Divine Essence
Each of these stations or levels has its own means of perceiving and knowing, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá presents a fully developed epistemology of the manifestations of God.[144] He says that the bodily station of the theophanies perceives things to the degree that it is possible to do so in the physical world.[145] This physical component of the manifestations of God demonstrates weakness and inability in many situations, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá affirms, and he points out that Bahá’u’lláh refers to it as a condition of “sleep” compared to the “waking” state of the higher perceptions. Manifestations of God are, therefore, not supermen on the physical plane. As in other human beings, their bodies are the seats of the animal spirit, with its faculties of sense-perception,[146] faculties apparently not better developed in manifestations than in other human beings.
The manifestations of God also share in the station of the human soul, with its faculties of intellective cognition or theoretical knowledge, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains. They thus have minds, like other human beings, and undergo learning processes.[147] ‘Abdu’l-Bahá mentions two modes of knowledge generally available to ordinary humans. The first is sense-perception, whereby an external form is reflected in the “heart,” and this is due to the sensitive faculties of the animal spirit. The second kind of ordinary knowledge is conceptualization or imagination (tasavvur), wherein the human mind generates within itself the conception of an object. As both of these sorts of knowledge depend upon forms (sing. surah), these are together termed “formal knowledge” (‘ilm-i suri).[148]
While the manifestation of God shares with other human beings in these basic faculties, he has an extra dimension, a further means of knowledge transcending that of the ordinary human being. This knowledge is termed “existential knowledge” (‘ilm-i vujudi) by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This knowledge has the properties of being immediate and unmediated, and of being innate and unacquired.[149] ‘Abdu’l-Bahá likens it to the knowledge a man has of his own self. Just as he knows he is sad without recourse to external sense-perception. being immediately aware of his condition, so the manifestation of God existentially perceives the world as a whole. He describes this existential knowledge as a holy emanation (fayd) upon the manifestation’s human soul from the Universal Intellect. This knowledge informs the manifestations of God of the realities of things, and they are able through this knowledge to found systems of religious law which are appropriate to the conditions of society.[150] Their knowledge in this respect is of the necessary connections which relate all entities in the world, and their laws are aimed at regulating and balancing this world-system. This knowledge is the sole property of the Universal Intellect, which emanates it upon the human rational soul of the manifestation of God.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá goes on to provide an even more detailed analysis of the workings of the Universal Intellect. He says that the divine Universal Intellect, which is metaphysical, is a preexistent faculty. It is the Universal Intellect which encompasses existing realities and receives the divine lights and mysteries. This is a cognitive faculty, not a perceptive, sensing faculty. He adds that the spiritual faculties of the world of nature are perceptive faculties: through sense-perception they discover the realities of beings and the properties of existing things. He teaches that the heavenly intellective Faculty, which is metaphysical, encompasses. cognizes and comprehends things, and is aware of secrets, realities, and divine meanings. It discovers hidden, heavenly realities. This divine intellective Faculty is reserved for the holy Manifestations and the Fountainheads of Prophethood.[151] He also says that a ray from the “lights” emanated by the human manifestations of God illumines the hearts of the righteous, who thus share to some extent in this faculty of pure cognition through the mediation of the manifestations.