Introduction
Bahá’í scripture possesses seemingly inconsistent depictions of angels. Commenting on a qur’anic verse,Footnote 1 the founder of the Bahá’í Faith, Baháʼu’lláh, wrote, “By ‘angels’ is meant those who, reinforced by the power of the spirit, have consumed, with the fire of the love of God, all human traits and limitations.”Footnote 2 Baháʼu’lláh indicates that an angel is a virtuous person who has gained transcendence over the material. However, in another instance, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the eldest son of Baháʼu’lláh, confronted this demystification: “Whatsoever people is graciously favored therewith by God, its name shall surely be magnified and extolled by the Concourse from on high, by the company of angels, and the denizens of the Abhá Kingdom.”Footnote 3 From this perspective, angels are more than virtuous people but exist as distinct creatures in heavenly realms.Footnote 4 And Shoghí Effendi, great-grandson of Baháʼu’lláh, posits that angels are incarnations of the Holy Spirit, “symbolized by the ‘Sacred Fire,’ the ‘Burning Bush,’ the ‘Dove,’ and the ‘Angel Gabriel.’”Footnote 5 Such diverse pronouncements, made by three authoritative figures of the Bahá’í Faith within canonical scripture, afford us outwardly incongruous visions of the Bahá’í angel: they simultaneously signal spiritual preeminence, exist as otherworld figures residing in heavenly dimensions, and are the incarnation of a force, quality, or influence of the divine. Moreover, these assorted angels gesture toward contradictory hermeneutics, ranging from the literal and allegorical to the tropological and anagogical. Additional mentions of angels within Bahá’í scripture yield little assistance, as they reflect even more interpretations. One is easily lost among a host of seemingly haphazard and incongruous angels that litter the Bahá’í theological and cosmological landscape. What are the different forms of angels within Bahá’í holy writings and what functional labor do they perform?
While a niche subject, angelology is in the midst of a renaissance. Despite newfound interest, angels of “new religious movements” in general, and the Bahá’í Faith in particular, are less examined. There exists no systematic study of angels within Bahá’í discourse, and Bahá’í angelology is sparse at best. In this article, I first offer a succinct background on the extant scholarly discussion of Bahá’í angels. I then present a typology of the five dominant depictions of angels within Bahá’í scripture. Angels are repeatedly mentioned as: 1) avatars of the Holy Spirit; 2) distinct celestial beings; 3) spiritually evolved people; 4) “manifestations of God”;Footnote 6 and 5) carriers and personifications of divine virtue. I next explain how these five types, respectively, possess distinct functions. Bahá’í angels serve to: 1) emphasize the power and authority of divinity and the prophets of God; 2) accentuate the mystery of spiritual reality through hyperbolic imagery; 3) reconcile spirituality and materialism by highlighting the duality of human nature; 4) position prophets—or “manifestations of God”—in the context of “progressive revelation” and assimilate the angelic imagery of prior religious traditions; and 5) attempt to make the unknowable God knowable through the transformation of axiology to ontology.
Together, these five functions comprise a distinct theological labor. Bahá’í angels neither work to settle God’s immanence or transcendence nor do they emphasize either a cataphatic (“God is …”) or apophatic (“God is not …”) tradition. Rather, they illumine the Bahá’í understanding of religion as a dialogic relationship between God and humanity. Religion is reconceived as an interactional balance of divine will and human agential choice.Footnote 7 By appearing in varied forms, the Bahá’í angel helps bridge this paradoxical gap by providing a kaleidoscopic view of God’s dialogic relationship to the world that is otherwise obscured.Footnote 8
Angels of the Bahá’í Faith
The Bahá’í Faith was established in Persia in 1863 by Mírzá ḥusayn-ʻAlí Núrí, known as “Baháʼu’lláh” (Glory of God). A monotheistic religion in the Abrahamic tradition, the Bahá’í Faith includes many scriptural injunctions on social and spiritual issues, from the abolition of racial prejudice and the equality of men and women to the independent investigation of truth and the harmony of science and religion. Especially in regard to the latter, as a religious faith wedded to scientific investigation, there exist both mystical and materialist exegeses that are generally viewed as commensurate. Given this background, Bahá’í theological understandings of the relationship between the spiritual and the material, particularly when these collide via the liminal figure of the angel, are polysemic.Footnote 9
Scholarly discussions of angels in Bahá’í scripture are minimal. Most research on the Bahá’í Faith appears in two journals under the aegis of Bahá’í administrative bodies—the Journal of Bahá’í Studies Footnote 10 and Bahá’í Studies Review Footnote 11 —but their pages contain almost no angelology. Among that small extant corpus of angelic references, allegorical interpretations dominate. One of the earliest accounts of the primacy of allegory in Bahá’í Holy Writ comes from Edward G. Browne, a British “orientalist.” Upon reading of the Bábí faith in Gobineau’s Religions et philosophies dans l’Asie Centrale, Browne traveled to Persia in 1887, met Bahá’u’lláh,Footnote 12 and in 1893 wrote of an allegorical exegesis of angels attributed to the forerunner of the Bahá’í dispensation,Footnote 13 known as the Báb (the Gate). In speaking of the Báb’s writings as “more or less obscure,”Footnote 14 Browne referenced the Báb’s interpretation of the qur’anic angels Hárút and Márút (sūrah 2:96):
Hárút and Márút [the names of two angels believed by the Muhammadans to be imprisoned in a well at Babylon] are two fixed habits, which, descending from the superior world, have become imprisoned in the well of the material nature, and teach men sorcery. And by these [two] habits are meant Accidence and Syntax from which, in the Beyánic Dispensation, all restrictions have been removed.Footnote 15
Scholar of Bábí and Bahá’í theology Stephen Lambden expounds on the passage: “the Bāb interpreted the twin, probably ‘fallen angels’ Hárút and Márút allegorically. He related them with [sic] the possibly veiling nature of undue attention to grammatical rules which distract from the true senses of sacred scripture.”Footnote 16
Modern scholarly Bahá’í angelology reiterates the allegorical function of angels.Footnote 17 For example, Rick Johnson argues that the angel is a Bahá’í metaphor for the complexity of humanity: “A human being is the most complex integrated structure of order in the known universe, combining within itself an astounding range of elements and forces—a diversity of states that Bahá’u’lláh likens to ‘angels created of snow and of fire.’ ”Footnote 18 Similarly, Kluge addresses some of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s references to angels and concludes that they refer to the duality of human nature, in which one is “the animal ‘captive to matter’ and the angel free in the spiritual realms; between perfection and imperfection.”Footnote 19 Outside of the Journal of Bahá’í Studies and Bahá’í Studies Review, a handful of scholarly authors have examined angels as Bahá’í allegorical devices. For instance, Dominic Brookshaw finds that when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s addressed the Zoroastrians of Persia, He would often use “images and metaphors related to Zoroastrian religion, such as fire, the fire temple, Sorosh (the angel), and the names of different deities.”Footnote 20 Valery Rees finds that the fallen angel Satan is most often used by Bahá’ís as a metaphor for one’s carnal or egotistical desires: “Satan for them is not an evil demon but the promptings of our own lower nature, the evil within.”Footnote 21
