The Bahá’í Centenary 1844-1944/The Báb and the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh
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THE BAB AND THE REVELATION OF Bahá’u’lláh*
DEARLY-BELOVED friends! That the Bab, the inaugurator of the Babi Dispensation, is fully entitled to rank as one of the self-sufficient Manifestations of God, that He has been invested with sovereign power and authority, and exercises all the rights and prerogatives of independent Prophethood, is yet another fundamental verity which the Message of Bahá’u’lláh insistently proclaims and which its followers must uncompromisingly uphold. That He is not to be regarded merely as an inspired Precursor of the Bahá’í Revelation, that in His person, as He Himself bears witness in the Persian Bayan, the object of all the Prophets gone before Him has been fulfilled, is a truth which I feel it my duty to demonstrate and emphasize. We would assuredly be failing in our duty to the Faith we profess and would be violating one of its basic and sacred principles if in our words or by our conduct we hesitate to recognize the implications of this root principle of Bahá’í belief, or refuse to uphold unreservedly its integrity and demonstrate its truth. Indeed the chief motivc actuating me to undertake the task of editing and translating Nabil’s immortal Narrative has been to enable every follower of the Faith in the West ‘to better understand and more readily grasp the tremendous implications of His exalted station and to more ardently admire and love Him.
There can be no doubt that the claim to the twofold Station ordained for the Bib by the Almighty, a claim which He Himself has so boldly advanced, which Bahá’u’lláh has repeatedly affirmed, and to which the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu'lBahi has finally given the sanction of its testimony, constirutes the most distinctive feature of the Bahá’í Dispensation. It is a further evidence of its uniqueness. a tremendous accession to the strength, to the mysterious power and authority with which this‘ holy cycle has been invested. Indeed the greatness of the Bib consists primarily.
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not in His being the divinely-appointed Forerunner of so transcendent 2 Revelation, but rather in His having been invested with the powers inherent in the inaugurator of .1 separate religious Dispensation, and in His wielding, to a degree unrivaled by the Messengers gone before Him, the sceptre of independent Prophethood.
The short duration of His Dispensation. the restricted range within which His laws and ordinances have been made to operate, supply no criterion whatever wherewith to judge its Divine origin and to evaluate the potency of its message. "That so brief a span,” Bahá’u’lláh Himself explains, "should have separated this most mighty and wondrous Revelation from Mine own previous Manifestation, is a secret that no man can unravel and a mystery such as no mim! am fathom. Its duration had been fore-ordained, and no man shall ever discover its reason unless and until he he informed of the contents of My Hidden Book." "Behold,” Bahá’u’lláh further explains in the Kitib-i-Badi', one of His works refuting the arguments of the people of the Bayan, "behold. how immediately upon the completion of the ninth year of this wondrous, this most holy and merciful Dispensation, the requisite number of pure, of wholly consecrated and sancrifird souls had been most secretly consurmnatc ."
The marvelous happenings that have heralded the advent of the Founder of the Bibi Dispensation, the dramatic circumstances of His own eventful life, the miraculous tragcdy of His martyrdom, the magic of His influence exerted on the most eminent and powerful among His countrymen, to all of which every chapter of Nabíl's stirring narrative testifies, should in themselves be regarded as suflicicnt evidence of the validity of His claim to so exalted a station among the Prophets.
‘From "The Dispcnsatiun of Bahá’u’lláh." by Shoghi Effendi.
16 THE BAHi\'l
However graphic the record which the eminent chronicles of His life has transmitted to posterity, so lusninous a narrative must pale before the glowing tribute paid to the Bib by the pen of Bahá’u’lláh. This tribute the Bib Himself has, by the clear assertion of His claim, abundantly supported, while the written testimonies of 'Abdu’lBaht have powerfully reinforced its character and elucidated its meaning.
