only One Proceeds”
*Confer Nader Saiedi’s Gate of the Heart (pp. 96-97, 197-198) for a provisional translation of the Báb commenting on this very quote/concept (and disconfirming it, or rather transcending a problematic that emerges from this maxim)
“The First Creation (al-khalq al-awwal) appeared from perfect goodness, as something perfectly encompassing the entirety of differentiated things… If deserving this name, [Intellect] (’aql) were removed from it, its appearance would be contrary to the Perfect Goodness (al-jūd al-tammām) from the Perfectly Generous (al-jawad al-tammām).”
~ Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani (d. 974), Isbat al nabuwwa, p.25 (courtesy of Khalil Andani)
“Know that from the One, which is one in reality and unique in respect to every mode [or aspect - wujūh], only one [other thing] may be obtained. For if two things are obtained from it, then the exigency of one of them will not be the same as that of the other. Because if their two requirements were the same, then they would be exactly the same… A multiplicity of modes and attributes is impossible in the Necessary Being [wajeb al-wujud]… only one thing becomes existent due to It; and this thing cannot be a body, because a body is a composite… and distinguished by specific differences… the Necessary Being is beyond and absolved of multiplicity.
But attributes and forms require a place in which to exist; therefore that which is obtained from the Necessary Being is neither a thing extended spatially, nor a body, nor [a] bodily attribute …
Therefore, the first thing obtained from the Necessary Being is a substance, and this is the ‘Intellect’.”
~ ‘Shaykh al-Ishraq’ Suhrawardi (d. 1191), in Partonameh (The Book of Radiance), Book 6, “On the Activity of the Necessary Being” (translation by Hossein Ziai)
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