True Affirmation of Divine Unity

FIRST FLASH
The affirmation of Divine unity is of two sorts. For example, if the goods of a rich 
man arrive in a market or a town, there are two ways in which onemay know they are his. One is briefly and simply, as with ordinary people, which is: “No 
one apart from him is capable of owning this vast amount of goods.” But when under the 
supervision of a common man such as that, much of it may be stolen. Many others may 
claim ownership of parts of it. The second sort is this: through reading his writing on 
every packet, recognizing his signature on every roll, and seeing his seal on every bill, the 
man declares: “Everything belongs to that person.” Here, everything in effect shows the 
important man. Similarly, the affirmation of Divine unity is of two sorts:
One is the superficial and common affirmation of Divine unity which says: 
“Almighty God is One, He has no partner or like. This universe is His.”
The Second is the true affirmation of Divine unity which, through seeing on 
everything the stamp of His power, the seal of His dominicality, and the inscriptions of 
His pen, is to open a window directly onto His light from everything and to confirm and 
believe with almost the certainty of seeing it that everything emerges from the hand of 
His power and that in no way has He any partner or assistant in His Godhead or in His 
dominicality or in His sovereignty, and thus to attain to a sort of perpetual awareness of 
the Divine presence. In this Word, we shall mention rays demonstrating this pure and 
elevated true affirmation of Divine unity.
A Reminder within the First Point: O heedless worshipper of causes! Causes are a 
veil; for Divine dignity and grandeur require them to be thus. But that which acts and 
performs matters is the power of the Eternally Besought One; for Divine unity and glory 
require it to be thus, and necessitate their independence. The officials of the Pre-Eternal 
Monarch are not executives of the sovereignty of dominicality, they are the heralds of His 
sovereignty and the observers and superintendents of His dominicality. Their purpose is 
to make known the dignity of power and majesty of dominicality, so that power should 
not be seen to be associated with base and lowly matters. Not like a human king, tainted 
by impotence and indigence, who therefore takes officials as partners. That is to say, 
causes have been placed so that the dignity of power may be preserved in the superficial 
view of the mind. For like the two faces of a mirror, everything has an outer face that 
looks to this manifest world, which resembles the mirror’s coloured face and may reflect 
various colours and states, and an inner face which looks to its Maker, which resembles 
the mirror’s shining face. In the outer face which looks to the manifest world may be 
states incompatible with the dignity and perfection of the Eternally Besought One’s 
power, so causes have been put to be both the source and the means of those states. But in 
the inner face, that of reality, which looks to their Creator, everything is transparent and 
beautiful; it is fitting that power should itself be associated with it. It is not incompatible with its dignity; therefore, causes are purely apparent and in the inner face 
of things and in reality have no true effect.
A further instance of wisdom in apparent causes is this: causes have been put so that 
unjust complaints and baseless objections should be directed at them and not at the 
Absolutely Just One. For the faults arise from them, from their incapacity and lack of 
ability. A comparison is narrated which is in the form of a subtle example illustrating this 
mystery:
The Angel Azra’il (Peace be upon him) said to Almighty God: “Your servants will 
complain about me while I am carrying out my duty of taking possession of the spirits of 
the dying; they will be resentful towards me.” So Almighty God said to him through the 
tongue of wisdom: “I shall leave the veil of disasters and illnesses between you and my 
servants so that the complaints will be directed at them, and they will not be indignant at 
you.”31 So see, illnesses are a veil; what are imagined to be the bad things at the 
appointed hour are attributed to them, and what are in reality the good things in the spirits 
of the dying being seized are attributed to Azra’il (PBH) and his duty. Azra’il is also a 
veil; he is a supervisor of that duty and a veil to Divine power so that certain conditions 
when spirits are seized which are apparently unkind and are inappropriate to the 
perfection of mercy be attributed to him.
Yes, dignity and grandeur demand that causes are a veil to the hand of power in the 
view of the mind, while Divine unity and glory demand that causes withdraw their hands 
and have no true effect.
