# The Silences of God: A Meditation

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> The Silences                                    Resuman
> El impacto de la Palabra de Dios ha
> of God:                                         dominado la historia de la religión
> y nuestra definición de la madurez
> A Meditation                                    en evolución de la humanidad. Sin
> embargo, en una edad en que el poder
> de las palabras ha sido sistemáticamente
> BAHIYYIH NAKHJAVANI                             erosionado y la ortodoxia del lenguaje ha
> sido cuestionada, podría ser que nuestra
> consciencia acerca del silencio de Dios sea
> Abstract                                        esencial en moldear nuestras selecciones
> The impact of the Word of God has dom-          individuales y al definir nuestras historias
> inated the history of religion and our defi-    colectivas. Este ensayo explora algunas
> nition of the evolving maturation of hu-        de las maneras en que el silencio Divino
> mankind. But in an age in which the power       es inferido en los escritos de Bahá'u'lláh
> of words has been systematically eroded         y ofrece una meditación sobre cómo el
> and the orthodoxy of language has been          mismo juega un rol vital en ayudarnos a
> questioned, it may be that our awareness        entender Sus palabras.
> of God's silence is essential in shaping our
> individual choices and defining our collec-     "The silence of the unsaid," according
> tive histories. This essay explores some of     to John Berger, "is always working
> the ways that Divine silence is inferred in     surreptitiously with another silence,
> the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and offers a        which is that of the unsayable. What
> meditation on how it plays a vital role in
> is unsaid one time," he continues, "can
> helping us understand His words.
> be said on another occasion. But the
> unsayable can never be said—unless
> Resumé
> L'influence du Verbe de Dieu a dominé           maybe in a prayer."1 The Argentinian
> l'histoire de la religion et notre définition   writer Borges, who was blind, believed
> de l'évolution de l'humanité vers sa            that to have a word for "silence" at all
> maturité. Mais, à une époque où le pouvoir      was an aesthetic event, if not actual-
> des mots subit une érosion systématique         ly a prayer. And if speech was to be
> et où l'orthodoxie du langage est remise        "right" according to the poet W. B.
> en question, notre conscience du silence        Yeats, it might only be "after long si-
> de Dieu pourrait bien jouer un rôle             lence." That may be why Hamlet died
> déterminant dans l'orientation de nos           with the words, "The rest is silence"
> choix personnels et de notre expérience         on his lips, after four and a half hours
> collective. Dans le présent essai, l'auteur
> of talk, in spite of which critics of the
> explore certaines allusions au silence
> play have been chattering about what
> divin que nous trouvons dans les écrits de
> he meant for the past five centuries.
> Bahá'u'lláh et il propose une réflexion sur
> la façon dont ce silence joue un rôle vital       1 Preface to Timothy O'Grady, I Could
> dans notre compréhension de Sa Parole.          Read the Sky.
> 50                The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 24.3/4 2014
> 
> And in keeping with the words of po-        the assumptions of our predecessors
> ets and other tragic heroes, my broth-      regarding these huge vacuities. And in
> er once told me that he wondered            the end, as Eliot says, "And what there
> when God might one day send us a            is to conquer / . . . has already been
> Manifestation of His Silence—"Just          discovered / Once or twice, what there
> for a change," he added, "because we        is to conquer has already been discov-
> never seem to listen to His words."         ered / Once or twice, or several times,
> But I am going to ignore all this good      by men whom one cannot hope / To
> advice. Despite Bahá'u'lláh's warning       emulate" ("East Coker," v., ll. 11-14).2
> that "[t]he essence of true safety is to    We have invariably misunderstood.
> observe silence [and] look at the end          But perhaps all our theologies, like
> of things" (Tablets 156), I shall take      our ancient astrologies, have been con-
> the risk of speaking about the impact       structed on fictitious constellations.
> of God's silences on us and of writing      Perhaps our attempts to understand
> about how His words can, and perhaps        the wheeling mysteries of God have
> must, ultimately render us mute.            been built, like the Ptolemaic universe,
> God's silences have always               in ignorance of these subtle black
> pre-empted our words. Poets have            holes in our understanding, which can
> tried to fill them. Philosophers have       only be filled gradually, and over time.
> sought to question them. Theologians        The study of religion has traditional-
> of all cloths have attempted to define      ly been based on meditations of Holy
> their dazzling darknesses. The history      Scripture. But perhaps a meditation on
> of religion itself, like the science of     the silences between these holy words
> cosmology, is as thick as the spangled      will bring us closer to the fundamental
> night sky with the silences between         unity underlying our faiths. All reli-
> the stars. Sometimes these gaps have        gions are equally concerned with the
> been seen as challenges to our aware-       interpretation of Divine silence. They
> ness, creative challenges that enable us    all direct our attention to its infallible
> to aspire to seek that wholeness we call    mysteries and claim to hold the key to
> "truth." At other times, they have been     its understanding.
