World Order/Series2/Volume 31/Issue 4/Text
| ←Issue 3 | World Order, Series 2 Volume 31 - Issue 4 |
| Return to PDF view |
 | The text below this notice was generated by a computer, it still needs to be checked for errors and corrected. If you would like to help, view the original document by clicking the PDF scans along the right side of the page. Click the edit button at the top of this page (notepad and pencil icon) or press Alt+Shift+E to begin making changes. When you are done press "Save changes" at the bottom of the page. |
Summer 2000
World order
THE BAR. (181760): REMEMBERING THE CO—FOUNDER OF THE Bahá’í FAITH
EDI'I 'ORIAI.
THE BAB’S BAYAN: AN ANALYTICAL SUMMARY
M l// [AMAIAD /I/~1'VAN
GOBINEAU'S ACCOUNT OF THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BAHA’Y REVELATION
HOW91Rl)li. GAREY, TIM.V.S'LAT()R
A10 5 0. THE CURE IN SEARCH OF A CURE: A REVIEW OF THE CURE’S BLOODFLOWERS
KEVIN A. 11(ORRISOA'
World 011ch
VOLUME 31, NUMBER 4
WORLD ORDER IS INTENDED TO STIMULATE. INSPIRE, AND SERVE THINKING PEOPLE IN
THEIR SEARCH TO FIND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CONTEMPORARY LIFE AND CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS AND PHILOSOPHY
Edllan'al Board:
BEWV J. FISHER ARASH ABIZADEH DIANE LOTFI
MONIREH KAZEMZADEH
KEVIN A, MORRISON ROBERT H. STOCKMAN JIM STOKES
Cansunsm In Poetry: HERBERT WOODWARD MARTIN
WORLD ORDER is published quarterly by (116 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís ufihc United Starts, 536 Sheridan Road, Wilmcucv 11. 600914811. The Views :xpresxcd herein are those of the authors and (.10 not necessarily reflect (hr opinions of (he publishcr or of the Editorial Baud.
Manuscripts and editorial correspondence: Manuscripts can be [pr\\'r1[[Cn or computer gcneramd. 'I'hcy «hould be double spaccd throughout. wkh Ihu footnotes at (he end and not attached clecIronically (0 the («:XL The conrrihumr alluuld retain a copy. Return [30>ng should be imludcd. Scnd editorial correspondence to W’ORLD 01L DLR, 4516 Randolph Road, Apr. 99, Chmouc. NC 28111: Ermail: <worldorc1€r®uhbncorg),
Subscription rates: USA. and surface (0 411 Orher countrim, 1 year, 51‘): 2 years. $56: $1nglc Copies. 55. Airmail (o 311 nthcr cuumrics, l ycnry $24; 2 years, 546. Sand address changes to and order subscriptions from Bahzi'l' Distribution And Subscriber Service, 4703 Fuhun Industrial Bnuv levard, Atlanta, GA 503503017, Tck-phunc: 1-800»9‘)‘)v‘)01‘), Unimd Sums (Ind Cam : 404747279019, all other unumrics; E-mn : <subscrip(i()n@usbnc.org>.
WORLD ORDER is prolecrcd through (mdu mark registration in [11: U5. I’atcnr Officu
Copyright © 2001, N.Hionnl Spirirual Asscmv bly of (1]: Bahi'ia of [11C Unimd Sums. A11 Righvs Rescrvcd. Primed in the U.&/\. ISSN 0043-8804
In this issue
2 The Báb (1817-50): Remembering the Co-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith [Editorial]
4 Interchange: Letters from and to the Editor
7 The Báb’s Bayán: An Analytical Summary by Muhammad Afnan
17 Reading the Romance of Heroes poem by Robert G. Wilson
19 Gobineau’s Account of the Beginnings of the Bahá’í Revelation translated by Howard B. Garey
24 meditation poem by Florence DiPasquale Kindel
25 ark poem by Florence DiPasquale Kindel
27 The Cure in Search of a Cure review of Bloodflowers by Kevin A. Morrison
32 Tao poem by Druzelle Cederquist
Inside Back Cover: Authors & Artists in This Issue
2 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
The Báb (1817—50): Rememberin the Co—Founder of the Bahá’í Fai
A1 HOUR before sunset on the twenty—second of May 1844, in a small carpeted room of a modest house in Shíráz, a young man named Siyyid ‘Ah’ Muhammad, later known by the title the Bib, revealed His prophetic mission to a questing theologian who became His first disciple. Some four years later, with the country in turmoil, and facing the assembled ranks of religious and secular authorities in Tabríz, the Bib spoke these startling words: “‘I am, I am, I am the Promised One! I am the One Whose name you have for a thousand years invoked, at Whose mention you have risen, Whose advent you have longed to witness, and the hour of Whose Revelation you have prayed God to hasten. Verily, I say, it is incumbent upon the peoples of both the East and the West to obey My word and to pledge allegiance to My Person.m
The Báb’s announcement, which had already attracted thousands of enthusiastic converts, evoked not gratitude in His audience that they had been allowed to witness this great Proclamation but a violently negative reaction and swift condemnation of its Author. Angcrcd by His words and His calm, dignified demeanor, and fearing the spread of His teachings among the masses, the clergy and the nobles had already decided the outcome of the confrontation. They did not engage the Báb's ideas but threw at him “frivolous and irreverent remarks." In response, the Bib arose and left the room, summarily ending the audience.
Just as Jesus abrogated Mosaic laws in bringing forth a new revelation, so the Báb revealed new teachings and spiritual truths independent of Islam and heralding the advent of Him Whom God Shall Manifest, another Messenger who would Fulfill the expectations and hopes of the religions of the past and usher in the Kingdom Of GOd on earth.
The 8513’s days were numbered. On the ninth day of july 1850 He was publicly executed. His enemies were jubilant; His friends dejected. But bullets, knives, and ropes cannot extinguish the spirit, and the blood of the martyrs is still the seed from which renewed faith sprouts.
One hundred and fifty years later millions of men and women, 535‘ and West, North and South, glorify the gentle Prophet who is right
- "ilyh remembe‘ed as a CO—founder, with Bahá’u’lláh, of the Bahá’í
alt .
4
WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
IntefChange LETTERS FROM AND TO THE EDITOR
THE year 2000 marks the 150th anniversary of the passing of Siyyid ‘AJi Muhammad, known to Bahá’ís as the Báb (the Gate), a spiritual messenger holding the rank of a Manifestation of God or founder of a world religion, but one whose proclamation also heralded the coming of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith. The Báb’s life was taken in 1850 in a hail of bullets ordered by Iranian government officials, fearful of the implications that His claims had for their authority. It is fitting that on such an anniversary we pause to reflect on aspects of the Báb’s ministry and to survey, 150 years later, His legacy, the fruits of which we are now seeing on a global scale.
Dr. Muhammad Afnan’s article on the Bayén, sometimes spoken of as “the main source book of the Bábi’ Faith," was originally published in a French encyclopedia and is printed here for the first time in a revised English translation. In his essay Dr. Afnan provides an overview of the Persian and the Arabic sections of the Bayén, which set out “fundamental beliefs, moral principles, laws, ordinances for the administration of human society” and the “expectations for the future.” Dr. Afnan notes that the Arabic Bayén “is by far the more concise and legislatively otiented," an orientation that provides “the general foundation and outline of the work,” whereas the Persian Bayén, “with its far more discursive style and philosophical focus,” should be seen as the “explication and elucidation” of the Arabic Bayén. Taken together, the two parts of the Bayén must be viewed, Dr. Afnan
asserts, as exalting the station of the One whom the Báb presaged—Bahá’u’lláhand emphasizing “the imminence of His advent."
In a work of historical and cultural interest about the Báb, Dr. Howard B. Garey offers an English translation of an excerpt From Le: Religion: (t 1e: Philasapbit: dam l’Axie Centra/e, by Comte Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (1816-82). The excerpt from Gobineau discusses the spiritual path that Siyyid ‘AII Muhammad began to tread at a young age, the claim He made to be the Bab, and the response by Iranian clerics and government officials to those claims. The editor‘s note that precedes the translation clarifies points that Gobineau misunderstood and corrects historically inaccurate statements in Gobineau’s text and thus should be read in tandem with the translation.
uxxx
We regret that an error occurred in the footnotes of Kevin A Morrison’s “Reading, Writing, and Reason," published in the Spring 2000 issue of World Order. Footnote 5 should read: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “Introduction,” in “Race,” Writing and Dzflérente, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Chicago: U Of Chicago P, 1985) 11. The final book referenced in footnote 10 should read: Miting and Di creme, trans. Allan Bass (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1967).
xix
In 1980—81 the band Pink Floyd recorded the track “Hey You, Is There Anybody Out There?” on the album T/IerI. Twenty
’3
INTERCHANGE
5
years later the Wirld Order Editorial Board asks you much the same question: “Are you out there?” “Letters to and from the Editors,” the subtitle of this section, really does mean what it says: This is a column that provides the Editors, individually or collectively, an opportunity to share with you what is on our minds and that invites you, the reader, to share with us what is on yours. Frequently, in casual conversations, we hear readers talk about how a particular poem within these pages touched them; how an article helped them to think of a topic of broad social concern in a new way; how a photograph caused them to pause and think. Let us, and your Fellow readers, hear your thoughts! How has an article, a poem, a photograph helped you make connections and illumined your thoughts and your soul? Have you seen a good movie or read an interesting book for which a review is not warranted but about which you have some brief thoughts that you wish to share? Are you out there? The “’4er Order Editors can be reached at <WorIdorder@usbnc.org>.
