Dearly-beloved friends! That the Bab, the inaugurator of the Babi
Dispensation, is fully entitled to rank as one of the self-sufficient
Manifestations of God, that He has been invested with sovereign power and
authority, and exercises all the rights and prerogatives of independent
Prophethood, is yet another fundamental verity which the Message of
Baha'u'llah insistently proclaims and which its followers must
uncompromisingly uphold. That He is not to be regarded merely as an
inspired Precursor of the Baha'i Revelation, that in His person, as He
Himself bears witness in the Persian Bayan, the object of all the Prophets
gone before Him has been fulfilled, is a truth which I feel it my duty to
demonstrate and emphasize. We would assuredly be failing in our duty to
the Faith we profess and would be violating one of its basic and sacred
principles if in our words or by our conduct we hesitate to recognize the
implications of this root principle of Baha'i belief, or refuse to uphold
unreservedly its integrity and demonstrate its truth. Indeed the chief
motive actuating me to undertake the task of editing and translating
Nabil's immortal Narrative has been to enable every follower of the Faith
in the West to better understand and more readily grasp the tremendous
implications of His exalted station and to more ardently admire and love
Him.
There can be no doubt that the claim to the twofold station ordained for
the Bab by the Almighty, a claim which He Himself has so boldly advanced,
which Baha'u'llah has repeatedly affirmed, and to which the Will and
Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha has finally given the sanction of its testimony,
constitutes the most distinctive feature of the Baha'i Dispensation. It is
a further evidence of its uniqueness, a tremendous accession to the
strength, to the mysterious power and authority with which this holy cycle
has been invested. Indeed the greatness of the Bab consists primarily, not
in His being the divinely-appointed Forerunner of so transcendent a
Revelation, but rather in His having been invested with the powers
inherent in the inaugurator of a separate religious Dispensation, and in
His wielding, to a degree unrivaled by the Messengers gone before Him, the
scepter of independent Prophethood.
The short duration of His Dispensation, the restricted range within which
His laws and ordinances have been made to operate, supply no criterion
whatever wherewith to judge its Divine origin and to evaluate the potency
of its message. "That so brief a span," Baha'u'llah Himself explains,
"should have separated this most mighty and wondrous Revelation from Mine
own previous Manifestation, is a secret that no man can unravel and a
mystery such as no 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." "Behold," Baha'u'llah further explains
in the Kitab-i-Badi', one of His works refuting the arguments of the
people of the Bayan, "behold, how immediately upon the completion of the
ninth year of this wondrous, this most holy and merciful Dispensation, the
requisite number of pure, of wholly consecrated and sanctified souls had
been most secretly consummated."
The marvelous happenings that have heralded the advent of the Founder of
the Babi Dispensation, the dramatic circumstances of His own eventful
life, the miraculous tragedy of His martyrdom, the magic of His influence
exerted on the most eminent and powerful among His countrymen, to all of
which every chapter of Nabil's stirring narrative testifies, should in
themselves be regarded as sufficient evidence of the validity of His claim
to so exalted a station among the Prophets.
However graphic the record which the eminent chronicler of His life has
transmitted to posterity, so luminous a narrative must pale before the
glowing tribute paid to the Bab by the pen of Baha'u'llah. This tribute
the Bab Himself has, by the clear assertion of His claim, abundantly
supported, while the written testimonies of 'Abdu'l-Baha have powerfully
reinforced its character and elucidated its meaning.
Where else if not in the Kitab-i-Iqan can the student of the Babi
Dispensation seek to find those affirmations that unmistakably attest the
power and spirit which no man, except he be a Manifestation of God, can
manifest? "Could such a thing," exclaims Baha'u'llah, "be made manifest
except through the power of a Divine Revelation and the potency of God's
invincible Will? By the righteousness of God! Were any one to entertain so
great a Revelation in his heart the thought of such a declaration would
alone confound him! Were the hearts of all men to be crowded into his
heart, he would still hesitate to venture upon so awful an enterprise."
