You don’t need to be clever to know God; you only need a pure heart. Anyone can have a pure heart, no matter how clever they are. If intelligence was the quality a person needed in order to know God, then that would make God unjust. The setup for knowing God would not operate on an equal playing field. The cards would be stacked against those with lower intelligence. Consequently, if human beings are supposed to know God, then the ability to do so must be inherent in everyone.
This issue arises because people look at themselves and say: “Well, who am I to think that I can know God? I’m nobody. I just leave that difficult stuff to people who know more than me. I leave it to them to figure it out.” In other words, humble people tend to have a poor perception of themselves and to underestimate their abilities. Apart from that, life is much easier if one does not have to worry about difficult questions.
This is where the rot sets in. Ordinary folk with a deprecating view of themselves compensate for their perceived shortcomings by relying on their religious leaders to tell them what God wants, and then they fall into line accordingly. They do as they are told, fearing that to do otherwise would mean they wind up in hell. What they do not realize is that they are in their own self-imposed hell already. They took a wrong turn when they chose to follow others—the clever ones—believing that the issue was beyond their ability to fathom.
Baha’u’llah is crystal clear that everyone, not just clever people, is created with the ability to know God. Everyone can recognize him—Baha’u’llah—as God’s representative and, in that way, come to know God. Baha’u’llah argues that if human beings were not capable of knowing God on their own, then God could not punish them for failing to do so.
O servants! Look ye, with the purest sight, to the Most Great Vision. From everlasting, ye have been enjoined to do this yourselves, and the faculty of recognizing the All-Merciful hath existed in you. He, verily, biddeth not His servants to do that which lieth neither at their disposal nor within their power. Should this station be present in man, then he is obligated to recognize God on his own and hath no need of anyone else—yet if this faculty be lacking, he shall incur no blame, and the Pen of injunction and prohibition would never write against him. (Lawh-i-Quds, paras. 11-12, trans. Adib Masumian)
Therefore, if we think we know God by listening to others, then we sell ourselves short. Worse, we fail to do what Baha’u’llah asks of us, which is to know him directly through ourselves. Entrance into the all-glorious realms is achieved only by recognizing Baha’u’llah and connecting to him in our heart via his words. That’s it. No other option, unless God decides to favor a particular soul for some special reason. Going along with the thoughts and aspirations of “clever” people tells us a lot about those people, but not much about God.
In order to know God, a person must listen to what God has to say—that is, sit down in private and read Baha’u’llah’s writings. Baha’u’llah encouraged people to adopt a habit of reading his writings regularly. He included a law in the Kitab-i-Aqdas requiring people to read his writings every morning and evening. He even goes so far as to say that those who fail to do this are not faithful to his covenant:
Recite ye the verses of God every morn and eventide. Whoso faileth to recite them hath not been faithful to the Covenant of God and His Testament, and whoso turneth away from these holy verses in this Day is of those who throughout eternity have turned away from God. (Kitáb-i-Aqdas, para. 149)
In the Kitab-i-Iqan (paras. 232-3), Baha’u’llah gets quite heated about the idea that ordinary folk cannot understand the Word of God and should rely on their religious leaders to interpret it for them. He argues that, if the Word of God was beyond the comprehension of common people, then it could not stand as God’s testimony to them. What is more, if the Word was beyond their comprehension, it would be pointless for God to communicate with them using the Word. In that case, people would not need to know God at all, given that God is unknowable and therefore beyond human understanding.
Baha’u’llah criticizes religious leaders who argue that the common people cannot understand the Word of God. He says that these leaders are motivated by arrogance, pride, and control. “Such contention is utterly fallacious and inadmissible. It is actuated solely by arrogance and pride. Its motive is to lead the people astray from the Riḍván of divine good-pleasure and to tighten the reins of their authority over the people.” (Iqan, para. 233) Instead, Baha’u’llah emphasizes, the qualities required to understand his words are a pure heart, a detached soul, and a free spirit. “The understanding of His words and the comprehension of the utterances of the Birds of Heaven are in no wise dependent upon human learning. They depend solely upon purity of heart, chastity of soul, and freedom of spirit.” (Iqan, para. 233)
In short, you don’t need to be clever to know God. What you need is to free yourself up on the inside—choose to accept notifications, so to speak—and then Baha’u’llah can connect with you directly. He has crafted his words in such a way that you will leave yourself behind and fly up into his heaven. Just listen:
O My Brother! Hearken to the delightsome words of My honeyed tongue, and quaff the stream of mystic holiness from My sugar-shedding lips. Sow the seeds of My divine wisdom in the pure soil of thy heart, and water them with the water of certitude, that the hyacinths of My knowledge and wisdom may spring up fresh and green in the sacred city of thy heart. (Arabic Hidden Word 33)
For more on riding Baha’u’llah’s words into heaven, see my blog post We Journey in Spiritual Worlds Using our Mind and Imagination.