Who are we to question God, to test God, to dispute idly with the word of God.

 

190. Who are we to question God, to test God, to dispute idly with God over that which is beyond our understanding. To do so is nothing but to display our own short comings and uncontrolled arrogance: How can we assume to have the knowledge and understanding to question the will of God? The books of the religions of God tell us this is far beyond us and our capacity and limited comprehension.

BAHA’I FAITH: “How can man, the created, understand the reality of the pure Essence of the Creator?”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 147)

 JUDAISM: Deuteronomy 6:16 “Ye shall not tempt The LORD your God,” Ye shall not question His motives. Isaiah 49:9 “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?”

How can the created begin to understand what God is doing with us or what His desire is for us. That is like the painting trying to understand the painter who painted it. The difference between the two is so vast that the one cannot begin to comprehend the difference between the two. God is so far beyond anything we can comprehend that to even try is just pure imagination on our part. Since this is the case who are we to question the signs of God and dispute His actions with us on this plane of existence. Only He knows what is best for us in this life and in the next life to come. We can’t even begin to comprehend the enormity of what He has in store for us, so how do we know what is best for us? We don’t; so who are we to idly question God?

 BABI RELIGION: “Thou art faithful to Thy promise and doest whatsoever Thou pleasest. Thou art the One Who holdeth in His hands the dominions of earth and heaven. Verily Thou art the Almighty, the Inaccessible, the Help in Peril, the All-Compelling.” “How then could they, who are but the creation of the Point, be justified in saying ‘why or wherefore’?

(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, pp. 167 and 209)

BAHA’I FAITH: “The most burning fire is to question the signs of God, to dispute idly that which He hath revealed, to deny Him and carry one’s self proudly before Him.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 156)

 BABI RELIGION: “It is for God to test His servants, and not for His servants to judge Him in accordance with their deficient standards.”

The Bab: (Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 59)

 CHRISTIANITY: Titus 3:9 “Avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.” Luke and Matthew 4:12 “Thou shalt not tempt The Lord thy God.” Romans 9:20 “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?”

BAHA’I FAITH: “This is not the day for any man to question his Lord. It behoveth whosoever hath hearkened to the Call of God, as voiced by Him Who is the Day Spring of Glory, to arise and cry out: ‘Here am I, here am I, O Lord of all Names; here am I, here am I, O Maker of the heavens! I testify that, through Thy Revelation, the things hidden in the Books of God have been revealed, and that whatsoever hath been recorded by Thy Messengers in the sacred Scriptures hath been fulfilled.”’

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 163)

 ISLAM: 128. “Not for thee, (but for Allah, God), is the decision: whether He turn in mercy to them, or punish them; for they are indeed wrongdoers.”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah   3)

Islam: 22. “If there were, in the heavens and the earth, other gods besides Allah, there would have been confusion in both! But glory to Allah, The Lord of the Throne: (high is He) above what they attribute to Him!” “He cannot be questioned for His acts, but they will be questioned (for theirs).”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah  21)

 ZOROASTRIANISM: 5. “May’st Thou, O Ahura Mazda (God)! reign at Thy will, and with a saving rule over Thine own creatures.” “O Ahura, may we never provoke your wrath,” “May’st Thou rule at Thy will, (beyond all question) O Lord.”

(Zoroaster, The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Yasna 8, 11 and 28)

 HINDUISM: 8. “A learned man after fully scrutinizing all this with the eye of knowledge, should, in accordance with the authority of the revealed texts, be intent on (the performance of) his duties.” 9. “For that man who obeys the law prescribed in the revealed texts and in the sacred tradition, gains fame in this (world) and after death unsurpassable bliss.” 10. “But by Sruti (revelation) is meant the Veda, and by Smriti (tradition) the Institutes of the sacred law: those two must not be called into question in any matter, since from those two the sacred law shone forth.”

(Hindu, Laws of Manu chapter 2)

 Hinduism: “Question none the will of Heaven.” “Tempt not wrath and fiery vengeance.”

(Hindu, Ramayana and Mababharata (R. Dutt, abridged tr))

 BUDDHISM: “Now, if any one should put the question, whether I admit any view at all, he should be answered thus:” “The Perfect One is free from any theory, for the Perfect One has understood what corporeality is, and how it arises, and passes away. He has understood what feeling is, and how it arises, and passes away. He has understood what perception is, and how it arises, and passes away. He has understood what the mental formations are, and how they arise, and pass away. He has understood what consciousness is, and how it arises, and passes away. Therefore, I say, the Perfect One has won complete deliverance through the extinction, fading-away, disappearance, rejection, and getting rid of all opinions and conjectures, of all inclination to the vainglory of ‘I’ and ‘mine.”’

((The Eightfold Path), Buddha, the Word (The Eightfold Path))

 SABEANISM: “He (man) will be put to the question. (But) I (Haiyi, God) shall not be put to the question.” (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapter 18)