The Baha'i concept of God is that of a single, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving deity. God is seen as the source of all existence and the sustainer of the universe. Baha'is believe that God is the ultimate goal of all human endeavor, and that the purpose of human life is to know and love God, and to bring one's actions and thoughts into alignment with God's will.
In Baha'i teachings, God is described as being beyond human comprehension, and therefore can only be known and understood through the manifestation of God's attributes and qualities in the world. These manifestations, referred to as "Manifestations of God," are seen as the messengers and prophets of God, who have been sent throughout history to reveal the divine teachings to humanity.
Bahá'u'lláh taught that God is too great and too subtle a Being for the finite human mind ever to understand Him adequately or to construct an accurate image of Him. He wrote:
How wondrous is the unity of the Living, the Ever-Abiding God--a unity which is exalted above all limitations, that transcendeth the comprehension of all created things.... How lofty hath been His incorruptible Essence, how completely independent of the knowledge of all created things, and how immensely exalted will it remain above the praise of all the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth!
According to Bahá'í teachings, God is so far beyond His creation that, throughout all eternity, human beings will never be able to formulate any clear image of Him or attain to anything but the most remote appreciation of His superior nature. Even if we say that God is the All-Powerful, the All-Loving, the Infinitely Just, such terms are derived from a very limited human experience of power, love, or justice. Indeed, our knowledge of anything is limited to our knowledge of those attributes or qualities perceptible to us.