# Tablet of the Universe

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> Praise be to God Who hath ever caused His Names and Attributes to penetrate
> the degrees of existence; Who hath made the effects of those Names and
> Attributes to shine resplendent and their signs to be firmly established in
> both the hidden and manifest worlds.  By them He hath made the holy realities
> that are informed by His grace and are the recipients of His outpourings to be
> the sole revealers of all that pertaineth unto Him, and hath caused them to
> move through the firmament of perfection in arcs of descent and ascent. He hath
> ordained these Names and Attributes to be the
> first and foremost origin and cause of being in the world of creation and the source of the different grades
> of realities in the degrees of existence.  When, through its power of
> attraction and propagation, the Day-Star of Names and Attributes shone upon the
> hidden realities in the heart of the unseen realm, they issued forth, were
> spread abroad, scattered about, set in order, became the recipients of the
> grace of God and His outpourings, and were made to be the sole manifestations
> of the Divine conditions and Eternal signs.  Emerging from behind the veils,
> they appeared clothed in raiments of light, moving in the firmament of the
> unity of God, in orbits of sanctity and circles of glorification.
> 
> Thus the suns of the praise of the one true God moved resplendent in a vast,
> infinite space, capable neither of being defined by limits nor contained within
> the compass of signs and allusions.  All praise be to Him Who was its Author
> and Creator, Who spread it out, and adorned it with countless lamps and
> never-fading luminaries:  'None knoweth the hosts of thy Lord save Him'
> (Qur'an, 74:31). He made the circuits of these luminous divine orbs to be their
> lofty and celestial spheres; and He made the bodies of these spiritual spheres
> to be subtle and soft, flowing and liquid, undulating and vibrating, in such
> manner that these refulgent orbs swim in the circumferences of the spheres, and
> move in their vast space by the aid of their Creator and Maker, their Ordainer
> and Fashioner.
> 
> Divine and all-encompassing Wisdom hath ordained that motion be an inseparable
> concomitant of existence, whether inherently or accidentally, spiritually or
> materially.  This movement must be governed by some check or rein, some
> regulator or director, otherwise order will be disrupted and the spheres and
> bodies will fall from the heavens.  For this reason God brought into being a
> universal attractive force between these bodies to hold sway over them and
> govern them, a force deriving from the firm ties, the mighty correspondence and
> affinity that exist between the realities of these limitless worlds.  By the
> operation of this attractive force those holy and resplendent suns, with their
> luminous worlds, satellites and planets, circling and orbiting in their
> heavens, at once exerted attraction and were subject to it, induced motion and
> were themselves moved, began orbiting and set into orbit other bodies, shone
> forth and caused others to shine.  In this manner they became arranged in a
> perfectly ordered system, each one a handiwork of consummate fashioning and
> manifest beauty, each one an enduring creation and a conclusive proof.  Glory
> be to Him Who attracted them, laid firm hold on them, imbued them with
> effulgence, ordered them and set them in motion; and far from His glory be that
> which any of his creatures can affirm of Him or attribute to Him.
> 
> O thou the recipient of overflowing bounties from the billowing, the surging,
> the Most Great Ocean, whose waves beat against the shores of the nations.
> Blessed art thou inasmuch as thou hast sought the shelter of the strong Pillar
> and taken refuge in the impregnable Stronghold, the station of complete
> servitude to thy Glorious and All-Praised Lord.  Thou hast rid thyself of
> baseless suppositions and sanctified thyself from intellectual imaginings,
> hastening to the fountain-head of truths and mysteries, and thirsting for the
> well-spring of the river of knowledge where the seas meet and the rivers
> return.
> 
> Know thou that the expressions of the creative hand of God throughout His
> limitless worlds are themselves limitless.  Limitations are a characteristic of
> the finite, and restriction is a quality of existent things, not of the reality
> of existence. 
> 
>  This being the case, how can one, without proof or testimony, conceive of
> creation being bound by limits?  Gaze with penetrating vision into this new
> cycle.  Hast thou seen any matter in which God is bounded by limits which He
> cannot overstep?  Nay, by the excellence of His glory!  On the contrary, His
> tokens have encompassed all things and are sanctified and exalted beyond
> computation in the world of creation.
