You raise two basic issues, that all the Manifestations of
God known to us have been men, and that they have appeared in the East.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself in a talk given in Maiden,
Massachusetts, confirms that "The East has ever been the dawning point of
the Sun of Reality. All the Prophets of God have appeared there. The religions
of God have been promulgated, the teachings of God have been spread, and the
law of God founded in the East. The Orient has always been the center of
lights." (The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 289) Indeed, one can see
that the Prophets of God named in the Scriptures have appeared, not just in the
East, but in a very limited area of the East, stretching from the Levant and
Egypt across Iran as far as India. We have no authenticated records of Chinese
or Japanese Prophets. However, to complement this we must remember that the
Founders of the Great Religions are but one of the kinds of prophet, and we
should study the following Qur’ánic statements:
(Surah 10, verse 47) And certainly We raised in every nation
an apostle saying: Serve God and shun the devil. . . .(Surah 16, verse 36) And
on the day when We will raise up a witness out of every nation, then shall no
permission be given to those who disbelieve, nor shall they be made to solicit
favor. (Surah 16, verse 84) And there is not a people but a warner has gone
among them. (Surah 35, verse 24)
- The Universal House of Justice (From a message dated 27
October 1986 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an
individual believer; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1986-2001’)