SECOND FLASH
Look at this garden of the universe, this orchard of the earth; look carefully at the 
beautiful face of the heavens gilded with stars! You will see that on all the artefacts 
spread out and scattered over them are stamps particular to the Creator of All Things, and 
on all creatures are seals special to the Maker of All Things, and on the levels of being 
written on the pages of night and day, and summer and winter, all published by the pen of 
power, are inimitable, illustrious signatures of an All-Glorious Maker, an All-Beauteous 
Creator. We shall now mention a few of those stamps, seals, and signatures by way of 
example:
For example, of the innumerable stamps, consider this one out of many placed on 
life: “He makes everything out of one thing and makes one thing out of everything.” For 
He makes the innumerable members and systems of animals out of a fluid and also out of 
simple water which is drunk. Thus, to make one thing everything is surely the work of 
One possessing Absolute Power. And One Who with perfect order transforms into a 
particular body numerous substances from the innumerable foods eaten, whether plant or 
animal, and weaves from them a particular skin, and makes from them  simple members, is surely One Powerful over All Things and One Knowing of All 
Things. Indeed, the Creator of Life and Death administers life through His wisdom in this 
workshop of the world through a law issuing from His command so miraculous that only 
one Who holds the whole universe in the grasp of His power could apply that law and 
enforce it.
Thus, if your mind is not extinguished and your heart not blind, you will understand 
that what makes one thing with perfect ease and order, and makes everything one thing 
skilfully with perfect balance and order, is a stamp particular to the Maker of everything 
and a seal special to the Creator of All Things. For example, if you see that together with 
weaving a hundred rolls of broadcloth and various other cloths like silk or cambric from a 
single ounce of cotton, a wonder-worker makes many foods from it like helva and 
pastries, then you see that he takes a handful of iron and stone, honey and butter, water 
and earth, and makes some fine gold, you would certainly pronounce him to possess 
unique art, for all the elements of the earth are subjugated to his command and all the 
substances of the earth subject to his word. Indeed, the manifestation of power and 
wisdom in life is a thousand times more wondrous than this example.
Thus, one stamp on life out of many.
THIRD FLASH
Look at the living creatures revolving in this flowing universe, in this flood of 
beings! You will see that on each are many seals placed by the Ever-Living and SelfSubsistent One. One of them is this: a living creature, for example a human being, is 
quite simply a miniature sample of the universe, a fruit of the tree of creation, and a seed 
of the world, for he comprises samples of most of the realms of beings in the world. It is 
as if the animate being is a drop filtered from the universe in an extremely fine measure. 
So to create it and be its Sustainer, one has to hold the whole universe in the grasp of 
one’s power.
Thus, if your mind is not submerged in delusions you will understand that to make a 
word of power, for example, a honey-bee, a minute index of most things, and to write in 
one page, for example in man, most of the matters in this book of the universe, and to 
include in one point, for example in a tiny fig seed, the programme of the mighty fig-tree, 
and to display in a single letter, for example in the human heart, the works of all the 
Divine Names manifested in the pages of the macrocosm which encompass it, and to 
make written in the human faculty of memory, which is situated in a place the size of a 
lentil, writings enough to fill a library, and to include in that tiny faculty a detailed index 
of all events in the cosmos –to do all things is most certainly a stamp particular to the 
Creator of All Things, the Glorious Sustainer of the universe Thus, if one seal out of many dominical seals on living beings displays its light and 
makes read its signs thus, if you were able to see and consider all those seals at once, 
would you not declare: “Glory be to Him Who is concealed in the intensity of His 
manifestation!”?
FOURTH FLASH
Look carefully at the multicoloured, multifarious beings swimming in the seas of the 
heavens and scattered over the face of the earth! You will see that on each are inimitable 
signatures of the Pre-Eternal Sun. Just as the stamps on life and seals on living beings are 
apparent and we saw one or two of them, so are there such signatures on the giving of 
life. Since comparisons bring profound meanings closer to the understanding, we shall 
demonstrate this truth with a comparison.