A handful of scholars emphasize the mystical meanings of angels in Bahá’í scripture, thus centering anagogic interpretations. For instance, both Julio Savi and Sen McGlinn argue that Bahá’í depictions of angels are largely representative of attributes or confirmations of the reality of God,Footnote 22 while John Hatcher argues that one particular angel, the “ ‘Hûríyyih,’ … translated as ‘the Maid of Heaven,’ [is] a symbolic personification of the divine reality of Bahá’u’llah.”Footnote 23 Historian Juan Cole has examined the work of Muslim theologian Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i and outlines how his messianic cosmologies influenced the formation of the Bábí and Bahá’í Faiths.Footnote 24 Arguably the best treatment of the otherworldly meanings of Bahá’í angels comes from Lambden, who treats Bahá’í angels as “forces active in the natural world” and as indicating “supernatural spiritual bounties, forces or powers.”Footnote 25
A few others engage in tropological analyses, attempting to place Bahá’í references to angels within the larger dramatic context of the Bahá’í fulfillment of prior prophecies.Footnote 26 For example, Mírzá Abu’l-Fadl Gulpáygání’s historical analysis of Baháʼu’lláh includes how the retelling of an account of an angel’s meeting with Baháʼu’lláh, “served to fortify the doctrine of occultation … and freeze the tensions latent in Shi‘i eschatology while mitigating their severity.”Footnote 27 There also exist a few scattered chapters that make tropological reference to angels in Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and the Bābī-Bahā’ī Faiths.Footnote 28 Relatedly, only a small handful of writers approach Bahá’í angelology in a literal sense. For example, both Terry Culhane and Gregg Lahood reference Baháʼu’lláh’s meeting with the angel known as the “Maiden of Heaven” as a literal event wherein Baháʼu’lláh was notified of His divine commission.Footnote 29 While there are varied approaches to Bahá’í angelology, the literature is scattered and underdeveloped, leaving one without a holistic account of either the scriptural references to angels or their attending exegetical functions. This article provides a small step toward filling that gap.
The “Angel” of Bahá’í Scripture
The Bahá’í “canonical texts” are authored by four individuals and one institution: Siyyid Mirza ‘Alí Muḥammad Shírází (1819–1850), known as the Báb (The Gate); the prophet-founder of the Bahá’í Faith, Mírzá ḥusayn-ʻAlí Núrí (1817–1892), known as Baháʼu’lláh (Glory of God); the eldest son of Baháʼu’lláh, ‘Abbás (1844–1921), known as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Servant of Glory); the grandson of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Shoghí Effendi (1897–1957); and the governing body of the Bahá’í Faith, the Universal House of Justice, established in 1963. Taken together, their output is voluminous.Footnote 30 Approximately 70,000 tablets, letters, prayers, and books from the Báb, Baháʼu’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghí Effendi have been tentatively identified, but only a small fraction has been authenticated.Footnote 31 The Báb, Baháʼu’lláh, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote and spoke in Persian and Arabic, while Shoghí Effendi and the Universal House of Justice frequently communicated in English.Footnote 32 When scripture is authenticated by the Universal House of Justice, it is published via the Bahá’í Reference Library—relaunched in 2018 (www.bahai.org/library/). This study is thus a preliminary investigation of Bahá’í angelology available in English. The complete scriptural corpus should be revisited in their original Arabic and Persian.
As of November 2021, a search of “angel” in the Bahá’í Reference Library yields 177 results.Footnote 33 Searches of angels of the Abrahamic faiths, such as Gabriel (n=20), Isráfil (n=5), and Izrā’il (n=1), add 26 references; other terms, such as “seraph” (n=2) and “cherubim” (n=2), were also found, while the term “maiden” (ḥúríyyih) (n=12), as a reference to the angel-driven founding moment of the Bahá’í Faith, adds a dozen more. Other names of and terms for angels (e.g., “Michael,” “principalities,” or “wheels”) did not appear. In total, 219 references to angels exist in the authenticated and English-translated Bahá’í scripture (see Table 1 in appendix).
A. Avatars of the Holy Spirit
Perhaps the best-known angel of Bahá’í scripture is the ḥúríyyih, or Maiden of Heaven.Footnote 34 This “noble angel,”Footnote 35 generally interpreted as a literal celestial being, was said to have appeared to Baháʼu’lláh in October 1852 while He was imprisoned in the Síyáh-Chál in Tehran. Baháʼu’lláh wrote of the visitation:
Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden—the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord—suspended in the air before Me. So rejoiced was she in her very soul that her countenance shone with the ornament of the good-pleasure of God, and her cheeks glowed with the brightness of the All-Merciful. Betwixt Earth and Heaven she was raising a call which captivated the hearts and minds of men. She was imparting to both My inward and outer being tidings which rejoiced My soul, and the souls of God’s honoured servants. Pointing with her finger unto My head, she addressed all who are in Heaven and all who are on Earth saying: “By God! This is the best beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but understand.”Footnote 36
This angelic meeting cannot be overemphasized in Bahá’í theology, as it is akin to the founding moments of other religious dispensations, as Shoghí Effendi makes clear:
on that occasion that the “Most Great Spirit,” as designated by Bahá’u’lláh Himself, revealed itself to Him, in the form of a “Maiden,” and bade Him “lift up” His “voice between earth and heaven”—that same Spirit which, in the Zoroastrian, the Mosaic, the Christian, and Muḥammadan Dispensations, had been respectively symbolized by the “Sacred Fire,” the “Burning Bush,” the “Dove,” and the “Angel Gabriel.”Footnote 37
Scholars note the presence of this “Maiden” in both pre-Islamic thought and nineteenth-century Sufism, which may have informed Baháʼu’lláh’s vision: “That Bahāʾ Allāh [sic] remained under Sūfī influence … is implied by his continued association with two leading Sūfīs resident in Baghdad.”Footnote 38 Moreover, Lambden wrote that the ḥúríyyih was “ ‘the Angel Gabriel’ in the form, symbolically speaking, of the ‘Most Great Spirit’—personified as a ‘Maiden’ (‘houri’)—which appeared to Bahāʾ-Allāh [sic] in 1852/3 at the time of his inaugural mystical experience.”Footnote 39
The import of this interaction is witnessed in Baháʼu’lláh’s use of the plural pronoun (“before Our presence”) that appeared in His writings after meeting the ḥúríyyih. Similar to the pronoun usage in the Qur’an (-na), this convention underscores His station as a messenger or “manifestation of God,” in which He is simultaneously the voice of God, the Holy Spirit, and individual. The Universal House of Justice explains:
how can a human being claim to understand or to set forth the nature of the Manifestations of God, of the relationships between Them, or of Their relationship to God, let alone to grasp the nature of God Himself? … This is a realm of knowledge in which poetry, analogy, hyperbole and paradox are to be expected; a realm in which the Manifestations Themselves speak with many voices.Footnote 40
Bahá’í scripture is unequivocal in stating that manifestations of God are chosen by God as divine mouthpieces, irrespective of their desire. Accordingly, Shoghí Effendi, quoting Bahá’u’lláh, wrote that the angel Gabriel bade Bahá’u’lláh speak God’s word:
He [Bahá’u’lláh] asserts in another Tablet, “Not of Mine own volition have I revealed Myself, but God, of His own choosing, hath manifested Me.” And again: “Whenever I chose to hold My peace and be still, lo, the Voice of the Holy Spirit, standing on My right hand, aroused Me, and the Most Great Spirit appeared before My face, and Gabriel overshadowed Me, and the Spirit of Glory stirred within My bosom, bidding Me arise and break My silence.”Footnote 41
This collapsing of angels in general, and Gabriel in particular, into the concept of the Holy Spirit is reiterated elsewhere by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who writes, “The Faithful Spirit, Gabriel, the Holy Spirit, and the One mighty in power are all designations of the same Reality.”Footnote 42 The overlapping nature of the angel and Holy Spirit compel the reader to contemplate an essential unity to “Reality.”
