# Progressive Revelation

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-21 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Robert Stockman, Progressive Revelation, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Progressive Revelation
> 
> Robert Stockman
> 
> 1995
> 
> Possibly the central principle behind the Bahá'í
> concept of the oneness of religion, progressive revelation asserts two
> important positions: 1) that all the major religions of the world are at least
> partially based on a divine revelation, conveyed to them by a Manifestation
> of God (q. v.); and 2) that the revelations brought by the Manifestations
> are not contradictory, but constitute a single, ongoing divine educational
> process for humanity.
> 
> 1. Definition of Revelation
> 
> The Bahá'ís definition of revelation (Arabic
> wahí), like the Muslim definition, is often distinct from
> definitions used in other religions or from popular definitions.
> Bahá'ís make a sharp distinction between revelation--which is
> vouchsafed by God to only a very small group of humans--and inspiration (Arabic
> ilhám), which may come to any human being from various sources
> (such as God, departed souls, the mind, and the ego). The primary recipients
> of revelation are the Manifestations of God (or independent Prophets, as
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá calls them in Some Answered Questions, 164),
> individuals to whom God has revealed an entire system of spiritual, social, and
> ethical teachings. Some Manifestations identified in the Bahá'í
> scriptures are Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Zoroaster, Krishna, Buddha, the
> Báb, and Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> But in addition to these individuals, the Bahá'í writings
> accept the Old Testament prophets--such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel--as
> recipients of revelation, albeit a narrowly-focused revelation and not a
> complete spiritual, social, and ethical system. While the word "revelation"
> may be used to refer to the experiences of both groups of recipients, the
> Bahá'í scriptures note that the Manifestations receive their
> revelation "without an intermediary"[1]
> (Some Answered Questions, 164) while the other prophets "are followers
> and promoters, for they are branches and are not independent" and "of
> themselves they have no power and might, except what they receive from the
> independent Prophets" (Some Answered Questions, 164, 165).
> 
> The question whether 'Abdu'l-Bahá is a recipient of revelation
> highlights the distinctive Bahá'í use of the word. Shoghi
> Effendi states that while 'Abdu'l-Bahá is definitely not a Manifestation
> of God, 'Abdu'l-Bahá possesses "superhuman knowledge and perfection"
> (World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, 134) and that He "gets His
> light, His inspiration and sustenance direct from the Fountainhead of the
> Bahá'í Revelation [Bahá'u'lláh]" (World Order of
> Bahá'u'lláh, 139). Such a description resembles the
> definition of revelation received by a dependent prophet such as Isaiah, but
> uses the word "inspiration" to describe the phenomenon instead of "revelation."
> Most likely the Bahá'í scriptures recognize six different related
> phenomena, even though they utilize only two words for them: the direct
> revelation received by an independent Prophet or Manifestation; the dependent
> revelation received by a lesser or dependent prophet; the dependent revelation
> or inspiration received by 'Abdu'l-Bahá; the inspiration received by
> Shoghi Effendi, and by the Universal House of Justice, which the
> Bahá'í writings state is infallible and unfailing; and the
> inspiration other persons receive.
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh described the nature of His revelation as
> follows:Thou knowest full well that We perused not the
> books which men possess and We acquired not the learning current amongst them,
> and yet whenever We desire to quote the sayings of the learned and of the wise,
> presently there will appear before the face of thy Lord in the form of a tablet
> all that which hath appeared in the world and is revealed in the Holy Books and
> Scriptures. Thus do We set down in writing that which the eye perceiveth
> (Lawh-i-Hikmat or "Tablet of Wisdom," in Tablets of
> Bahá'u'lláh revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
> 149).
> 
> Descriptions of Bahá'u'lláh's reception of revelation note
> the power felt by those present. Hájí Mírzá
> Habíbu'lláh Afnán stated thatThe flow of verses from the heaven of Revelation
> was swift. It was indeed like unto a fast-billowing ocean.
> Mírzá Áqá Ján [Bahá'u'lláh's
> amanuensis] wrote as quickly as he could--so quickly that the pen at times
> jumped out of his hand. He would immediately take up another pen. There were
> times when he could not keep up and would say: 'I am incapable of writing.'
> Then the Blessed Perfection [Bahá'u'lláh] would repeat what He
> had spoken" (quoted in Balyuzi, Bahá'u'lláh: King of
> Glory, 413).
> 
> Clearly revelation, as experienced by Bahá'u'lláh, was not
> simply an ordinary form of literary composition.
