The corporeal station is human in nature and is subject to
disintegration, for it is an elemental composition and that which is composed
of elements must of necessity be decomposed and dispersed.
But the individual reality of the Manifestations of the
All-Merciful is a sanctified reality, and it is so because it surpasses in
essence and in attributes all created things. It is like the sun, which, by
virtue of its inherent disposition, must inevitably produce light, and cannot
be compared to any satellite. For instance, the constituent parts of the sun
can in no wise be compared to those of the moon. The composition and
arrangement of the former necessarily produce rays, whereas the constituent parts
of the latter require the acquisition, rather than the production, of light. So
the other human realities are souls, which, like the moon, acquire their light
from the sun, but that sanctified Reality is luminous in and of itself.
The third station is that of divine grace, the revelation of the beauty of the Ancient of Days and the effulgence of the lights of the ever-living and omnipotent Lord. The individual realities of the holy Manifestations cannot be separated from divine grace and revelation any more than the corporeal mass of the sun can be separated from its light. Thus the ascension of the holy Manifestations is simply the abandonment of Their elemental bodies.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Table talks in Akka, authenticated by
‘Abdu’l-Baha; ‘Some Answered Questions’ – 2014 revised translation by the
Baha’i World Centre)