Bahá’u’lláh’s use of angels to signify the Holy Spirit was especially pronounced in His communications with Sufi theologians. For example, composed in 1856, “The Seven Valleys” was addressed to Sufi mystics with whom Bahá’u’lláh had been in contact, especially Shaykh Muhyi’d-Din, a follower of the Qádiríyyih practice of Sufism.Footnote 43 Bahá’u’lláh describes the stages of the soul’s journey toward God, traversing seven valleys—search, love, knowledge, unity, contentment, wonderment, and “true poverty and absolute nothingness.”Footnote 44 As the traveler enters the valley of knowledge, a “watchman” begins to pursue him. Bahá’u’lláh continues:
And that wretched one cried from his heart, and ran here and there, and moaned to himself, “Surely this watchman is ‘Izrá’íl, my angel of death, following so fast upon me, or he is a tyrant of men, prompted by hatred and malice”…. And there he beheld his beloved with a lamp in her hand, searching for a ring she had lost. When the heart-surrendered lover looked upon his ravishing love, he drew a great breath and lifted his hands in prayer, crying, “O God! Bestow honour upon the watchman, and riches and long life. For the watchman was Gabriel, guiding this poor one; or he was Isráfíl, bringing life to this wretched one!”Footnote 45
Having now discerned the knowledge of how the seeming tyranny of the watchman was the Holy Spirit that led the traveler to his “beloved,” Bahá’u’lláh ends the journey in the valley of knowledge. But before the traveler enters the valley of unity, Bahá’u’lláh underlines the import of “communion and prayer,” and cites sūrah 2:156, that the traveler may continue to receive the assistance of the angels qua Holy Spirit: “If thou be a man of communion and prayer, soar upon the wings of assistance from the holy ones, that thou mayest behold the mysteries of the Friend and attain the lights of the Beloved: ‘Verily, we are God’s, and to Him shall we return.’ ”Footnote 46
B. Celestial Beings in a Divine Hierarchy
Bahá’í cosmology indicates five distinct realms of existence. The highest realm is home to the essence of God (Háhút) and the lowest (Násút) is our scientifically known world.Footnote 47 While this hierarchy would seemingly align with a fixed, neoplatonic depiction, Baháʼu’lláh emphasized the relativity of this typology: “Know thou of a truth that the worlds of God are countless in their number, and infinite in their range. None can reckon or comprehend them except God.”Footnote 48
While this clarification tends toward anagogic understandings, there are also many scriptural references that invite literalism. For instance, the next-to-highest realm, Láhút, aligns with the aforementioned ḥúríyyih as the incarnation of the Holy Spirit. The second-to-lowest realm, Malakút (sometimes conflated with alam-al mithal, or Hūrqalyā in Islamic cosmology), is where souls of the departed and angels are said to reside, which is reiterated in Bahá’í scripture and scholarship as a literal realm of the afterlife.Footnote 49
Moreover, both departed souls and angels can “descend” to assist the people of Násút. This depiction is affirmed by the Báb in a letter to the seventeenth of His first eighteen followers, a woman named Fatimah Baraghani (to whom He gave the titles “Táhirih” [The Pure One] and “Qurratu’l-‘Ayn” [Solace of the Eyes]):
The angels and spirits, arrayed rank upon rank, descend, by the leave of God, upon this Gate and circle round this Focal Point in a far-stretching line. Greet them with salutations, O Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, for the dawn hath indeed broken; then proclaim unto the concourse of the faithful: “Is not the rising of the Morn, foreshadowed in the Mother Book, to be near at hand?”Footnote 50
Baháʼu’lláh reiterates this celestial order of beings (“Unto this bear witness God, and His angels, and His Messengers …”)Footnote 51 as well as the ability of angels and departed souls to intercede in humanity’s affairs (“Verily, We behold you from Our realm of glory, and will aid whosoever will arise for the triumph of Our Cause with the hosts of the Concourse on high and a company of Our favored angels”).Footnote 52
Bahá’í scripture identifies three specific forms of angelic assistance. First, angels can provide aid to those in need or distress, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states: “Help them, O my Lord, under all conditions, support them at all times with Thine angels of holiness, they who are Thine invisible hosts.”Footnote 53 Second, angels come to aid human endeavors to spread the teachings of God as revealed by divine manifestations. For example, Bahá’u’lláh writes: “They that have forsaken their country for the purpose of teaching Our Cause—these shall the Faithful Spirit strengthen through its power. A company of Our chosen angels shall go forth with them, as bidden by Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Wise.”Footnote 54 Third, angels ease the troubles of faithful people by bringing God’s blessings, as also articulated by Baháʼu’lláh: “These, verily, are they whom the angels of Paradise will glorify in the garden of eternity and who will delight at every moment in a joy and gladness born of God.”Footnote 55
But angels not only assist, but torment. The Báb warns humanity to realize their spiritual potentialities, especially as pertains to their creative labors:
It is forbidden that one bring any object into being in a state of imperfection, when one hath the power to manifest it in full perfection. For example, should one build an edifice, and fail to elevate it to the utmost state of perfection possible for it, there would be no moment in the life of that edifice when angels would not beseech God to torment him; nay, rather, all the atoms of that edifice would do the same.Footnote 56
Bahá’í theology is clear that all things may manifest divine attributes. All of existence possesses a “moral right,” and “humans are obligated to help everything, including the realm of nature, to achieve its paradise.”Footnote 57 Rather than reify the angel, the Báb invokes angels to underline the ethical weight of pursuing one’s best work, a reading supporting the Báb’s incessant critique of qur’anic literalism within The Báyan.Footnote 58
In this vein, a literal reading of souls and either helpful or vengeful angels swooping down from heaven is set in heavy relief against Baháʼu’lláh’s Tablet of the Holy Mariner—an explicitly allegorical story about “guardian angels.” In the tablet, Baháʼu’lláh is the “Holy Mariner” who pilots an “ark” (symbolizing the Abrahamic covenant) in which humanity dwells. The sixth line of the tablet reads, “And let the angelic spirits enter, in the Name of God, the Most High.”Footnote 59 Later, Baháʼu’lláh calls upon angels to help humanity to be both faithful to the covenant and returned safely to the world: “O guardian angels! Return them to their abode in the world below, Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!”Footnote 60
C. Angels as Spiritually Evolved, Virtuous People
Bahá’í theology emphasizes the duality of human nature, as expressed plainly by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “notice that when the animal is trained it becomes domestic, and also that man, if he is left without education, becomes bestial, and, moreover, if left under the rule of nature, becomes lower than an animal, whereas if he is educated he becomes an angel.”Footnote 61 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá further clarifies: “The reality underlying this question is that the evil spirit, Satan or whatever is interpreted as evil, refers to the lower nature in man.”Footnote 62
