Edition:Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era (1923)/Bāb: The Forerunner

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CHAPTER II

BAB!: THE FORERUNNER

“Verily the oppressor hath slain the Beloved of the worlds that he might thereby quench the Light of God amidst His creatures and withhold mankind from the Stream of Celestial Life in the days of his Lord, the Gracious, the Bountiful.”—Bana’u’LuAn, in Tablet to Ra’is.

Birthplace of the New Revelation.

Persia, the birthplace of the Baha’i Revelation, has occupied a unique place in the history of the world. In the days of her early greatness she was a veritable queen among nations, unrivalled in civilization, in power and in splendour. She gave to the world great kings and statesmen, prophets and poets, philosophers and artists. Zoroaster, Cyrus and Darius, Hafiz and Firdawsi, Sa‘di and ‘Umar Khayyam are but a few of her many famous sons. Her craftsmen were unsurpassed in skill; her carpets were matchless, her steel blades unequalled, her pottery worldfamed. In all parts of the Near and Middle East she has left traces of her former greatness.

Yet, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries she had sunk to a condition of deplorable degradation. - Her ancient glory seemed irretrievably lost. Her government was corrupt and in desperate financial straits; some of her rulers were feeble, and others monsters of cruelty. Her priests were bigoted and intolerant, her people ignorant and superstitious. Most of them belonged to the Shi‘ah sect 2 of Muhammadans, but there were also consider « The “a” pronounced as in Shah.

2 One of the two great factions—Shi‘ah and Sunni—into which Islam fell soon after the death of Muhammad. The Shi‘ahs claim that ‘Ali, the son-inlaw of Muhammad, was the first legitimate successor of the prophet, and that

only his descendants are the rightful caliphs. 20 [Page 21]BAB: THE FORERUNNER ai

able numbers of Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians, of diverse and antagonistic sects. All professed to follow sublime teachers who exhorted them to worship the one God and to live in love and unity, yet they shunned, detested and despised each other, each sect regarding the others as unclean, as dogs or heathens. Cursing and execration were indulged in to a fearful extent. It was dangerous for a Jew or a Zoroastrian to walk in the street ona rainy day, for if his wet garment should touch a Muhammadan, the Muslim was defiled, and the other might have to atone for the offence with his life. If a Muhammadan took money from a Jew, Zoroastrian or Christian he had to wash it before he could put it in his pocket. Ifa Jew found his child giving a glass of water to a poor Muhammadan beggar he would dash the glass from the child’s hand, for curses rather than kindness should be the portion of infidels! The Muslims themselves were divided into numerous sects, among whom strife was often bitter and fierce. ‘The Zoroastrians did not join much in these mutual recriminations, but lived in communities apart, refusing to associate with their fellow-countrymen of other faiths.

Social as well as religious affairs were in a state of hopeless decadence. Education was neglected. Western science and art were looked upon as unclean and contrary to religion. Justice was travestied, Pillage and robbery were of common occurrence. Roads were bad and unsafe for travel. Sanitary arrangements were shockingly defective.

Yet, notwithstanding all this, the light of spiritual life was not extinct in Persia. Here and there, amid the prevailing worldliness and superstition, could still be found some saintly souls, and in many a heart the longing for God was cherished, as in the hearts of Anna and Simeon before the appearance of Jesus. Many were eagerly awaiting the coming of a promised Messenger of God, and confident that the time of his advent was at hand. Such was the state of affairs in Persia when the Bab, the Herald of a new era, set all the country in commotion with his message.

Early Life.

Mirza ‘Ali Muhammad, who afterwards assumed the title of Bab (i.e. Gate), was born at Shiraz, in the south of Persia, [Page 22]22, BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

on the 20th of October, 1819 a.p.t He was a Sayyid, that is, a descendant of the prophet Muhammad. His father, a wellknown merchant, died soon after his birth, and he was then placed under the care of a maternal uncle, a merchant of Shiraz, who brought him up. In childhood he learned to read, and received the elementary education customary for children.2 At the age of fifteen he went into business, at first with his guardian, and afterwards with another uncle who lived at Bushire, on the shore of the Persian Gulf.