Letters to the Editor REVIEW E5511 Y5, S TEINBECK, AND HOPE FOR HUMNITY I appreciated receiving your Spring 2000 issue, which includes reviews of significant works of the twenti eth century. The articles inspired me to add some of the selected books to my reading list. Learning about works that recognize “the role spiritual principles can and must play in resolving issues of social, cultural, and political concern,” as your introduction states, prompted me to consider which pieces of literature have been valuable to my own life and how they relate to the century of light described in the Baha”! writings. In the editorial, “Century of Light?” you point out that the sacred texts of the Bahá’í Faith “ask us to discatd an inadequate view of the world" and to replace it widi “the teal hope for humanity." A valuable book for me that fits this profile and demonsuates that, as ‘Abdu'l—Bahá wrote, “Good exists," is John Steinbeck's Grapes qf Wrat/z. in which the Joad family travels from Oklahoma to California in search of work during the Great Depression. Gary L. Morrison, in his essay, notes that in disastets “one can see both the manifestation of the darkest forces of barbatism and the brightest triumphs of the human spirit.” This is exemplified in the final scene of Steinbeck’s novel when Rose of Sharon, abandoned by her husband and barely tecovered From delivering a stillborn child, breastfeeds a dying man, hoping to sustain his life, while taking shelter from massive flooding in the comer of a barn Rose of Sharon realized it was what she must do. She is light in the darkness. This moving scene reveals “the light of possibilities and new potentials" you write of in the editorial I thank your contributors for discussing the impact that their selected books have had and will continue to have on humanity, and I eagerly await the next installment of reviews ofsignificant books of the twentieth century. MARTHA VILLAGOMEZ Wilmette, Illinois
The Báb’s Bayén:
An Analytical Summary
BY MUHAMMAD AFNAN
The Báb, the founder of the Bábf Faith and the forerunner of the Bahá’í Faith, wrote many works during his short life. One of the most important is the Bayén, which includes both Persian and Arabic sections. It has been referred to as “the epitome of the teachings of the Báb” and as a "new code of holy law." It has been noted that the Bab “made the acceptance” of the Bayan “dependent on the good pleasure” of the One Who would follow Him—Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith.' Dr. Muhammad Afnan’s essay, a translation and revision of an essay published in French in the Emyrlopedie philompbique univerxelle, [1]. Les oeuvre: pbilomphiqutx, dictionnaire in November 1992, provides an analytical summary of the Bayan and its contents.
THE EDITORS
HE Bib, Siyyid ‘Alf Muhammad (1819 50), was born in Shíráz into a family of merchants. He was the only child of parents both of whom were descendants of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. When the Báb was a child, He lost His father. He did not receive a systematic education, but from early childhood He was distinguished from others in His characteristics and personal qualities. From about the age of fifteen He engaged in
Copyn'ght © 2001 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America.
'H. M. Balyuzi, The 345: Tb: Herald Of the Day qf Day: (Oxford: George Ronald, 1973) 152; Moojan Momen, ed., TheBdbl andBa/Id YRzlx'giam. 1844—1944: Some Contemporary Western Account: (Oxford: George Ronald, 1981) 23; Balyuzi, 346 154
1. '7" refers to the Perisan Bayan, and 'A" to the Arabic Bayfin‘ Roman numerals indicate the 11th (unit), and Arabic numerals the Mb (chapter),
trade in Shíráz and Bushire, first under the tutelage of His uncle and later independently. He married at the age of twenty—thtee; the fruit of this marriage was a son who died in the first year of his life.
In 1844 in Shíráz, at the age of twentyfive, Siyyid ‘Ali Muhammad claimed that He was the Báb (the Gate). His purpose was to inaugurate a new religion abtogating the teachings of Islam and to proclaim the advent of a great world teacher who would be the Promised One of all religions. Although He had earlier produced works on spiritual themes and interpretations of the Koran, in the short period of about six years following the declaradon of His station, He wrote, according to His own testimony, no fewer than 500,000 verses of scripture (P VI,11).l
Ba’szg/at (Gatehood) was a familiar term among the people at the time of the Báb. However, as a result of the new definition of the term, which the Báb presented in His first commentary, the Qayu’mu’l—AdeXThe Commentary on the Stirih of Joseph), the Shia religious leaders arose and gradually
8 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
united in opposition to Him. But a group of seekers accepted His call. The Báb gave the first eighteen of His followers, which included seventeen men and one woman, the name Hurzifi—Hafi (the Letters of the Living). In the first year after His declaration, the Báb, with one of His first believers, went on pilgrimage to Mecca. His Cause spread widely because of the journeys undertaken, at His behest, by the Letters of the Living to proclaim the Báb’s message. As a result of the Báb’s pilgrimage and the travels of the Letters of the Living, the ulama (religious leaders) arose in opposition and demanded that the new movement be suppressed. In response, the government placed the Báb in custody. These events were precursors of the general opposition that the Báb was to experience during the six remaining years of His earthly life and that led to His banishment to Iṣfahán and Azerbaijan, His imprisonment in the mountains of Azerbaijan, and finally His martyrdom in Tabríz. They also led to the imprisonment and massacre of His followers, both individually and collectively, with the result that thousands of believers in His Cause lost their homes, their families, and their lives.
The Báb revealed the Bayzin (Utterance) in the fourth year of His revelation (1847—48). Although He never concealed the nature of His claims, it was in the Bayan that He first set out the laws of the new revelation, including its fundamental beliefs, moral principles, laws, ordinances for the administration of human society, and, finally, expectations for the future. The Bayén contains both Persian and Arabic sections. The Arabic Bayan consists of eleven wifiids (units), each véhid consisting of nineteen bib: (chapters), constituting approximately 420 verses or 700 lines. The Persian Bayan consists of nine véhids of nineteen chapters each, except for the last vahid, which has only ten chapters, constituting about 8,000 verses or 6,000 lines in all. Since the Bayan was originally planned
to comprise nineteen vahids of nineteen chapters each, it is evident that both books are unfinished. Apparently, their unfinished state was intentional since the Báb was not martyred until more than two years after the revelation of these books. In addition to calling the Persian and Arabic works containing the laws of His revelation the Bayan, the Bat; also gave the name baya’n to His writings in general (P III,17).
The Bayén is the divinely revealed source book of the Báb! Faith. Because it is important for the followers of Islam, who are its primary recipients, to understand its significance, the Báb compares it to the Koran, the divinely revealed book of Islam (A I). A careful study of the Arabic and Persian Bayéns leaves no doubt about their fundamental unity. The common titles given to the chapters of these two books show that the Arabic Bayan, which is by far the more concise and legislatively oriented, may be regarded as the general foundation and outline of the work, and the Persian Bayén, with its far more discursive style and philosophical focus, as the Arabic Bayén’s explication and elucidation. The correlation of the two parts may be confirmed by comparing many of the corresponding va’.hids and chapters in each book that deal with the same topics and particularly by comparing the second véhids of the Persian and Arabic Bayans. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that the two books are merely two versions of the same work, one concise and the other detailed, since the order of Ll'lC contents is not identical, and some of the chapters appear only in one or the other text and not in both (compare, for example, the first véhid in each book).
The Persian and Arabic Baya’ns were revealed during the same period and within a short space of each other, and each is mentioned in the other (A XLIO; P IV,18). Th5 fundamental beliefs set out in the two books have their background in the Báb’s earlier writings, particularly in the Qayytimu’l—Asma”,
[Page 9]
the Da/d‘il—i—Sab‘i/a (The Seven Proofs), and
other works. The Arabic Bayén is written in
a style that indicates that it proceeds directly
from God and represents His voice; the Persian
Bayén is written in a style that indicates that
it is the Manifestation of God who is interpreting the verses of God.
Fundamental Beliefs and Worldview THE fundamental beliefs expounded in the Bayén cover many of those addressed in other divine revelations, particularly those of the Semitic religions, with one difference: in the Bayén concepts of the destiny of humanity and the Last Day are presented in the light of new interpretations that conform with reason and scientific developments. For this reason the imagery associated with the expectations regarding the Promised Day, which has so strongly influenced the theological tenets of past religions, is given a spiritual interpretation, which, fat from contradicting the holy books of these religions, tneteiy expresses and unfolds their true allegorical signification.
