The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the authoritative views of the Baha'i Faith.
When you ask great artists where their inspiration comes from, as I have for many years, you realize that many of them simply don’t have a clue.
Some say they get it from the beauty of nature. Others claim it comes from a subconscious well of creativity inside themselves. A perceptive few have told me that it originates from a mysterious source, something they can’t name, a mystical fountain of ideas they can sometimes access, if they have the sensitivity and consciousness to do so.
The Baha’i writings say the original source of all human inspiration comes from “the Creative Word.”
God’s word reaches us through the revelation of the great Faiths. Abdu’l-Baha says that the “creative words and phrases which salute the hearts of humanity” actually constitute one of the proofs of the validity of the divine message of each major religion. Baha’is believe that the love each of the prophets of God bring us, through their deeds and their words, actually creates an entirely new consciousness, a revitalization of human existence.
The Baha’i teachings say that one God has sent humanity a progressive sequence of prophets, messengers and divine educators, each tasked with delivering a portion of God’s wisdom, truth, knowledge and inspiration. When those revelations occur and their messages unfold, they permeate the spiritual sensibilities of the world. Then the creative power of God’s word reveals and affirms itself by transforming human hearts, raising up entire civilizations and calling us all to more advanced levels of spiritual development and unity.
God announces His will through those prophets, who bring us the creative word. The fulfillment of that creative word clearly demonstrates the authenticity and the inspiration of the Prophet’s claim. Just as the sun illumines the earth, Abdu’l-Baha said, the sun of God’s word reveals the light of knowledge:
One of the functions of the sun is to quicken and reveal the hidden realities of the kingdoms of existence. Through the light and heat of the great central luminary, all that is potential in the earth is awakened and comes forth into the realm of the visible. The fruit hidden in the tree appears upon its branches in response to the power of the sun; man and all other organisms live, move and have their being under its developing rays; nature is resplendent with countless evolutionary forms through its pervading impulse — so that we can say a function of the sun is the revelation of the mysteries and creative purposes hidden within the phenomenal world. The outer sun is a sign or symbol of the inner and ideal Sun of Truth, the Word of God. Inasmuch as this is the century of light, it is evident that the Sun of Reality, the Word, has revealed itself to all humankind. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 74.
In the Baha’i writings, the creative word of God has newly emerged once again, but with a distinct difference from the sacred books of many other Faiths. In previous religious dispensations, the words of the prophets often went unrecorded until long after their revelation. Authentic, verifiable and real, the creative word in the Baha’i sacred texts and scriptures comes directly from Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha. Those words simultaneously contain and release tremendous insight, wisdom and power:
Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God is endowed with such potency as can instill new life into every human frame, if ye be of them that comprehend this truth. All the wondrous works ye behold in this world have been manifested through the operation of His supreme and most exalted Will, His wondrous and inflexible Purpose. Through the mere revelation of the word “Fashioner,” issuing forth from His lips and proclaiming His attribute to mankind, such power is released as can generate, through successive ages, all the manifold arts which the hands of man can produce. This, verily, is a certain truth. No sooner is this resplendent word uttered, than its animating energies, stirring within all created things, give birth to the means and instruments whereby such arts can be produced and perfected. – Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, pp. 141-142.
“Such power is released,” Baha’u’llah writes, “as can generate, through successive ages, all the manifold arts which the hands of man can produce.”
You can access that creative word and its animating energies.
How? Try reading the Baha’i writings during your moments of reflection and meditation each day. Their lofty, inspiring beauty will suffuse and sustain your soul.
David Langness writes and edits for BahaiTeachings.org and is a journalist and literary critic for Paste Magazine. He and his wife Teresa live in the Sierra foothills in Northern California.
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