As a youth he was noted for great personal beauty and charm of manner, and also for exceptional piety, and nobility of character. He was unfailing in his observance of the prayers, fasts and other ordinances of the Muhammadan religion, and not only obeyed the letter, but lived in the spirit of the prophet’s teaching. He married when about twenty-two years of age. Of this marriage one son was born, who died while still an infant, in the first year of the Bab’s public ministry.

Declaration.

On reaching his twenty-fifth year, in response to divine command, he declared that “‘ God the Exalted had elected him to the station of Babhood.” In “A ‘Traveller's Narrative’ we read that :—

t First day of Muharram, 1235 A.H.

2 On this point Jinab-i-Avarih remarks: ‘‘ The belief of many people in the East, especially the believers in the Bab (now Baha'is) was this: that the Bab received no education, but that the Mullas, in order to lower him in the eyes of the people, declared that such knowledge and wisdom as he possessed were accounted for by the education he had received. After deep search into the truth of this matter we have found evidence to shew that in childhood for a short time he used to go to the house of Shaykh Muhammad (also known as Abid) where he was taught to read and write in Persian. It was this to which the Bab referred when he wrote in the book of Bayan: ‘O Muhammad, O my teacher!...

«The remarkable thing is this, however, that this Shaykh, who was his teacher, became a devoted disciple of his own pupil, and the uncle of the Bab who was like a father to him, whose name was Haji Sayyid “Ali, also became a devout believer and was martyred as a Babi.

« The understanding of these mysteries is given to seekers after truth, but we know this, that such education as the Bab received was but elementary, and that whatever signs of unusual greatness and knowledge appeared in him were innate and from God.” [Page 23]BAB: THE FORERUNNER 23

“ What he intended by the term ‘ Bab’ was this : that he was the channel of grace from some great Person still behind the veil of glory, who was the possessor of countless and boundless perfections, by whose will he moved and to the bond of whose love he clung.” —Episode of the Bab, p. 3.

In those days belief in the imminent appearance of a Divine Messenger was especially prevalent among a sect known as Shaykhis, and it was to a distinguished divine belonging to this sect, called Mulla Husayn Bushri’l, that the Bab first announced his mission. The exact date of this announcement is given in the Bayan, one of the Bab’s writings, as two hours and fifteen minutes after sunset on the 5th day of the month of Jamadiyw’ l-Avval, 1260 A.H.! (i. e. 23rd May, 1844 a.p.). Aftersome days of anxious investigation and study, Mulla Husayn became firmly convinced that the Messenger long expected by the Shi‘ahs had indeed appeared. His eager enthusiasm over this discovery was soon shared by several of his friends. Before long the majority of the Shaykhis accepted the Bab, becoming known as Babis ; and soon the fame of the young prophet began to spread like neil fire throughout the land.

Spread of the Babi Movement.

The first eighteen disciples of the Bab (with himself as nineteenth) became known as “‘ Letters of the Living.” These disciples he sent to different parts of Persia and Turkestan to spread the news of his advent. Meantime he himself set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he arrived in December 1844, and there, before a large number of pilgrims from all parts of the Muhammadan world, he openly declared his mission. On his return to Bushire great excitement was caused by the announcement of his Babhood. The fire of his eloquence, the wonder of his rapid and inspired writings, his extraordinary wisdom and knowledge, his courage and zeal as a reformer, aroused the greatest enthusiasm among his followers, but excited a corresponding degree of alarm and enmity among the orthodox Muslims. ‘The Shi‘ah doctors vehemently denounced him, and persuaded the Governor of Fars, named Husayn Khan, a fanatical and tyrannical ruler, to undertake the

t aA.H.—Anno Hejirae—in the year of Hijrat (i.e. the flight of Muhammad from Madinah to Mecca in 622 A.D.). [Page 24]24 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

suppression of the new heresy. Then commenced for the Bab a long series of imprisonments, deportations, examinations before tribunals, scourgings and indignities, which ended. only with his martyrdom in 1850,

Claims of Bab.

