Some of the philosophers believe that
God is the Supreme Reality and that every human being has a spark of this
divine reality within him; that He Himself is in a state of utmost power and
that all things manifest Him according to their different capacities. Therefore
they hold that the Supreme Being is dispersed into infinite forms. This is the
position of Plato. But we say that existence as conceived by man or
comprehended through human reason or intellect is a characteristic of matter.
Matter is like unto essence, while existence is its manifestation. The body of
man is essence and existence is dependent upon it. This human body is matter
while existence is a power conditioned on matter.
But it is not so with the Essential
Self-Existent One. His existence is true existence which is self-subsistent,
not an intellectually perceived and comprehended existence; it is an Existence
by which all created things come into being. All things are like unto His
handiwork and are dependent upon Him. We refer to Him as Self-Existent because
we need to make use of a term but we do not mean that that Being can be
contained within our comprehension. What is intended is the Reality from Whom
all things emanate, the Reality through Whom all things exist. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, excerpt from a
talk, August 18, 1912, Green Acre, USA; ‘Mahmud’s Diary’)