"No eye," He in another passage affirms, "hath beheld so great an
outpouring of bounty, nor hath any ear heard of such a Revelation of
loving-kindness... The Prophets 'endowed with constancy,' whose loftiness
and glory shine as the sun, were each honored with a Book which all have
seen, and the verses of which have been duly ascertained. Whereas the
verses which have rained from this Cloud of divine mercy have been so
abundant that none hath yet been able to estimate their number... How can
they belittle this Revelation? Hath any age witnessed such momentous
happenings?"
Commenting on the character and influence of those heroes and martyrs whom
the spirit of the Bab had so magically transformed Baha'u'llah reveals the
following: "If these companions be not the true strivers after God, who
else could be called by this name?... If these companions, with all their
marvelous testimonies and wondrous works, be false, who then is worthy to
claim for himself the truth?... Has the world since the days of Adam
witnessed such tumult, such violent commotion?... Methinks, patience was
revealed only by virtue of their fortitude, and faithfulness itself was
begotten only by their deeds."
Wishing to stress the sublimity of the Bab's exalted station as compared
with that of the Prophets of the past, Baha'u'llah in that same epistle
asserts: "No understanding can grasp the nature of His Revelation, nor can
any knowledge comprehend the full measure of His Faith." He then quotes,
in confirmation of His argument, these prophetic words: "Knowledge is
twenty and seven letters. All that the Prophets have revealed are two
letters thereof. No man thus far hath known more than these two letters.
But when the Qa'im shall arise, He will cause the remaining twenty and
five letters to be made manifest." "Behold," He adds, "how great and lofty
is His station! His rank excelleth that of all the Prophets and His
Revelation transcendeth the comprehension and understanding of all their
chosen ones." "Of His Revelation," He further adds, "the Prophets of God,
His saints and chosen ones, have either not been informed, or, in
pursuance of God's inscrutable decree, they have not disclosed."
Of all the tributes which Baha'u'llah's unerring pen has chosen to pay to
the memory of the Bab, His "Best-Beloved," the most memorable and touching
is this brief, yet eloquent passage which so greatly enhances the value of
the concluding passages of that same epistle. "Amidst them all," He
writes, referring to the afflictive trials and dangers besetting Him in
the city of Ba_gh_dad, "We stand life in hand wholly resigned to His Will,
that perchance through God's loving kindness and grace, this revealed and
manifest Letter (Baha'u'llah) may lay down His life as a sacrifice in the
path of the Primal Point, the most exalted Word (the Bab). By Him, at
Whose bidding the Spirit hath spoken, but for this yearning of Our soul,
We would not, for one moment, have tarried any longer in this city."
Dearly-beloved friends! So resounding a praise, so bold an assertion
issued by the pen of Baha'u'llah in so weighty a work, are fully re-echoed
in the language in which the Source of the Babi Revelation has chosen to
clothe the claims He Himself has advanced. "I am the Mystic Fane," the Bab
thus proclaims His station in the Qayyumu'l-Asma, "which the Hand of
Omnipotence hath reared. I am the Lamp which the Finger of God hath lit
within its niche and caused to shine with deathless splendor. I am the
Flame of that supernal Light that glowed upon Sinai in the gladsome Spot,
and lay concealed in the midst of the Burning Bush." "O Qurratu'l-'Ayn!"
He, addressing Himself in that same commentary, exclaims, "I recognize in
Thee none other except the 'Great Announcement'--the Announcement voiced by
the Concourse on high. By this name, I bear witness, they that circle the
Throne of Glory have ever known Thee." "With each and every Prophet, Whom
We have sent down in the past," He further adds, "We have established a
separate Covenant concerning the 'Remembrance of God' and His Day.
Manifest, in the realm of glory and through the power of truth, are the
'Remembrance of God' and His Day before the eyes of the angels that circle
His mercy-seat." "Should it be Our wish," He again affirms, "it is in Our
power to compel, through the agency of but one letter of Our Revelation,
the world and all that is therein to recognize, in less than the twinkling
of an eye, the truth of Our Cause."