> 
> These are spiritual truths relating to the spiritual world.  In like manner,
> from these spiritual realities infer truths about the material world. For
> physical things are signs and imprints of spiritual things; every lower thing
> is an image and counterpart of a higher thing.  Nay, earthly and heavenly,
> material and spiritual, accidental and essential, particular and universal,
> structure and foundation, appearance and reality and the essence of all things,
> both inward and outward -- all of these are connected one with another and are
> interrelated in such a manner that you will find that drops are patterned after
> seas, and that atoms are structured after suns in proportion to their
> capacities and potentialities.  For particulars in relation to what is below
> them are universals, and what are great universals in the sight of those whose
> eyes are veiled are in fact particulars in relation to the realities and beings
> which are superior to them.  Universal and particular are in reality incidental
> and relative considerations.  The mercy of thy Lord, verily, encompasseth all
> things!
> 
> Know then that the all-embracing framework that governs existence includes
> within its compass every existent being - particular or universal - whether
> outwardly or inwardly, secretly or openly.  Just as particulars are infinite in
> number, so also universals, on the material plane, and the great realities of
> the universe are without number and beyond computation.  The Dawning Places of
> Unity, the Daysprings of Singleness and the Suns of Holiness are also
> sanctified beyond the bounds of number, and the luminous spiritual worlds are
> exalted above limits and restrictions.  In like manner the worlds of bodily
> existence the mind of no man can reckon nor the understanding of the learned
> comprehend.  Consider the following well-known tradition and examine its
> meanings indicative of the vastness of the cosmos and its awesome limitless
> expanse:  'God, exalted be He, fashioned one hundred thousand, thousand lamps
> and suspended the Throne, the earth, the heavens and whatsoever is between
> them, even Heaven and Hell -- all of these in a single lamp.  And only God
> knows what is in the rest of the lamps.' The fact that philosophers and sages
> have posited limits and restrictions for such matters is to be explained by the
> limitations of people~s minds and perceptions and the blindness of the
> followers of allusions, whose natures and intellects have been rendered dull
> and inanimate by the interposition of many veils.
> 
> Every cycle and dispensation has its own distinctive character, its allotted
> measure of Grace. The realities of things are manifested in a degree
> proportionate to their stations, ranks, receptivity and capacity. For instance,
> regard the human reality, its spiritual perfections, the properties and virtues
> of the soul: their appearance and manifestation, their propagation and growth
> depend in degree upon the stage of development reached in the course of this
> earthly life, which ranges from the condition of the primal germ to the highest
> stations of mature development. The same principle is to be found in the whole
> of existence, seen and unseen.
> 
> Consider this marvelous cycle, this great matchless dispensation and say:
> Glorified be God, Lord of the Exalted Throne, for He hath manifested the Sun of
> Oneness and the Eternal Reality from this lofty and majestic, this mighty and
> ancient Horizon in such wise that when its ardent penetrating rays shone upon
> the empty worlds and desolate realms the realities of all things and the
> universal meanings sprang forth and were renewed through its regenerative power
> the hidden mysteries of the sciences, which discover the divine realities, were
> made known, and the guarded, preserved Secret and the Hidden Sign became
> manifest.  For this sublime cycle, this most great Dawntide is the dispensation
> of truths and mysteries, of the gathering-up of the affairs of the Merciful in
> the centre of lights, and of the appearance of the hidden treasures in the
> midmost heart of the worlds of Thy Lord, the Almighty, the Unconstrained.  In
> the reality of drops seas of divine verses surge and in the essence of atoms
> suns of names and attributes are manifest.  In our times scientists are
> discovering in the strata of rocks secrets that their predecessors could not
> discover in perspicuous tablets of light.  That is because in this most great
> manifestation, without investigation or deduction the gates of revelation and
> discovery have been thrown wide open. 
> 
>  The birds of men's thoughts have escaped from the snares of superstitions, and
> the veils have been rent asunder and removed from those mysteries which
> previously held sway over men.
