Chapter 2
Baha'u'llah
and the New Era:
Chapter
Two: The Bab:1
The Forerunner
Verily
the oppressor hath slain the Beloved of the worlds that he might thereby quench
the Light of God amidst His creatures and withhold mankind from the Stream of
Celestial Life in the days of his Lord, the Gracious, the Bountiful. -- BAHA'U'LLAH,
Tablet to Ra'is.
Birthplace
of the New Revelation
Persia, the birthplace of the Bahá'í Revelation, has occupied a unique place in
the history of the world. In the days of her early greatness she was a veritable
queen among nations, unrivaled in civilization, in power and in splendor. She
gave to the world great kings and statesmen, prophets and poets, philosophers
and artists. Zoroaster, Cyrus and Darius, Hafiz and Firdawsi, Sa'di and `Umar
Khayyam are but a few of her many famous sons. Her craftsmen were unsurpassed
in skill; her carpets were matchless, her steel blades unequaled, her pottery
world famous. In all parts of the Near and Middle East she has left traces of
her former greatness.
Yet,
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries she had sunk
to a condition of deplorable degradation. Her ancient
glory seemed irretrievably lost. Her government was
corrupt and in desperate financial straits; some of
her rulers were feeble, and other monsters of cruelty.
Her priests were bigoted and intolerant, her people
ignorant and superstitious. Most of them belonged to
the Shi'ih sect,2
of Muhammadans, but there were also considerable numbers
of Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians,
of diverse and antagonistic sects. All professed to
follow sublime teachers who exhorted them to worship
the one God and to live in love and unity, yet they
shunned, detested and despised each other, each sect
regarding the others as unclean, as dogs or heathens.
Cursing and execration were indulged in to a fearful
extent. It was dangerous for a Jew or a Zoroastrian
to walk in the street on a rainy day, for if his wet
garment should touch a Muhammadan, the Muslim was defiled,
and the other might have to atone for the offense with
his life. If a Muhammadan took money from a Jew, Zoroastrian
or Christian he had to wash it before he could put it
in his pocket. If a Jew found his child giving a glass
of water to a poor Muhammadan beggar he would dash the
glass from the child's hand, for curses rather than
kindness should be the portion of infidels! The Muslims
themselves were divided into numerous sects, among whom
strife was often bitter and fierce. The Zoroastrians
did not join much in these mutual recriminations, but
lived in communities apart, refusing to associate with
their fellow countrymen of other faiths.
Social as well as religious affairs were in a state of hopeless decadence. Education
was neglected. Western science and art were looked upon as unclean and contrary
to religion. Justice was travestied. Pillage and robbery were of common occurrence.
Roads were bad and unsafe for travel. Sanitary arrangements were shockingly defective.
Yet, notwithstanding
all this, the light of spiritual life was not extinct in Persia. Here and there,
amid the prevailing worldliness and superstition, could still be found some saintly
souls, and in many a heart the longing for God was cherished, as in the hearts
of Anna and Simeon before the appearance of Jesus. Many were eagerly awaiting
the coming of a promised Messenger of God, and confident that the time of His
advent was at hand. Such was the state of affairs in Persia when the Bab, the
Herald of a new era, set all the country in commotion with His message. Early
Life
Mirza
Ali Muhammad, Who afterwards assumed the title of Bab
(i.e. Gate), was born at Shiraz, in the south of Persia,
on the 20th of October 1819 A.D.1
He was a Siyyid, that is, a descendant of the Prophet
Muhammad. His father, a well-known merchant, died soon
after His birth, and He was then placed under the care
of a maternal uncle, a merchant of Shiraz, who brought
Him up. In childhood He learned to read, and received
the elementary education customary for children.2
At the age of fifteen He went into business, at first
with His guardian, and afterward with another uncle
who lived at Bushihr, on the shore of the Gulf of Persia.