Suitably, exceptionally spiritual people (those reflecting the virtues or attributes of God) can rise to the station of angels. For example, specific Bábís and Bahá’ís were singled out as angelic. A note in Tablets of Baháʼu’lláh refers to ḥájí Mírzá ḥaydar-‘Alí, an outstanding Persian Bahá’í teacher and author, as “the Angel of Mount Carmel.”Footnote 63 Nabil, an early historian of the Bábí Faith, was described by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as: having thrown “shooting stars, he became as a missile to drive off satanic imaginings,”Footnote 64 which is a qur’anic reference to angels repelling evil (see sūrahs 15:18, 37:10, and 67:5). In a passage in Memorials of the Faithful by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a messenger of Bahá’u’lláh named Salmán is so virtuous that he “earned from non-Bahá’ís the title of ‘the Bábís’ Angel Gabriel.’ ”Footnote 65 And Bahá’u’lláh declared that the philosophers Empedocles and Pythagoras “have attained the station of the angels.”Footnote 66 But it is the first eighteen followers of the Báb (known as “The Letters of the Living”) who are singled out as having attained an angelic station unlike others, regardless of virtue. Shoghí Effendi, quoting from The Báb’s Bayán (portions in italics), described them thus:
this “company of angels arrayed before God on the Day of His coming,” these “Repositories of His Mystery,” these “Springs that have welled out from the Source of His Revelation,” these first companions who, in the words of the Persian Bayán, “enjoy nearest access to God,” these “Luminaries that have, from everlasting, bowed down, and will everlastingly continue to bow down, before the Celestial Throne.”Footnote 67
In God Passes By, Shoghí Effendi recounts how the first of these “Letters,” Mullá ḥusayn, was transformed by the Báb’s 22 May 1844 declaration that he was the “Hidden Twelfth Imám” and latest manifestation of God. Quoting Mullá ḥusayn, Effendi wrote: “ ‘This Revelation,’ Mullá ḥusayn has further testified, ‘so suddenly and impetuously thrust upon me, came as a thunderbolt…. I seemed to be the voice of Gabriel personified, calling unto all mankind: “Awake, for, lo! the morning Light has broken.” ’ ”Footnote 68 Similarly, Baháʼu’lláh recounts in the Kitáb-i-Íqán how one can be raised to a status even more glorified than the angels. By recognizing the unity of the manifestations of God, Baháʼu’lláh proclaims, “Then will thine eyes no longer be obscured by these veils, these terms, and allusions. How ethereal and lofty is this station, unto which even Gabriel, unshepherded, can never attain, and the Bird of Heaven, unassisted, can never reach!”Footnote 69 Baháʼu’lláh underlines the divine reality and high grandeur of such a station, accentuating how neither an angel such as Gabriel nor the prophets and manifestations themselves (the “Bird of Heaven”) could reach such a level alone (“unshepherded” and “unassisted”), but require God’s commission.Footnote 70
Bahá’í authoritative canon asks one to live a virtuous life and to spread God’s teachings. The result will be that one will resemble an angel, be a companion to angels, or become an angel. This is not an uncommon claim within Abrahamic traditions, as seen, for example, in Jesus’s response to the Sadducees (Luke 20:34–36 KJV): “they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels.”Footnote 71 As theologian Jean Marc Lepain contends, “Baha’u’llah responds in a similar vein … one must have a detached heart and an understanding purified from common superstitions, and only in this case can one reach a true comprehension of what life is after death and resurrection.”Footnote 72 Many Bahá’í scriptural references are connected to such millennialist claims, as Lambden argues: “References to the eschatological manifestation of ‘angels’ are often demythologized in Bahá’í scripture…. Bahā’-Allāh [sic] interprets these ‘angels’ (malá’ika) as human beings of exalted spirituality.”Footnote 73 For example, in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, Baháʼu’lláh interpreted both biblical (Matt 24:31 and Mark 13:27) and qur’anic (sūrah 16:2) references to angels as human beings consumed by the “fire of the love of God,” a passage which also served to incorporate ancient Mesopotamian religious depictions of angels’ fiery corporality:
And now, concerning His words: “And He shall send His angels….” By “angels” is meant those who, reinforced by the power of the spirit, have consumed, with the fire of the love of God, all human traits and limitations, and have clothed themselves with the attributes of the most exalted Beings and of the Cherubim … inasmuch as these holy beings have sanctified themselves from every human limitation, have become endowed with the attributes of the spiritual, and have been adorned with the noble traits of the blessed, they therefore have been designated as “angels.”Footnote 74
Baháʼu’lláh later returned to this symbolism: “The hearts that yearn after Thee, O my God, are burnt up with the fire of their longing for Thee…. Methinks, they are like the angels which Thou hast created of snow and of fire.”Footnote 75
‘Abdu’l-Bahá often interpreted the eschatological prophecies concerning angels as representing pure human souls. Moreover, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá aligns such millennialist recognition with soteriological import, making plain the salvation afforded to those who would both recognize the newest manifestation of God (Bahá’u’lláh) and would thus arise to serve Him. For example, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá collapses the horn-blowing archangel of the resurrection into the potential of any human soul:
Now is the time for you to divest yourselves of the garment of attachment to this world that perisheth, to be wholly severed from the physical world, become heavenly angels, and travel to these countries. I swear by Him, besides Whom there is none other God, that each one of you will become an Isráfil of Life, and will blow the Breath of Life into the souls of others. Upon you be greeting and praise!Footnote 76
Similarly, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá offers an anagogic interpretation of angels via his explanation of the vision of Saint John the Divine (the book of Revelation): “within these gates there stand twelve angels. By ‘angel’ is meant the power of the confirmations of God—that the candle of God’s confirming power shineth out from the lamp-niche of those souls—meaning that every one of those beings will be granted the most vehement confirming support.”Footnote 77 Yet, the definition of the “angel” is expanded again by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “The meaning of ‘angels’ is the confirmations of God and His celestial powers. Likewise angels are blessed beings who have severed all ties with this nether world, have been released from the chains of self and the desires of the flesh, and anchored their hearts to the heavenly realms of the Lord.”Footnote 78 This Bahá’í view of angels resonates with pseudocanonical, pseudepigraphic, and canonical texts within the Abrahamic tradition, whereby, as Rees argues, “humans may become angels”Footnote 79 as witnessed in Enoch’s transformation into Metatron (1 Enoch) and the conversion of Elias (Elijah) to Sandalphon (3 Enoch).