> 
> As weakness and evanescence are inherent in the nature of the contingent world,
> it was not possible that it should sustain a complete manifestation of the
> signs and evidences of this Revelation, which hath shone forth from the Summit
> of Sinai, except in a gradual manner.  For this reason wilt thou discern, when
> thou dost look about thee with joyful gaze and uplifted vision, the tokens of
> this great, brilliant Luminary, see the lights of wisdom shining from the
> horizons on all regions, gather the luminous pearls which are cast forth by
> this surging, restless and billowing Ocean, and drink from the clear sweet
> founts which spring forth from the outpourings of this bountiful showering
> rain-cloud.  Blessed is he who hath not been prevented by the intervening veils
> of profitless and fanciful sciences from beholding the verities of true
> knowledge and from perceiving its inmost essence in the Day of God.  Joy to him
> who hath removed the veil and gone forth amongst the peoples of the world with
> penetrating vision when the eyes of all are transfixed in awe at the effulgence
> of the All-Powerful.  Woe to him who on the Day of Judgement is raised up
> blind, who neglected to remember his most glorious Lord, whose ears were deaf
> to the call which was raised in this all-highest Paradise.
> 
> Say:  'O my God!  Wert Thou to create in every limb of my body tongues
> speaking, in the most eloquent of languages, pure clear meanings, far
> surpassing the limitations of signs and allusions, and were these tongues to
> praise Thee and thank Thee throughout ages and cycles, yet would they fail to
> discharge the full measure of gratitude I owe Thee for Thy grace and bounty in
> having enabled me to believe in the Manifestation of Thy Divine mercy, the
> Day-spring of Thy oneness, the Dawning-place of Thy mighty signs and the
> Repository of the secrets of Thy transcendent sovereignty in the midmost heart
> of the world.  "And by whichsoever ye call upon Him, most beauteous are His
> Names" (17:110). Likewise would they fail befittingly to fulfil the debt of
> thanks I owe Thee for having removed from my eyes the veil that obstructed my
> vision, for having caused me to hearken to the melodies of the Birds of
> Holiness upon the branches of the Tree of Immortality and for having given me
> to quaff the pure water of the camphor cup from the hand of the Cupbearer of
> Thy gracious providence in this most great, this most exalted, most holy,
> blessed and august Manifestation.'
> 
> O thou who wingest thy flight in the spacious realms of the love of God! Know
> thou that the knowledges and disciplines, the arts and sciences which appeared
> in previous dispensations, when compared to the divine questions, the eternal
> verities and the universal mysteries which have become unveiled, manifest and
> brilliant in their meridian glory in this resplendent Revelation, are nothing
> more than allusions and metaphors, nay, they are hardly better than
> superstitious fancies. For the all-embracing universal Reality is, in the eyes
> of thy Lord, analogous to the all-embracing human reality which passes in the
> course of its early development through infancy, childhood and youth. Even
> though these various stages may manifest certain of the characteristics and
> virtues of man, yet what are these early manifestations in comparison to the
> perfections of the mind, the truths of the Kingdom and the mysteries of God,
> with which the reality of man becomes plentifully endowed after reaching
> maturity -- the period of its fullest expression?
> 
> For this reason thou must weigh all matters in the balance of this Cause and
> heed not the idle talk of the blind in heart and those who are captives of
> delusions and vain imaginations.  Such talk is, to those possessed of insight,
> nothing more than fanciful stories and empty tales.  Nay, rather thou shouldst
> investigate all things in a methodical and scientific way, and by clear proofs,
> perspicuous signs and incontrovertible evidences, seek to discover the
> undisclosed verities and the hidden mysteries which are concealed in the inmost
> heart of the realities of the universe.  To those to whom God hath granted
> insight, whose inner natures are illumined, whose outer natures are refined,
> whose hearts are pure and whose minds are open and receptive, it is not
> acceptable, in this great and majestic cycle, to rely unquestioningly on the
> views of others in matters such as these.  Conventional wisdoms and precepts
> based upon illusion and fancy, and to which no knowledgeable, experienced and
> intelligent person can reconcile himself, are today, in the sight of the truly
> learned. nothing more than 'deranged dreams'.
> 
> Praise be to Him Who hath illumined men's minds with the light of truth shining
> forth from the Dawning-place of Revelation.  Glorified be the Lord of Majesty
> for breaking down the barriers, tearing asunder the veils, dispelling the
> darkness, bursting the chains of allusion, cleaving the fetters of imagination,
> freeing men's minds from the tyranny of conjecture, and liberating the birds of
> thought in the apogee of human hearts, so that they may soar with the wings of
> delight in the worlds of existence and with penetrating insight rend the veils
> woven by the spiders of fancy in these lofty chambers and high pavilions.