> 
> 2. The universality of divine revelation
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh makes it clear that divine revelation has
> not been confined to a particular period of human history. Rather, He states
> that "the Manifestations of His Divine Glory. . . have been sent down from time
> immemorial, and been commissioned to summon mankind to the one true God. That
> the names of some of them are forgotten and the records of their lives lost is
> to be attributed to the disturbances and changes that have overtaken the world"
> (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, 174). This
> statement is important because it makes it clear that religions other than the
> ones possessing known Manifestations may have been divinely established. In
> addition to the historic figures already listed, Bahá'u'lláh
> mentions Húd and Sálih--legendary figures who appeared to Arab
> tribes, and who are also mentioned in the Qur'án--as Manifestations.
> They may be seen as examples of Manifestations to primal religions, as
> the religions of the tribal peoples of the world are often called by religious
> scholars. While Bahá'u'lláh was not asked about other
> Manifestations, such as to the African, Chinese, native American, and ancient
> Indo-European peoples, it is reasonable to assume, based on
> Bahá'u'lláh's statement above, that Manifestations came to them
> as well. Based on a statement of 'Abdu'l-Bahá that "in cycles gone by.
> . . continents remained widely divided, nay even among the people of one and
> the same continent association and interchange of thought were wellnigh
> impossible" (Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, 31)
> the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice has concluded that
> "it would appear possible that Manifestations of God have lived simultaneously
> in different areas of the globe" (Research Department memorandum to the
> Universal House of Justice titled "Questions Relayed by the Spiritual Assembly
> of Mitcham," dated 24 May 1988).[2]
> 
> The folklore of most ethnic groups contain the story of an individual who
> brought civilization (technological, spiritual, social, and moral knowledge) to
> that group from God or the gods; religious scholars often refer to these
> individuals as culture heroes.[3]
> Possibly some stories of culture heroes preserve accounts of ancient
> Manifestations. No where do the Bahá'í writings say that
> Manifestations must be male, and many culture heroes are female.
> 
> While some primal religions may have had their own Manifestations, other
> religions may not. Shoghi Effendi explicitly stated that Confucius and Lao-Tzu
> were not Manifestations, thereby relegating any Chinese Manifestation to
> prehistory. Mahavira (c. 600 B.C.), the founding figure of Jainism, is not
> mentioned at all in the Bahá'í scriptures and thus
> Bahá'ís do not know whether he was a Manifestation. The fact
> that he lived in India almost the same time as the Buddha argues against, but
> does not preclude the possibility.[4]
> Guru Nanak Sahib, founder of Sikhism (c. 1500 C.E.), lived between the time of
> Muhammad and the Báb and the Bahá'í writings refer to that
> period as the dispensation of Muhammad, thus implying that it had no
> Manifestation. Presumably Bahá'ís would view Sikhism as a
> religion based on inspiration, not revelation, and drawing off the Indian and
> Middle Eastern revelations for its teachings. There is no official
> Bahá'í position about Mani (216-76 C.E.), the founder of
> Manichaeism.
> 
> 3. The progressive nature of revelation
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá noted that "the world of existence is progressive. It
> is subject to development and growth" (Promulgation of Universal Peace,
> 378). Since revelation is part of the world, thus it must also develop and
> change; and the progressive revealing of divine truth is one of the main causes
> for the progress of human civilization. The Bahá'í scriptures
> assert that while all revelations bring eternal and unchanging teachings--such
> as teachings about one's relation to the divine, and moral fundamentals such as
> doing unto others as one would have them do to oneself--each also brings truths
> suited to its own time and place. Thus Abraham focused much of His mission on
> teaching the existence of one God; Moses was able to move beyond assertion of
> the existence of one God and reveal laws that established the relationship
> between God and Israelite society; Jesus revealed about the individual
> relationship to God, thereby broadening and deepening the relationship
> established by Moses's social laws; Muhammad was able to integrate the two into
> a holistic system for personal and social relationship to the divine; and
> Bahá'u'lláh was able to update the personal and social
> relationship for the modern age. Because each revelation has a temporal
> aspect, it must eventually be superseded by a new revelation. The
> Bahá'í scriptures state that each revelation builds on the
> previous revelation known in that part of the world, and in turn becomes the
> foundation for a subsequent revelation.