The Bayén’s worldview regarding existence and the purpose of life is founded on the unity of the Divine Essence (A 1; P Preface) and the impossibility of knowing or attaining the presence of that Essence (A 111,7; P N1, 2, 6; V,17). The world of existence is created by the Divine Will, and absolute nonexistence is meaningless (P 11,8). Humanity is the apex of creation; the Manifestations of God are the Chosen Ones from among humankind (A 111,7; 1V, 4; P 111,712; 1V,6). A direct relationship between man and the Source of Creation is impossible (P 11, 8, 10, 14—15; 1V,1), but an indirect relationship may be entered into through the intermediary of the Manifestation of God. Indeed, this is the very purpose of human life, and the same achievement that, in past religions, has been described as seeing, or attaining the presence of, God (P 11,7, 8, 10,
THE BAYAN: AN ANALYTICAL SUMMARY 9
14; V1,]3). Other than the Unknowable Essence of God, everything else in the world is His creation (A 111,6; P 111,6; 1V,1; V1,110).
The religion of God is one (P 111,4—11). As the human world progresses, the Manifestations of God, Who are the exponents of the unique and true Religion of God, are progressively made manifest in the world (A 111,4; P 111,4—13). Since the world of humanity is always in a state of progress, the revelations of God’s Manifestations are, likewise, progressive (P 1,2; 1V,12; V11,15). The Manifestations of God are, in reality, one, even though they appear to be different. The sun is their visible symbol since it is always the same sun, even though it dawns from different points of the horizon (A 1; P 111,12). The religion of God, like the human soui, is dynamic and in constant evolution and is the means of distinguishing between good and evil (P 11,2, 15).
Belief in the oneness of God, which is the basis of faith, consists in acknowledging that God is one and peerless in His essence, His attributes, and His acts and in the manner in which He should be wotshiped—that is to say, one must not regard the attributes of God as separate from His essence, not consider His acts as limited by any conditions, not attribute any partner to Him in worship. Such belief in the oneness of God can only be attained through recognition of the oneness of the Manifestation of God in each age (A 1; 1V,6—7), because recognition of the unknowable essence of God is impossible (P 111,7). In each revelation there are always two proofs: the revealed verses and the author of the revelation (P 11,3). The Manifestations of God have two stations—the one of Godhead and the other of servitude, or, in other words, a divine station and a human station (A, P N]; 1X,l). They are the embodiments of the words “He shall not be asked of His doings” (A, P 1V,6); thus it is possible for an alteration (bald ’) to take place in God’s decree
10 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
(A, P 4,3). As well as symbolizing God’s absolute power over the contingent world, the phenomenon of badd” serves also as a reminder, on the human plane, of the capacity of the soul for spiritual change, whether in the direction of advancement or degradation, in a manner calculated radically to affect the ultimate destiny of the individual.
Humankind derives its life from the spiritual world even though it is unconscious of it (P 1V,6). At the same time, the immortal life of the soul in the unseen spiritual worlds has its beginning in the life of this world (P 11,8; V111,]7). Even though there are many levels in the world of existence—from the highest states of the inmost heart (fit’a’d), by whose aid man can recognize the Manifestation of God, to the lowest states of physical matter—all of them are epitomized in man (1’ 115—8; 111,10; NS).
The Bayain provides new meanings for the allegorical terms used in the Scriptures of the past. Thus Resurrection refers to the advent of the new revelation, when the Manifestation of God unfolds the mysteries and all that was hidden in the allegorical language of the previous Holy Books. Purgatory refers to the interval between two revelations, which is compared to night, in contrast to the time of the Manifestation, which is called the Day of God. Heaven is the recognition of God, while Hell is disobedience to, and rebellion against, Him. Return is the return of qualities and attributes and not the return of spirits (A V111,]0; P 11,2, 7, 9, 14; V11,19; V111,9, 14). The devil symbolizes rebellion and disobedience (P 11,17; V111,4).
In each revelation all things are subordinated to the command of the Manifestation of God in that Dispensation (P 111,5). The hierarchy of spiritual stations begins with Him and becomes manifest primarily in the Letters of the First Véhid (Letters of the Living) (A 1; P V11,8, 19; V1113, 4, 7, 18, 19). With each new revelation the existing order is revolutionized; often those who had
occupied a lowly station become distinguished by their faith, while those who were at the apex are toppled down (P V11,18; VIII, 4, 14). The word of the Manifestation of God is the source of a new system of culture and morality (P V111,17). Faith is the basis of all true family relationships (P IX,6). The acceptance of acts of worship is dependent upon faith in the Manifestation of God (P V,14; VIII,19). At the time of a new revelation all people are put to the test spiritually (P VI,10; VII,4).
The world of creation is the place of the appearance of two entities: love, which manifests itself through faith in God and belief in His oneness; and hatred, which is made manifest through denial of God and joining those who oppose Him. With the appearance of each revelation a new world of values is created through the promulgation of a new code of laws. All the components of the world (/eull—i—fiay? influence each other and, through their harmony, gradually attain perfection. The resurrection of each being takes place when this perfection is achieved (A 1; P Preface; 11,3, 4, 5, 7).
The Manifestation of God reveals the Divine Will and is, like the sun, unique. \Vith respect to the Manifestation, all others are as mirrors. However, one must not be veiled from the sun by reason of the mirrors, for the mirror will only provide a true image of the Manifestation as long as it is turned toward Him (P VI,10). The Manifestation of God, on the one hand, prohibits the people from trying to know the essence of God, which is impossible, and, on the other hand, attracts them to Himself through His superhuman attributes and powers (A 1; 1’ 1,2)The Manifest Point—that is, the Manifestation Himself—is the origin of all realities. just as in the contingent world, the geometric point is the origin of all things (P V,3)- All things achieve existence by the aid of the Will of God but without that Will becoming incarnate in them (P 11,8; 111,8).
All values come into being in consequence of the relation in which everything in life stands to the Manifestation of God (P 11,10, 11; 111,10; IVA). The people's rejection of the Manifestation does not detract from His truth (P V11,15; V1113). The Word of God is one, but its reflection in human souls is dependent upon their attitude—that is, whether they are attracted to unity or to division. Thus it Can become manifest as affirmation and faith or as negation and rebellion; it can become heavenly or diabolic; and it can fill the soul with joy or misery (P 11,1, 4, 8). Of all created things, it is humanity that embodies all the Names of God, and these Names are resplendent within human individuals whose reality derives succor from them (P 1,2).
The acceptance of individuals in the sight of God and their salvation is dependent upon their turning to, and invoking the mediation of, the Manifestation of God; their recognition of Him is linked to their recognition of the Letters of the Living (P 11,4; V1,], 19), in such a way that belief in the Manifestation will automatically entail belief in the Letters of the Living and vice versa. The capacity to recognize God is created in those whose inner eyes are open at the time of the revelation (P VI,13).
The Bayén glorifies the Prophets of the past and their Books. In the Dispensation of the Bayfin, the Manifestation of God is the Bab, the Gate of God, also named the Essence of the Seven Letters (in reference to the fact that His name, ‘All Muhammad, is composed of seven letters in Arabic). All created things have come from Him and shall finally return to Him (P 111,10). Belief in the unity of God signifies faith in Him, His Letters of the Living, and His Book, the Bayan. The Bayén is His proof and must be held sacred (A VLI; P 111,16, 17, 18, 19), and whatsoever does not derive inspiration from it is misguided (A 1V,2). The Point of the Baya'n (the Bib) has no peer or likeness (A 1; X,4; P 11,1),
THE BAYAN: AN ANALYTICAL SUMMARY 11
and His word is the criterion for all things (P V1,l).
The Báb is simultaneously the Primal Will (P 1V,2), the Manifestation of Divinity to all people, and the (211' ’im (literally, He Who Shall Arixe, a title designating the Promised One of Islam) (P 1,15; V11,15). Through His coming the prophecies of the past have been fulfilled, all that the people had yearned and longed for down the ages has been made manifest, and whatsoever they ask for will be revealed by Him. The objections made against Him ate the same as those brought forward by the unbelievers in the early days of Islam. The current sciences are worthless and without meaning if they do not conform to His Words. No one has any alternative but to believe in and obey Him.
The Bayan uses three terms in connection with the believers: “mirrors,” a general term for the followers of the Baya’n; and “witnesses” and “guides,” terms applied specifically to the scholars, the learned, and the teachers (P 1,1; 11,3).
The Word of God constitutes the “Silent Book,” and the Manifestation of God Himself, the “Speaking Book” (P 11,3). The Bayén is God’s Balance, by which everything is judged until the next revelation—that of Him Whom God Shall Make Mamfi’xt (the Promised One of the Bayan—Bahá’u’lláh) (P 11,6; 111,16). The only pilgrimages allowed are those of visiting the Shrine of the Báb and those of the Letters of the Living (A, P V1,16).
Moral and Spiritual Principles MORALITY and spiritual development are accorded an exalted station in the Bayén. The foundations of the laws and ordinances are spiritual mores. Greater attention is paid in the Baya’n to the moral purpose of the laws than to their legal and executive aspects. The basis of morality may be found in the teaching of the Bayan that the purpose of man’s creation is to attain perfection (P 11,7). The paradise for each thing is its state of perfec
12 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
tion (P VA, 9; V11,1), and perfecrion for each thing consists in its attainment to the purest state of being of which it is capable (P IV,11; VA; V13).