> 
> Know then, with regard to the mathematical sciences, that it was only in this
> distinguished age, this great century, that their scope was widened, their
> unresolved difficulties solved, their rules systematized, and their diversity
> realized.  The discoveries made by earlier philosophers and the views they held
> were not established upon a firm basis or a sound foundation for they wished to
> confine the worlds of God within the smallest compass and narrowest limit and
> were quite unable to conceive what lay beyond; even claiming that there was
> neither void nor matter, but merely nothingness.  This view is at variance with
> and contrary to all the divine truths and heavenly secrets.  Indeed, if thou
> dost compare the ideal world to the human world and apply spiritual principles
> to physical matters thou wilt discover that this view is flimsier than a
> spider's web, because, just as the luminous spiritual worlds are sanctified
> above computation or limitation, so too are the physical worlds in this vast
> immensity of space.  This is a secret of which God hath apprised His servants
> through His grace and mercy in order to demonstrate the idleness of the fancies
> of those who disbelieve in God, and to expose the baselessness of the arguments
> of those who are wandering blindly in their heedlessness, that the edifice they
> have built out of their vain imaginings may crumble and their profitless
> pursuits be discredited and fall into disrepute. 
> 
>  For their eyes have been blinded from beholding the worlds of God and their
> minds have fallen short of comprehending the mysteries of the Kingdom in this
> resplendent Vision.  They believed that these worlds were contained in this
> small circuit, which in relation to the worlds of God is of no more account
> than the black in the eye of an ant in an infinity of space, even as He saith,
> and He speaketh the truth: 'None knoweth the hosts of thy Lord, save Him.'
> 
> With regard to that which hath been mentioned concerning the seven spheres and
> the seven heavens referred to in the Books revealed by the Dawning-places of
> Light and Repositories of Secrets in previous ages, such references were
> dictated by the conventional wisdom prevailing in those times, for every cycle
> hath its own characteristics which are determined by the capacities of the
> people and their readiness to accept fresh revelations of the truth from behind
> the veil.  All things are ordained by God according to a given measure.  When
> the Prophets spoke of the celestial spheres what they intended was no more than
> the orbits of the planets falling within that greater world that embraces the
> sun and its attendant planetary system.  For the planets circling this sun are
> in seven degrees in respect to mass, volume, visibility and brilliancy.  The
> orbit of the first of these is one of the spheres of this solar world and one
> of the heavens of finite extent that falls within the circumference of this
> all-encompassing circle.  The same pattern is true for all the brilliant stars
> shining in the face of the heavens, every one of which is a sun with its own
> solar world containing planets and satellites.  When thou gazeth at the planets
> with the naked eye, without the interposition of magnifying mirrors, they will
> appear to be in seven degrees.  The orbit or circuit of each of these degrees
> is an upraised heaven and an encircling sphere in the world of existence.
> 
> Know then that, as hath been clearly handed down in the accounts of old, these
> great orbits and circuits fall within subtle, fluid, clear, liquid, undulating
> and vibrating bodies, and that the heavens are a restrained wave because a void
> is impossible and inconceivable.  All that may be said is that the celestial
> bodies and the material bodies of the ethereal regions differ in respect of
> some of the substances and elements from which they are constituted, the
> quantities and proportions of these that go into their composition, the
> peculiar characteristics causing the difference in the outward effects of these
> bodies, and the properties that emanate from them in rich abundance.  The
> celestial bodies that surround the material bodies also differ one from another
> in respect of subtlety, fluidity, and weight.  It cannot be otherwise for a
> void is impossible.
> 
> The existence of a container implies the existence of something contained; what
> is contained can hardly be other than a body, but the bodies of the celestial
> spheres are in the utmost degree of subtlety, lightness and fluidity as bodies
> may be of diverse kinds:  solid like rocks, malleable like metals and minerals,
> fluid like water and air.  Lighter still they may be of a kind that ascends
> heavenwards, such as that which is used in dirigibles; and lighter than all of
> these are fire, electricity and lightning.  All of these are bodies in reality,
> but some of them are weightless.  In like manner thy Lord hath created in these
> vast heavens manifold bodies without limit or number, which the minds of men
> can neither compute nor encompass.  Souls are bewildered when they attempt to
> understand them and confounded by a mere glimpse of them.
