Wendi’s Wanders

I testify that through Thee the sovereignty of God and His dominion, and the majesty of God and His grandeur, were revealed . . . Bahá’u'lláh, Bahá’í writings

It was the practice in ancient Britain to plant trees to mark the boundaries of parishes or individual properties and even today land is marked out by rows of trees or hedges.

In early 19th century Tennessee, surveyors often used trees as boundary markers. More than just a traditional and quaint practice, it was a necessity in a wilderness where there was no other practical way to permanently mark the boundaries land.

The Arabs used to plant trees along certain roads, the end of the road being marked by one final tree, known as `Sadratu’l-Muntaha’, the tree beyond which one could not travel.

In Islam, this idea of the last tree along the road beyond which one could not pass was used as a symbol to mark the point in the heavens beyond which neither men nor angels could pass in their approach to God. This tree was symbolic of the limits on human knowledge of the divine.

One hundred and ninety years ago today, Bahá’u'lláh was born in Tehran. As a child He displayed extraordinary knowledge, kindness and wisdom. He attended no school but by the time He was a youth He was renowned for His intelligence, excellent character, generosity and compassion. As a young adult His personal qualities were such that He became known as the Father of the Poor. He turned His back on the trappings of the court life that had been His father’s and which could have been His, preferring instead to walk in the woods around His home and drink in the beauty of the countryside. Imprisoned in 1852 for His adherence to the outlawed Bábí religion, He was kept in a disused underground water cistern. This dungeon became a palace of light when He received there a divine revelation that He was the intermediary between God and humanity, whose task it was to act as a conduit for God’s message for this day. His life thereafter was one of constant suffering, persecution, imprisonment and exile. His message, on the other hand, was one of life and light, joy and love, peace and hope.

In His many writings Bahá’u'lláh used the concept of the `tree beyond which there is no passing’ as a symbol of the station He Himself held, the station of the Manifestation of God, a station which is beyond human understanding and beyond human reach. Knowledge of the Manifestation of God is the closest we can get to knowing God.

Celebrate this day! We will not see its like for a thousand years.

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