D. Angels as Manifestations of God
Bahá’í scripture makes passing references to angels as the manifestations of God, such as Moses, Muhammad, the Báb, and Baháʼu’lláh. Such angelic theophany occurs infrequently in Bahá’í holy writings, but those sparse references are deeply symbolic. For instance, in the Lawḥ-i-Ghulámu’l-Khuld (Tablet of the Immortal Youth), Baháʼu’lláh writes of the appearance of the Báb both as an angel and as occupying the same divine station as Moses and Muhammad. He references Moses’s staff qua serpent and quotes the Qur’an: “Lo, the gates of Paradise were unlocked, and the hallowed Youth [the Báb] came forth bearing a serpent plain…. On His right hand was a ring adorned with a pure and blessed gem…. Upon it was graven, in a secret and ancient script: ‘By God! A most noble Angel is this’ ” [sūrah 12:31].Footnote 80 The Bahá’í merger of angel and manifestation emphasizes an exalted status. Manifestations of God are not human souls called upon to engage in a divine mission (such as prophets), but are understood as distinct beings whose souls found genesis at the beginning of all creation, akin to angels.Footnote 81 The angelic form of the manifestation accentuates their distinction as both originally created souls and as a unified chorus of messengers similar to the Judaic depictions of the seraphs who circle the throne of God singing “holy, holy, holy” (Isa 6:1–8). Bahá’í cosmology thus depicts the manifestation-angel as the incarnate form of the Godhead that perfectly reflects the attributes and names of God, akin to the Gospel of John’s explication of the logos (John 1:1–18).
The Bahá’í concept of angels qua manifestations thus gestures toward the tradition of angelomorphic christologies. For example, there were repeated conflations of “son [and sons] of God” with angels in both Judaic traditions and early Christianity, lending toward Christ being understood by some as an angel.Footnote 82 Moreover, the repeated mention of the “Angel of the Lord” within the Hebrew Bible was often interpreted by early Christians as a reference to Jesus, while a gnostic text, Origin of the World, depicts the figure on the right hand of God as the angel Jesus.Footnote 83 Rees remarks that the “angel of the presence” (from Isa 63:9 KJV) became “known in the Christian tradition as the Messianic angel, with attributes attributed to Christ.”Footnote 84 Also, one of the meanings for the angel Raphael was the “angel of the presence”—“an angel who, having stood in the divine presence, becomes a part of it and so becomes that divine presence on earth.”Footnote 85 This reading resonates with the Bahá’í understanding of Christ, Muhammad, or Bahá’u’lláh, for example, as distinct entities and the same manifestation of God’s presence in the world.Footnote 86 In this vein, given some depictions of the “angel of the presence” as the voice who spoke to Moses about creation, “having witnessed it from the very beginning since he was created on the first day,”Footnote 87 Bahá’í scripture describes Bahá’u’lláh, as God’s manifestation in the world, as that same preexistent “angel of the presence,” or even a pre-incarnate form of Christ, who spoke to Moses: “Bahá’u’lláh is the greatest Manifestation to yet appear, the One Who consummates the Revelation of Moses, He was the One Moses conversed with in the Burning Bush. In other words Bahá’u’lláh identifies the Glory of the Godhead on that occasion with Himself.”Footnote 88 Accordingly, some traditions identify the archangel Michael as having given the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, which further propels the Bahá’í rendering of manifestations as angels.Footnote 89
In various Bahá’í scriptural references, Baháʼu’lláh is yet another angel. Lambden writes that Baháʼu’lláh “seems to equate himself and his power of revelation with the outward, exterior personification of the angel Gabriel.”Footnote 90 Yet, Baháʼu’lláh makes clear that the words of all the manifestations of God are revealed wisdom from God, to be proclaimed widely.Footnote 91 This is akin to the trumpets blown by the angels, and thus Baháʼu’lláh collapses the figures of Gabriel and Muhammad onto one another, while berating those who disbelieved in Muhammad’s revelatory claims for want of a literal horn-wielding angel: “They refuse to recognize the trumpet-blast which so explicitly in this text was sounded through the revelation of Muḥammad. They deprive themselves of the regenerating Spirit of God that breathed into it, and foolishly expect to hear the trumpet-sound of the Seraph of God who is but one of His servants! Hath not the Seraph himself, the angel of the Judgment Day, and his like been ordained by Muḥammad’s own utterance?”Footnote 92
Additionally, given Bahá’í theological claims that the Báb and Baháʼu’lláh fulfill the Islamic and Christian eschatology of the coming of the Twelfth Imám and the return of Isa (Jesus), respectively—and the prophesied “Day of Judgement” foretold in the first and second blasts of the trumpet mentioned in the Qur’anFootnote 93 —it is both the Báb and Baháʼu’lláh who are referred to as Isrá’ál in the Kitáb-i-Iqán, translated by Shoghí Effendi as the “angel of the Judgement Day.”Footnote 94
E. Angels as Bearers and Personifications of Divine Virtue