> 
> As for those who claim that the celestial spheres are massive, solid  and
> contiguous with each other; that they are glassy, transparent and penetrable to
> the light of other bodies; capable of neither being cleft asunder nor welded
> back together; forever impermeable and imperishable -- these thoughts are mere
> suppositions and surmises made by people who have not understood the meaning of
> the brilliant verse that clearly states:  'All swim in a celestial sphere'
> (21:34, 36:40). The import of this verse is clear inasmuch as the act of
> swimming cannot be conceived of except in yielding, fluid, liquid bodies, and
> is quite impossible in solid, resistant bodies. Look, then, with discerning
> vision into this clear, conclusive and manifest proof.
> 
> Consider the fancies of the philosophers and observe how they wandered
> distractedly in the wilderness of philosophical preconceptions and erroneous
> beliefs for which the Mighty, Self-Subsistent King hath sent down no proof.  As
> for the view that the earth revolves around the sun, that it is one of the
> bright planets of this solar system, and that the diurnal movement that brings
> about sunrise and sunset is caused by the rotation of the earth about its axis
> -- these are not modern ideas nor discoveries of recent times.  On the
> contrary, the first person to state that the earth moved about the sun was the
> sage Pythagoras, one of the five pillars of wisdom, a defender of its sanctuary
> and unfolder of its secrets.  He it was who recognized this truth 500 years
> before the advent of Christ and reasoned that the sun was a center in relation
> to the earth, because of its fieriness.  He was followed in this view by the
> philosopher Plato in his latter days.  Aristarchus composed a treatise in 280
> B.C. in which he affirmed that the earth revolves about the sun and around its
> own axis.  However, he did not found this view upon clear evidences, convincing
> arguments, and positive proofs derived from the laws of geometry and the
> principles of mathematics; rather he based it on a mere presentiment, an
> apprehension, an intuition.  Most of the sages of old, though, because they
> viewed the visible world with their physical eyes and perceived it with their
> outward senses only, when they observed the stars and the heavenly bodies,
> concluded that it was the sun that was in motion and the earth that was still.
> Among them was the Alexandrian, Ptolemy, Roman citizen, renowned for his
> knowledge of astronomy and history.  He was a professor at the school of
> Alexandria in the second century A.D. He chose the foundation of his system
> from a body of ancient principles, founded upon it his observations, and drew
> up an almanac based on the idea that the sun is in motion and the earth is
> still.  Because of the sway and influence of the Roman people and their
> dominion over all nations, his system became well-known and the fame of his
> almanac and astronomical observations spread far and wide throughout the earth.
> He wrote a book on the science of astronomy and mathematics called Almagest.
> 
> In the first centuries of Islam, Al-Farabi translated this book into Arabic,
> and the views it propounded became well known to Muslim scholars. These views
> they followed and imitated without careful scrutiny and investigation and
> without fully comprehending the meanings of some of the Divine verses.  For He
> hath said, and His word is the truth: 'All swim in a celestial sphere.' In this
> blessed verse it was clearly established that all the brilliant stars and
> heavenly bodies throughout the expanse of these lofty heavens, this vast,
> limitless space, and this earth too, are in motion, travelling in their orbits
> and swimming in their spheres and circuits. ~lore grave than their
> misinterpretation of the preceding verse was the inadequacy of their attempts
> to interpret the other blessed verse, which indicates that the sun moves about
> its own center and axis.  He hath said:  'And the sun moves in a fixed place of
> its own' (36:38). Their minds were baffled, their souls perplexed, and their
> faculties unequal to the task of perceiving its meanings, for they wished to
> make it conform to the rules of Ptolemy, mentioned above, and to harmonize it
> with the almanac which he had drawn up.  They were not, however, able to
> reconcile the two texts and for this reason had to have recourse to implausible
> explanations, such as the claim advanced by some that the words 'in a fixed
> place of its own' were originally 'it has no fixed place', the word for 'in'
> having become mistakenly confused with the word for 'no' [in the Arabic text];
> or the claim made by others that by 'fixed place' is meant the Day of
> Judgement, at which time the sun will cease from its orbiting and motion --
> this despite the fact that it is plainly stated in this verse that the sun's
> motion is about its own axis and center.