"I am the Primal Point," the Bab thus addresses Muhammad _Sh_ah from the
prison-fortress of Mah-Ku, "from which have been generated all created
things... I am the Countenance of God Whose splendor can never be
obscured, the light of God whose radiance can never fade... All the keys
of heaven God hath chosen to place on My right hand, and all the keys of
hell on My left... I am one of the sustaining pillars of the Primal Word
of God. Whosoever hath recognized Me, hath known all that is true and
right, and hath attained all that is good and seemly... The substance
wherewith God hath created Me is not the clay out of which others have
been formed. He hath conferred upon Me that which the worldly-wise can
never comprehend, nor the faithful discover." "Should a tiny ant," the
Bab, wishing to stress the limitless potentialities latent in His
Dispensation, characteristically affirms, "desire in this day to be
possessed of such power as to be able to unravel the abstrusest and most
bewildering passages of the Qur'an, its wish will no doubt be fulfilled,
inasmuch as the mystery of eternal might vibrates within the innermost
being of all created things." "If so helpless a creature," is
'Abdu'l-Baha's comment on so startling an affirmation, "can be endowed
with so subtle a capacity, how much more efficacious must be the power
released through the liberal effusions of the grace of Baha'u'llah!"
To these authoritative assertions and solemn declarations made by
Baha'u'llah and the Bab must be added 'Abdu'l-Baha's own incontrovertible
testimony. He, the appointed interpreter of the utterances of both
Baha'u'llah and the Bab, corroborates, not by implication but in clear and
categorical language, both in His Tablets and in His Testament, the truth
of the statements to which I have already referred.
In a Tablet addressed to a Baha'i in Mazindaran, in which He unfolds the
meaning of a misinterpreted statement attributed to Him regarding the rise
of the Sun of Truth in this century, He sets forth, briefly but
conclusively, what should remain for all time our true conception of the
relationship between the two Manifestations associated with the Baha'i
Dispensation. "In making such a statement," He explains, "I had in mind no
one else except the Bab and Baha'u'llah, the character of whose
Revelations it had been my purpose to elucidate. The Revelation of the Bab
may be likened to the sun, its station corresponding to the first sign of
the Zodiac--the sign Aries--which the sun enters at the Vernal Equinox. The
station of Baha'u'llah's Revelation, on the other hand, is represented by
the sign Leo, the sun's mid-summer and highest station. By this is meant
that this holy Dispensation is illumined with the light of the Sun of
Truth shining from its most exalted station, and in the plenitude of its
resplendency, its heat and glory."
"The Bab, the Exalted One," 'Abdu'l-Baha more specifically affirms in
another Tablet, "is the Morn of Truth, the splendor of Whose light shineth
throughout all regions. He is also the Harbinger of the Most Great Light,
the Abha Luminary. The Blessed Beauty is the One promised by the sacred
books of the past, the revelation of the Source of light that shone upon
Mount Sinai, Whose fire glowed in the midst of the Burning Bush. We are,
one and all, servants of their threshold, and stand each as a lowly keeper
at their door." "Every proof and prophecy," is His still more emphatic
warning, "every manner of evidence, whether based on reason or on the text
of the scriptures and traditions, are to be regarded as centered in the
persons of Baha'u'llah and the Bab. In them is to be found their complete
fulfillment."
And finally, in His Will and Testament, the repository of His last wishes
and parting instructions, He in the following passage, specifically
designed to set forth the guiding principles of Baha'i belief, sets the
seal of His testimony on the Bab's dual and exalted station: "The
foundation of the belief of the people of Baha (may my life be offered up
for them) is this: His holiness the exalted One (the Bab) is the
Manifestation of the unity and oneness of God and the Forerunner of the
Ancient Beauty (Baha'u'llah). His holiness, the Abha Beauty (Baha'u'llah)
(may my life be offered up as a sacrifice for His steadfast friends) is
the supreme Manifestation of God and the Day-Spring of His most divine
Essence." "All others," He significantly adds, "are servants unto Him and
do His bidding."
