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Bahá’u’lláh’s Arrival at 'Akká
Know thou that upon Our arrival at this Spot, We chose to designate it as the ‘Most Great Prison.’ Though previously subjected in another land (Tihrán) to chains and fetters, We yet refused to call it by that name. Say: Ponder thereon, O ye endued with understanding!
One of the fascinating features of the life of Bahá’u’lláh is the contrast between His glory and majesty born of God, and the imprisonment and abasement to which He was subjected by His enemies. We may observe with amazement that Bahá’u’lláh, the Supreme Manifestation of God, One who held the powers of earth and heaven in His hands, the movement of whose pen could revolutionize the lives of all men, whose words were endowed with such potency as to subdue His adversaries; such a Being submitted Himself with utter resignation to those who had arisen with all their might and authority to take His life and extinguish the light of His Cause.
Bahá’u’lláh, quoted by Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 185.
He did not exercise His God-given spiritual powers to stay the hands of the oppressors persecuting Him. He could have–as He Himself attests in many of His Tablets–conquered the hearts of His enemies with the utterance of one word, had He so wished. But this was not to be. For God has created man and has given him free will to choose between good and evil, to follow the Truth or tread the path of error
If the Manifestations of God were to reveal fully the signs and tokens of their power, if they were to overwhelm and destroy their persecutors through the force of their spiritual might, such a revelation would run counter to the principle of free will which God has bestowed upon man. Because no one, whether good or bad, deserving or undeserving, when confronted with the manifold evidences of the overwhelming power of the Manifestation of God, would have any choice but to acknowledge His authority and accept the authenticity of His message. In such a case man would be reduced to a mere puppet who loses control over his actions, and those who have no spiritual merit would become equal to those who have.
This is why the Manifestations of God hide their powers from the eyes of men in general and occasionally (and to a certain extent) reveal them to a few who are endowed with spiritual qualities. For instance, Christ enabled some of His disciples to witness the signs of His glory, but the great majority of the people in the Holy Land, their religious leaders and their rulers, were not affected by these. He did not use His spiritual ascendancy to prevent His own crucifixion.
The powers of the Manifestation of God remain hidden behind the veil of His human temple. He lives like the rest of the people and is subject to all the limitations which this imposes on Him. He has to eat and sleep in order to survive. He feels pain if He is afflicted with sufferings, He becomes ill at times and eventually dies. Indeed, He comes as if camouflaged by His mortal frame. And this prevents most of His contemporaries from recognizing His station. His actions also prove to be great barriers and stumbling blocks for those who come into contact with Him. The way He lives is similar to the life of His countrymen. He speaks the same language, obeys the same laws, and practises the same customs. He does not appear to know the future, has to be informed of the news of the day, and even some of His teachings and words may cast doubt into the minds of many who are veiled from His glory. Those intellectuals and men of learning who are spiritually blind, and who weigh His utterances with their own standards, will often find fault with His sayings and reject His message outright.
(Cont. below)