> interpreted as contradictions in the           They all caution us, too, about its
> world and in ourselves, incongruities       impact, about its import on our lives. It
> that can never be resolved and that         is recorded, in The Book of Revelation
> remind us of the endlessness of hu-         that, after the seventh seal was broken,
> mility. We have all failed, by and large,   God withdrew into His silence for the
> to gauge these breathless immensities.      length of half an hour. It must have
> We have either repeated each other's        been the most unbearable half hour
> errors in different languages or have       in all creation. A single moment more
> disagreed with them using different         and the universe would have imploded.
> metaphors, or we have simply echoed           2   Quartet no. 2 of the Four Quartets.
> The Silences of God                              51
> 
> Certainly it was sufficient to render       are invalidated, our suppositions swept
> the angels mad. But there is much to        aside, our institutions and ideologies
> be learned from that brief half hour.       all undermined by the impact of
> It is a reminder that, contrary to          what He has told us. His utterances,
> received opinion, God is not actually       moreover, are not only brief but long
> all that voluble. He does not, generally    term in their effects—so vast that they
> speaking, waste words. His messages         stretch beyond the grasp of human
> are brief; His silences much longer         minds; so dense and packed with
> than His passages among us. In fact,        meaning, so gnomic and enigmatic in
> His reticence is as significant as His      their import that it takes millennia
> Revelation—both contain secret              to unpick the knots, break open the
> wisdoms, mysteries that require our         seals, and understand them. He comes
> deepest meditation.                         among us intermittently, traces His
> Indeed, if we compare the book           Will briefly on our human shores, and
> of Revelation with the book of              leaves us measuring His tracks in the
> Creation, there appears at first glance     sands for centuries.
> to be considerably more surplus in             "In My presence amongst you,"
> the latter. Whether due to human            writes Bahá'u'lláh, "there is a wisdom,
> obtuseness or some graver mystery,          and in My absence there is yet another,
> God's words tend to double up, like         inscrutable to all but God, the Incom-
> puns or reversible clothing, and seem       parable, the All-Knowing" (Kitáb-i-
> to serve more than one purpose at a         Aqdas ¶53, 39). A sigh from the An-
> time. They reach beyond evolutionary        cient of Days can cause each atom to
> utilitarianism, like wonder, like beauty,   acquire its own unique and separate
> or, as Nabokov noted, like a butterfly's    character. A breath from His lips can
> wings. Perhaps this is another meaning      set the fires of hell ablaze and open
> of divine economy: the exquisite            paradise before men's eyes. Meaning is
> capacity of God's silences to resonate      blasted into a thousand pieces by one
> with the alternative meanings of His        syllable from Him, and words, stripped
> words.                                      naked by the stroke of His Pen, are
> When He does speak, His                  sent scuttling into the world, like
> intervention in human affairs is not        monks shorn of their old habits. We
> only creative but destructive, too.         live and die as He breathes through
> We are revived by the breeze of His         our collective histories. For He is the
> presence: we are restored, resurrected,     Cleaver, the Ravager, the Inflictor of
> rendered vivid to our selves whenever       Trials. He is the supreme Love and the
> He passes by. But our lives are             Slayer of lovers, all in one.
> simultaneously reduced to rubble by
> the resonance of His comings, the
> echo left by His goings: our theories
> 52                 The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 24.3/4 2014
> 
> THE DEATH OF WORDS                     'Tis all in pieces, all coherence
> gone,
> End-of-the-world vocabulary strikes            All just supply, and all relation...."
> an ominously repetitive note in the            ("The Anatomy of the World,"
> human ear. We are fatally familiar             ll.205-14)3
> with it. We have heard it all before. But
> although we like to believe that each           At the start of the twentieth
> of these turning points in history is        century, Yeats, too, described a collapse
> hyperbolically unique and each end           of significance as well as of society; he
> absolute, no resurrection is entire, no      brooded over the demise not only of
> rebirth final. We seem to be afflicted, as   Ireland, but of all civilization:
> a species, by an inclination toward the
> supremacy fallacy, that fatal propensity       Things fall apart; the centre
> to imagine ourselves chosen to be the
> cannot hold;
> first or doomed to be the last, to assume
> Mere anarchy is loosed upon the
> we are unique and believe ourselves to
> world,
> be the only. But beginnings and ends
> The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,
> have always involved re-interpretation.
> and everywhere
> Turning points in human history have
> The ceremony of innocence is
> invariably coincided with inquiries
> into language and a questioning of               drowned ....
> words. Clichés have to die in order for        ("The Second Coming." ll.3-6)4
> poems to be reborn.
> And we do not even need God to               And one of the characteristic
> tell us this, because poets have done        nightmares of our own times is to find
> so over and over again. John Donne           ourselves standing on ground zero of
> not only bore witness to the end of an       language itself. Not only have culture
> epoch in the seventeenth century, but        and tradition given way over the course
> to the breaking of a poetic tradition,       of two world wars and their rumbling
> the shattering of meter, the revolution      consequences, but the very foundation
> of rhyme:                                    of words has been eroded. Writers in
> the Western literary tradition have
> And new philosophy calls all in            been pondering this collapse for the
> doubt,                                    past two centuries. We cannot talk
> The element of fire is quite put
> out,                                         3 Norton Anthology of English Literature
> The sun is lost, and th'earth, and         (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), Vol. B,
> no man's wit                              pp. 1293-94.