'Abdu'l-Baha
Dearly-beloved friends! I have in the foregoing pages ventured to attempt
an exposition of such truths as I firmly believe are implicit in the claim
of Him Who is the Fountain-Head of the Baha'i Revelation. I have moreover
endeavored to dissipate such misapprehensions as may naturally arise in
the mind of any one contemplating so superhuman a manifestation of the
glory of God. I have striven to explain the meaning of the divinity with
which He Who is the vehicle of so mysterious an energy must needs be
invested. That the Message which so great a Being has, in this age, been
commissioned by God to deliver to mankind recognizes the divine origin and
upholds the first principles of every Dispensation inaugurated by the
prophets of the past, and stands inextricably interwoven with each one of
them, I have also to the best of my ability undertaken to demonstrate.
That the Author of such a Faith, Who repudiates the claim to finality
which leaders of various denominations uphold has, despite the vastness of
His Revelation, disclaimed it for Himself I have, likewise, felt it
necessary to prove and emphasize. That the Bab, notwithstanding the
duration of His Dispensation, should be regarded primarily, not as the
chosen Precursor of the Baha'i Faith, but as One invested with the
undivided authority assumed by each of the independent Prophets of the
past, seemed to me yet another basic principle the elucidation of which
would be extremely desirable at the present stage of the evolution of our
Cause.
An attempt I strongly feel should now be made to clarify our minds
regarding the station occupied by 'Abdu'l-Baha and the significance of His
position in this holy Dispensation. It would be indeed difficult for us,
who stand so close to such a tremendous figure and are drawn by the
mysterious power of so magnetic a personality, to obtain a clear and exact
understanding of the role and character of One Who, not only in the
Dispensation of Baha'u'llah but in the entire field of religious history,
fulfills a unique function. Though moving in a sphere of His own and
holding a rank radically different from that of the Author and the
Forerunner of the Baha'i Revelation, He, by virtue of the station ordained
for Him through the Covenant of Baha'u'llah, forms together with them what
may be termed the Three Central Figures of a Faith that stands
unapproached in the world's spiritual history. He towers, in conjunction
with them, above the destinies of this infant Faith of God from a level to
which no individual or body ministering to its needs after Him, and for no
less a period than a full thousand years, can ever hope to rise. To
degrade His lofty rank by identifying His station with or by regarding it
as roughly equivalent to, the position of those on whom the mantle of His
authority has fallen would be an act of impiety as grave as the no less
heretical belief that inclines to exalt Him to a state of absolute
equality with either the central Figure or Forerunner of our Faith. For
wide as is the gulf that separates 'Abdu'l-Baha from Him Who is the Source
of an independent Revelation, it can never be regarded as commensurate
with the greater distance that stands between Him Who is the Center of the
Covenant and His ministers who are to carry on His work, whatever be their
name, their rank, their functions or their future achievements. Let those
who have known 'Abdu'l-Baha, who through their contact with His magnetic
personality have come to cherish for Him so fervent an admiration,
reflect, in the light of this statement, on the greatness of One Who is so
far above Him in station.
That 'Abdu'l-Baha is not a Manifestation of God, that, though the
successor of His Father, He does not occupy a cognate station, that no one
else except the Bab and Baha'u'llah can ever lay claim to such a station
before the expiration of a full thousand years--are verities which lie
embedded in the specific utterances of both the Founder of our Faith and
the Interpreter of His teachings.
"Whoso layeth claim to a Revelation direct from God," is the express
warning uttered in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, "ere the expiration of a full
thousand years, such a man is assuredly a lying imposter. We pray God that
He may graciously assist him to retract and repudiate such claim. Should
he repent, God will no doubt forgive him. If, however, he persists in his
error, God will assuredly send down one who will deal mercilessly with
him. Terrible indeed is God in punishing!" "Whosoever," He adds as a
further emphasis, "interpreteth this verse otherwise than its obvious
meaning is deprived of the Spirit of God and of His mercy which
encompasseth all created things." "Should a man appear," is yet another
conclusive statement, "ere the lapse of a full thousand years--each year
consisting of twelve months according to the Qur'an, and of nineteen
months of nineteen days each, according to the Bayan--and if such a man
reveal to your eyes all the signs of God, unhesitatingly reject him!"