The hostility aroused by the claim of Babhood was redoubled when the young reformer proceeded to declare that he was himself the Mihdi (Mahdi) whose coming Muhammad had foretold. The Shi‘ahs identified this Mihdi with the 12th Imam?! who had mysteriously disappeared from the sight of men about a thousand years previously. They believed that he was still alive and would reappear in the same body as before, and they interpreted in a material sense the prophecies regarding his dominion, his glory, his conquests and the “signs” of his advent, just as the Jews in the time of Christ interpreted similar prophecies regarding the Messiah. They expected that he would appear with earthly sovereignty and an innumerable army and declare his revelation, that he would raise dead bodies and restore them to life, and so on. As these signs did not appear, the Shi‘ahs rejected the Bab with the same fierce scorn which the Jews displayed towards Jesus. “The Babis, on the other hand, interpreted many of the prophecies figuratively. They regarded the sovereignty of the Promised One, like that of the Galilean “ Man of Sorrows,” as a mystical sovereignty ; his glory as spiritual, not earthly glory ; his conquests as conquests over the cities of men’s hearts; and they found abundant proof of the Bab’s claim in his wonderful life and teachings, his unshakable faith, his invincible steadfastness, and his power of raising to newness of spiritual life, those who were in the graves of error and ignorance.

But the Bab did not stop even with the claim of Mihdihood. He adopted the sacred title of “‘ Nuqtiyi-ala ” or “‘ Primal Point.”

« The Imam of the Shi‘ahs is the divinely ordained successor of the Prophet whom all the faithful must obey. Twelve persons successively held the office of Imam, the first being ‘Ali the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet. The twelfth was called by the Shi‘ahs Imam Mihdi. They hold that he did not die, but disappeared in an underground passage, A.H. 329, and that in the fulness of time he will come forth, overthrow the infidels and inaugurate an era of blessedness. [Page 25]BAB: THE FORERUNNER 25

This was a title applied to Muhammad himself by his followers. Even the Imams were secondary in importance to the “‘ Point,” from whom they derived their inspiration and authority. In assuming this title, the Bab claimed to rank, like Muhammad, in the series of great Founders of Religion, and for this reason, in the eyes of the Shi‘ahs, he was regarded as an impostor, just as Moses and Jesus before him had been regarded as impostors. He even inaugurated a new Calendar, restoring the Solar year, and dating the commencement of the New Era from the year of his own declaration.

Persecution Increases.

In consequence of these declarations of the Bab and the alarming rapidity with which people of all classes, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, were eagerly responding to his teaching, attempts at suppression became more and more ruthless and determined. Houses were pillaged and destroyed. Women were seized and carried off. In Tihran, Fars, Mazandaran, and other places great numbers of the believers were put to death. Many were beheaded, hanged, blown from the mouths of cannon, burnt or chopped to pieces. Despite all attempts at repression, however, the movement progressed. Nay, through this very oppression the assurance of the believers increased, for thereby many of the prophecies concerning the coming of the Mihdi were literally fulfilled. Thus in a tradition recorded by Jabir, which the Shi‘ahs regard as authentic, we read :-—

“In him shall be the perfection of Moses, the preciousness of Jesus, and the patience of Job; his saints shall be abased in his time, and their heads shall be exchanged as presents, even as the heads of the Turk and the Deylamite are exchanged as presents; they shall be slain and burned, and shall be afraid, fearful and dismayed ; the earth shall be dyed with their blood, and lamentation shall prevail amongst their women; these are my saints indeed.” —New History of the Bad, translated by Prof. E.G. Browne, p. 132.

Martyrdom of the Bab.