Science and knowledge are praised. True perfection consists in the union of knowledge, faith, and action (P VIA, 7, 13), while ignorance is the precursor of disbelief. The greatest human achievement is to acquire human perfections and achieve a high level of moral excellence (P 1X,4)—mote particularly, to reach a station in which individuals will neither see not desire evil (P IV, 16; 1X,4) and will not wish for others that which they do not wish for themselves (P IVA, 14). Salvation lies in the sincerity of one’s actions (P V1,7), and emphasis is placed on purity of intention (P D(,5). Moderation in all things is ptaiseworthy (P VI,1). Patience, serenity, and mental composure are praised (P 1V,16; V1,18), and it is not permissible to lament and become disconsolate at someone’s death (A IX,18). The Bayén teaches that love is the foundation and secret of the world of existence (P 1V,6; V,16, 19). Giving thanks to God Consists of showing love and humility toward His creatures (P V1,9).
According to the teachings of the Bayén, oEending or saddening others, particularly women, is highly reprehensible (A IV,11; P IVA; V,19; V1,11, 16; VI1,18). Among the most laudable acts of worship for a woman is to love and care for her husband and children (A, P IV,19). It is forbidden to enter into conflict with others or even to engage in verbal disputation (A X, 15; P VIII,18). Proper forms of courtesy must be observed in debates and discussions (A X,6), and to raise one’s voice is outside the bounds of human behavior (A V1,16). Coercion is forbidden, and it is incumbent upon all to prevent oppression (AX, 17; XI, 16). Emphasis is placed on the obligation of settling one’s debts (P V115). It is important to show consideration for animals (A X,15; P V1,16), and moderation in one‘s diet is recommended (P V1, 14).
Laws THE LAWS of the Bayzin have much in common with those of the Old Testament and the Koran, yet they are completely independent of them. These Observances include, for example, obligatory prayer and turning to the Qiblih (the focus to which the faithful turn in prayer) (A V11,19; V111,7, 10; X, 8; X1,l4, 15; P VII,19: V111,8); fasting (A, P V111,]8); pilgrimage (A, P IV, 16, 17, 18); and alms (A, P V111,16, 17). Close examination of the laws of the Baye’m also reveals new ideas that had not been expressed, at least in the precise form in which they ate there given, in the past. Among these are the prohibition against carrying arms (A, P VILG) and the abolition of capital punishment (A XI,16; P 1V,5).
Certain broader philosophical considerations are also presented in the Bayén, arising out of its more detailed discussion of particular laws. The following are some examples Religious laws and ordinances, like humanity itself, are constantly evolving and progressing (P 11,15). The promulgation of laws is necessary because people do not follow the dictates of their spiritual and higher nature of their own accord (P V111,]2; V,19). Transgressing the laws is a sign of lack of faith (A, P IV,11). Purity of intention is of fundamental importance (P V11,2), and sincerity and spirituality are essential in the performance of one‘s religious duties (P IXA). All people are equal before the laws of the Book, regardless of their class or condition in life (P IV,11)It is not permissible to interpret the Book (1’ 111,16). There is a wisdom in each of the laws and commandments (P V111,18). All precepts and motes in the world are divine in origin (P 1V,7). Paradise is adhering to the commandments of God, and hell, transgressing against them (P V,19). It is incumbent upon all believers to write a confession of faith and an account of their actions, to be presented to Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest at the time of His appearance. This
- _
confession is also to serve as a reminder to them, so that, when He Whom God Shall Make Manifest does appear, they may not be deprived of recognizing Him (P V,13;V111,9).
The Bayén prescribes various systems of measurement, including a new calendar; units of weight; and units for measuring the length of written works (A, P V,3, 19; V1,], 14). Special symbols For males and females are specified for use by the believers (A V1,10; P V,10), and principles for the naming of children are laid down (A, P V,4). The common forms of greeting are modified (A VIA; P VLS).
The source of all purity is the Word of God; it is spiritual, rather than physical, purity that is essential. Although the notion of ritual, or ceremonial, “impurity” and “uncleanliness” is abrogated, great emphasis is, nevertheless, placed upon physical cleanliness and purity. Semen is declared to be pure (having previously been considered unclean in Islam). The Bayain ordains the cleaning of houses and cities; bathing once every four days; and the use of perfume and rosewater. 1t recommends that bathhouses be constructed both in cities and Villages and states that it is better to wash by pouring water over one’s body than to make use of public reservoirs (A V,7, 14, 15; VI,2, 5, 17;V111,6, 10; X,1, 5; P V,7,14,15; V1,2, 3, 17; V111,6, 19; 1X,10). Both the use of, and trade in, intoxicating drinks, narcotics, and whatsoever is contrary to refinement (ligafid’ are forbidden (A 1X,7, 8; X1,18; P 1X,7, 8). Healing through the use of foods is recommended (A IX,2; P 1X,8).
Specific prayers are revealed for the new
2, Liflfiu encompasses a range of meanings from
decorum to intellectual refinement. including the sense
of gtacefulness, civility, politeness, and courtesy.
3. Temporary marriage is an institution sanctioned in Shia lslam that allows a man to take additional wives for a contmctual period of as little as a few hours. It is still practiced in Iran todayi
'I‘HE BAYAN: AN ANALYTICAL SUMMARY 13
born and the dead. Corporal punishment of children, and whatever may frighten or alarm them, are prohibited. The use of amulets and special prayers is recommended. The age of maturity is specified. Marriage and the procreation of children are enjoined, and the institution of temporary marriage is forbidden.3 Divorce is considered reprehensible, and it is laid down that a year of waiting must be observed before divorce can take place. The length of time one is permitted to be absent from one’s spouse while traveling is limited. The rites to be followed in washing and burying the dead, including interment in coffins of crystal or stone, and placing a special ring on the hand of the deceased, are all ordained. The writing of a will is enjoined, and the rules of inheritance specified (A V,11, 12, 13; V1,7, 11,12,16;V11,6,10; V111,2,11,15;X,3,10;PV,11;V1,7,11,12, 16; V11,6, 10; V111,2, 15). The proper relationship between parents and children and their respective rights are explained (A X,14). The purpose of devotional acts is to promote spiritual progress, and the most meritorious act of devotion is to bring happiness to others. Even though the fundamental goal of worship is the cultivation of inner purity and the performance of virtuous deeds, the observance of outer forms is also necessary. The Bayén ordains numerous prayers and states that prayers and divine verses should be recited only to the extent that they bring pleasure to the heart (A 111, 9, 10; V,6, 17; VII,4, 8, 17; V111,15, 14, 19; X1,14; P V,8, 17, 19; V1,2; V11,4, 13, 14, V1115, 14, 19). Congregational prayer is prohibited (P 1X,9), while offering up prayers for one’s parents is highly recommended (P V111,16). According to the Baya'n, human beings have an exalted station, attributable to their capacity both to acknowledge the oneness of God and to recognize and obey Him (A I; P 1,2). The human soul is eternal, and its progress within its station is limitless (P 11,9). All are equal before God, and there is no
14 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
difference between men and women. It is not permissible to excommunicate or denounce others. The apex of human perfection consists in faith, not in the acquisition of either knowledge or riches. It is permissible to be insistent in teaching the Religion of God, but only if this be done in a spirit of love and friendship (P 11,16). It is not befitting fot the rich to vaunt themselves above others. The banishment of people from their homes and countries, imprisonment and blows, tidicule, confiscation of belongings, intimidation, and reading other people’s letters are all forbidden. Responding to letters and questions from others is required (A IV,5; VI,16, 18, 19; VII,18;VIII,9; IX,16; X,2, 3, 6, 17, 18; XLS, 17:1’IV.5;V,4, 5, 16; VI,2, 9, 16, 18, 19; VII,6; VIII,10). Ascending pulpits is not allowed (P VII,11), not is it allowed to confess one’s sins to others (A, P VII,14).“ The acquisition of sciences in general is encouraged, but that of pseudosciences is forbidden (P IV,10).5
Punishments in the Bayén are primarily emotional, involving deprivation of marital relations between spouses and, secondarily, pecuniary payments, taking the form of fines (see, for example, A X,10, 14, 17, 18; XI,3, 16, 17; P \/,6;V1,11, 16; VII,18). From the practical and implementational point of view, these punishments are highly attuned to the sensual and material civilization of the present day. On a spiritual level, however, the commission of forbidden acts is a sign of the weakness of one’s faith. If the transgressot does not compensate for his action, he loses the merit of his other deeds and is deprived
4. Both the Bábi and Bahá’í faiths prohibit cne's confession to and seeking absolution of one’s sins from another human being, fat such confession humiliates and debases the confessor. Forgiveness is the ptovince of God.
St By pseudosciences are meant medieval pseudoscnenees‘
of the good pleasure of God, which is the source of salvation in the world to come (A XI,16). In all cases, the payment of the fine is the responsibility of the transgresor, and no one is authorized to demand it of him (P
V,16).