Angels are also referred to as both bearers of divine virtues and personifications of divine being. This rendering is somewhat akin to the Jewish notion of “Shekhinah,” the glory of the divine presence in this world, sometimes described in Judaic traditions as winged.Footnote 95 For example, angels are both transmitters of joy and the embodiment of this divine quality: “for man can receive no greater gift than this, that he rejoice another’s heart. I beg of God that ye will be bringers of joy, even as are the angels in Heaven.”Footnote 96 So also, the angel Azráʾál is reframed in Bahá’í theology as a harbinger of joy for the living; people are instructed to rejoice in the departed soul’s attainment of Malakút. “I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve?”Footnote 97 Here, joy becomes an attribute of the divine, both borne by an angel and personified as the angel. Likewise, consider the Bahá’í injunction for humanity to attain divine virtues, which is a level of divinity akin to the elevated station of the angels. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated, “Pray to God that He may strengthen you in divine virtue, so that you may be as angels in the world.”Footnote 98 This being as an angel, that is, to embody angelic abilities, is elsewhere qualified by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “Be ye daysprings of generosity, dawning-points of the mysteries of existence, sites where inspiration alighteth, rising-places of splendors, souls that are sustained by the Holy Spirit, enamored of the Lord, detached from all save Him, holy above the characteristics of humankind, clothed in the attributes of the angels of heaven.”Footnote 99
While one could certainly interpret virtuous behavior as angelic in a broad sense, Bahá’í scripture identifies the performance of particular virtues as evoking the divine presence. Virtues are thus singled out as angelic personifications. For example, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated that truthfulness in word and deed is elevated in Bahá’í theology as the “foundation of all human virtues.”Footnote 100 And as the following passage denotes, words must align with behavior—for honest behavior calls forward a reality behind which a divine presence (“the angels that are nigh unto God”) resides: “Take heed, O people, lest ye be of them that give good counsel to others but forget to follow it themselves. The words of such as these, and beyond the words the realities of all things, and beyond these realities the angels that are nigh unto God, bring against them the accusation of falsehood.”Footnote 101
In a different expression of the angel within The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, Baháʼu’lláh wrote a pointed critique to Fu’ád Páshá, an enemy of both the Bábí and Bahá’í Faiths. In that text, Baháʼu’lláh recounts an interaction between Páshá and four angels who take Páshá to hell for opposing God’s will.Footnote 102 Similarly, Baháʼu’lláh penned a story about Hájí Muhammad-Karím Khán-i-Kirmání, an avid critic of both the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh: “he turned away until, as an act of justice from God, angels of wrath laid hold upon him. Unto this We truly were a witness.”Footnote 103
In Bahá’í scripture, the divine presence is the reflection of an ultimate reality of which humans may gain glimpses. All human beings’ alignment with that reality will be adjudicated accordingly. Hence, angels symbolize the calling of souls for judgment and also embody that justice:
ye shall, most certainly, be summoned by a company of His angels to appear at the spot where the limbs of the entire creation shall be made to tremble, and the flesh of every oppressor to creep. Ye shall be asked of the things your hands have wrought in this, your vain life, and shall be repaid for your doings.Footnote 104
While the preceding is easily interpreted allegorically, there also exist Bahá’í scriptural depictions of angelic functions that evoke a deeply anagogic reading. For instance, Baháʼu’lláh once wrote that the private recitation of scripture evokes a sacred “fragrance” that is scattered by angels to other human beings:
Whoso reciteth, in the privacy of his chamber, the verses revealed by God, the scattering angels of the Almighty shall scatter abroad the fragrance of the words uttered by his mouth, and shall cause the heart of every righteous man to throb. Though he may, at first, remain unaware of its effect, yet the virtue of the grace vouchsafed unto him must needs sooner or later exercise its influence upon his soul.Footnote 105
This depiction of the effects of prayerful discourse as a “fragrance” is important. The implication of holy recitation is analogized via smell, which has long been associated with angels. In The Color of Angels, Constance Classen explores the pre-Enlightenment idea of a sanctified odor or “the notion that Christians who lived in a state of grace would be infused with the divine scent of the Holy Spirit—the breath of God.”Footnote 106 Susan Harvey notes that, while scripture is recorded as written text, the bouquet of sacred words defies control as it cannot “be confined in space”Footnote 107 and functions as an effective religious signifier of angels, “for the perfume announced a presence that was tangibly perceived while remaining invisible, silent and incorporeal.”Footnote 108 Angels spread this odor of sanctity that links the hearts, and even the unconscious minds, of people, thereby demonstrating the diffuse and formless, yet aromatic attraction within a hallowed diaspora. Spiritual community exists, or even is constituted by, angelically enabled divinity. Hence, the prior reference to “the scattering angels” brings our focus to a dialogic relationship between God and humanity as one formed and strengthened not only by God’s word, but by the agentic choice to recite those words—bringing people not only closer to God but in unity with one another.
The Utilitarianism of Bahá’í Angelology
Dylan Potter has written that “theology must harness the array of perspectives on angels without perpetuating the myth of an historically consistent angelology to which one must capitulate.”Footnote 109 Accordingly, the functions of angels in Bahá’í scripture are disparate and offer varied hermeneutics, thereby reflecting renowned Bahá’í scholar Moojan Momen’s observation that “the Baha’i approach to the reading of Scripture is a multi-faceted one.”Footnote 110 Each of the aforementioned dimensions of Bahá’í angels reveals a utilitarian implication.