On the 9th of July, 1850,t the Bab himself, who was then in his thirty-first year, fell a victim to the fanatical fury of his

Friday, 28th Sha‘ban, 1266 A.H. [Page 26]26 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

persecutors. With a devoted young follower named Agi Muhammad ‘Ali, who had passionately begged to be allowed to share his martyrdom, he was led to the scaffold in the old barrack square of ‘Tabriz. About two hours before noon the two were suspended by ropes under their armpits in such a way that the head of Muhammad ‘Ali rested against the breast of his beloved Master. A regiment of Armenian soldiers was drawn up and received the order to fire. Promptly the volleys rang out, but when the smoke cleared, it was found that the Bab and his companion were still alive. The bullets had but severed the ropes by which they were suspended, so that they dropped to the ground unhurt. They proceeded to a room near by, where they were found talking to one of their friends. About noon they were again suspended. ‘The Armenians, who considered the result of their volleys a miracle, were unwilling to fire again, so another regiment of soldiers had been brought on the scene, who fired when ordered. ‘This time the volleys took effect. “The bodies of both victims were riddled by bullets and horribly mutilated, although their faces were almost untouched.

By this foul deed the Barrack Square of Tabriz became a second Calvary. The enemies of the Bab enjoyed a guilty thrill of triumph, thinking that this hated tree of the Babi faith was now severed at the root, and its complete eradication would be easy ! But their triumph was short-lived! ‘They did not realize that the Tree of Truth cannot be felled by any material axe. Had they but known, this very crime of theirs was the means of giving greater vigour to the Cause. “The martyrdom of the Bab fulfilled his own cherished wish and inspired his followers with increased zeal. Such was the fire of their spiritual enthusiasm that the bitter winds of persecution but fanned it to a fiercer blaze. The greater the efforts at extinction, the higher mounted the flames.

Tomb on Mount Carmel.

After the Bab’s martyrdom, his remains, with those of his devoted companion, were thrown on the edge of the moat outside the city wall. On the second night they were rescued at midnight by some of the Babis, and after being concealed for years in secret depositories in Persia, were ultimately brought, with [Page 27]BAB: THE FORERUNNER 27

great danger and difficulty, to the Holy Land. ‘There they are now interred in a tomb beautifully situated on the slope of Mount Carmel, not far from the Cave of Elijah, and only a few miles from the spot where Baha’u’llah spent his last years and where his remains now lie. Among the thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the world who come to pay homage at the Holy Tomb of Baha’u’llah, none omit to offer prayer also at the shrine of his devoted lover and forerunner, the Bab.*

Writings of Bab.

The writings of the Bab were voluminous, and the rapidity with which, without study or premeditation, he composed elaborate commentaries, profound expositions or eloquent prayers, was regarded as one of the proofs of his divine inspiration.

The purport of his various writings has been summarized as follows :—

“ Some of these (the Bab’s writings) were commentaries on, and interpretations of, the verses of the Koran; some were prayers, homilies, and hints of (the true significance of certain) passages; others were exhortations, admonitions, dissertations on the different branches of the doctrine of the Divine Unity . . . encouragements to amendment of character, severance from worldly states, and dependence on the imspirations of God. But the essence and purport of his compositions were the praises and descriptions of that Reality soon to appear which was his only object and aim, his darling and his desire. For he regarded his own appearance as that of a harbinger of good tidings, and considered his own real nature merely as a means for the manifestation of the greater perfections of that One. And indeed he ceased not from celebrating Him by night or day for a single instant, but used to signify to all his followers that they should expect His arising, in such wise that he declares in his writings: ‘I am a letter out of that most mighty book and a dewdrop from that limitless ocean, and when He shall appear, my true nature, my mysteries, riddles and intimations will become evident, and the embryo of this religion shall develop through the grades of its being and ascent, attain to the station of “ the most comely of forms ” and become adomed with the robe of “ Blessed be God the Best of Creators!’’? . . . and so inflamed was he with His flame that commemoration of Him was the bright candle of his dark nights in the fortress of Maku, and remembrance of Him was the best of companions in the straits of the prison of Chihriq. ‘Thereby he obtained spiritual enlargements; with His

1 The tomb of the Bab has now been further honoured by being made the resting-place of the body of ‘Abdu’l-Baha (see Chapter IV, p. 66). [Page 28]28 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

wine was he inebriated; and at remembrance of Him did he rejoice.” —Episode of the Bab, p. 54.

He Whom God shall Make Manifest.