Administration of Society THERE is no hierarchy in the Bibi Faith because the Bib established no administrative or ecclesiastical hierarchy. The Bayén recognizes the station of kingship but does not institute a system of hierarchy in either the secular or religious domains not appoint successors to the Bfib comparable to the Iméms in Islam (P III,16; VI,14). Kings are regarded as the centers of government and sovereignty, but the importance of their station resides ptincipally in the visible symbol they present of the majesty of God. The affairs of society are in the hands of tradesmen and workers, who are to adhere to justice, according to the commandments of the Bayén (A VIII,17; X,17; X13; P V,6; VII,6). Details about the administration of social affairs are not divulged, and there is no mention of the separation of the legislative, executive, and judicial powers. Everything is subordinate to the laws of the Bayén, and the learned of the Bayén must not, like the religious leaders of the past, misguide the people at the time of the next revelation (P 11,3; IV,10; VII,11; IX,3). Private property is not abolished, and permission is given to use gold and silver vessels and to wear silk (A VI,9). Nevertheless, it is better to spend one’s wealth and riches for the welfare and guidance of the people than to hoard it (P VI,9). Interest may legitimately be charged on sums of money (P V,18).
The importance of the holy places of the past has now come to an end; yet building places of worship in the name of the Bib and the Letters of the Living is enjoined (A IV,16; V,1, 2; P IV,13; VLI3). According to the Bayén, non-Bábis are not allowed to reside
in the provinces of Azerbaijan, Fats, Iráq, Khurásán, and Mazanderan (A V1,3; P VIA; V11,16). The property of nonbelievers is to be appropriated but returned to them if they become believers (A, P V,5); there is no provision dealing with holy war (jiha’a’) as such. The nonbelieving spouses of those who become followers of the Bayan are deprived of their property rights (A, P V111,]5). Those in authority are responsible for the execution of these laws with the utmost clemency and kindness but also with consistency and firmness (P 1V5; 11,16).
Future Expectations WITH regard to expectations about the future and the Promised One of the Bayén, it must be mentioned that the Bayan does not recognize any period as the Time of the End. Even though it posits a cyclical scheme of recurrence and renewal of religious systems. it nevertheless teaches that the world is eternal and in a state of gradual evolution. 1t asserts as a natural law that divine revelation progressively unfolds in response to the unfolding material exigencies of the world. The followers of the Bayan must be educated and exhorted not to be deprived of true faith by reason of the external trappings of belief (P V,11, 13). The Bayén styles the author of the next revelation He Whom God Shall Make Manifest, and in many ways the Bayan is more a eulogy of Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest than a code of laws and doctrine. It teaches that, before His declaration, there is no outward difference discernible between Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest and other people (P VIA; IX”. and for this reason certain of the laws of the Bayan, framed primarily to secure the welfare of the Promised One, must be observed toward
6. See also P V'II,7, which discusses the same concept but does net mention the “drink of water.”
THE BAYAN: AN ANALYTICAL SUMMARY 15
all people. Although the laws and teachings of the Bayén serve generally to promote the education of humanity, the immediate purpose of the Book is, nevertheless, to prepare its followers for the recognition of Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest (P 111,13).
If one were to list all that the Bayén has to say concerning Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest, one would, without exaggeration, have to refer to at least two thirds of the Persian and Arabic Bayéns. Onlya few points, therefore, are mentioned here. He Whom God Shall Make Manifest represents the essence and inner truth of all that is mentioned in the Baya’n (A 111,12). He is all good (P 11,5), and the Bayan is but a humble gift to Him (P 11,19). Whatsoever is unique and peerless should be presented as a gift to Him (A V,6, 16; V1115).
With the aim of honoring the Promised One, the Bayén exhorts the believers to compose, once every nineteen years, a treatise about Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest, setting forth the proofs of His revelation, that they may not remain deprived of recognizing His signs when He appears (A VIL3); to turn, for one month each year, toward one of the Names of God and repeat it, that, through the grace vouchsafed by that Name, they may be enabled to believe in Him (A V11,4); to recite, once every month, a special chapter of the Bayan (P V1,8) and to reflect upon it so that they may not be deprived of recognizing Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest; to request, if they should achieve the bounty of meeting Him, that He bless their dwellings with His presence, since, if He were to receive a drink of water from their hands, this would be better for them than their reviving with the water of life all created things (A V'11,7);6 to arise from their seats every time they hear His Name, as a sign of courtesy and respect to Him (P V1,15); to leave empty in every gathering nineteen seats or (if this be not possible), at least one seat, so that, should He Whom God Shall
16 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
Make Manifest arrive, He might occupy that seat (P IX,1); to remove anyone who is the cause of grief to Him (P VI,15) (this is the only command to remove in the whole of the Bayén); and, finally, should any of the laws of the Bayén be inconsistent with the veneration and glorification of Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest, to cast aside that law and forget it completely (A X,l9).
When the code of the laws of the Bayén is viewed in its entirety, it would seem evident that most of them are to various degrees incapable of practical implementation and are designed rather to emphasize the exalted station of the Promised One of the Baya’n, in Whose honor the majority of them have primarily been Conceived, and to emphasize the imminence of His advent.
Reading the Romance of Heroes
Once as a child, I was hung with stars
left alone deep in the green afternoon
that rolled across the orchard
where trees cast the future with their branches.
Ah, what can I say? A song is asleep in my arms.
Once as a child when the windows of the sun fell chill days ceased to move, my bones made a raft for the sky.
Once as a child images of long-gone people crossed the silent seas of dreams.
The sun hung in tight skin, untouched; time haunted the attic.
Among the shadows of my generation, old carrion boxes propped around me
like sentineis of disaster, the abstract hours gathered my portable mind
and carried me deep into driven lives.
Orange patterned clouds lifted songs as past singers made flowers walked with their eyes between the stars.
Once as a child and once as a man
I trace the lining of the universe
in the orchard on the branches with fruit. In the attic heroes of the Bayén
stretch their swords
towards my lacerated throat
and into the heart of each traveling more
What can I say? I am alone with the annals of the sun.
—-Robert G. Wilson
Copyright © 2001 by Robert G. wuss"
l7
é
Gobineau’s Account of the Beginnings of the Bahá’í Revelation
TRANSLATED BY HOWARD B. CAREY
Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau, French Orientalist, diplomat, and man of letters, served as his country’s envoy to Iran in 1855—58 and 1861—1863. No foreign diplomat stationed in Tehran in those years could have missed the turmoil occasioned by the rise and suppression of the Bibi Faith or failed to report on it to his government. Unlike most of his colleagues, however, Gobineau was proficient in both Persian and Arabic, was familiar with Islam, and had a genuine interest in philosophy and religion. A keen observer and indefatigable researcher, he collected Babf manuscripts, interviewed a few survivors of the massacres of 1853, read the writings of Qajar court historians, and sought information from Iranian officials who had taken part in the events of the preceding decade. The result of his labors was a book, an extract from which appears below.
Le: religions et le: philamp/Jie: dam l’Axie Centrale, published in 1865, was the first serious work to deal with the origins of the Babi Faith. The elegant and often inspiring language of the book and the social prominence of its author guaranteed it a wide audience that came to include a number of prominent French intellectuals and, in time, the renowned English scholar Edward G. Browne.
Gobineau’s access to the Bábi’s was limited. Inevitably he received much of his information from sources hostile to the Bábi’s. Thus his narrative is largely based on the Nésiflu’t-Tavétffl by Mfrza Taqf Khan Sipihr, court historian of Nasiti’d-Din Shah and bearer of the gtandiloquent title, Lisénu'l—Mulk, The Tongue of the Kingdom. While rejecting Sipiht’s interpretations, Gobineau repeats many of his errors and adds a number of his own. Thus, for example, the extract offered below gives the age of the Báb in 1843 as nineteen whereas He was twenty—four. Gobineau’s claim that “everything points to Mimi ‘Ali Muhammad’s having received a distinguished education” is his unsubstantiated opinion, and his claim that it was “at the base of the Kaaba” during His pilgrimage to Mecca that the Báb “first acquired the commitment” to His mission is a bit of romantic fantasizing since the Báb had proclaimed that mission some five months earlier in Shíráz. Nor is there substance to the assertion that in Mecca the Báb “detached himself, absolutely and definitively, from the faith of the Prophet and that he conceived the idea of ruining that faith. . . ." The corpus of the Báb’s works and the history of His religion teStify to the contrary. His mission was not to destroy but to Fulfill.
20
WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
The contemporary reader, of course, should not expect from Gobineau what he could not possibly have delivered. Yet his book itself remains a document of primary significance, not so much for what it tells us about the Bab as for its insight into the view of a highly educated and intelligent member of the European elite concerning the birth of a new religion he so imperfectly
perceived and so eloquently described. THE EDITORS
IN Shíráz, about 1843, there was ayoung man by the name of ‘Ali Muhammad, who was barely nineteen, if that. Much importance has been attached, on the one hand, to the claim that he was a descendant of the Prophet [Muhammad] through the Imam Husayn and was thus entitled to the rank and prerogatives of a Siyyid—and, on the other, just as much to denying him that eminence. It is inarguable that, if he was a Siyyid, he was so in the obscure way that more than casts doubt on the pretensions of a great many Persian families that presume to that honor. Serious scholars have shown that all the genealogical documents capable of establishing the sacred lineage were destroyed or lost during the long period of persecution suffered by the descendants of [the Imam] ‘Ali under the Umayyad Caliphs and especially under the Abbasids. Outlawed, a great number of these Siyyids fell under the sabers of their enemies, while the test went underground as best they could. Even granting that the blood of the Imams might have been passed on, no one can prove that in his veins Hows this precious blood.