As
a youth He was noted for great personal beauty and charm of manner, and also for
exceptional piety, and nobility of character. He was unfailing in His observance
of the prayers, fasts and other ordinances of the Muhammadan religion, and not
only obeyed the letter, but lived in the spirit of the Prophet's teachings. He
married when about twenty-two years of age. Of this marriage one son was born,
who died while still an infant, in the first year of the Bab's public ministry. Declaration
On
reaching His twenty-fifth year, in response to divine
command, He declared that "God the Exalted had elected
Him to the station of Babhood." In "A Traveller's Narrative"1
we read that: -- "What he intended by the term Bab was
this, that he was the channel of grace from some great
Person still behind the veil of glory, who was the possessor
of countless and boundless perfections, by whose will
he moved, and to the bond of whose love he clung." --
A Traveller's Narrative (Episode of the Bab), p. 3.
In
those days belief in the imminent appearance of a Divine
Messenger was especially prevalent among a sect known
as the Shaykhis, and it was to a distinguished divine
belonging to this sect, called Mulla Husayn Bushru'i,
that the Bab first announced His mission. The exact
date of this announcement is given in the Bayan, one
of the Bab's Writings, as two hours and eleven minutes
after sunset on the eve preceding the fifth day of the
month of Jamadiyu'l-Avval 1260 A.H.2
Abdu'l-Baha was born in the course of the same night,
but the exact hour of His birth has not been ascertained.
After some days of anxious investigation and study,
Mulla Husayn became firmly convinced that the Messenger
long expected by the Shi'ihs had indeed appeared. His
eager enthusiasm over this discovery was soon shared
by several of his friends. Before long the majority
of the Shaykhis accepted the Bab, becoming known as
Babis; and soon the fame of the young Prophet began
to spread like wildfire throughout the land.
Spread
of the Babi Movement
The first
eighteen disciples of the Bab (with Himself as nineteenth) became known as "Letters
of the Living." These
disciples He sent to different parts of Persia and Turkistan to spread the news
of His advent. Meantime He Himself set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where He
arrived in December 1844, and there openly declared His mission. On His return
to Bushihr great excitement was caused by the announcement of His Babhood. The
fire of His eloquence, the wonder of His rapid and inspired writings, His extraordinary
wisdom and knowledge, His courage and zeal as a reformer, aroused the greatest
enthusiasm among His followers, but excited a corresponding degree of alarm and
enmity among the orthodox Muslims. The Shi'ih doctors vehemently denounced Him,
and persuaded the Governor of Fars, namely Husayn Khan, a fanatical and tyrannical
ruler, to undertake the suppression of the new heresy. Then commenced for the
Bab a long series of imprisonments, deportations, examinations before tribunals,
scourgings and indignities, which ended only with His martyrdom in 1850.
Claims of
the Bab
The hostility aroused by the claim of Babhood was redoubled
when the young reformer proceeded to declare that He
was Himself the Mihdi (Mahdi) Whose coming Muhammad
had foretold. The Shi'ihs identified this Mihdi with
the 12th Imam1
who, according to their beliefs, had mysteriously disappeared
from the sight of men about a thousand years previously.
They believed that he was still alive and would reappear
in the same body as before, and they interpreted in
a material sense the prophecies regarding his dominion,
his glory, his conquests and the "signs" of his advent,
just as the Jews in the time of Christ interpreted similar
prophecies regarding
the Messiah. They expected that he would appear with
earthly sovereignty and an innumerable army and declare
his revelation, that he would raise dead bodies and
restore them to life, and so on. As these signs did
not appear, the Shi'ihs rejected the Bab with the same
fierce scorn which the Jews displayed towards Jesus.
The Babis, on the other hand, interpreted many of the
prophecies figuratively. They regarded the sovereignty
of the Promised One, like that of the Galilean "Man
of Sorrows," as a mystical sovereignty; His glory as
spiritual, not earthly glory; His conquests as conquests
over the cities of men's hearts' and they found abundant
proof of the Bab's claim in His wonderful life and teachings,
His unshakable faith, His invincible steadfastness,
and His power of raising to newness of spiritual life
those who were in the graves of error and ignorance.
But
the Bab did not stop even with the claim of Mihdihood. He adopted the sacred title
of "Nuqtiyiula" or "Primal Point." This was a title applied to Muhammad Himself
by His followers. Even the Imams were secondary in importance to the "Point,"
from Whom they derived their inspiration and authority. In assuming this title,
the Bab claimed to rank, like Muhammad, in the series of great Founders of Religion,
and for this reason, in the eyes of the Shi'ihs, He was regarded as an impostor,
just as Moses and Jesus before Him had been regarded as impostors. He even inaugurated
a new calendar, restoring the solar year, and dating the commencement of the New
Era from the year of His own Declaration.