For example, from the planets to droplets of water, to fragments of glass and 
sparkling snow-flakes, a signature from the sun’s image and reflection, a luminous work 
particular to the sun, is apparent. If you do not accept the tiny suns apparent in those 
innumerable things to be the manifestation of the sun’s reflection, you have to accept the 
actual existence of a true, natural sun in every droplet and fragment of glass facing the 
light, and in every transparent speck before it, thus descending to the depths of lunacy. 
In just the same way, there is such a signature on all living beings in regard to the 
giving of life from among the luminous manifestations of the Pre-Eternal Sun, that 
supposing all causes were gathered together and had the power to act and possessed will, 
they still could not imitate that signature. For living beings, all miracles of Divine power, 
are points of focus of the Divine Names, which are like the rays of the Pre-Eternal Sun. If 
that strange inscription of art, that wondrous ordering of wisdom, that manifestation of 
the mystery of Oneness on living beings is not ascribed to the Single and Eternally 
Besought One, it necessitates accepting that concealed within each living creature, and 
even in a fly or a flower, is an infinite creative power, a knowledge encompassing all 
things, an absolute will with which to govern the universe, and even the eternal attributes 
particular to the Necessarily Existent One, thus falling to the most ludicrous degree of 
misguidance and superstition. Quite simply, it necessitates attributing Divinity to each 
particle of the flower or fly. For a state has been given to those particles, especially if 
they are in seeds, whereby they look to the living being of which they are a part, and take 
up a position in accordance with its systems and ordering. The particle is even in a 
position to look to all members of the species to which its living being belongs, or to fly 
with wings in order to be planted in a place suitable to the continuation of its species and 
to plant the species’ flag. In fact, it holds a position whereby that living being’s 
transactions with all other beings may be continued, and its relations with them connected 
with sustenance. For it is in need of all of them. Thus, if that particle is not an official of a Possessor of Absolute Power, and if its 
relation with Him is severed, it has to be ascribed an eye which sees all things and a 
consciousness which encompasses all things.
In Short: If the miniature suns and various colours in droplets of water and 
fragments of glass are not attributed to the sun’s reflection and the manifestation of its 
reflection, one has to accept the existence of innumerable suns in place of the one sun; it
necessitates accepting an utterly impossible superstition. In exactly the same way, if 
everything is not attributed to the Absolutely Powerful One, it necessitates accepting 
infinite gods instead of the Single God; indeed, gods to the number of particles in 
existence, thus falling to the degree of accepting a hundredfold impossibility.
To Sum Up: From every particle three windows open up onto the light of unity and 
necessary existence of the Pre-Eternal Sun:
First Window: A soldier has a relation with each of the spheres of the military, that 
is, with his squad, his company, his battalion, his regiment, his division, and the army, 
and duties in accordance with those relations, and actions in accordance with the duties 
and army regulations. Particles have similar relations.
For example, a lifeless particle in the pupil of your eye has relations with your eye, 
your head, your body, your powers of reproduction, and attraction and repulsion, with 
your veins and arteries, and motor and sensory nerves, and with the rest of the human 
race, and it has duties in relation to each. This shows self-evidently to eyes that are not 
blind that it is the work of art and charged official of the Pre-Eternal All-Powerful One, 
and is under his regulation.
Second Window: All molecules of air may visit all flowers and fruits. They may 
also enter them and work within them. If they are not the subjugated officials of an 
Absolutely Powerful One Who sees and knows all things, those wandering molecules 
would have to know all the systems and structures of the fruits and flowers and their art, 
and the tailoring of the all-different forms which clothe them with its perfect and allembracing art. Thus those particles all display as clearly as the sun the rays of a light of 
Divine unity. You may compare light with air, and earth with water.
In any event, the original sources of things are these four substances. According to 
modern science they are hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, the components of the 
former elements.
