These Manifestations of God have each a twofold station. One
is the station of pure abstraction and essential unity. In this respect, if
thou callest them all by one name, and dost ascribe to them the same
attributes, thou hast not erred from the truth. Even as He hath revealed: “No
distinction do We make between any of His Messengers.” For they, one and all,
summon the people of the earth to acknowledge the unity of God, and herald unto
them the Kawthar of an infinite grace and bounty. They are all invested
with the robe of prophethood, and are honored with the mantle of glory. Thus
hath Muhammad, the Point of the Qur’án, revealed: “I am all the Prophets.”
Likewise, He saith: “I am the first Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus.” Similar
statements have been made by Imám ‘Alí. Sayings such as these, which indicate
the essential unity of those Exponents of Oneness, have also emanated from the
Channels of God’s immortal utterance, and the Treasuries of the gems of Divine
knowledge, and have been recorded in the Scriptures. These Countenances are the
recipients of the Divine Command, and the Day Springs of His Revelation. This
Revelation is exalted above the veils of plurality and the exigencies of number.
Thus He saith: “Our Cause is but One.” Inasmuch as the Cause is one and the
same, the Exponents thereof also must needs be one and the same. Likewise, the
Imáms of the Muhammadan Faith, those lamps of certitude, have said: “Muhammad
is our first, Muhammad is our last, Muhammad our all.”
(Baha’u’llah, ‘Gleanings
from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
