The superiority of man over the rest of the created world is
seen again in this, that man has a soul in which dwells the divine spirit; the
souls of the lower creatures are inferior in their essence.
There is no doubt then, that of all created beings man is
the nearest to the nature of God, and therefore receives a greater gift of the
Divine Bounty.
The mineral kingdom possesses the power of existing. The
plant has the power of existing and growing. The animal, in addition to
existence and growth, has the capacity of moving about, and the use of the
faculties of the senses. In the human kingdom we find all the attributes of the
lower worlds, with much more added thereto. Man is the sum of every previous
creation, for he contains them all.
To man is given the special gift of the intellect by which
he is able to receive a larger share of the light Divine. The Perfect Man is as
a polished mirror reflecting the Sun of Truth, manifesting the attributes of
God.
The Lord Christ said, ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father’—God manifested in man. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, from a talk, Paris, October 20,
1911, ‘Paris Talks’)