A. Avatars of the Holy Spirit
First, in depicting the Holy Spirit as either the iconic ḥúríyyih or as a host of angels, Bahá’í holy writ underlines the authority of the divine and Bahá’u’lláh as God’s latest manifestation. Giorgio Agamben argues that “angelology directly coincides with a theory of power.”Footnote 111 In this vein, the presence of the angel-maiden in the messianic founding moment of the Bahá’í religion, and the continued scriptural references to that angel, accentuate a claim to divine power that resonates not only theologically but politically. Akin to how religious authorities confirm a new monarch, Bahá’u’lláh is crowned by the Holy Spirit qua angel. Bahá’u’lláh’s anointment by the ḥúríyyih functions as a rivalry to the political power of the state in the context of the repression of the Bábí and Bahá’í Faiths by the shah of Iran and the subsequent string of state-sponsored exiles suffered by Bahá’u’lláh and His family.Footnote 112 Consider that this angel is not simply a heavenly messenger acting on divine command but instead personifies the Holy Spirit and provides a direct form of ministration to, and anointment of, the manifestation of God as Bahá’u’lláh, who then embodies the religious movement’s own legitimacy. By describing how the “Maid of Heaven” spoke directly to Him, Bahá’u’llah indicates a divine commission; the ḥúríyyih’s appearance appeals to the restoration of the Abrahamic faith as a dominion on this earth. Moreover, the angel of the Holy Spirit supercharges the political dimension of Bahá’í prophecy, thus sanctifying Bahá’u’lláh’s claim that there will be the establishment of a Bahá’í world commonwealth—a world government in which the Bahá’í Faith becomes state religion.Footnote 113
The depiction of the Holy Spirit as a host of unnamed angels who descend to the material world through Bahá’í prayer and meditation serves as a ritual paradigm for giving the abstract power of the Holy Spirit a tangible foothold in everyday life; Bahá’í scripture provides a cosmological framework for the mystical intercession of the Holy Spirit in the world of humanity.Footnote 114 For the laity, the Holy Spirit qua angels represents neither a form of direct revelation nor a vague form of inspiration, but illuminates renewed divine presence, assistance, and instruction. This form of power is double-sided. It accentuates that divine declaration is necessary and affords agency to make requests of God. This form of guidance is esoteric and asserts itself only to those who have a material or spiritual desideratum. This establishes Bahá’í theology as promoting a dialogic relationship with an all-powerful, yet sympathetic, God. The angelic Holy Spirit, as helper and remover of difficulties, draws attention to the Bahá’í theological imperative that humanity requires divine remediation of material troubles, while affording legitimacy to human behavior, will power, and faculties to identify what material issues should be succored by the angels of the Holy Spirit.
B. Celestial Beings in a Divine Hierarchy
In the second dimension, angels appear not as the Holy Spirit but as distinct celestial beings. Whether read literally or allegorically, the hyperbolic language of such Bahá’í angelophony functions to accentuate the intangibles and mysteries of a holistic reality. Claims to angelic ontology express the mysterious exaltedness of numerous realms and of secret “treasure from on high!”Footnote 115 Here, the Bahá’í angel is similar to the angel of the Hekhalot tradition: “celestial beings possessing mythic characteristics … exalted figures who inspire awe and which can be seen and heard and can even become interlocutors.”Footnote 116 The angel functions as a potent reminder of a mysterious cosmos, both beautiful and terrifying. As Lawrence Osborn noted: “To entertain angels is to allow the horror vacui to become once again the mysterium tremendum which sings to us not of itself but of the glory of its creator.”Footnote 117
Bahá’í angels thus collapse the distinction between spiritual and material realms, emphasizing an enigmatic yet unified “otherness” to existence. Theologian Walter Wink argued that angels “are not personifications…. They are real. But their reality cannot be grasped if it is projected onto the sky. They are not ‘out there’ or ‘up there’ but within. They are the invisible spirituality that animates, sustains, and guides.”Footnote 118 Apropos such enigmas, outside of the ḥúríyyih’s appearance to Bahá’u’llah, Bahá’í references to angels are seldomly used in either theological arguments or apologetics. Akin to the Pauline epistles, the mention of angels in Bahá’í scripture serves as a stylized and extravagant warning to pursue good works and serves to encourage and remind that one is never outside the bounds of divine grace.Footnote 119 The concept of angels embodying the Holy Spirit necessitates appreciation for, and faith in, the mysteries of God. To lay claim to a belief that the angels may assert influence in one’s life, one is provided with an active and dialogic relationship with the divine that is not just mysterium tremendum but is mysterium fascinosum. Comfort is offered by angels that “represent the silent flow of omnipresence and glimmers of eschatological potential.”Footnote 120 Belief in celestial beings and their abode in Malakút safeguards Bahá’í teachings from full reduction to the knowable natural world and a normative morality. Rather, the celestial existence of angels foregrounds the mystical covenanted relationship of God to humanity, thereby highlighting the interactional and dialogic relationship in which humanity’s changing social needs will always be visited upon by angels.
C. Angels as Spiritually Evolved, Virtuous People
By offering a radical redefinition and demystification of the angel as a human being with the potential for both angelic and demonic behavior, Bahá’í theology attempts to reconcile spirituality and materialism. In constructing angels as spiritually evolved people engaged in salvific labor, Bahá’í angelology accentuates Bahá’í theological claims to the duality of human nature. On the one hand, this perspective reiterates the ancient Zoroastrian view “found in the Pahlavi texts of the Sassanid period, which refer to a mysticism based upon angelic internalization being achieved in the inmost consciousness,”Footnote 121 as well as more recent Sufi notions of rūḥ, or human soul, which was often configured as an angel.
On the other hand, the demystification of angels as merely virtuous human beings gestures toward the dominant tensions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that made a Janus-faced theology of selfhood particularly attractive. Bahá’í angelology emerged in a period of both theological reformulation and scientific enlightenment. Literal angels, especially angelic visitations, were increasingly viewed as either improbable or illogical. The humanization of angels helped to balance and merge the supernatural and the rational, even blurring the two as Bahá’í scripture explicitly claimed the fundamental unity, rather than opposition, of science and religion. It is therefore no surprise that we witness the angel as human most explicitly in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s 1911–1913 talks delivered to North American and European communities, ranging from theosophical societies and Christian churches to lettered audiences on college campuses and groups like the NAACP and first-wave feminist suffragettes.Footnote 122 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s words, in consort with the Bahá’í scripture on the other central figures, acknowledge the rational and scientific abilities of humanity but also bring those faculties to bear in charting, knowing, and communing with a world beyond the veil—thereby appealing to the prophetic tradition of social change.
Most importantly, the construction of the angel as a virtuous human illumines the Bahá’í notion of humanity as both a product and producer of divine influence in the world. That is, attention to the angelic and demonic capacities of humanity is also a reflection of the dual nature of religion within Bahá’í theology. Religion possesses both a spiritual and a social aspect, whereby the former appeals to a transcendent or “Absolute” reality while the latter acknowledges that religion is formed from sociological dynamics subject to transitory beliefs, behaviors, and institutions.Footnote 123 This dichotomous notion of religion enables the Bahá’í conception of a dialogic relationship between God and humanity. The celestial virtues of angels, now within people, reveal humanity and the earthly realm as sites where God may reside, dependent on humanity’s choices. Such an interpretation is bolstered in The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh (a text Shoghí Effendi called “Bahá’u’lláh’s pre-eminent ethical work”Footnote 124 and named after the “Hidden Book of Fatimih,” believed by some to be the words of the angel Gabriel to Fatimih, a daughter of MuhammadFootnote 125 ): “Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent. Thy spirit is My place of revelation; cleanse it for My manifestation”;Footnote 126 or “Love Me That I may Love thee, if thou Lovest Me Not my Love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O Servant.”Footnote 127 To become angelic, humanity must simultaneously rely on its imagination and agency, which then allows for the influence of divinity in this world, thereby accentuating human agency and capacity in dialogic form.