Persecution
Increases
In consequence of these declarations of the Bab and the alarming rapidity with
which people of all classes, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, were eagerly
responding to His teaching, attempts at suppression became more and more ruthless
and determined. Houses were pillaged and destroyed. Women were seized and carried
off. In Tihran, Fars, Mazindaran, and other places great numbers of the believers
were put to
death. Many were beheaded, hanged, blown from the mouths of cannon, burnt or chopped
to pieces. Despite all attempts at repression, however, the movement progressed.
Nay, through this very oppression the assurance of the believers increased, for
thereby many of the prophecies concerning the coming of the Mihdi were literally
fulfilled. Thus in a tradition recorded by Jabir, which the Shi'ihs regard as
authentic, we read: -- In
him shall be the perfection of Moses, the preciousness of Jesus, and the patience
of Job; his saints shall be abased in his time, and their heads shall be exchanged
as presents, even as the heads of the Turk and the Deylamite are exchanged as
presents; they shall be slain and burned, and shall be afraid, fearful and dismayed;
the earth shall be dyed with their blood, and lamentation shall prevail amongst
their women; these are my saints indeed. -- New History of the Bab, translated
by Prof. E. G. Browne, p. 132.
Martyrdom
of the Bab
On the 9th of July, 1850,1
the Bab Himself, Who was then in His thirty-first year,
fell a victim to the fanatical fury of His persecutors.
With a devoted young follower name Aqa Muhammad Ali,
who had passionately begged to be allowed to share His
martyrdom, He was led to the scaffold in the old barrack
square of Tabriz. About two hours before noon the two
were suspended by ropes under their armpits in such
a way that the head of Muhammad Ali rested against the
breast of his beloved Master. A regiment of Armenian
soldiers was drawn up and received the order to fire.
Promptly the volleys rang out, but when the smoke cleared,
it was found that the Bab and His companion were still
alive. The bullets had but severed the ropes by which
they were suspended, so that they dropped to the ground
unhurt. The Bab proceeded to a room
nearby, where He was found talking to one of His friends.
About noon they were again suspended. The Armenians,
who considered the result of their volleys a miracle,
were unwilling to fire again, so another regiment of
soldiers had been brought on the scene, who fired when
ordered. This time the volleys took effect. The bodies
of both victims were riddled by bullets and horribly
mutilated, although their faces were almost untouched.
By
this foul deed the Barrack Square of Tabriz became a second Calvary. The enemies
of the Bab enjoyed a guilty thrill of triumph, thinking that this hated tree of
the Babi faith was now severed at the root, and its complete eradication would
be easy! But their triumph was short-lived! They did not realize that the Tree
of Truth cannot be felled by any material ax. Had they but known, this very crime
of theirs was the means of giving greater vigor to the Cause. The martyrdom of
the Bab fulfilled His own cherished wish and inspired His followers with increased
zeal. Such was the fire of their spiritual enthusiasm that the bitter winds of
persecution but fanned it to a fiercer blaze: The greater the efforts at extinction,
the higher mounted the flames.
