Lawh-i-`Abdu'l-Vahháb

Read online at Gleanings, sec. 81

Notes

'Abdu'l-Bahá argues similarly in Chapter 84 of Some Answered Questions on how even materialistic philosophers recognize the wisdom of the Prophets.

By page

156: Evolution of the Soul

"The passage on p. 156 of 'Gleanings' regarding the evolution of the soul after death clearly proves that the soul after its separation from the body keeps its individuality and its consciousness both in relation to other souls and to the human beings in the world."

(From a letter of the Guardian to an individual believer, November 26, 1939, from Spiritualism, Reincarnation and Related Subjects, p. 5, in Lights of Guidance, no. 1597)

157: "Absolute existence is strictly confined to God"

"In a Tablet Bahá’u’lláh says that even though absolute being can be attributed only to God we cannot say that other objects have no being. A table has an existence even though its existence compared with the existence of the carpenter who is its maker is almost nothing. Compared to God nothing has existence but this does not mean that even stones do not have being. It is speaking relatively. Moreover, God reveals Himself in all things in the sense that He is the Source of their being and the Cause of their existence. Without Him all things will shrink down to nothing. This however does not mean that all things are parts of God as the pantheist believes. The pantheist says that only God exists, objects are mere modes of His attributes. Bahá’u’lláh however says that objects have a separate reality that is created by God. The Master explains these things in the 'Some Answered Questions', especially in one of the last chapters. There are also many Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh explaining these matters. Most of them, however, have not yet been translated into English. Let us hope that some day this work will be done and the friends will appreciate how Bahá’u’lláh has solved their problems."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, October 26, 1932, in Lights of Guidance, no. 1583)