Infallibility

Spiritual Education and Progress Depend on Recognition of the Infallibility of the Manifestation of God

"Regarding your Bahá'í friend who does not fully understand the infallibility of the Manifestation of God: You should influence that person to study the matter more deeply, and to realize that the whole theory of Divine Revelation rests on the infallibility of the Prophet, be He Christ, Muhammad, Bahá’u’lláh, or one of the Others. If They are not infallible, then They are not divine, and thus lose that essential link with God which, we believe, is the bond that educates men and causes all human progress."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, January 11, 1942, in Lights of Guidance, no. 1844)

Avoid literal understandings and petty-mindedness when considering divinely conferred infallibility

"In considering the whole field of divinely conferred "infallibility" one must be careful to avoid the literal understanding and petty-mindedness that has so often characterised discussions of this matter in the Christian world. The Manifestation of God (and, to a lesser degree, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi,) has to convey tremendous concepts covering the whole field of human life and activity to people whose present knowledge and degree of understanding are far below His. He must use the limited medium of human language against the limited and often erroneous background of His audience's traditional knowledge and current understanding to raise them to a wholly new level of awareness and behaviour. It is a human tendency, against which the Manifestation warns us, to measure His statements against the inaccurate standard of the acquired knowledge of mankind. We tend to take them and place them within one or other of the existing categories of human philosophy or science while, in reality, they transcend these and will, if properly understood, open new and vast horizons to our understanding.

"Some sayings of the Manifestation are clear and obvious. Among these are laws of behaviour. Others are elucidations which lead men from their present level of understanding to a new one. Others are pregnant allusions, the significance of which only becomes apparent as the knowledge and understanding of the reader grow. And all are integral parts of one great Revelation intended to raise mankind to a new level of its evolution."

"It may well be that we shall find some statement is couched in terms familiar to the audience to which it was first addressed, but is strange now to us..."

(On behalf of the Universal House of Justice, at https://bahai-library.com/uhj_infallibility_abdul-baha )

See also

• Universal House of Justice#Infallibility
• 'Abdu'l-Bahá#As Exemplar (determination of "infallibility" within actions)

To-dos for this page

• Essential vs. conferred infallibility
• Restrictions on infallibility
• Lack of implications of physical/mental invulnerability, etc.