Tomb on Mount
Carmel
After the Bab's martyrdom, His remains, with those of His devoted companion, were
thrown on the edge of the moat outside the city wall. On the second night they
were rescued at midnight by some of the Babis, and after being concealed for years
in secret depositories in Persia, were ultimately brought, with great danger and
difficulty, to the Holy Land. There they are now interred in a tomb beautifully
situated on the slope of Mount Carmel, not far from the Cave of Elijah, and only
a few miles from the spot where Baha'u'llah spent His last years and where His
remains now lie. Among the thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the world who
come to pay homage at the Holy Tomb of Baha'u'llah, none omit to offer a prayer
also at the shrine of His devoted lover and forerunner, the Bab. Writings
of Bab
The Writings
of the Bab were voluminous, and the rapidity with which, without study or premeditation,
He composed elaborate commentaries, profound expositions or eloquent prayers was
regarded as one of the proofs of His divine inspiration. The
purport of His various Writings has been summarized as follows: -- Some
of these [the Bab's Writings] were commentaries on, and interpretations of the
verses of the Kur'an; some were prayers, homilies, and hints of [the true significance
of certain] passages; other were exhortations, admonitions, dissertations on the
different branches of the doctrine of the Divine Unity ... encouragements to amendment
of character, severance from worldly states, and dependence on the inspirations
of God. But the essence and purport of his compositions were the praises and descriptions
of that Reality soon to appear which was his only object and aim, his darling,
and his desire. For he regarded his own appearance as that of a harbinger of good
tidings, and considered his own real nature merely as a means for the manifestation
of the greater perfections of that One. And indeed he ceased not from celebrating
Him by night or day for a single instant, but used to signify to all his followers
that they should expect His arising: in such wise that he declares in his writings,
"I am a letter out of that most might book and a dew-drop from that limitless
ocean, and, when He shall appear, my true nature, my mysteries, riddles, and intimations
will become evident, and the embryo of this religion shall develop through the
grades of its being and ascent, attain to the station of `the most comely of forms,'
and become adorned with the robe of `blessed be God, the Best of Creators.' ...
and so inflamed was he with His flame that commemoration of Him was the bright
candle of his dark nights in the fortress of Maku, and remembrance of Him was
the best of companions in the straits of the prison of Chihrik. Thereby he obtained
spiritual enlargements; with His wine was he inebriated; and at remembrance of
Him did he rejoice. -- A Traveller's Narrative (Episode of the Bab), pp. 54-56.
He Whom God
Shall Make Manifest
The Bab
has been compared to John the Baptist, but the station of the Bab is not merely
that of the herald or forerunner. In Himself the Bab was a Manifestation of God,
the Founder of an independant religion, even though that religion was limited
in time to a brief period of years. The Bahá'ís believe that the Bab and Baha'u'llah
were Co-Founders of their Faith, the following words of Baha'u'llah testifying
to this truth: "That so brief a span 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 mind can fathom. Its duration had been
foreordained, and no man shall ever discover its reason unless and until he be
informed of the contents of My Hidden Book." In His references to Baha'u'llah,
however, the Bab revealed an utter selflessness, declaring that, in the day of
"Him whom God shall manifest": -- "If one should hear a single verse from Him
and recite it, it is better that he should recite the Beyan [i.e. the Revelation
of the Bab] a thousand times." -- A Traveller's Narrative (Episode of the Bab),
p. 349. He counted
Himself happy in enduring any affliction, if by so doing He could smooth the path,
be ever so little, for "Him Whom God shall make manifest," Who was, He declared,
the sole source of His inspiration as well as the sole object of His love.
Resurrection, Paradise, and Hell
An important part of the Bab's teaching is His explanation of the terms Resurrection,
Day of Judgment, Paradise and
Hell. By the Resurrection is meant, He said, the appearance of a new Manifestation
of the Sun of Truth. The raising of the dead means the spiritual awakening of
those who are asleep in the graves of ignorance, heedlessness and lust. The Day
of Judgment is the Day of the new Manifestation, by acceptance or rejection of
Whose Revelation the sheep are separated from the goats, for the sheep know the
voice of the Good Shepherd and follow Him. Paradise is the joy of knowing and
loving God, as revealed through His Manifestation, thereby attaining to the utmost
perfection of which one is capable, and, after death, obtaining entrance to the
Kingdom of God and the life everlasting. Hell is simply deprivation of that knowledge
of God with consequent failure to attain divine perfection, and loss of the Eternal
Favor. He definitely declared that these terms have no real meaning apart from
this; and that the prevalent ideas regarding the resurrection of the material
body, a material heaven and hell, and the like, are mere figments of the imagination.
He taught that man has a life after death, and that in the afterlife progress
towards perfection is limitless.
Social
and Ethical Teachings
In His Writings
the Bab tells His followers that they must be distinguished by brotherly loved
and courtesy. Useful arts and crafts must be cultivated. Elementary education
should be general. In the new and wondrous Dispensation now commencing, women
are to have fuller freedom. The poor are to be provided for out of the common
treasury, but begging is strictly forbidden, as is the use of intoxicating liquors
for beverage purposes. The
guiding motive of the true Babi must be pure love, without hope of reward or fear
of punishment. Thus says in the Bayan: -- So
worship God that if the recompense of thy worship of Him were to be the Fire,
no alteration in thy worship of Him would be produced. If you worship from fear,
that is unworthy of the threshold of the holiness of God. ...
