The Bab and the Perspective of the Heart

interdependent, and everything can be found within anything. All beings are reflections of divine attributes. Therefore, the spiritual attitude means seeing God present in everything and seeing everything as related and united with everything. It is only the attitude of looking at things and people as separate and defining oneself as separate from other beings and acting in a selfish way, and turning things in to just instruments for one’s own desire that is opposed to a spiritual orientation. Therefore, life in this world should become a mirror of spiritual life. For example, in his Commentary on the Surih of Kawthar the Bab says that if he wants he can unveil the hidden meaning of the fountain of Kawthar in the very tea that he is offering to his guest, Vahid, the addressee of that work of the Bab. At first, this seems strange. But in his various writings he actually unveils this mystery. In his Commentary on the Surih of Joseph the Bab explains that the fountain of Kawthar is the pure divine revelation which is the source of all things. The immediate product or expression of this fountain is the four rivers of paradise that are mentioned in the Qur’an. According to the Qur’an there are four rivers in paradise: water, milk, honey and wine. According to the Bab these four rivers really mean the four styles or modes of divine writing. Namely the revelation of God which is the fountain of Kawther takes place through water which is divine verses (ayat), milk which is the prayers (ad’iyih), honey which is the interpretations (tafasir), and wine which is the rational explanations (‘ilmiyyih). It is now very interesting to see why the Bab refers all these four rivers of paradise to his offering tea to his guest. According to the Bab, drinking tea in a spirit of spiritual orientation is the experience of the four rivers of paradise. Tea served by the Bab consists of four elements. It first consists of water, but then the Bab offers milk with the tea as well, and he also offers sugar with the tea. Finally, the tea leaves function as wine producing a feeling of relaxation. We can see here that according to the Bab every simple event of life in this material world is simultaneously a mirror of the paradise and spiritual reality. We do not need to go to the next world to experience a spiritual world. All beings are in their truth spiritual, and the perspective of the heart is precisely the perspective that sees and finds in everything the divine presence. 4. Previously, it was said that the perspective of the heart is related to the absolute unity of ahadiyyat of God, whereas ordinary perspective sees God in the realm of unity or vahidiyyat. We can now discuss this issue. The fact is that in the writings of the Bab the concept of God is reconstructed. Traditional conceptions of God are anthropomorphic (Human-like) conceptions of God. In this definition of God, God is like human beings. Humans have knowledge, God also has knowledge, humans have power, God also has power. The only difference is that God’s knowledge and power is infinite and perfect whereas human knowledge and power is limited. That is why in this anthropomorphic conception of God, God has all various attributes like mercy and knowledge and power. The position of the Bab is completely different: For him, God is a transcendental God namely he is above all attributes and praise. All these attributes are characteristics of the creatures of God and God is sanctified above such characteristics. Even in traditional conception of God, God is one, and therefore, he does not consist of different parts. Therefore if God is absolutely one then his knowledge and his power and his mercy should be absolutely one and the same. But if that is the case we have no idea of what is the power of God or the knowledge of God. The Bab frequently gives this example: if an ant would be given intellect and wants to praise God, it looks at itself to find out what is perfection. For the ant his antenna are the sources of perfection in its own life. Therefore, if the ant wants to define and praise God it would say God is that being whose antenna extends to