Third Window: You fill a flower-pot with some earth, which is composed of 
particles and is the means of growth of any flowering or fruit-bearing plant, then put 
some seeds in it. The same as the seed of animals does not differ, but is a fluid, the seeds 
of all the flowering and fruit-bearing plants in the world do not differ from one another. 
Being composed of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, they only differ by virtue of the programme of 
their progenitors, deposited in them through the immaterial writing of the pen of Divine 
Determining. 
Thus, if we put these seeds in turn in the flower-pot, we believe as though it has 
occurred that each plant will appear together with its wonderful forms and shapes and 
parts. If those particles are not officials under the orders of one who knows all the states 
and conditions of everything, is capable of giving everything a being suitable to it and 
everything necessary for it, and to whose power everything is subjugated with utterly 
facility, every particle of the earth would then have to contain immaterial factories and 
printing-presses to the number of all the flowering and fruit-bearing plants, so that it 
could be the source of all those various and different beings whose parts, members, and 
forms are all distant and different from one another. It is otherwise necessary to attribute 
to all those beings comprehensive knowledge and a power capable of forming them, so 
that they could be the means of the above.
That is to say, if the connection with Almighty God is severed, it becomes necessary 
to accept gods to the number of particles of earth, and this is an impossible superstition 
compounded a thousand times over. However, when they are officials, it becomes 
extremely easy. Just as, in his king’s name and through his power, a common soldier of a 
mighty king can make a whole country migrate, or join two seas, or take another king 
prisoner, so at the command of the Monarch of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, a fly did 
away with Nimrod, and an ant destroyed Pharaoh’s palace, razing it to the ground, and a 
fig-seed bears the load of a fig-tree. 
Moreover, in all particles are two further truthful witnesses to the Maker’s necessary 
existence and unity. One is that together with their absolute impotence, they all perform 
most important and various duties. The other is that despite their lifelessness, they all 
conform to the universal order and systems, thus displaying a universal consciousness. 
That is to say, through the tongue of its impotence each particle testifies to the necessary 
existence of the Absolutely Powerful One, and through its conforming to the order in the 
world, each testifies to His unity.
Just as every particle testifies in two ways to His being the Necessarily Existent One 
of Unity, so too on every living being are two signs that He is the Single and Eternally 
Besought One.
Yes, on all living beings are a seal of Divine oneness and a stamp of ‘eternal 
besoughtedness.’ For each displays together in the mirror of its being most of the Divine 
Names, the manifestations of which are apparent in the universe. Quite simply, like a 
point of focus, each displays the manifestation of the Greatest Name of Ever-Living and 
Self-Subsistent One. Thus, since it shows a sort of shadow of the oneness of the Divine Essence under the veil of the Name 
of Giver of Life, it bears a stamp of Divine oneness. And since the living being is like a 
miniature sample of the universe and a fruit of the tree of creation, it shows a seal of 
Divine eternal besoughtedness, which conveys altogether with ease to the tiny sphere of 
its life its needs, which are as many as the universe. That is to say, this shows it has a 
Sustainer Whose regard and favour take the place of all things. Everything in existence 
cannot take the place of His regard.
Furthermore, this situation shows that its Sustainer is in need of nothing, nor does 
anything diminish His treasury, and nor is anything at all difficult for His power. This, 
then, is a sort of seal of ‘eternal besoughtedness.’
Thus, on every living being are a seal of Divine oneness and stamp of eternal 
besoughtedness. Yes, through the tongue of its life, every living being recites:
Say, He is God, the One, * The Eternally Besought.
In addition to these two seals are several more important ‘windows’, but since they 
have been explained in detail in other places, our discussion here has been brief.
Seeing that each particle in existence at once opens up three windows and two 
openings onto the unity of the Necessarily Existent, and life too opens two doors, you can 
compare how all the levels of beings from particles to the sun spread the light of 
knowledge of the All-Glorious One.
Thus, you can understand from this the degrees of progress in knowledge of God, 
and the levels of awareness of His presence.