Lawh-i-Salman I/GPT4 7

From Baha'i Writings Collaborative Translation Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Oh Salman, the truth has always been apparent among people, and all prophets and messengers have been commanded to rule justly among their people. It is not permissible for anyone else to do so. For example, consider the state of a believer and a monotheist, in whom the sun of monotheism shines so that they admit and acknowledge all the divine names and attributes. They bear witness to all that the beauty of their existence bears witness to themselves. In this position, all descriptions of them are true and valid; in fact, no one is capable of describing them as they truly are except God Himself. All these descriptions are related to the divine manifestation that the sovereign has bestowed upon them.

In this position, if someone denies them, they have actually denied the truth, because what is seen in them is nothing but divine manifestations as long as they remain in this position. If even a word of good is said about them, the speaker of it would have been and will be a liar.

After denunciation, (the person's) description returns to being ordinary, and all the attributes attributed to them earlier cease to apply. The person is no longer the same as before, and those attributes do not remain in them. If one looks with the eye of discernment, they can see that the person who wore that garment before has not, and will not wear it again. A believer, while in faith and admitting God and believing in Him, even if their clothes are made of cotton, are considered heaven's silk in the eyes of the Lord. But after denying, their garment turns into the tar and flame of Hell.

In such a case, if someone describes such a person in the earlier flattering terms, they would be considered a liar, and in God's eyes, they are among the people of Hell's fire.