> Can well direct him where to look             4 Norton Anthology of English Literature
> for it.                                   (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), Vol. F,
> ….                                         p. 2036.
> The Silences of God                                 53
> 
> without being conscious that we are         its surcease inevitable success, our
> cloning the same clichés, echoing           immediate response to the silences
> the same dead phrases. We cannot            of God is to feel the heartbeats of
> open our mouths without reiterating         terror, the sweat of panic and remorse.
> the same trivialities. We stand in the      Instead of being suffused with awe, we
> rubble of buildings undermined by           associate these moments with fear and
> our own echoes, entertaining ourselves      guilt, with the earth-shaking tread
> in a vacuum of meaning, "playing," as       of Jove, with the thunderbolts of a
> Auden put it,                               forever-wrathful Jehovah.
> And so it is that instead of listen-
> … among the ruined languages              ing to these silences, we rush in and
> So small beside their large               make fools of ourselves by talking.
> confusing words,                      We stuff the absence that intervenes
> So still before the greater silences,     between His brief passages among
> Of dreadful things you did….              us with a veritable cacophony of our
> ("Anthem for St. Cecilia's Day,"          own. We interpret, analyze, comment,
> III, ll.11-14)5                           and define. We theorize and theologize
> the infinite meanings of His Words in
> We have been raised to dread             the resonating gaps between them. We
> such "greater silences." According          respond to each moment of God's in-
> to the traditional Judeo-Christian          finitely plangent silences with centu-
> and Islamic relationship to God, the        ries of verbal superfluity and fill the
> disintegration of language, witnessed       chance to meditate upon them with
> in the story of the collapsing Tower        our chatter.
> of Babel, is synonymous with                   All nature abhors a vacuum. It is
> punishment for pride; the death of          small wonder, then, that human nature
> words is associated with dark and           will do anything to fill a perceived
> chaotic times before the utterance of       spiritual void. Our kind, as Eliot
> the angel Gabriel brought meaning           avers, "cannot bear very much reality"
> to the world. Since we associate the        ("Burnt Norton, I, l.34).6 But reality, as
> Word of God with our beginnings,            Bahá'u'lláh suggests in His Writings,
> we naturally assume His silence could       beckons us into it through the very
> mean our ends. And since our ends are       power of silence. We may be missing
> rarely consummations "devoutly to           the point by not listening.
> be wished" but rather a consequence
> that does not always promise with                      GOLD AND SILVER
> 5 Set to music by Benjamin Britten,
> Op. 27. privately printed 1941, published
> One of the distinctions of this Dis-
> one year later as a musical score, New
> pensation may be that Bahá'u'lláh has
> York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1942.                6 The first of the "Four Quartets."
> 54                The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 24.3/4 2014
> 
> invited us to think about the golden si-   the Sovereign, the Mighty, the All-
> lences of God as well as the unsullied     Praised" (¶ 115, 61), He is summoning
> silver of His Words. He has drawn          us to enter into that primary silence.
> our attention to their reciprocity. Per-   Once the listening soul steps into that
> haps there are as many lessons to be       sacred space, attunes itself to the re-
> learned from the former as there is        membrance of God, and implores His
> guidance implicit in the latter. It may    forgiveness, we become receptive to
> even be that we can only understand        understanding the Word of God, but
> the fundamentals of His Covenant in        only if we give it our undivided at-
> the relationship between the two.          tention. And if we are to attend to all
> No one can speak and listen simul-      the meanings implicit in the Word of
> taneously. Words require silence to        God, the purest silence is required.
> be heard. Even the least significant           But it is hard to hear the Voice of
> speech, uttered at the most primary        the Ancient of Days in the middle of
> level of communication, depends on         the cacophony of daily life. We are
> the assumption that someone is lis-        surrounded by noise: the vapid chatter
> tening. And this is a fundamental law,     of political campaigns, the rumble of
> an absolute prerequisite for commu-        collapsing ideals, the grunts of lust
> nication, which we ignore to our cost,     and howls of greed on every side.
> and it is one of the crucial lessons we    If we catch His accents behind the
> learn from silence in this Dispensa-       uproar, we are lucky. Shoghi Effendi
> tion. 'Abdu'l-Bahá confirms this prin-     vividly describes this challenge using
> ciple in Paris Talks when He observes,     the metaphor of light and darkness:
> "Bahá'u'lláh says there is a sign [from    "Amidst the shadows which are
> God] in every phenomenon: the sign         increasingly gathering about us,"
> of the intellect is contemplation and      he writes, "we can faintly discern
> the sign of contemplation is silence,      the glimmerings of Bahá'u'lláh's
> because it is impossible for a man to      unearthly sovereignty appearing
> do two things at one time—he cannot        fitfully on the horizon of history"
> both speak and meditate" (174).            (World Order 168).
