LAHUT(DIVINITY):This is the realm in which the potentialities hidden within the Essence of God are first actualised and revealed,but still within the Godhead;the realm of "He is HE and there is none but He."In this realm,the divine names and attributes,potentials concealed in the realm of Hahut achieve existence. This realm is the first emanation from God,the first revelation of the Essence of God.In Bahai terminolgy,it has variously been named THE HEAVENLY COURT,THE ALL GLORIOUS HORIZON,THE WORD OF GOD and the Manifestation of God in this station is called the LORD OF LORDS,THE TONGUE OF GRANDEUR,THE MOST EXALTED PEN,THE PRIMAL WILL.In other religious dispensation it has been identified as Jehovah,THE SPEAKER ON SINAI,THE LOGOS,THE NOUS OR DIVINE INTELLECT OR THE FIRST MIND.

Though much of this realm arose from the concepts derived from Plato and Socrates but it is to Plotinus(203-269 AD) Philosophical system of Neo-Platonism that we owe much of the present day concepts and ideas.From the absolutely simple One,which is beyond all thought and beyond all reality (which Plotinus sometimes calls 'the Father'),there emanates,firstly,Thought,mind,or Nous,whose content is the world of Forms or Being.The procession of multiplicity out of the ultimate Divine Unity is mediated by a gradation of beings which issue(or proceed,or emanate)from God by necessity.This emanation of beings could not have been by free creation out of nothing,since creation would involve change in God.It is therefore an emanation 'according to necessity of nature.It is a succession or procession which is timeless,and so the world as a whole is eternal.This emanation of NOUS can be partially understood in terms of an imperfect analogy with the radiation of heat and light from the sun or from fire,or with the diffusion of scent from aflower.The emantion,however,is eternal and spontaneous;and it leaves the all perfect source undiminished and unchanged.Emanation occurs because perfection is necessarily diffusive of itself.

Nous or Thought in its first 'moment'of outgoing is Thought-in- potency.In its second 'moment',it is Thought-in-action turning back to contemplate its source ;and in doing so it becomes informed Thought ,filled with content.The two moments or movements are timeless and simultaneous.The world of NOUS IS THE WORLD OF BEAUTY.It is world of the Forms of Being WHICH ARE MANIFOLD IMAGE OF THE ONE.These

Forms or archetypes include the Forms of individual things in all their particularity as well as the Forms of classes;and all are contained indivisibly and inseparably in Divine Thought.

UNIVERSAL SOUL,one of the forms of being,proceeds from NOUS and becomes a link,or bridge-principle between the intelligible world and the corporeal universe.Universal Soul,in turn,contemplates Mind,and becomes informed Soul.It gives being and life to the corporeal universe.It gives being and life to the corporeal universe.It is the universal principle source through which bodies are informed .From the Universal Soul there emanate 1)World-Soul,that is,the soul of the organic universe,Nature and 2)individual souls which,by the law of the Universal,occupy and administer those bodies to which they are appointed.

 Abdul Baha expands this concepts further and explains in Some Answered Questions that"....all creatures emanate from God,that is to say,it is by God that all things are realised,and by Him all beings have attained to existence.The first thing that which emanated from God is that universal reality,which the ancient philosophers termed the "FIRST MIND",and which the people of Baha call the "PRIMAL WILL".This emanation in that which concerns its action in the world of God,is not limited in time or place;it is without beginning or end,as beginning and end in relation to God are one.The preexistence of God is preexistence of essence also preexistence of time....Though the "first mind"is without beginning,it does not become a sharer in the preexistence of God,for the existence of the universal reality in relation to God is nothingness and it has not the power to become an associate of God and like unto him in preexistence."

 The Bab in the Commentary on the Sura of Abundance(Tafsir Surat al-kawthar)written 1845-46 as he is commenting on the first letter"K"(kaf) relates to the 'WORD' being associated with Divine Epiphany(tajalli):

"Now the letter'kaf' signifieth the Primordial Word(kalimat al awwali)before which the Greatest Depth(amq al-akbar)was held in check.It crieth out in praise of its Creator in the Seventh Citadel of the snow-white Thicket in the Divine Realm(al-lahut)..."

Expressing about this realm,Bahaullah calls this as the WORD OF GOD(KALIMATULLAH) and notes the following points in the LAWH-I-HIKMAT:-

a)...is higher and far superior to that which the senses can percieve for it is sanctified from any property or substance.

b)It transcendeth the limitations of known elements and is exalted above all the essential and recognised substances.

c)It became manifest without any syllable or sound and is none but the Command of God which pervadeth all createth things.

d)It is God's all-pervasive grace,from which all grace doth emanate.

e)It is an entity far removed above all that hath been and shall be.

Further he states in the same tablet that".....a world which is adorned with the splendours of the Ancient of Days,yet is being renewed and regenerated at all times..."

Further in the 'TABLET OF THE ESSENCE OF PRAISE(LAWH-I-JAWHAR-I-HAMD)an unpublished Persian Epistle categorically states that the "Blessed and Primordial Word(Kalimat)which shone forth from the Dawning Place of the Will(mashiyya) of the King of the Divine Oneness(God)as the agent of creation is equated with the 'Self'(nafs)of the Manifestation of God." Looking from this realm the Manifestation of God could claim 'Divinity' and being the God head.