'Abdu'l-Baha's own statements, in confirmation of this warning, are no
less emphatic and binding: "This is," He declares, "my firm, my unshakable
conviction, the essence of my unconcealed and explicit belief--a conviction
and belief which the denizens of the Abha Kingdom fully share: The Blessed
Beauty is the Sun of Truth, and His light the light of truth. The Bab is
likewise the Sun of Truth, and His light the light of truth... My station
is the station of servitude--a servitude which is complete, pure and real,
firmly established, enduring, obvious, explicitly revealed and subject to
no interpretation whatever... I am the Interpreter of the Word of God;
such is my interpretation."
Does not 'Abdu'l-Baha in His own Will--in a tone and language that might
well confound the most inveterate among the breakers of His Father's
Covenant--rob of their chief weapon those who so long and so persistently
had striven to impute to Him the charge of having tacitly claimed a
station equal, if not superior, to that of Baha'u'llah? "The foundation of
the belief of the people of Baha is this," thus proclaims one of the
weightiest passages of that last document left to voice in perpetuity the
directions and wishes of a departed Master, "His Holiness the Exalted One
(the Bab) is the Manifestation of the unity and oneness of God and the
Forerunner of the Ancient Beauty. His Holiness the Abha Beauty
(Baha'u'llah) (may my life be a sacrifice for His steadfast friends) is
the supreme Manifestation of God and the Day-Spring of His most divine
Essence. All others are servants unto Him and do His bidding."
From such clear and formally laid down statements, incompatible as they
are with any assertion of a claim to Prophethood, we should not by any
means infer that 'Abdu'l-Baha is merely one of the servants of the Blessed
Beauty, or at best one whose function is to be confined to that of an
authorized interpreter of His Father's teachings. Far be it from me to
entertain such a notion or to wish to instill such sentiments. To regard
Him in such a light is a manifest betrayal of the priceless heritage
bequeathed by Baha'u'llah to mankind. Immeasurably exalted is the station
conferred upon Him by the Supreme Pen above and beyond the implications of
these, His own written statements. Whether in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the most
weighty and sacred of all the works of Baha'u'llah, or in the
Kitab-i-'Ahd, the Book of His Covenant, or in the Suriy-i-_Gh_usn (Tablet
of the Branch), such references as have been recorded by the pen of
Baha'u'llah--references which the Tablets of His Father addressed to Him
mightily reinforce--invest 'Abdu'l-Baha with a power, and surround Him with
a halo, which the present generation can never adequately appreciate.
He is, and should for all time be regarded, first and foremost, as the
Center and Pivot of Baha'u'llah's peerless and all-enfolding Covenant, His
most exalted handiwork, the stainless Mirror of His light, the perfect
Exemplar of His teachings, the unerring Interpreter of His Word, the
embodiment of every Baha'i ideal, the incarnation of every Baha'i virtue,
the Most Mighty Branch sprung from the Ancient Root, the Limb of the Law
of God, the Being "round Whom all names revolve," the Mainspring of the
Oneness of Humanity, the Ensign of the Most Great Peace, the Moon of the
Central Orb of this most holy Dispensation--styles and titles that are
implicit and find their truest, their highest and fairest expression in
the magic name 'Abdu'l-Baha. He is, above and beyond these appellations,
the "Mystery of God"--an expression by which Baha'u'llah Himself has chosen
to designate Him, and which, while it does not by any means justify us to
assign to Him the station of Prophethood, indicates how in the person of
'Abdu'l-Baha the incompatible characteristics of a human nature and
superhuman knowledge and perfection have been blended and are completely
harmonized.
"When the ocean of My presence hath ebbed and the Book of My Revelation is
ended," proclaims the Kitab-i-Aqdas, "turn your faces towards Him Whom God
hath purposed, Who hath branched from this Ancient Root." And again, "When
the Mystic Dove will have winged its flight from its Sanctuary of Praise
and sought its far-off goal, its hidden habitation, refer ye whatsoever ye
understand not in the Book to Him Who hath branched from this mighty
Stock."