> Silence is therefore essential for         And the counterpoint between what
> understanding. When Bahá'u'lláh            we see and what we hear, between the
> writes in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, "Blessed      shrillness of our age and God's silenc-
> is he who, at the hour of dawn, cen-       es, is depicted by the Guardian in an-
> tring his thoughts on God, occupied        other remarkable sentence. Here, were
> with His remembrance, and suppli-          it not for the basso ostinato of God's
> cating His forgiveness, directeth his      Will that keeps the syntax steady, the
> steps to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár and,        hiss and spit of our own noise would
> entering therein, seateth himself in       literally wind around our throats and
> silence to listen to the verses of God,    strangle us:
> The Silences of God                                55
> 
> Mysteriously, slowly, and re-             we listen. Democracy resides in our
> sistlessly God accomplishes His           right to think, to ponder the silences.
> design, though the sight that                Bahá'u'lláh has liberated us to an
> meets our eyes in this day be the         equality of hearing in this Revelation;
> spectacle of a world hopelessly           He has invited us into a democracy of
> entangled in its own meshes, ut-          listening, of meditating on His words.
> terly careless of the Voice which,        Each one of us has this God-given
> for a century, has been calling it        right, this freedom. In fact, He has
> to God, and miserably subservi-           granted it as an obligation, a necessity
> ent to the siren voices which are         for our spiritual independence. While
> attempting to lure it into the vast       abrogating individual authority and
> abyss. (Promised Day 116)                 placing power in His divinely con-
> ceived institutions, He has freed us to
> We would never have reached the last        ponder His meanings, to plunge into
> of these subsidiary clauses had we not      the ocean of His Revelation without
> kept hold of the main sentence that         carrying the burden of influence on
> quietly reminds us that God does and        others, without being weighed down
> always will accomplish His design.          by individual power. He has literally
> Silence, in such circumstances as we     released us to be lovers rather than
> live, is synonymous with spiritual life.    priests. The true pearl diver in this
> Small wonder, therefore, that in this       age cannot barter what he has found in
> Dispensation Bahá'u'lláh has annulled       the marketplace of power because the
> the role of the chattering theologian,      proof of his treasure lies in the fact
> invalidated the authority of the priest.    that he has drowned.
> Our response to God's silence cannot
> be passive, but neither can it be foisted               EARS TO HEAR
> on others. The principle of autocracy
> in the Bahá'í Faith lies in the authen-     But we are not, by nature, inclined to
> ticated texts of this religion, in the      drown. We cling to the dry land of
> absolute authority of the words writ-       received ideas, the sand and pebbles
> ten by its Founder and His appointed        of inherited notions. We turn our
> Interpreters. No individual can usurp       backs on the ocean and become adept
> that autocracy; no one has to right to      at cultivating spiritual deafness,
> impose his or her personal interpreta-      especially when it is too much of a
> tions of those words over others'. But      challenge to hear the uncomfortable
> the principle of democracy also exists,     truth. As a result, there is another kind
> not only in how we vote, nor just in        of silence buried between the words
> how we consult, or are governed by          of God, which is caused not only by
> elected institutions rather than ap-        our inability but by our unwillingness
> pointed individuals, but also in the way    to listen.
> 56                 The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 24.3/4 2014
> 
> There are times, Bahá'u'lláh ex-          a proof of truth as the words when
> plains, when God chooses to be silent        they are uttered. He reminds us of the
> because of "the impediments that have        wisdom of this withholding silence by
> hindered Thy people from recognizing         highlighting the relationship of words
> Thy truth" (Gleanings 28). He with-          to time as well as to circumstance:
> holds His Words when He knows we             "Not everything that a man knoweth
> are not listening to them; He speaks         can be disclosed, nor can everything
> only if we are ready to hear, for "words     that he can disclose be regarded as
> are revealed according to the capacity       timely, nor can every timely utterance
> of the people." And, as He tells us,         be considered as suited to the capacity
> with beguiling candour, "as there were       of those who hear it" (Gleanings 176).
> few ears to hear, for some time the Pen      Once we understand this wisdom, our
> has been silent in its own chamber, and      hearts might be more willing to absorb
> to such a degree that silence has had        the import of His Words. But until we
> precedence over utterance" (Bahá'í           do so, we are effectively deaf. And our
> Scriptures 133).                             deafness delays the inevitable.
> In the Hidden Words, Bahá'u'lláh             "How manifold are the truths," He
> goes even further and establishes this       tells us, "which must remain unuttered
> reciprocity between the ear and the          until the appointed time is come!"
> tongue as a spiritual principle. The         (Gleanings 176). And even when the
> method of the Manifestations, in oth-        right time comes, how often do truths
> er words, is one which we should emu-        remain unuttered because we are still
> late: "The wise are they that speak not      not listening?