> 
> Know then that those mathematical questions which have stood the test of
> scrutiny and about the soundness of which there is no doubt are those that are
> supported by incontrovertible and logically binding proofs and by the rules of
> geometry as applied to astronomy; that are based on observations of the stars
> and careful astronomical research, and are in conformity with the principles of
> the universal themes expounded in the divine sciences.  For it is by applying
> the outward world to the inner, the high to the low, the small to the large,
> the general to the particular that, with abundant clearness, it becometh
> apparent that the new rules arrived at by the science of astronomy are in
> closer accord with the universal divine principles than the other erroneous
> theories and propositions, as we have explained and illustrated.
> 
> The observations of Copernicus and his almanac have been more accurately
> compiled and more thoroughly and carefully researched than the other almanacs.
> Living at the turn of the fifteenth century A.D., he pursued his astronomical
> observations for a period of 36 years before publicly announcing the now famous
> system of laws that were the fruit of his studies; and were it not for our wish
> to be brief and concise we would have explained for thee the details of the
> system and summarized its repercussions.  The guidance we have given on this
> subject, however, is sufficient for those with a seeing eye and clear
> insight.
> 
> Say:  Exalted be the Self-Subsistent King, by Whose manifestation the veil of
> fancy hath been torn asunder; by which the sincere ones have dispensed with all
> else but Him through love for His manifest Beauty, a Beauty that revealeth the
> realities of things, seen and unseen, and exposeth the fanciful misconceptions
> and erroneous beliefs in the sciences; by which those that long to behold His
> Face have become apprised of the Hidden Secret, the Concealed and Treasured
> Symbol; by which they have soared on the wings of penetrating vision to the
> apex of reunion, the well-spring of happiness, and the station of blissful
> contentment, heard the sweet melodies of the birds on the boughs of the forests
> of revelation, bathed at the pure spring, drunk from the oceans of life in the
> world of light, and become intoxicated from the cup tempered at the camphor
> fountain in this manifest and resplendent Day, calling on their Lord in
> soul-entrancing accents, the like of which ear hath not heard amidst the
> gardens and meadows of Paradise, saying:  'I call upon Thee, O my God and my
> Beloved, with the tongue of my inmost spirit, with my face set towards the
> Day-Spring of Thy Unity and the Dawning-Place of the Sun of Thy Sublime
> Oneness, sweetening my breath with praise of Thee and thanks to the Center of
> Thy Divine mercy, for having created me, undeserving as I am, by Thy heavenly
> favor, in this majestic cycle and unique manifestation.  For this is the Day
> which Thou hast singled out from amongst all ages for the dawning of the Sun of
> Thy Truth, whose brilliant rays illumine all the horizons, the Day in which
> Thou hast showered forth Thy grace, made perfect Thy proof and fulfilled Thy
> testimony, the Day in which Thou hast perfected Thy bestowals and bounties unto
> such of Thy creatures as are wholly devoted unto Thee.  Verily, Thou hast
> honored them by attainment to that Day for which the chosen ones of God, i~ the
> remoteness of their separation, would have sacrificed their spirits, yearning
> to inhale a single breath of the fragrances spread abroad in such a Day, and
> longing to behold traces of the lights that shine forth above its heaven.
> 
> Thou, in truth, hast crowned me, through Thy gracious favor, in the midmost
> heart of creation, with this luminous diadem and seated me upon the throne of
> Thy love amidst all the peoples of the earth.  And Thou hast aided me to remain
> steadfast in Thy Cause, through which the mightiest powers amongst the
> concourse of thy creation were made to shake and tremble, and the foundations
> of all beings in the realms of invention and creation to quake.  I ask Thee, O
> King of the seen and the unseen, by Thine Ancient Beauty and the radiance of
> Thy Holy Countenance and Wondrous Being, to preserve us from vain imaginings
> and evil whisperings, and to assist us to be persevering and constant, firm and
> unwavering in Thy Cause.  Thou, verily, art the Great Giver, the All-Bountiful,
> the Most Compassionate!'
>
> — *Tablet of the Universe (Used by permission of the curator)*