In the Kitab-i-'Ahd, moreover, Baha'u'llah solemnly and explicitly
declares: "It is incumbent upon the A_gh_san, the Afnan and My kindred to
turn, one and all, their faces towards the Most Mighty Branch. Consider
that which We have revealed in Our Most Holy Book: 'When the ocean of My
presence hath ebbed and the Book of My Revelation is ended, turn your
faces toward Him Whom God hath purposed, Who hath branched from this
Ancient Root.' The object of this sacred verse is none other except the
Most Mighty Branch ('Abdu'l-Baha). Thus have We graciously revealed unto
you our potent Will, and I am verily the Gracious, the All-Powerful."
In the Suriy-i-_Gh_usn (Tablet of the Branch) the following verses have
been recorded: "There hath branched from the Sadratu'l-Muntaha this sacred
and glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that hath
sought His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow. Verily the Limb of the
Law of God hath sprung forth from this Root which God hath firmly
implanted in the Ground of His Will, and Whose Branch hath been so
uplifted as to encompass the whole of creation. Magnified be He,
therefore, for this sublime, this blessed, this mighty, this exalted
Handiwork!... A Word hath, as a token of Our grace, gone forth from the
Most Great Tablet--a Word which God hath adorned with the ornament of His
own Self, and made it sovereign over the earth and all that is therein,
and a sign of His greatness and power among its people ...Render thanks
unto God, O people, for His appearance; for verily He is the most great
Favor unto you, the most perfect bounty upon you; and through Him every
mouldering bone is quickened. Whoso turneth towards Him hath turned
towards God, and whoso turneth away from Him hath turned away from My
beauty, hath repudiated My Proof, and transgressed against Me. He is the
Trust of God amongst you, His charge within you, His manifestation unto
you and His appearance among His favored servants... We have sent Him down
in the form of a human temple. Blest and sanctified be God Who createth
whatsoever He willeth through His inviolable, His infallible decree. They
who deprive themselves of the shadow of the Branch, are lost in the
wilderness of error, are consumed by the heat of worldly desires, and are
of those who will assuredly perish."
"O Thou Who art the apple of Mine eye!" Baha'u'llah, in His own
handwriting, thus addresses 'Abdu'l-Baha, "My glory, the ocean of My
loving-kindness, the sun of My bounty, the heaven of My mercy rest upon
Thee. We pray God to illumine the world through Thy knowledge and wisdom,
to ordain for Thee that which will gladden Thine heart and impart
consolation to Thine eyes." "The glory of God rest upon Thee," He writes
in another Tablet, "and upon whosoever serveth Thee and circleth around
Thee. Woe, great woe, betide him that opposeth and injureth Thee. Well is
it with him that sweareth fealty to Thee; the fire of hell torment him who
is Thine enemy." "We have made Thee a shelter for all mankind," He, in yet
another Tablet, affirms, "a shield unto all who are in heaven and on
earth, a stronghold for whosoever hath believed in God, the Incomparable,
the All-Knowing. God grant that through Thee He may protect them, may
enrich and sustain them, that He may inspire Thee with that which shall be
a wellspring of wealth unto all created things, an ocean of bounty unto
all men, and the dayspring of mercy unto all peoples."
"Thou knowest, O my God," Baha'u'llah, in a prayer revealed in
'Abdu'l-Baha's honor, supplicates, "that I desire for Him naught except
that which Thou didst desire, and have chosen Him for no purpose save that
which Thou hadst intended for Him. Render Him victorious, therefore,
through Thy hosts of earth and heaven... Ordain, I beseech Thee, by the
ardor of My love for Thee and My yearning to manifest Thy Cause, for Him,
as well as for them that love Him, that which Thou hast destined for Thy
Messengers and the Trustees of Thy Revelation. Verily, Thou art the
Almighty, the All-Powerful."