> unless they obtain a hearing, even as
> the cup-bearer, who proffereth not his               SUFFERING IN SILENCE
> cup till he findeth a seeker, and the lov-
> er who crieth not out from the depths        Once we do begin to listen, however,
> of his heart until he gazeth upon the        we hear new layers in all that God does
> beauty of his beloved" (Hidden Words,        not say. His silence, we discover to our
> Persian n.36). Such words not only           shame, can be filled with sadness, with
> disappointment on our account, which
> caution us to weigh what we say but
> is that terrible alternative to His good
> invite us to meditate on the reasons for
> pleasure.
> and causes of silence.                          "O Bond Slave of the World!"
> God's silences cannot, by their very      writes Bahá'u'lláh in the Hidden Words,
> nature, be fathomed, but the withhold-       "Many a dawn hath the breeze of My
> ing ones caused by our unreadiness to        loving-kindness wafted over thee and
> listen, our inability to hear, are worth     found thee upon the bed of heedless-
> pondering. To be responsive to the           ness fast asleep. Bewailing then thy
> receptivity of the listener, Bahá'u'lláh     plight it returned whence it came"
> seems to suggest, can be as eloquent         (Persian n.30).
> The Silences of God                               57
> 
> The sorrow of the Best Beloved and       gone as far as assuming that God's si-
> the Friend is more dreadful, perhaps,       lence, like the darkness of outer space,
> than the wrath of the Father. Divine        is synonymous with a vacuum. If and
> displeasure is more difficult for us to     when we finally realize how plangent
> bear than any punishment, because it        it is with sorrow on our behalf, how
> resonates with the silence of God's         quiet with patient forgiveness, we
> forbearance, it echoes with His long        may be even more ashamed than if we
> suffering:                                  had been hauled up by the heels and
> whipped until we cried for mercy. As
> At many a dawn have I turned              our understanding of this new Dis-
> from the realms of the Placeless          pensation of Bahá'u'lláh evolves, we
> unto thine abode, and found thee          begin to become unnervingly aware of
> on the bed of ease busied with            a very dangerous, very mature kind of
> others than Myself. Thereupon,            silence that lies between His Words.
> even as the flash of the spirit, I
> returned to the realms of celes-          NO ANSWER CAME THE STERN REPLY
> tial glory and breathed it not in
> My retreats above unto the hosts          A corollary to the silence of God's
> of holiness. (Bahá'u'lláh, Hidden         sorrow is the silence of His response.
> Words, Persian n.28)                      It is against that gong that we hear our
> follies reverberating a hundredfold; it
> It is that "breathed it not" which       is in that quiet echo that we register
> really confounds us. It is that delicacy    the hollowness of our own sounds.
> of His keeping silent on our account,       God's way of answering our urgent
> of His "desiring not" our shame. He         questions with silence is the most
> would not advertise our faithlessness       painful kind of all.
> nor have our stupidity trumpeted be-            We are all familiar with that omi-
> fore the angels. "And whenever the          nous silence that counters our insis-
> manifestation of My holiness sought         tent prayers, our anxious beseechings.
> His own abode," He reminds us, "a           We are well acquainted with those
> stranger found He there, and, home-         waves of silence that lap against the
> less, hastened unto the sanctuary of        dry shores of our shrill demands. We
> the Beloved. Notwithstanding I have         expect a response that suits our crite-
> concealed thy secret and desired not        ria of logic, our perception of reality,
> thy shame" (Bahá'u'lláh, Hidden Words,      our immediate needs, and are outraged
> Persian n.27).                              by its absence. We hurl our indignant
> This sin-covering silence of God         requests against the concave sky-blue
> has emboldened us, and made us bra-         shell of His ear and become frustrated
> zen. It has permitted us to persist in      at the mocking echoes that redound
> our follies to such a degree that we have   upon us. What we perceive to be the
> 58                 The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 24.3/4 2014
> 
> implacable silence of God's response         which is in truth praiseworthy"
> has provoked us to cynicism as well as       (Selections 48). Why such a silence is
> to despair.                                  "praiseworthy" is best explained by
> Indeed, most of twentieth-century         'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who, with an ineffable
> literature has been an exploration the       lightness of touch, reminds us of our
> pointlessness of asking questions, in        total dependence on that Will when
> inadequacy as well as compulsion in          He affirms that "He doeth as He doeth,
> our use of words. The characters of          and what recourse have we?" In the last
> Vladimir and Estragon talk incessant-        analysis all our fury and frustration is
> ly as they wait for the reply of Godot,      a waste of breath because "He carrieth
> which never fully satisfies even when it     out His Will, He ordaineth what He
> comes7; the Marabar caves in Forster's       pleaseth" (Selections 51).