No more than four families are considered to have more right to call themselves Siyyids—and no European genealogist would consider worthy of credence the reasons that even they allege. These families are ancient and reputable, and they have enjoyed the respect of the general public. However, to reach back to the Imams, a two-century gap remains that they cannot fill, while the revered documents that they offer as having reached them from dieir glorious ancestors, whether seals, or prayers written by the hands of the very saints in question, or other articles of that ilk, would barely pass muster among our scholars as mere presumptions. However that may be, M irza ‘Ali Muhammad did not belong to any of these four families, and if his fotebears—whatever ill—disposed persons may say—have home or claimed the station of Siyyid, it was on very unreliable evidence. In any case, while his family was not exactly of the people, it did possess some property, and as a result everything points to Mind ‘All Muhammad’s having received a distinguished education.
Like most—perhaps all—Asiatics, he evinced early in life a lively fascination with religious ideas. Neither the practice of religious duties nor the
Copyright © 2001 by Howard B. Garey. The translation is from Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau, Le: religion: er [:3 philosophic: dam [‘An'e Cmmzle (Paris, 1865) 142—50.
GOBINEAU’S ACCOUNT 21
profession of orthodox teachings satisfied him. He threw himself passionately into the pursuit and scrutiny of novel opinions. There is every reason to believe that from the beginning he had an open and daring mind. It is certain that he read the Gospels as translated by Protestant missionaries. He often conversed with the Jews of Shíráz, sought correspondence with Parsi [Zoroastrian] scholars, and had a particular predilection for unusual books that were somewhat suspect, much honored, and even feared, treating of the occult sciences and the philosophical theory of numbers. This is the passion of the most brilliant minds of Muslim Asia, and it soon became his. By the same token, he plunged with all his might into the remaining vestiges of ancient Aramaic philosophy. There are various indications that he quite possibly had in his possession certain rare books of inestimable value, most likely themselves ancient or copied on the basis of ancient texts relative to this body of doctrines.
He was very young when he made the pilgrimage to Mecca. But, instead of being brought back by the sight of the Kaaba to strictly Muslim tenets, he was pulled by everything he saw, heard, or experienced further and further from conventional paths. It is entirely possible that it was in this city itself that he detached himself, absolutely and definitively, from the faith of the Prophet and that he conceived the idea of ruining that faith in order to put in its place something completely different. Highly introspective, ever occupied with religious practices, extremely simple in his way of life, attractive in his gentle demeanor, and enhancing these gifts with his extreme youth and the marvelous charm of his appearance, he gathered about him a number of awakened minds. People were beginning to talk about his knowledge and the penetrating eloquence of his talks. Men who have known him aver that he could not open his mouth without stirring his heaters to the depths of their being. Moreover, he expressed profound veneration for the Prophet [Muhammad] , the Imams, and their holy companions, thus charming the severest orthodox at the same time that ardent and restless spirits rejoiced in intimate meetings with him, in the absence of that narrowness in the expression of consecrated opinions that would have weighed upon them.
On the contrary, his conversation opened up infinite horizons—varied, motley, mysterious, shadowed, and sown here and there with a blinding light, which delighted the imaginations of his countrymen. It was at the base of the Kaaba, of the house of Abraham and Ishmael, that ‘Ali' Muhammad first acquired the commitment that very shortly after came to assume a wholly different character to surpass by Far the power of the usual passing attachments of the world. ‘
So it was that ‘Ali Muhammad returned from Mecca even more irrevocably dissident than when he had arrived there. Once in Baghdad, he was bent on completing his impressions by going to Kufa to visit the ruins of its mosque, without arch, without pillars, and today practically without walls, where [the Ima’m] ‘All was assassinated and within which tradition locates the exact site of the murderi He spent several days there in meditation. It seems that this
WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
place made a deep impression on him and that, at the moment of entering a path that could, would—even must—end in some drama that would repeat the one that had [a.ken place at that spot upon which his eyes were fixed, he had to sustain a painful battle with himself. One of his most devoted supporters said to me—availing himself of leitma’n (dissimulation) because of those within earshot—“It was in the mosque of Kufa that the devil tempted him and made him leave the straight path." But I could guess by looking at his face that, on the contrary, he considered the moral anguish that ‘Ali Muhammad felt—at that place where in his mind’s eye he saw the Imam ‘Ah’ lying at his feet, his body broken, drenched in blood—as the end of human hesitations and the triumph of his master’s prophetic spirit. It is clear that when ‘Alf Muhammad reached Shíráz he was entirely changed from what he had been at his departure. He was no longer tormented by doubt. He was permeated, completed, persuaded; his decision was made; and he only needed inflammable materials within reach to resolve to set them on fire. And such materials he did find.
He had come from Kufa as far as Bushire in an Arab boat called a bungalow, and from there came to his native city by joining a caravan that was about to cross the mountains. No sooner had he arrived than he gathered about him some of his traveling companions already under his spell, as well as a number of his previous followers. l-Ie vouchsafed his first writings to this first group of the faithful. These writings consisted of a journal of his pilgrimage and a commentary on the Koranic Sura of Joseph. In the first of these books he was mostly pious and mystical; in the second, polemic and dialectic were emphasized. His hearers were amazed to note that he discovered new meanings in the chapter of God’s book he had chosen, meanings that had never been disclosed until then, from which he drew completely unexpected doctrines and teachings. His followers never tired of praising the elegance and beauty of the Arabic in which these compositions were couched. In fact, his elated admirers never feared to prefer them to the most beautiful passages of the Koran. I must confess that I do not share this opinion. ‘Ali’ Muhammad’s style is flat, without brilliance, tiresome in its stiffness, of doubtful richness, while its [grammadcal] correctness is questionable. Not all of its numerous obscurities were intended by him; rather, many owe their existence to his ineptitude. The Koran is far from having to fear its competition. If a day should arrive when the works of this new prophet will have replaced this ancient Book, they can only find admirers endowed with a new esthetic. Since we are still subject [0 the laws and habits of the older standards, for us the Koran is incontestably, to speak only of its literary qualities, the work of a great genius, while thé Sura of Joseph—or rather, its commentary—is very much like the labors of a schoolboy.
Be that as it may, it produced an enormous impression at Shíráz, and the whole lettered and religious world clustered around ‘Ali Muhammad. Immediately upon his appearance in the mosque they would surround him. His
GOBINEAU’S ACCOUNT
23
public discourses never attacked the basic tenets of lslam and manifested respect for all its forms. In short, they were dominated by the kitma’n. And yet they were daring statements; far from indulgent to the clergy, they, in fact, cruelly exposed its Vices, The sad, painful destiny of humankind was generally their theme. Here and there certain allusions (whose obscurity aroused the curiosity of some, while flattering the self-esteem of others already partially or wholly initiated) gave to these sermons such saltiness and bite that the crowds increased day after day, and all over Persia people began to talk about ‘Ali’ Muhammad.
The mullahs of Shíráz did not wait for all this ado to rally against their detractor. Beginning with his first public appearances they sent him the clevetest of their envoys, to argue with him and confound him, and these public debates (which were held in the mosques, in the seminaries in the presence of the governors or of the military chiefs or the clergy, or the general populace—in fact, everybody) contributed in no small measure to spread and heighten the renown of the enthusiast, and this at the expense of those who were sent against him. There is no doubt that he bested his antagonists; Koran in hand, he condemned them. it was Child’s play for him, who knew the mullahs well, to show, facing the multitude, to what degree their conduct, to what point their precepts and their very dogmas were in flagrant contradiction with the Book, which they could not dispute. With extraordinary fervor and temerity he flayed, without regard for the usual conventions, the Vices of his antagonists, and, after proving to them how faithless they were to doctrine, he condemned their way of life and threw them on the mercy of the crowds indignation or contempt. These performances at Shíráz, these first ventures at preaching, were so deeply moving that those Muslims who remained orthodox kept an indelible memory of them and did not speak of them except with a sort of terror. To a man they acknowledged that ‘Ali Muhammad’s eloquence was incomparable, such that anyone who had not witnessed it could not imagine it.