In a letter dictated by Baha'u'llah and addressed by Mirza Aqa Jan, His
amanuensis, to 'Abdu'l-Baha while the latter was on a visit to Beirut, we
read the following: "Praise be to Him Who hath honored the Land of Ba
(Beirut) through the presence of Him round Whom all names revolve. All the
atoms of the earth have announced unto all created things that from behind
the gate of the Prison-city there hath appeared and above its horizon
there hath shone forth the Orb of the beauty of the great, the Most Mighty
Branch of God--His ancient and immutable Mystery--proceeding on its way to
another land. Sorrow, thereby, hath enveloped this Prison-city, whilst
another land rejoiceth... Blessed, doubly blessed, is the ground which His
footsteps have trodden, the eye that hath been cheered by the beauty of
His countenance, the ear that hath been honored by hearkening to His call,
the heart that hath tasted the sweetness of His love, the breast that hath
dilated through His remembrance, the pen that hath voiced His praise, the
scroll that hath borne the testimony of His writings."
'Abdu'l-Baha, writing in confirmation of the authority conferred upon Him
by Baha'u'llah, makes the following statement: "In accordance with the
explicit text of the Kitab-i-Aqdas Baha'u'llah hath made the Center of the
Covenant the Interpreter of His Word--a Covenant so firm and mighty that
from the beginning of time until the present day no religious Dispensation
hath produced its like."
Exalted as is the rank of 'Abdu'l-Baha, and however profuse the praises
with which in these sacred Books and Tablets Baha'u'llah has glorified His
son, so unique a distinction must never be construed as conferring upon
its recipient a station identical with, or equivalent to, that of His
Father, the Manifestation Himself. To give such an interpretation to any
of these quoted passages would at once, and for obvious reasons, bring it
into conflict with the no less clear and authentic assertions and warnings
to which I have already referred. Indeed, as I have already stated, those
who overestimate 'Abdu'l-Baha's station are just as reprehensible and have
done just as much harm as those who underestimate it. And this for no
other reason except that by insisting upon an altogether unwarranted
inference from Baha'u'llah's writings they are inadvertently justifying
and continuously furnishing the enemy with proofs for his false
accusations and misleading statements.
I feel it necessary, therefore, to state without any equivocation or
hesitation that neither in the Kitab-i-Aqdas nor in the Book of
Baha'u'llah's Covenant, nor even in the Tablet of the Branch, nor in any
other Tablet, whether revealed by Baha'u'llah or 'Abdu'l-Baha, is there
any authority whatever for the opinion that inclines to uphold the
so-called "mystic unity" of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, or to establish
the identity of the latter with His Father or with any preceding
Manifestation. This erroneous conception may, in part, be ascribed to an
altogether extravagant interpretation of certain terms and passages in the
Tablet of the Branch, to the introduction into its English translation of
certain words that are either non-existent, misleading, or ambiguous in
their connotation. It is, no doubt, chiefly based upon an altogether
unjustified inference from the opening passages of a Tablet of
Baha'u'llah, extracts of which, as reproduced in the Baha'i Scriptures,
immediately precede, but form no part of, the said Tablet of the Branch.
It should be made clear to every one reading those extracts that by the
phrase "the Tongue of the Ancient" no one else is meant but God, and that
the term "the Greatest Name" is an obvious reference to Baha'u'llah, and
that "the Covenant" referred to is not the specific Covenant of which
Baha'u'llah is the immediate Author and 'Abdu'l-Baha the Center but that
general Covenant which, as inculcated by the Baha'i teaching, God Himself
invariably establishes with mankind when He inaugurates a new
Dispensation. "The Tongue" that "gives," as stated in those extracts, the
"glad-tidings" is none other than the Voice of God referring to
Baha'u'llah, and not Baha'u'llah referring to 'Abdu'l-Baha.
Moreover, to maintain that the assertion "He is Myself," instead of
denoting the mystic unity of God and His Manifestations, as explained in
the Kitab-i-Iqan, establishes the identity of Baha'u'llah with
'Abdu'l-Baha, would constitute a direct violation of the oft-repeated
principle of the oneness of God's Manifestations--a principle which the
Author of these same extracts is seeking by implication to emphasize.
It would also amount to a reversion to those irrational and superstitious
beliefs which have insensibly crept, in the first century of the Christian
era, into the teachings of Jesus Christ, and by crystallizing into
accepted dogmas have impaired the effectiveness and obscured the purpose
of the Christian Faith.