> 
> The Bahá'í scriptures do not assert that each revelation is
> overtly influenced by all the ones that went before it somewhere on earth; if
> that were the case, Jesus would refer to the Buddha and His teachings, and He
> clearly does not. Rather, in the Middle East one can identify a chain of
> Manifestations whose teachings are in historical continuity: Abraham, Moses,
> Jesus, and Muhammad. Zoroaster's revelation, which occurred in Iran and
> probably after Moses, had some influence on the last two. India has a short
> chain of known Manifestations--Krishna and the Buddha--both of whom built their
> teachings on earlier Indian religious traditions. The Bahá'í
> writings state that all the previous revelations find their fulfillment and
> completion in the revelation of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 4. Continuity and Discontinuity in Religion
> 
> The Bahá'í claim that all religions ultimately can be
> traced back to God asserts a fundamental unity and continuity of the religions,
> but it does not ignore the discontinuities and differences. Religions are
> bewilderingly diverse and contain many apparent contradictions.
> Bahá'ís resolve apparent contradictions among them in a variety
> ways.
> 
> The first is to acknowledge that religions contain a major component of
> human interpretation, as well as revelation. To take Christianity and Islam as
> examples, many of the doctrines accepted by Christians and Muslims constitute
> interpretations of their revelations and are not the revelations themselves.
> Thus most Muslims maintain that Jesus was not crucified, but one who looked
> like Him was instead, based on their understanding of Qur'án 4:156.
> Shoghi Effendi, however, states that the Qur'ánic passage indicates that
> the spiritual reality of Christ was beyond crucifixion, not that His body
> escaped such a fate (Lights of Guidance, 1646, 1652, 1669); this
> resolves an apparent contradiction between Islam and Christianity. Most
> Christians maintain that God is triune based on an interpretation of a few
> references to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the New Testament; the
> Bahá'í scriptures, however, view trinitarian statements as
> metaphors and not as ontological assertions, thus strictly maintain the unity
> of God, like Islam (for example, Some Answered Questions,
> 113-15).
> 
> A second approach Bahá'ís take to explain the contradictions
> between religions is that there are temporal aspects of revelation that must
> change. 'Abdu'l-Bahá cites the marriage and divorce laws of Moses and
> Jesus as a prime example (Promulgation of Universal Peace, 365).
> 
> A third approach is to acknowledge the inadequacy of historical records
> and the transmission of the original teachings. Thus 'Abdu'l-Bahá
> stated that the Buddha "established the Oneness of God, but later the original
> principles of His doctrines gradually disappeared, and ignorant customs and
> ceremonials arose and increased" (Some Answered Questions, 165). Shoghi
> Effendi, in various letters, notes that Islam is the fullest revelation before
> the Bahá'í Faith, and that the Bible and the scriptures of
> Hinduism and Buddhism are not literal records of divine revelation, and thus we
> cannot be sure of the accuracy of many of the events and teachings they
> describe (Lights of Guidance, 1670, 1660, 1684, 1692, 1693, 1696).
> Shoghi Effendi also emphasizes the importance of relying on the work of
> historians (Lights of Guidance, 1692, 1696), suggesting that scholarly
> efforts to reconstruct the historical Jesus or Moses or Buddha and their
> teachings can be valuable to Bahá'ís.
> 
> Finally, even where revelations are preserved in detail there are numerous
> examples of difference between them. A comparison of the Old and New
> Testaments, or the Bábí and Bahá'í sacred writings,
> will reveal many. While some of the differences are attributable to the
> different circumstances of revelation, the personal experiences of the
> Manifestations may have played a role as well; if nothing else Their
> experiences shaped their literary style and dictated many of the issues They
> addressed and the examples They gave. Thus progressive revelation should not
> be seen as a detailed theory that explains all the features of religions, but
> as a framework within which Bahá'ís work to understand the
> different religions and their diversity.
> 
> End notes
> 
> [1] This presumably means a human
> intermediary, since nonhuman intermediaries are often mentioned in scripture;
> Bahá'u'lláh received revelation from a Maid of Heaven (God
> Passes By, 101-02) and Muhammad from the archangel
> Gabriel.
> 
> [2] I am indebted to Mr. Christopher Buck
> for drawing my attention to this research memorandum.
> 
> [3] To give a few examples: Prometheus, who,
> in Greek mythology, stole fire from the gods and brought it to humanity and was
> punished by the gods for his actions; Guang Di or the Yellow Emperor, the
> legendary first emperor of China who brought the arts of civilization from
> heaven; the White Buffalo Calf Woman, who brought the sacred pipe and other
> central sacred rites to the Lakota Sioux from Wakan Tanka (the Great
> Incomprehensible).
> 
> [4] Perhaps Bahá'ís can view
> Mahavira as a figure akin to John the Baptist; one who lived immediately before
> a Manifestation, anticipating some of the Manifestation's teachings, and
> preparing the population for Him.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views29137 views since posted 1999; last edit 2014-03-16 14:38 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../stockman_encyclopedia_progressive_revelation;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
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> — *Progressive Revelation (Used by permission of the curator)*