Where else if not in the Kitib-i-iqin can the student of the Bibi Dispensation seek to find those afirmations that unmistakably attest the power and spirit which no man, except he be a Manifestation of God, can manifest? "Could sucb a tbing,” exclairns Bahá’u’lláh, "be made manifest except tbrougb the power of a Divine Revelation and the potency of God’: invincible Will? By the rigbteousness of God! Were anyone to entertain so great a Revelation in bis beart the thought of sucb a declaration would alone confound birn! Were the bearts of all men to be crowded into bis beart, be would still besitate to venture upon so awful an enterprise.” "No eye,” He in another passage affirms, "batb bebeld so great'an outpouring of bounty, nor batb any ear beard of sucb a Revelation of loving-kindness . . . Tbe Propbets ‘endowed witb constancy,’ wbose lofts’ness and glory sbinc as the sun, were each bonored u/itb a Book wbicb all bave seen and tbe verses of wbicb baue been duly ascertained. Wbereas the verses wbicb barre rained from tbis Cloud of divine mercy baue been so abundant tbat none batb yet been able to estimate their number . . . How can they belittle tbis Revelation? Hatb any age witnessed sucb momentous bappenings?”
Commenting on the character and influence of those heroes and martyrs whom the spirit of the Bib had so magically transformed Bahá’u’lláh reveals the following: I f these companions be not the true strivers after God, wbo else could be called by tbis name? . . . I f these companions, u-itb all their marvelous testimonies and wondrous works, be false, wbo then is wortby to claim for bimself the trutb? . . . Has the -world since Ibe days of Adam witnessed sucb tumult, sucb violent commotion? . . . Metbinks, patience was revealed only by virtue of their
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fortitude, and faitbfulness itself was begotten only by their deeds.” r
Wishing to stress the sublimity of the Bib's exalted station as compared with that of the Prophets of the past, Bahá’u’lláh in that same epistle asserts: "No understanding can grasp the nature of His Revelation, nor can any knowledge eomprebend the full measure of His Faitb." He then quotes, in confirmation of His argument, these prophetic words: "Knowledge is twenty and seven letters. All tbat the Propbets bave revealed are two letters thereof. No man tbus far batb known more tban these two letters. But wben the Qa"irn sball arise, He will cause Ibe remaining twenty and five letters to be made manifest.” "Bebold,” He adds, "bow great and lofty is His station! His rank excelletb tbat of all the Propbets and His Reuelation transcendetb the comprebension and understanding of all their cbosen ones.” "Of His Revelation,” He further adds, "tbe Propbets of God. His saints and ebosen ones bave eitber not been informed, or, in pursuance of God’: inscrutable decree, tbcy bave not disclosed.”
Of all the tributes which Bahá’u’lláh’s uncrring pen has chosen to pay to the memory of the Bib, His “Best-Beloved," the most memorable and touching is this brief, yet eloquent passage which so greatly enhances the value of the concluding passages of that same epistle. "Amidst thern all.” He writes, referring to the afflictive trials and dangers besetting Him in the city of Baghdád, "We stand life in band u/bolly resigned to His Will, tbat percbance tbrougb God’: loving kindness and grace, tbis revealed and manifest Letter (Bahá’u’lláh) may lay down His life as a sacrifice in the patb of the Primal Point, the most exalted Word (the Bib). By Him, at Wbose bidding the Spirit batb spo/ten, but for tbis yearning of Our soul, We would not, for one moment, bave tarried any longer in tbis city.”
Dearly-beloved friends! So resounding a praise, so bold an assertion issued by the pen of Bahá’u’lláh in so weighty a work, are fully re-echoed in the language in which the Source of the Bibi Revelation has chosen to clothe the claims He himself has advanced. I am the Mystic Fane,” the Bib thus proclaims His station in the Qayyum-i-Asmi’,
THE BAB AND THE REVELATION
OF BAHA'U'LLAH 17
The Interior of the Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel.
"which the Hand of Omnipotence hath
through the power of truth, are the 'Re reared. Iam the Lamp which the Finger of nnembrance of God’ and His Day before
God hath lit within its niche and caused to shine with deathless splendor. I am the Flame of that supernal Light that glowed upon Sinai in the gladsome Spot, and lay concealed in the midst of the Burning Bush." "0 Qurratu’l-'Ayn!” He, addressing Himself in that same commentary, exclaims, "I recognize in Thee none other except the 'Great Announcement'—the Announcement voiced by the Concourse on high. By this name, I bear witness, they that circle the Throne of Glory have ever known Thee.” "Wit/J each and every Prophet, W/Jam We hate sent down in the past,” He further adds, "We have established a separate Covenant concerning the 'Remembranee of God’ and His Day. Manifest, in the realm of glory and
the eyes of the angels that circle His mercyseat.” "Should it be Our wish,” He again affirms, "it is in Our power to compel, through the agency of but one letter of Our Revelation, the world and all that is therein to recognize, in less than the twin/{ling of an eye, the truth of Our Cause."