The young theologian no longer appeared in public except surrounded by a huge throng of followers. His home was always crowded with them. He not only taught in the mosques and seminaries, but it was at home, especially in the evening, withdrawn to a chamber with his choice admirers, that he lifted for them the veils of a doctrine which he himself had not fully developed. It would seem that in the early moments [of his ministry] polemic occupied him more than dogma—and nothing is more natural. During those secret conferences, his candor, much more daring than in public, increased every day, and they tended so obviously to a complete overturning of Islam that they actually served as an introduction to a new profession of faith. The little Church was ardent, daring, ready for anything, zealous in the true sense, the high sense of the word—that is, each of its members counted-himself for nothing and had a burning desire to sacrifice blood and money in the Cause of faith. It was then that ‘Ali’ Muhammad assumed his first religious title. He
[Page 24]
1
[
24
WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
announced that he was the Báb, the Gate through which one could attain the knowledge of God. A: Shíráz they no longer called him by any other name, there and everywhere where mention of him was made. Even his enemies gave him, and still give him, that ride.
meditation
twin reposing rocks fixed in placid lambent pool curved by time’s own shape serenely side by side
silent as stillborns
couriers from glacial age cryptic life must spark from deep within them
—Florence DiPasquaJe Kindel
Copyright © 200x by Florcncc DiPasqujlt Kmde]
25
ark
where are the people going in that vacant lot
why are all the women wandering away from the men the children come running in from thunder
the world is stubby and rough
they are barefoot
the children come running in from the lightning
the children want to follow the parents but where are they one of the men has an ark
why are all the people afraid to board it
it feels like heavy rains
—Florence DiPasquale Kindel
Copyright © 2001 by Florenct Dil’asquale Kindzl
[Page 26]
, firsig
The Cure in Search of a Cure
A REVIEW OF THE CURE’S Bloodflowm, ELEKTRA RECORDS, 2000, 62236—2
BY KEVIN A. MORRISON
UFFEIUNG from what he perceived to be
the stmngulating effect of his marriage on him, Pyott Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840—93), the great Russian composer, sought artistic renewal by leaving his homeland and taking up residence in Western Europe. There Tchaikovsky composed his Fourth Symphony—which testifies to the role he believed fate plays in our lives.1 Fate, Tchaikovsky mused, “impedes the impulse toward the happiness of teaching one’s goal," ensuring “that prosperity and peace are never complete and cloudless. . . . It is invincible and you will never overpower it. All that we can do is
Copyright © 2001 by Kevin A‘ Morrison
1. See Alexander Poznansky, Tr/mi/zawky: TIM Quest fW fl}: 1mm Man (New York: Schirmer Books, 1993).
2.1’yottllicl1Tchaikovsky, quoted in Lewis Owens, 'Enigma Variations" 2, Spike Magazine, <http:// www.spikemagazinetcom> . 3. Tchaikovsky, quoted in Owens, "Enigma Variauons" 2.
4. The link between tragedy and music is as old as civilization itself with ancient tragedy born out of chonm At is most fundamental, music is a supplication, a call issued in the hope of a response (to God. to one's adversary or loved one, to all of humanity). Although (Oday ancient choruses no longer move lives to that “5“ 3133C of cmmional expression, music plays no less licenual roleAmmmonality among all cultures, though 1‘ likes many forms, music speaks to that universal “FCC! of human consciousness. Modem music fulfills (and sometimes fails at) no less an important role than the ancient chomscs by attempting to express the inexPRssible and to bring about a release of emotions.
subject ourselves to it and vainly lament."2
And lament Tchaikovsky did. The Fourth Symphony is his own symphonic autobiography, containing within it the emotions that consumed him in those last two years in Russia before relocating to Europe: despair, suffering, torment, pain, and, ultimately, a modicum of hope. “If you do not discover in yourself the motifs of joy,11 wrote Tchaikovsky, “look at others. . . . Joys there are, simple but powerful. Delight in the merriment of others. Life is still possible.”3
Tchaikovsky, whose marriage failed miserably, nevertheless managed to find hope in what seemed like a hopeless situation. In contrast, Robert Smith, the lead singer and lyricist of the band The Cure, has had trouble embracing this same notion, despite his happy, blissful marriage.
Spanning more than two decades, The Cure ushered in the contemporary, Gothic music sensibility to which more well—known bands like (the now defunct) The Smiths and Depeche Mode owe a great deal. The Cure was also one of the first class of alternative music pioneers whose lyrics, embracing for the most part an all-consuming subjectivity that never saw beyond the lead—singer’s own emotions (or at least the persona he deployed), invoked apocalyptic, millennial overtones. As Robert Smith wailed about himself, one could not help feeling that he was also wailing about society.‘
The Cure, who are often referred to on the street as the “popes of mops,” or “the fathers
28 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
of Goth [music],” have been recording ponderous, deeply introspective songs (with the occasional joyful outburst) since 1976. Smith’s gifted compositional and vocal abilities are complemented by a commitment by the band to challenge themselves instrumentally. Some compact sound discs are guitar driven; others draw heavily on synthesizers or electronic keyboards. Individual songs have used trumpets, 3 string quartet, a mariachi band, and even a full orchestra. The results have often been stunning.S
Since its beginnings in London, The Cure has managed to achieve something of a paradox: retaining cult status while also becoming hugely popular. The Cure’s pseudo—marginality has worked to the group’s advantage, allowing it to reach the top of the music charts with upbeat tracks such as The Walla (1983) or Friday I’m in Lave (1992) While more significant and hcart-wrenching songs were targeted to their long—time listeners.
It helps that the mainstream media have virtually ignored The Cure despite the tremendous successes—artistically and financially—the band has achieved.6 Smith, the band's figurehead, is hardly the sex symbol the media like to spotlight: He remains virtually still in concert performances; appears in lipstick that covers much more than just his lips, eyeliner that stretches out toward the edges of his face, and hair that is huge and messy, aided by cans of hair spray and molding cream. He is frumpy and awkward and a bit
5. Although in this review I refer to The Cure’s compact sound discs, their work is also available in vinyl and audiocassett: versions, some of which include bonus tracks to which I do not refer.
6. The Cute's 1992 sound recording Wish (Elektta Records, 9 61309-2), fol example, debuted on the pop charts at number 2 while their 1989 sound recording Disintegration was a triple-platinum success.
7. Percy Bysshe Shelley, “To a Skylark," <http:// www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/to/pocms/shelley9.html>,
8. Apart, from the compact sound disc With.
of a bookworm—the Romantic and Mod. ernist poets being among his favorite reads and most formative influences.
It seems undeniable that often, as the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792—1822) wrote in “To a Skylark," “our sweetest songs ate those that tell the saddest thought.” The Cute’s sweetest songs are those in which Smith maintains an introspective and often deeply despairing voice in less popular but more powerful songs including Charlotte Sometime; (1981), Dzlrintegmtion (1989), Open (1992), and Bloodflower: (2000). More recent sound recording covers have usually included some overt references to the poets who inspire their songs—La Rochefoucauld, Shelley, Tennyson, Less explicit references occur in the songs themselves, with Treaxure (1996), for example, clearly echoing Christina Rossetti’s (183094) poem “Remember.”
For much of its career The Cure has explored an overwhelming melancholia that refuses to loosen its grip on its lead singer. Smith does not want to feel the emptiness he feels, the sense of loss and loneliness, even when among loved ones, and yet it persists despite his best efforts.
The vast majority of The Cure: songs explore how melancholia brings about an overpowering sense of loss between two loved ones—chillingly captured in Apart (1992):
He waits for her to understand
But she won’t understand at all
She waits all night for him call
But he won’t Call anymore
He waits to hear her say
“Forgive”
But she just drops her peatl—black eyes
And prays to hear him say
“1 love you”
But he tells no more lies8
The Cure has often used relationships as a lens to examine many of life’s aspirations, dreams, and wishes—expectations about the world, about ourselves, and about the futurfi. The Cure has also used the failure of those
relationships, most often romantic ones but sometimes those between friends, as rich fodder for an examination of what they reveal about all of life‘s disappointments:
50 WHY DOES IT HURT ME LIKE THIS
TO SAY THAT I’VE CHANGED?
TO SAY THAT I’VE AGED?
SAY I’M mum . . .
BUT THERE ARE LONG LONG NIGHTS WHEN I LAY AWAKE
AND I THINK OF WHAT I’VE DONE
OF ú0““va THROWN MY SWEETEST DREAMS AWAY
AND WHAT I’VE REALLY BECOME
AND HOWEVER HARD I TRY
I WILL ALWAYS FEEL REGRET
HOWEVER HARD I TRY
I WILL NEVER FORGET"
But all of The Cure’s work is not gloomy. Perhaps in the spirit of physician heal thyself, it has also recorded infectiously upbeat songs that escape the somewhat dismissive description of the band as “gloom merchants.” The result is that The Cure has kept alive 3 dynamic, dialectical dance in which either pessimism or optimism could emerge as the lead:
ALL YOU WANT TO DO 15 NOTHING
ON A DAY LIKE TODAY
BUT IF YOU DO THAT YOU’LL BE MISSING THE WORLD
9‘ Bare, liner notes, compacr sound disc Wild Maud Swing; (Elektra Records, 1996, 61744-2)‘
10. Cont, liner notes. from the compact sound disc Wild Maud Swings,
11, The nine tucks on Blamé‘bwtr: include Out of ””3 Warld. chbing M: Fall, Where the Bird: Alma]; Si"g- Mayl» Someday. TI]: [41“ Day afSummer, There it Naif, - , , The Laudest Swmd. 39, and the title song Blmf/lawm,
12. Alfred Lord Tennyson, “The Princess: A Medley: Tears, Idle Tears" <htrpzl/wwaibraryiutoronto‘ca/ utcl/rp/pocms/tcnnyson16.html>.