> A Passage to India render all words             The seeming non-response of God
> equally meaningless, even as their           to our appeals is therefore sometimes a
> echoes can be interpreted in a myriad        clear answer, had we the ears to hear it
> different ways; Joyce has taken inco-        and the hearts to understand. As 'Ab-
> herence to such heights of creativity        du'l-Bahá continues to assert, "Then
> in Finnegans Wake that language has          better for thee to bow down thy head
> become a mockery of itself in the ab-        in submission, and put thy trust in the
> sence of any other meaningful game           All-Merciful Lord" (Selections 51). For
> to play. The vacancy underlying words        if we listened to the resonance beneath
> has become a way for contemporary            this kind of silence we might realize
> artists to bear witness to our stoicism,     that the demands we have been mak-
> and also to our folly as human beings.       ing, the requirements we have set, the
> It sums up the existential as well as        logic by which means we seek to mea-
> aesthetic dilemma of contemporary            sure God's response can only reap dis-
> existence. But interestingly enough,         appointment at best, or bring us harm
> in the Bahá'í Writings we not only ex-       at worse. They echo with the folly of
> plore the futility of asking questions       our demands. His silences, in this case,
> but find confirming answers implicit         are a mercy to our own selves. They
> in this silence.                             are the equivalent of pure compassion.
> According to the Báb, these silences
> are themselves ordained by God and,                  AT A LOSS FOR WORDS
> as such, are an expression of His Will.
> He states, "O Ye servants of God!            Ironically enough, the knowledge of
> Verily, be not grieved if a thing ye         such silences can, in the last analysis,
> asked of Him remaineth unanswered,           strike us dumb. When the ear of the
> inasmuch as He hath been commanded           spirit inclines in their direction and we
> by God to observe silence, a silence         begin to hear all that is in these silenc-
> es of God, another wind stirs in the
> 7 See Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot.
> The Silences of God                               59
> 
> soul, another note strikes the bone. "It   contain are muted, we find our defi-
> behooveth you to remain silent before      nitions dissolving, our languages dis-
> His Throne," observes the Báb, "for in-    integrating. All words tend toward
> deed of all the things which have been     self-destruction, but God destroys
> created between heaven and earth           words absolutely in order to recreate
> nothing on that Day will be deemed         them. His silence, too, absorbs all oth-
> more fitting than the observance of        er sounds into itself and turns them
> silence" (Selections 164).                 into music: "Be ye not sad nor dejected
> For the silences as well as the words   on account of the disturbance and up-
> of God have a curious impact on the        roar of the people of desire and pas-
> uproar in our heads. They can leave        sion," writes 'Abdu'l-Bahá. "Ere long
> us at a loss for words. They can ren-      the symphony of the Kingdom shall
> der us mute. When we listen to them,       silence all the other noises" (Tablets,
> we hear something beyond the actual        vo1. 1, 223).
> sounds and syllables. When we stop            Similarly, Bahá'u'lláh urges the true
> our ears to our own noises, some un-       seeker to free himself from all acquired
> spoken understanding is communicat-        meanings, to purge his heart of all idle
> ed to us that rises out of our darkness    fancies and false assumptions. He urges
> like a murmuring remembrance. As           us to strip away the shadow of words
> Bahá'u'lláh states in the Kitáb-i-Íqán,    that cloud our understanding of their
> spirit, for when "the mention of God
> When the stream of utterance             hath become an empty name" and "His
> reached this stage, We beheld,           holy Word a dead letter" (Kitáb-i-Íqán
> and lo! the sweet savours of God         29), it is necessary to breathe a new
> were being wafted from the day-          creativity into it through the arteries
> spring of Revelation. . . . It made      of language.
> all things new, and brought un-             When the connotations of words
> numbered and inestimable gifts           thicken with use and abuse, we react to
> from the unknowable Friend. The          their "shadows" merely and lose sight
> robe of human praise can never           of their "spirits" altogether, as the Báb
> hope to match Its noble stature,         infers:
> and Its shining figure the mantle
> of utterance can never fit. With-          The reason for this command is
> out word It unfoldeth the inner            that haply, in the Day of the Reve-
> mysteries, and without speech It           lation of that supreme Truth, the
> revealeth the secrets of the divine        feet of the people shall not falter
> sayings. (59)                              upon the bridge, and that they
> shall not pronounce judgment
> Once our human noises are mo-              against the Fashioner of their ex-
> mentarily hushed, once the voices we         istence, adducing against Him the
> 60                The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 24.3/4 2014
> 
> very shadow of His verse in their                   THE TOUCHSTONE
> heart, and rendering naught, and
> at once, all their inmost realities      "Ponder this in thine heart" (Gleanings
> and deeds, without even perceiv-         46, 76; and Kitáb-i-Íqán 125, 149,
> ing it. (Persian Bayán 6:8; qtd. in      167), writes Bahá'u'lláh repeatedly,
> Saiedi, Gate of the Heart 37)            and "meditate" on the Word of God.
> The act of pondering, of meditating,
> And therefore must each new revela-        has traditionally been depicted as a
> tion cast aside the definitions of the     thoughtful one, an inward-turning one.