"I am the Primal Point,” the Bib thus addresses Muhammad _S_l'_1:'1h from the prisonfortrcss of Mah-K13, "from which have been generated all created things . . . I am the Countenance of God Whose splendor can nerer he obseurezl, the light of God whose razlianee can never /at/e . . . All the keys of heaven God hath chosen to place on My right hand, and all the keys of hell on My left . . . I am one of the sustaining pillars
18 THE BA}-1.A'.'i
of the Primal Word of God. Whosoeucr hath recognized Me, hath Known all that is true and right, and hath attained all that is good and seeml y . . . The substance whcrewith God hath creaIed- Me is not the clay out of which others have been formed. He hath conferred upon Me that which the worldlywise can never comprehend, nor the faithful disco:-er.” "Should a tiny ant,” the Bib, wishing to stress the limitless potentialities latent in His Dispcnsation, characteristically affirms, "desire in this day to be possessed of such power as to be able to unravel the abstrusest and most bewildering passages of the Qur’a’n, its wish will no doubt be fulfilled, inasmuch as the mystery of eternal might vibrates within the imwr-most being of all created things,” "If so helpless a creature," is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's comment on so startling an afiirmation, "can be endowed with so subtle a capacity, how much more epieacious must be the power released through the liberal effusions of the grace of Bahá’u’lláh!”
To these authoritative assertions and solemn declarations made by Ba.h:'|’u'llish and the Báb must be added ‘Abdu'l-Bah5's own incontrovertible testimony. He, the appointed interpreter of the utterances of both Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb, corroborates, not by implication but in clear and categorical language, both in His Tablets and in His Testament, the truth of the statements to which I have already referred.
In a Tablet addressed to a Bahá’í in M:izindaran, in which He unfolds the meaning of a misinterpreted statement attributed to Him regarding the rise of the Sun of Truth in this century, He sets forth, briefly but conclusively, what should remain for all time our true conception of the relationship between the two Manifestations ‘associated with the Bahá’í Dispcnsation. "In making such a statement,” He explains, "I had in mind no one else except the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh), the character of whose Revelations it had been my purpose to elucidate. The Revelation of the Báb may be likened to the sun, its
‘ station corresponding to the first sign of the
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Zodiac—the sign Aries—w/Jich the sun enters at the Vernal Equinox. The station of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation, on the other hand . is represented by the sign Leo, the sun’: mid‘summer and highest station. By this is meant that this holy Dispensation is illurnined with the light of the Sun of Truth shining from its most exalted station, and in the plenitude of its resplendency, its heat and glory.” "The Báb, the Exalted One,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá more specifically 'afiirms in another Tablet. "is the Mom of Truth, the splendor of Whose light shineth throughout all regions. He is also the Harbinger of the Most Great Light, the Abhd Luminary. The Blessed Beauty is the One promised by the sacred boolzs of the past, the retlelatiim of the Source of light that shone upon Mount Sinai, Whose fire glowed in the midst of the Burning Bush. We are, one and all servants of their threshold, and stand each as a lowly keeper at their door." "Every proof and prophecy,” is His still more emphatic warning, "every manner of evidence, whether based on reason or on the text of the scriptures and traditions, are to be regarded as centered in the persons of
"u’llah and the Báb. In them is to be found their complete fulfillment.”
And finally, in His Will and Testament, the repository of His last wishes and parting instructions, He in the following passage, specifically designed to set forth the guiding principles of Bahá’í belief, sets the seal of His testimony on the Báb’s dual and exalted station: "The foundation of the belief of the people of Bahá' (may my life be offered up for them) is this: His holiness the exalted One (the Báb) is the Manifestation of the unity and oneness of God and the Forerunner of the Ancient Beauty (Bahá’u’lláh) . His holiness, the Abhri Beauty (Bahá’u’lláh) (may my life be offered up as a sacrifice for His steadfast friends) is the supreme Marjfestatiori of God and the Dayspring of His most divine Essence." "All others,” He significantly adds, "are servants unto Him and do His hlillling."