D. Angels as Manifestations of God
The next dimension of Bahá’í angelology unites the religious prophets, specifically the manifestations of God, with the angels. This functions to signify the divine status of Bahá’u’lláh but also places all manifestations on par with one another as a unified station of perfected and obedient conduits of God’s word. Now understood as divinely anointed nonagentic messengers, akin to the angelic hosts, in the Bahá’í theory of the “manifestation,” these conduits are placed in the context of “progressive revelation,” which has a three-fold function: 1) the truth of prior manifestations is acknowledged; 2) the fundamental agreement of all religion is affirmed, and; 3) the prior concept of angels, along with their religio-cultural significance, becomes subsumed within Bahá’í theology.
Called the “single most striking and defining element of the Bahá’í Faith,”Footnote 128 the concept of progressive revelation is the theory that God sends messengers to the world to renew religion. That messenger, or the manifestation-as-angel, is a perfected entity that is distinct yet identical to the others. Here, Bahá’í scripture invites a dramaturgical exegesis: the angels/manifestations are understood as successive chapters in a larger religious narrative. Furthermore, if they are the same, bound via their utility and divinity, regardless of the specific names applied to them, then so are the religious faiths. Such a chronicle thus affirms the legitimacy of prior religious messengers as brothers of an angelic fraternity. Thus, the angel as manifestation serves to rearrange and supercharge each figure as a temporary vicar in an ageless ministry. Finally, by collapsing the figure of the angel and the manifestation in the context of progressive revelation, Bahá’í theology imbues scripture and angelic figures of prior faiths with a distinctive Bahá’í meaning and place within a new theological cosmology. This was also a sociological move; Bahá’í scriptural references to Islamic angels labored to normalize a new (and what was often seen as heretical) faith, emerging in the context of societies in which angels, jinn, and shayāṭīn were believed to circulate regularly. Through Bahá’í appeals to the Qur’an and hadith and mi’raj literature, Bahá’í theology came to be less a departure from Islamic orthodoxy than an augmentation via Islamic apologetics.
E. Angels as Bearers and Personifications of Divine Virtue
Last, by viewing angels as the bearers and personifications of divine virtue, Bahá’í theology reconfigures the angel to function as a transformational mechanism. That is, the Bahá’í notion of God is not an ontological category, but rather is understood through behavior; God is understandable less as a noun than as a verb. Divinity is comprehensible in the valence of processual behavior as an imperfect reflection of that divinity. Toward this end, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá employs the analogy of the sun and its rays:
The light of the sun emanates from the sun; it does not manifest it. Appearance through emanation is like the appearance of the rays from the sun: The sanctified Essence of the Sun of Truth cannot be divided or descend into the condition of the creation. In the same way, the sun does not divide itself or descend upon the earth, but its rays—the outpourings of its grace—emanate from it and illumine the dark bodies.Footnote 129
People are images of God, or in the above analogy, reflections of the sun in the mirror of the soul. Knowledge of God requires virtuous faculties bestowed upon humanity by the divine but is irreducible to such virtues themselves. The essence of God is unknowable. Thus, this dimension of Bahá’í angelology represents the transformation of fluid, abstract axiologies into stable, knowable ontologies; the angel personifies the knowable God—divine virtues.
Conclusion
Bahá’í orthopraxy generally oscillates between literal and allegorical hermeneutics.Footnote 130 Angels are no exception. The Bahá’í angel is most often discussed as either the “ḥúríyyih” or as an abstract metaphor for divine inspiration, but overall, the angel of Bahá’í scripture is ignored by scholars. I argue that angels, rather than remaining marginalized or esoteric figures, serve as important doctrinal touchstones. Illuminating the varied types and functions of Bahá’í angels helps chart Bahá’í theology in important ways that reflect an emphasis on God’s dialogic relationship to humanity.
As seen through the figure of the angel, the Bahá’í dispensation represents a significant reinterpretation of both the meaning of religion and the relationship of the divine to humanity. Conventionally, religion is understood as monological, an unchanging reality that transcends society and history. Thus, religious adherents tend to treat their faith as absolute until the end of history itself—an eschatological finality. Yet, as humanity changes, with both scientific advances and new challenges, religion is frequently viewed as an antiquated obstacle unable to contend with society’s unique problems. However, Bahá’í theologian Nadar Saiedi explains:
the Baha’i concept of religion defines religion as a dialogue between God and humanity, a product of an interaction between divine knowledge/will and a specific stage of human development, needs, and conditions. Religion is not an absolute divine command. Instead, it is the reflection of the divine will in the mirror of human historical receptivity. Consequently, religion becomes historical and dynamic. The source of religion is absolute, but religion is the relative manifestation of this absolute in the mirror of human reality.Footnote 131
All religions are reconceptualized as dialogical; the word of God is a living reality, a dialectical synthesis of eternity and historicity. The angel of the Bahá’í Faith points the way toward this ongoing, interactional dialogue.
While I have enumerated five types and functions of the Bahá’í angel, one cannot but recognize how the interrelation and complexity of sources, traditions, and styles within Bahá’í scripture confound efforts either to succinctly summarize angels or to commit to a singular hermeneutical view, whether literal, allegorical, tropological, dramaturgical, typological, or anagogical. Even when outlining how angels appear as maiden, messenger, manifestation, man, or moral, these types fail to encapsulate either the complete denotations or full utility of angels. But by holistically approaching all simultaneously and as overlapping, angels immediately appear as more than the sum of their parts—as sui generis. The angel is thus less a thing to be catalogued than a unique lens through which we may gain new vistas on how the world relates to the divine. Valery Rees captured well the conundrum of angelology: “we are missing the point if we try to pin down too closely what each archangel is called, or even how many of them there may be. They are more like a kaleidoscope rather than a fixed band.”Footnote 132 From the Greek, a kaleidoscope bares “beautiful forms to see.” Accordingly, studying the angels of Bahá’í holy writ provides a brightened and multihued outlook on God’s connection to humanity. If we engage these celestial figures as “shards and fragments of the revelatory sources,”Footnote 133 we may glimpse sparkles and refractions of divinity.
Angelic References in Bahá’í Authoritative Scripture