> old, like outworn robes. We must strip     It has implied a certain conjunction of
> ourselves to seek for truth, not only      body and mind that indicates poise,
> humbled and in silence, but quite na-      that implies a quiet control and a
> ked: "O brother," Bahá'u'lláh writes in    steadiness of concentration which
> the Kitáb-i-Íqán,                          is both physical and spiritual. In this
> state of inward and outward listening
> behold how the inner mysteries           we reach for the touchstone of
> of "rebirth," of "return," and of        understanding. Sometimes, by grace,
> "resurrection" have each, through        we attain it. And the thrill is eternal.
> these all-sufficing, these unan-             The well-known icon of the West-
> swerable, and conclusive utteranc-       ern meditative tradition, that of a man
> es, been unveiled and unravelled         contemplating a death's head, contains
> before thine eyes. God grant that        its own inherent thrill. The mirroring
> through His gracious and invisi-         of skulls, the eyeing of the hollow
> ble assistance, thou mayest divest       eyed has always hinted at the possible
> thy body and soul of the old gar-        reversal of the roles. If Rodin's stat-
> ment, and array thyself with the         ue The Thinker and Mona Lisa's smile
> new and imperishable attire. (158)       still hold their power over us, it is pre-
> sumably because of this. When the
> In the final analysis, this "new" na-   observer becomes aware of being ob-
> kedness is the only attire that is rel-    served, a shudder passes through him.
> atively imperishable on this side of       A perturbation seizes his mind. He is
> the grave. Like silence, such a divest-    filled with dread that perhaps he is the
> ment of old garments is actually what      one who is actually being read. That
> renders us immortal. We may have           awareness is a step in the direction of
> imagined that writing words would          true understanding.
> eternalize us, but ironically enough, it       Religion, like art, points toward that
> is unadorned by words that we might        heightened self-awareness. By telling
> live forever.                              us to "ponder" and to "meditate" on the
> Word of God, Bahá'u'lláh is giving us
> the key to a new and hidden language.
> The Silences of God                               61
> 
> For it seems that when God splits              standard, this is the Touchstone
> the stone tablets of His silence, His          of God, wherewith He proveth
> Word actually gives utterance to us.           His servants. (Kitáb-i-Íqán 254)
> It reverses our position as speakers, as
> wordmongers, and forces upon us the             In a letter8 to the Universal House
> uneasy recognition that we ourselves         of Justice, the Research Department
> have been breathed forth, that we are        at the Bahá'í World Center notes, "[R]
> the ones being interpreted, even as          ecent scholars . . . assert that, within
> we speak. "Yea," Bahá'u'lláh confirms,       the Qur'án itself, the form of humour
> in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, "such things as         most prevalent is irony." This irony
> throw consternation into the hearts          it defines as "the perception of a clash
> of all men come to pass only that each       between appearance and reality, be-
> soul may be tested by the touchstone         tween the ideal and what actually is."
> of God, that the true may be known           Only when we respond to this divine
> and distinguished from the false" (52).      irony—only when we are conscious
> Whenever multiple meanings are at         of what is concealed and what is re-
> work, language permits and delights          vealed—do we begin to grasp the
> in irony. And whenever words contain         fundamental purpose of the Word of
> irony, they retain elasticity, they resist   God. As long as we cannot hear the
> literalism and obfuscation. When lan-        silences between His words and the
> guage invites us to play games with          ironies in both, we will not recognize
> perspective and scale, with appearance       their echoes in ourselves. As long as
> and reality, it keeps our minds and          we cannot see these multiple layers
> spirits alive, it jolts us out of our old    and simultaneous scales of signifi-
> habits. And the myriad silences con-         cance, we will be deprived of their
> tained between the words of God are          creative power. This Word and Its
> perhaps the most creative use of irony       silent shadow, sifts and fashions and
> in the world, for they force us to ques-     shapes us—It is the divine assayer of
> tion all our assumptions, all our habits.    our souls.
> Bahá'u'lláh affirms that,                    Indeed, in order to prove this very
> truth to us, the Manifestations of
> the Birds of Heaven and Doves              the Word of God submit themselves
> of Eternity speak a twofold lan-           to the most grievous ordeals and al-
> guage. One language, the outward           low themselves to be harrowed by
> language, is devoid of allusions,          the greatest tests of all. "It is Thou,
> is unconcealed and unveiled. . . .         O my God, Who hast called me into
> The other language is veiled and           being through the power of Thy
> concealed, so that whatever lieth          might, and hast endued me with Thy
> hidden in the heart . . . may be             8 Memorandum titled "The 'Humorist'"
> made manifest. This is the divine          12 Jan. 1997.
