God as Revealed by Bahá'u'lláh

Most humans have an idea, and image, even some profound understanding of Who God is. There are some who deny such knowledge because they do not believe in the existence of such a Being. Not existent for him/her exempts them for having to formulate a hypothetical answer to the question. For those that have ideas, images and understanding of some sort of Who God might be, they have probably received them from their culture, at home, at a bible Sunday school, at some higher religion class, from wise elders, religious leaders and opinion spokespersons. Such images may have been formed by children’s religious books, family discussions, films or documentaries on the subject, and even from some form of spiritual experience in a church, in a religious ritual, in the intimacy of a silent and lonely prayer or even in a devastating event, such as the sudden death of a son, a father, a sweetheart, a wife or a husband. There is a constant rule that states that the more intense is the spiritual development of the individual the more expansive might be his description of this Being he calls God. The presence, the energy, the conviction, the feeling, and experience of nearness to the Creator somehow enhances that comprehension and glimmers of understanding of Who God might be. But is it possible for human beings to know God in His intimacy, in His Essence to the point that they can affirm that such knowledge is correct, authentic, and authoritative? No. For the simple reason that man is a created being, and thus simply incapable of knowing his Creator in such a way and depth that he can affirm that he knows with certainty Who God is. In fact, the contrary is true. For any created being, the Innermost Essence of his creator is simply unknowable. No human being can fully, entirely of sufficiently know its Creator. His condition of created being has inherently given each one of us a limited understanding of all reality. Reality is too vast, too deep to even come close to having a full grasp of it. If man’s knowledge of physical reality is so limited, how much more difficult will be the acquisition of knowledge of a transcendental reality that he cannot see, touch or experience directly through the senses and to which he has limited access while he lives his temporal condition. Being so limited man’s knowledge of physical reality, how much more difficult it will be to acquire any knowledge of God, the foundation of all created reality, Who resides in a transcendental level of Being. This realm is simply inaccessible for any human being to even get a satisfactory glimpse and affirm that God is Who He is. So, if this is the human condition in relation to his Creator, how can we then be assured that we have an authoritative source that can tell us something about God’s Attributes in a way that we can be confident that it is the best and most accurate description? At this moment is when we humans must rely on a Revelation given to us by a Messenger of God, who is so close to Him that he actually has an experience of God that no other human being has. This experience is translated into the limitations that each language has so that we may understand something about God in a manner that is possible for us to assimilate and have a minimum frame of reference in which the magnificence of the Creator is expressed in such a way that we can relate to it, and actually feed spiritually from it. This is the objective and intention of this book. It is an exploration in what the most recent Messenger of God, Bahá’u’lláh, has given us as a description of God’s Attributes, in terms that we can make sense and comprehend a glimpse of the depth and excellence of our Creator.