"I affirm," is 'Abdu'l-Baha's own written comment on the Tablet of the
Branch, "that the true meaning, the real significance, the innermost
secret of these verses, of these very words, is my own servitude to the
sacred Threshold of the Abha Beauty, my complete self-effacement, my utter
nothingness before Him. This is my resplendent crown, my most precious
adorning. On this I pride myself in the kingdom of earth and heaven.
Therein I glory among the company of the well-favored!" "No one is
permitted," He warns us in the passage which immediately follows, "to give
these verses any other interpretation." "I am," He, in this same
connection, affirms, "according to the explicit texts of the Kitab-i-Aqdas
and the Kitab-i-'Ahd the manifest Interpreter of the Word of God... Whoso
deviates from my interpretation is a victim of his own fancy."
Furthermore, the inescapable inference from the belief in the identity of
the Author of our Faith with Him Who is the Center of His Covenant would
be to place 'Abdu'l-Baha in a position superior to that of the Bab, the
reverse of which is the fundamental, though not as yet universally
recognized, principle of this Revelation. It would also justify the charge
with which, all throughout 'Abdu'l-Baha's ministry, the Covenant-Breakers
have striven to poison the minds and pervert the understanding of
Baha'u'llah's loyal followers.
It would be more correct, and in consonance with the established
principles of Baha'u'llah and the Bab, if instead of maintaining this
fictitious identity with reference to 'Abdu'l-Baha, we regard the
Forerunner and the Founder of our Faith as identical in reality--a truth
which the text of the Suratu'l-Haykal unmistakably affirms. "Had the
Primal Point (the Bab) been someone else beside Me as ye claim," is
Baha'u'llah's explicit statement, "and had attained My presence, verily He
would have never allowed Himself to be separated from Me, but rather We
would have had mutual delights with each other in My Days." "He Who now
voiceth the Word of God," Baha'u'llah again affirms, "is none other except
the Primal Point Who hath once again been made manifest." "He is," He thus
refers to Himself in a Tablet addressed to one of the Letters of the
Living, "the same as the One Who appeared in the year sixty (1260 A.H.).
This verily is one of His mighty signs." "Who," He pleads in the
Suriy-i-Damm, "will arise to secure the triumph of the Primal Beauty (the
Bab) revealed in the countenance of His succeeding Manifestation?"
Referring to the Revelation proclaimed by the Bab He conversely
characterizes it as "My own previous Manifestation."
That 'Abdu'l-Baha is not a Manifestation of God, that He gets His light,
His inspiration and sustenance direct from the Fountain-head of the Baha'i
Revelation; that He reflects even as a clear and perfect Mirror the rays
of Baha'u'llah's glory, and does not inherently possess that indefinable
yet all-pervading reality the exclusive possession of which is the
hallmark of Prophethood; that His words are not equal in rank, though they
possess an equal validity with the utterances of Baha'u'llah; that He is
not to be acclaimed as the return of Jesus Christ, the Son Who will come
"in the glory of the Father"--these truths find added justification, and
are further reinforced, by the following statement of 'Abdu'l-Baha,
addressed to some believers in America, with which I may well conclude
this section: "You have written that there is a difference among the
believers concerning the 'Second Coming of Christ.' Gracious God! Time and
again this question hath arisen, and its answer hath emanated in a clear
and irrefutable statement from the pen of 'Abdu'l-Baha, that what is meant
in the prophecies by the 'Lord of Hosts' and the 'Promised Christ' is the
Blessed Perfection (Baha'u'llah) and His holiness the Exalted One (the
Bab). My name is 'Abdu'l-Baha. My qualification is 'Abdu'l-Baha. My
reality is 'Abdu'l-Baha. My praise is 'Abdu'l-Baha. Thraldom to the
Blessed Perfection is my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to
all the human race my perpetual religion... No name, no title, no mention,
no commendation have I, nor will ever have, except 'Abdu'l-Baha. This is
my longing. This is my greatest yearning. This is my eternal life. This is
my everlasting glory."