> 62                 The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 24.3/4 2014
> 
> grace to manifest Thy Cause," attests       face, and Gabriel overshadowed me,
> Bahá'u'lláh in one of His prayers.          and the Spirit of Glory stirred within
> "Wherefore I have been subjected to         my bosom, bidding me arise and break
> such adversities that my tongue hath        my silence" (Gleanings 103). Although
> been hindered from extolling Thee           He calls on God "with a stammering
> and from magnifying Thy glory"              tongue" and with an "afflicted pen"
> (Prayers and Meditations 208).              (Prayers and Meditations 8), were He to
> What must it mean for these ex-          keep silent, He says, every hair on His
> traordinary Beings Who know better          head would vibrate with its music, each
> than anyone the impossibility of com-       bone of His body would flute with its
> prehending God's Word, to have to be        song, His very blood would sing: "Glo-
> the Ones Who utter it?                      rified art Thou, O Lord my God! My
> tongue, both the tongue of my body
> The domain of His decree is too           and the tongue of my heart, my limbs
> vast for the tongue of mortals            and members, every pulsating vein
> to describe, or for the bird of the       within me, every hair of my head, all
> human mind to traverse; and the           proclaim that Thou art God, and that
> dispensations of His providence           there is none other God beside Thee"
> are too mysterious for the mind           (Prayers and Meditations 112).
> of man to comprehend. His cre-                Those Who are the Embodiments
> ation no end hath overtaken, and          of His Names and Attributes not only
> it . . . will continue to the "End that   endure the paradoxes implicit in God's
> knoweth no end." Ponder this ut-          mysterious Will, but contain them.
> terance in thine heart, and reflect       The mysterious mingling of Their di-
> how it is applicable unto all these       vine and human nature symbolizes the
> holy Souls. (Kitáb-i-Íqán 167)            ultimate irony of God. What could
> be more perturbing than this duality?
> When Bahá'u'lláh writes of the           When people "discover suddenly," as
> Word of God summoning Him to                Bahá'u'lláh says in the Kitáb-i-Íqán,
> speech, the darkness from which It ris-     "that a Man, Who hath been living
> es not only perturbs His rational mind      in their midst, Who, with respect to
> but seizes upon Him, like an involun-       every human limitation, hath been
> tary Will. "Had it been in my power,"       their equal, had risen to abolish every
> He writes, "I would have, under no cir-     established principle imposed by their
> cumstances, consented to distinguish        Faith—they would of a certainty be
> myself amongst men." But when He            veiled and hindered from acknowledg-
> chooses to hold His peace, "lo, the         ing His truth" (74).
> voice of the Holy Ghost, standing on            No wonder the Manifestations of
> my right hand, aroused me, and the          God in every age pose the ultimate
> Supreme Spirit appeared before my           test for the human race: "Verily, God
> The Silences of God                               63
> 
> caused not this turmoil but to test and     We therefore . . . made Our verses
> prove His servants" (Kitáb-i-Íqán 51).      testimonies for all to witness. . . .
> We are perturbed by the nature of           However, in this Dispensation, the
> these living symbols and metaphors.         one True God—Glorified be His
> We can barely understand heaven and         Name—hath purposed that most
> earth, but "whatever lieth between          of the believers who are wholly
> them," namely the Manifestations            devoted to Him should speak in
> themselves, remains the ultimate            the language of divine verses.
> enigma. These divine Embodiments            Therefore, we have ordained that
> speak only in veiled language about         a proof other than the revelation
> their dual nature. In the last analysis     of divine verses be produced to
> the Word of God offers no rational          vindicate the truth of the next
> Manifestation."     (Vol. IV, 93;
> explanation to Their mystery, and
> provisional trans.)
> we are left to respond in the silences,
> "inasmuch as the divine Purpose hath
> Clearly the significance of words
> decreed that the true should be known
> has been so democratized in this age
> from the false, and the sun from the      that new proofs must be found to com-
> shadow, He hath, therefore, in every      municate the Primal Will to human-
> season sent down upon mankind the         kind. I do not know whether this is an
> showers of tests from His realm of        indication that we will one day probe
> glory" (Kitáb-i-Íqán 53).                 the silences of God in prose rather
> And so, the final purpose of           than verse, or whether my brother was
> God's silences is to test us. It is       prophetic, after all, in suggesting that
> the touchstone whose ambiguities          in some future dispensation, a female
> destroy and undermine our facile          Manifestation of God might appear,
> interpretations. It is a double-edged     simply smile, and say nothing at all.
> sword that has been tempered, like        But certainly we shall be tested by
> steel, in the fires of paradox. And       whatever is "other than the revelation
> the fact that these divine paradoxes,     of divine verses."
> in turn, test our understanding may          And with that thought, I will
> be implicit in Bahá'u'lláh words, in      for my own safety's sake, "observe
> the Ma'idiy-i-Asmani, in which He         silence," "look at the end of things,"
> anticipates a different "proof " in the   and "renounce the world" (Bahá'u'lláh,
> next Dispensation than what we have       Tablets 156).
> been led to expect from those of the
> past. "As My previous Manifestation
> decreed that the proof of My
> Dispensation should be the revelation
> of divine verses," He states,
> 64               The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 24.3/4 2014
> 
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> — *The Silences of God: A Meditation (Used by permission of the curator)*