So also, if your gaze is on Paradise, and if you worship in hope of that; for
then you have made God's creation a Partner with Him. -- Babis of Persia, II,
Prof. E. G. Browne, J.R.A.S., vol. xxi, p. 931.
Passion and
Triumph
This last
quotation reveals the spirit which animated the Bab's whole life. To know and
love God, to mirror forth His attributes and to prepare the way for His coming
Manifestation
-- these were the sole aim and object of His being. For Him
life had no terrors and death no sting, for love had cast out fear, and martyrdom
itself was but the rapture of casting His all at the feet of His Beloved.
Strange! that this pure and beautiful soul, this inspired teacher of Divine Truth,
this devoted lover of God and of His fellowmen should be so hated, and done to
death by the professedly religious of His day! Surely nothing but unthinking or
willful prejudice could blind men to the fact that here was indeed a Prophet,
a Holy Messenger of God. Worldly greatness and glory He had none, but how can
spiritual Power and Dominion be proved except by the ability to dispense with
all earthly assistance, and to triumph over all earthly opposition, even the most
potent and virulent? How can Divine Love be demonstrated to an unbelieving world
save by its capacity to endure to the uttermost the blows of calamity and darts
of affliction, the hated of enemies and the treachery of seeming friends, to rise
serene above all these and, undismayed and unembittered, still to forgive and
bless? The Bab
has endured and the Bab has triumphed. Thousands have testified to the sincerity
of their love for Him by sacrificing their lives and their all in His service.
Kings might well envy His power over men's hearts and lives. Moreover, "He Whom
the Lord shall make manifest" has appeared, has confirmed the claims and accepted
the devotion of His forerunner, and made Him partaker of His Glory.
Footnotes: Page
11:
1. The "a" pronounced as in Shah.[back]
2. One of the two great factions -- Shi'ih and Sunni -- into
which Islam fell soon after the death of Muhammad, was the first legitimate successor
of the Prophet, and that only his descendants are the rightful caliphs.[back]
Page 13:
1.
First day of Muharram, 1235 A.H.[back]
2.
On this point a historian remarks: "The belief of many people in the East, especially
the believers in the Bab (now Bahá'ís) was this: that the Bab received no education,
but that the Mullas, in order to lower him in the eyes of the people, declared
that such knowledge and wisdom as he possessed were accounted for by the education
he had received. After deep search into the truth of this matter we have found
evidence to show that in childhood for a short time he used to go to the house
of Shaykh Muhammad (also known as Abid) where he was taught to read and write
in Persian. It was this to which the Bab referred when he wrote in the book of
Bayan: `O Muhammad, O my teacher! ...' "The
remarkable thing is this, however, that this Shaykh, who was his teacher, became
a devoted disciple of his own pupil, and the uncle of the Bab who was like a father
to him, whose name was Haji Siyyid Ali, also became a devout believer and was
martyred as a Babi. "The
understanding of these mysteries is given to seekers after truth, but we know
this, that such education as the Bab received was but elementary, and that whatever
signs of unusual greatness and knowledge appeared in him were innate and from
God."[back]
Page 14:
1. A Traveller's Narrative Written to Illustrate
the Episode of the Bab with an introduction by E. G. Browne, referred to subsequently
as A Traveller's Narrative (Episode of the Bab). [back]
2. i.e. May 23, 1844 A.D. [back]
Page 15:
1.
The Imam of the Shi'ihs is the divinely ordained successor of the Prophet whom
all the faithful must obey. Eleven persons successively held the office of Imam,
the first being Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet. The majority of
the Shi'ihs hold that the twelfth Imam, called by them the Imam Mihdi, disappeared
as a child into an underground passage in 329 A.H., and that in the fullness of
time he will come forth, overthrow the infidels and inaugurate an era of blessedness.
[back]
Page 17:
1.
Friday, 28th Sha'ban, 1266 A.H. [back]
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