13. Out of 7771} World, from the compact sound disc Bloodfbwerr.
THE CURE IN SEARCH OF A CURE 29
BECAUSE IT DOESN’T STOP TURNING WHATEVER YOU HEARD
IF you Do THAT YOU’LL BE MISSING THE WORLD
YOU HAVE TO GET UP GET OUT AND GET GONE!
YEAH GET UP GET OUT AND HAVE SOME FUN
YOU HAVE TO GET UP GET OUT AND GET GONE!
YEAH GET UP GET OUT AND GET IT ON
GET UP GET OUT AND GET GONE!
YOU HAVE TO GET UP GET OUT AND GET
LIVINGm Thus, like the poets who influenced the group, The Cure has explored the same basic human emotions that inspired Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony: despair, suffering, torment, pain, and the inescapable yearning for something more—for hope.
The Cure’s most recent compact sound disc, Bloodflawer: (Elektra Records, 2000, 73336—2) is to be the culmination and the distillation of a twenty—four year career, exploring in nine tracks the various emotions that were often the province of a single sound recording.” The album includes an excerpt from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Princess” that sums up the overriding theme of The Cure’s musical career:
. . . I know not What they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.12 Nostalgic longing begins Blooaflowerx, which quickly turns to frenetic introspection, hopelessness, and haplessness. Finally, the emotions on the compact sound disc Crescendo with a gesture toward internal reconciliation. The compact sound disc, like the quotation from Tennyson that frames it, begins with the words: “WHEN WE LOOK BACK AT IT ALL AS I KNOW WE WILL.”” One has a distinct sense in listening to the disc that the listeners are also looking back on the band’s career. The Cure is so successful in replicating all of
30 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
the emotions expressed on previous recordings, and of their signature guitar and vocal sounds, that Blooaflowm invokes a numbingly familiar feeling.
Yet many of the tracks on the compact sound disc are powerful, arguably among the group’s best work, offering penetrating insights into nostalgia, longing, and pain.M But the disc as a whole fails because, in the end, it is so successful in perfecting its sound that it has nothing new to offer—to which the band itself seems to attest (“so the fire is almost out,” Smith wails on the track 39, “and there’s nothing left to bum”) To use the literary critic Barbara Johnson’s phrase in a nondeconstructivist way, “Nothing fails like
success.”15
Unlike Tchaikovsky, The Cure finds no rhyme or reason in its View of fate. Where the Bird; Always Sing seems to embody that position:
THE WORLD IS NEITHER FAIR NOR UNFAIR
THE lDFA IS JUST A WAY FOR US TO UNDER STAND BUT THE WORLD IS NEITHER FAIR NOR UNFAIR 50 ONE SURVIVES
l4. \Wm‘bingMe Fall is a brilliant piece of introspection comparable (O anogmpby (1982) or Disintegration (1989); Bloodflowm, a masterful exploration of estrangement between two people in love, is as heartfelt and moving as Apart (1992); Maybe Snmm'ay, a more upbeat but somewhat melancholy song, seems to be subdy debating whether it is time to pull the plug on The Cure (“I’VE GOT To LET IT Go AND LEAVE rr GONE / JUST WALK AWAY, STOP IT GOING ON / GET TOO SCARED T0 JUMP 19 I mm 100 LONG / au‘r MAYBE somemv, , . .")
15. Barbara Johnson, A \Var/d’ nfDi trmrt (1987: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1989) Title of chapter 2.
16. Where the Bird: Always Sing, liner notes, from the compact sound disc Bloodflowrrxi
17. I owe this point to a discussion with Lynne Yancy
18‘ Or one could look to one of The Curc's own formative influences, T S. Eliot, whose later poems gesture toward a reluctant spirituality and transcendence.
THE OTHERS DIE
AND YOU ALWAYS WANT A REASON WHY“ If there is no fate, one would, logically, be in control of one’s own destiny. Without fate determining the state to which one is consigned, one should be able to break free from melancholia; the band, though, remains firmly within its grip even while disavowing any external reasons for it. It is not fate that “impedes the impulse toward happiness,” as one might surmise from listening to The Cure, but ourselves. Introspection, a state in which The Cure has always excelled, ensures that one watches and observes before acting—both of which are often valuable and necessary—but introspection itself is not action. In the end one has to look away from the mirror to be a part of something more.17 Recognizing that “life is still possible,” as Tchaikovsky did, requires looking to others and away from one’s self—finding joys in others by recognizing the fundamental interconnectivity and transcendent reality of life.
The Cure has produced a remarkably rich oeuvre that surveys with acuity the emotionally batten landscape of modernity. However, the band has become a victim of its own success. It has experimented musically but never changed its sound over the years, so that follow—up sound recordings have not been received by Fans with the shock and hortm that often accompanies a new release by a band or singer that thinks the listeners will follow them anywhere. (Remember Pat Boone’s turn at heavy metal a few years ago?) But having never changed its sound, having never reinvented itself by seeing beyond its own despair and sadness, The Cute’s worldview is now becoming remarkably out—of—date. Even the filmmaker Jean—Luc Godard, whose films are among the most scathing critiques of society and human nature, has recently taken a spiritual, transcendent rum in his wor .’8
In fact, the comparison to cinema is not entirely random. The Cure has always relied
on something that works especially well in cinema: caricature. While such an observation might be obvious from Smith’s almost clown—like appearance, this may be what ultimately reconciles his home life with the persona he has deployed in music. The Cure‘s songs alternate between ultimate bliss and the deepest despair; its lyrics are full of introspection, depression, and estrangement
19. One of the more playful songs that demonstmcs The Cure’s ingenious knack for wordplay is High (1992) on their compact sound disc MIIIJ “When I see you slickyas lips / as [icky as trips / I can't lick that fart" See also Th: Lawmt: on The Cure‘s 1983 compact sound disc japarm: Whispers.
20. Plutarch, Demetriux. trans. John Dryden (hnpzllclassics.mit.cdu/Plutarch/demetrus.hrml>.
THE CURE IN SEARCH OF A CURE 31
between the sexes mixed with comical word plays and, when in concert or video, obvious sight—gags. 1"
After a time, though, one tires of caricature. Following laughter or tears (the emotions most often invoked by caricature), one is left wanting something more. After tearing down, one feels the need to build anew. If one moves on, and icons do not, they become consigned to a period the time For which has ended, to a particular sensibility that has passed. In Demetrius, the Greek writer Plutarch (c. 46—c. 119) observed that “Medicine, to produce health, has to examine disease,” and one might say that The Cure, to produce joy, has had to examine sorrow.zn When the illness has been thoroughly diagnosed, though, it is time to administer the
cure.
WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 2000
Tao
A flutter of blue gingham beneath the eyelids
just before sleep; I walk in my grandmother’s house, look out the window at the firs,
freshly planted, and low enough to jump.
Inside I am watm—hot cocoa,
my wrinkled grandmother wearing her gingham apron, the lingering touch of sheets
tucked with care the night before.
50 small, my young spirit, tight as a seed
barely sprouted, yet I knew—like the sure Cut
of English streets and names—that my grandmother was old, and I, green and growing.
Now that silver runs its fingers though my hair, even when I do not stand in moonlight,
I ponder more on mysteries, wonder
as the fruit that sleeps in trees Feel, dancing deep within my heart,
the unburdened spirit of my grandmother. Her strong chi embraces me
like an eagle circling her nest.
Now she is the tender shoot
reachng through another world,
the maiden who can see
her bridegroom take the rainbow for his bow.
And I, grown old as the firs outside the window whose strong branches bear the heavy snow and warm the winter birds in their keep.
—Druzelle Cederquist
Cnpyright © 2001 by Druulle Cederquist
Authors 86 Artists
MUHAMMAD AFNAN is a member of the Research Department at the Bahá’í administrative headquarters in Haifa, Israel. He holds a V.M.D. specializing in bacteriology and infectious diseases and was a professor at Tehran University until 1974.
DRUZELLE CEDERQUIST, a frequent contributor to World Order, holds a Master’s degree in bicultuml studies with a concentration in teaching English as a second language from the University of Texas.
HOWARD B. CAREY makes a welcome return to the pages of World Order. He was a founding editor of the magazine when it was relaunched in 1966 as a quarterly and served with distinction—wriring numerous editorials and interchange columns as well as several articles and reviews—until his retirement in 1998. He is Professor Emeritus of French and Romance Philology at Yale University. His professional interests include the relationship between musical and lyric structures and the history of the French language.
FLORENCE DIPASQUALE KINDEL, a poet and a painter, holds an M.F.A. degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York.
KEVIN A. MORRISON, a member of the era' Order Editorial Board, holds a degree in political philosophy and theoretical sociology from Hampshire College.
ROBERT G. WILSON is a management cansultant and writer. He has published many articles on management techniques and processes and a current best—selling book on management, 7b]; Shop“! The New Manuficturing Standard. He is working on a history of the Bahá’í Faith in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, 1907—1921.
ART CREDITS: Cover design by John Solarz, cover photograph by Glenford E. Mitchell; pp. 1, 3, photographs by Sepehr Moshtael; pp. 6, 16, 18, and 26, photographs by Steve Garrigues; p. 31, illustration by Ada James.
