All praise and glory
be to God Who, through the power of His might, hath delivered His creation from
the nakedness of non-existence, and clothed it with the mantle of life. From
among all created things He hath singled out for His special favor the pure, the
gem-like reality of man, and invested it with a unique capacity of knowing Him
and of reflecting the greatness of His glory. This twofold distinction
conferred upon him hath cleansed away from his heart the rust of every vain
desire, and made him worthy of the vesture with which his Creator hath deigned
to clothe him. It hath served to rescue his soul from the wretchedness of
ignorance.
This robe with which
the body and soul of man hath been adorned is the very foundation of his
well-being and development. Oh, how blessed the day when, aided by the grace
and might of the one true God, man will have freed himself from the bondage and
corruption of the world and all that is therein, and will have attained unto
true and abiding rest beneath the shadow of the Tree of Knowledge!
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
