The Imprint of Light

Thou art the head of an assembly which is the very imprint of the Company on high, the mirror-image of the all-glorious realm.

(Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: 164)

“The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh,” wrote the Universal House of Justice, “encompasses all units of human society; integrates the spiritual, administrative and social processes of life; and canalizes human expression in its varied forms towards the construction of a new civilization.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1994 May 19, response to United States National Spiritual Assembly.)

Underpinning the governance of this Order are the stable unchanging forms of the Local Assembly, elected everywhere by the same direct method, and the Bahá’í Feast, the common institution of Bahá’ís everywhere. National Assemblies and the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing body of the Bahá’í world, are elected by indirect representation.  Universality of values (e.g. absence of prejudice, equality of the sexes, truthfulness, trustworthiness) and of purposes (e.g. spiritual development, unity of all human beings, justice), is an essential element of each part of this order and its functioning, and is the touchstone of its stability and simplicity. Yet, because each level of the order has its own sphere of jurisdiction and individuality, it can also continually modify its secondary aspects in order to respond innovatively to change.  Thus the oneness and wholeness of human relationships are built into the very fabric of these interlocking institutions.  But this is because these relations are a fundamental principle of life, something that incarnates and expresses a spiritual reality.

As the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh is Itself a consummation of the stages of progressive Revelation, and consciousness of humanity’s oneness is the consummation of human advances in collective self-awareness and understanding, so the Bahá’i Order is the consummation of the historical processes of civilization building and social evolution.  With that in mind let us set the Bahá’í Order in full spiritual and historical context.  First, the spiritual.

This statement of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá opening this post, written to the members of a Local Spiritual Assembly, attests to an ancient principle, namely, that the human social world is an imperfect mirror-image, an imprint of light, of an existing, perhaps pre-existing, celestial society; a spiritual kingdom which Christ said was “prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (The Book of Matthew 25:34)  This spiritual society is a spiritual pattern which is both the organizing code for organic social development and is indicative of human connections with the Supernal Realm. 

The metaphor of the mirror-image is often used in sacred Scriptures to describe the relation of the divine world with that organic world of human society that is growing toward it.  For example, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote: “Perchance, God willing, this terrestrial world may become as a celestial mirror upon which we may behold the imprint of the traces of Divinity, and the fundamental qualities of a new creation may be reflected from the reality of love shining in human hearts.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 235) 

Organically, the divine structure, Shoghi Effendi says, is stirring within the womb of the Bahá’í Administrative Order, which is both the pattern and nucleus of the emerging world civilization, the social template for a new world order.  Yet the Bahá’i Order is not just a receptacle of spirit.  It is also transformational.  It is the channel for the outflowing of spirit into the world, the power driving what Bahá’u’lláh calls “an ever-advancing civilization” that “all men were created to carry forward.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh: 214)  If we ask, “Ever-advancing toward what?”, the only answer for me can be: “Toward the divine society”, the Kingdom of heaven on earth, the full realization of that society established at the foundation of the world.  But realization means that humanity must make a major evolutionary leap, one unlike any that it has made till now.

The House of Justice writes: “Thus, enshrined in His Revelation is a pattern for future society, radically different from any established in the past, and the promotion of His laws and exhortations constitutes an inseparable part of the effort to lay the foundations of such a society.” (Letter from House of Justice, 19 April 2013)  The future society they refer to is the fully manifested pattern of the Kingdom of God on earth that all humanity is evolving toward.  So, by the phrase “growing toward it”, I mean that through the interaction of the divine Word guiding human effort to improve conditions, earthly society looks more and more like the divine one.  

This ancient yet novel conception may be hard for many to grasp.  Even for the members of the Bahá’í community, recognizing the divinity of the structure they are working within can be a challenge.  The House of Justice wrote: “There needs to be a recognition on their part of the Assembly's spiritual character and a feeling in their hearts of respect for the institution based upon a perception of it as something beyond or apart from themselves, as a sacred entity whose powers they have the privilege to engage and canalize by coming together in harmony and acting in accordance with divinely revealed principles.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1994 May 19, response to United States National Spiritual Assembly.)

To indicate how that relationship between the divine and human realms works and know for what purpose the Bahá’í Administrative Order was constructed, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá remarks, "so that the perilous darkness of ignorant prejudice may vanish through the light of the Sun of Truth, this dreary world may become illumined, this material realm may absorb the rays of the world of spirit.” (Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: 105)  Again, the divine Order is both the foundation and the goal of human social evolution.  Its unfoldment is the continual advance of human society, and the closer human society gets in structure and activity to the divine structure the more rays of the world of the spirit are absorbed, and it is this light-energy, when it is absorbed, that powers advances toward greater social complexity and coherence.

Thus the House of Justice says that one important characteristic of Bahá’í administration is that: “Even as a living organism, it has coded within it the capacity to accommodate higher and higher degrees of complexity, in terms of structures and processes, relationships and activities, as it evolves under the guidance of the Universal House of Justice.” (The Universal House of Justice, Riḍván 2010)

This evolution contrasts sharply with the disintegrating materialist order.  While in the old order great rents appear within its fabric with increasing frequency, spaces of dissension that mark a further decline in that culture, in the Bahá’í Order spaces of integration open up “at the level of culture” that both mark advances in its complexity and release new powers. Here, in these openings, is where new flows of divine energy enter the human world, where community activities and structures appear that can canalize this energy, where novel interactions spontaneously are generated, where unity is forged anew, where links, connections and transformations occur.  They provide a glimpse into the workshop where a new spiritual world of human culture in the likeness of the divine is created as it is being created.

The Bahá’í Order is the social structure of the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, the “machinery that embodies this fundamental principle of life.”  This Order develops according to organic principles, but only so long as it absorbs spiritual energy, which it is designed to do, as the mirror is designed to absorb and reflect the rays of the sun.

            We’ll look at the Bahá’i Feast in the next post.