As regards thine assertions about the beginning of creation,
this is a matter on which conceptions vary by reason of the divergences in
men’s thoughts and opinions. Wert thou to assert that it hath ever existed and
shall continue to exist, it would be true; or wert thou to affirm the same
concept as is mentioned in the sacred Scriptures, no doubt would there be about
it, for it hath been revealed by God, the Lord of the worlds. Indeed He was a
hidden treasure. This is a station that can never be described nor even alluded
to. And in the station of ‘I did wish to make Myself known’, God was, and His
creation had ever existed beneath His shelter from the beginning that hath no
beginning, apart from its being preceded by a Firstness which cannot be
regarded as firstness and originated by a Cause inscrutable even unto all men
of learning.
That which hath been in existence had existed before, but
not in the form thou seest today. The world of existence came into being
through the heat generated from the interaction between the active force and
that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different.
Thus doth the Great Announcement inform thee about this glorious structure.
Such as communicate the generating influence and such as receive its impact are
indeed created through the irresistible Word of God which is the Cause of the
entire creation, while all else besides His Word are but the creatures and the
effects thereof. Verily thy Lord is the Expounder, the All-Wise.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Tablets of Baha’u’llah
revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