Like John the Baptist, the Bab always insisted that he was but a forerunner sent to prepare the way for One greater than himself who was to come after him. He heralded the advent of a great Manifestation of the Sun of Truth which, in a human frame, would shortly be revealed to men with majesty and glory. With touching humility and reverence he declared that, in the day of “Him whom God shall make manifest” :—

“If one should hear a single verse from Him and recite it, it is better than that he should recite the Bayan (i.e. the revelation of the Bab) a thousand times.”—Episode of the Bab, p. 349.

He counted himself happy in enduring any affliction, if by so doing he could smooth the path, by ever so little, for “ Him whom God shall make manifest,” who was, he declared, the sole source of his inspiration as well as the sole object of his love.

Resurrection, Paradise and Hell.

An important part of the Bab’s teaching is his explanation of the terms Resurrection, Day of Judgment, Paradise and Hell. By the Resurrection is meant, he said, the appearance of a new Manifestation of the Sun of Truth. The raising of the dead means the spiritual awakening of those who are asleep in the graves of ignorance, heedlessness and Just. ‘The Day of Judgment is the Day of the new Manifestation, by acceptance or rejection of whose Revelation the sheep are separated from the goats, for the sheep know the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow Him. Paradise is the joy of knowing and loving God, as revealed through His Manifestation, thereby attaining to the utmost perfection of which one is capable, and, after death, obtaining entrance to the Kingdom of God and the life everlasting. Hell is simply deprivation of that knowledge of God with consequent failure to attain divine perfection, and loss of the Eternal Favour. He definitely declared that these terms have no real meaning apart from this ; and that the prevalent ideas regarding the resurrection of the material body, a material heaven and hell, and the like, are mere [Page 29]BAB: THE FORERUNNER 55

figments of the imagination. He taught that man has a life after death, and that in the after-life, progress towards perfection is limitless,

- Social and Ethical Teachings.

In his writings the Bab tells his followers that they must be distinguished by brotherly love and courtesy. Useful arts and crafts must be cultivated. Elementary education should be general. In the new and wondrous Dispensation now commencing, women are to have fuller freedom. The poor are to be provided for out of the common treasury, but begging is strictly forbidden, as is the use of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes.

The guiding motive of the true Babi must be pure love, without hope of reward or fear of punishment. ‘Thus he says in the Bayan :—

“So worship God that if the recompense of thy worship were to be the Fire, no alteration of thy worship of Him would be produced. If you worship God from fear, that is unworthy of the threshold of the holiness of God. . . . So also, if your gaze is on Paradise, and if you worship in hope of that; for then you have made God’s creation a partner with Him.”—Babis of Persia, Il, by Prof. E. G. Browne, J.RAS., vol, xxl. p. 931.

Passion and Triumph.

This last quotation reveals the spirit which animated the Bab’s whole life. To know and love God, to mirror forth His attributes and to prepare the way for His coming Manifestation—these were the sole aim and object of his being. For him life had no terrors and death no sting, for love had cast out fear, and martyrdom itself was but the rapture of casting his all at the feet of his Beloved.

Strange ! that this pure and beautiful soul, this inspired teacher of Divine Truth, this devoted lover of God and of his fellow-men should be so hated, and done to death by the professedly religious of his day! Surely nothing but unthinking or wilful prejudice could blind men to the fact that here was indeed a prophet, a Holy Messenger of God. Worldly greatness and glory he had

none, but how can spiritual Power and Dominion be proved [Page 30]30 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

except by the ability to dispense with all earthly assistance, and to triumph over all earthly opposition, even the most potent and virulent? How can Divine Love be demonstrated to an unbelieving world save by its capacity to endure to the uttermost the blows of calamity and the darts of affliction, the hatred of enemies and the treachery of seeming friends, to rise serene above all these and, undismayed and unembittered, still to forgive and bless ?

The Bab has endured and the Bab has triumphed. “Thousands have testified to the sincerity of their love for him by sacrificing their lives and their all in his service. Kings might well envy his power over men’s hearts and lives. Moreover, “* He whom the Lord shall make manifest” has appeared, has confirmed the claims and accepted the generous devotion of his forerunner, and made him partaker of his Glory.