The train of dire events that followed in swift succession the calamitous
attempt on the life of Nasiri'd-Din _Sh_ah mark, as already observed, the
termination of the Babi Dispensation and the closing of the initial, the
darkest and bloodiest chapter of the history of the first Baha'i century.
A phase of measureless tribulation had been ushered in by these events, in
the course of which the fortunes of the Faith proclaimed by the Bab sank
to their lowest ebb. Indeed ever since its inception trials and vexations,
setbacks and disappointments, denunciations, betrayals and massacres had,
in a steadily rising crescendo, contributed to the decimation of the ranks
of its followers, strained to the utmost the loyalty of its stoutest
upholders, and all but succeeded in disrupting the foundations on which it
rested.
From its birth, government, clergy and people had risen as one man against
it and vowed eternal enmity to its cause. Muhammad _Sh_ah, weak alike in
mind and will, had, under pressure, rejected the overtures made to him by
the Bab Himself, had declined to meet Him face to face, and even refused
Him admittance to the capital. The youthful Nasiri'd-Din _Sh_ah, of a
cruel and imperious nature, had, both as crown prince and as reigning
sovereign, increasingly evinced the bitter hostility which, at a later
stage in his reign, was to blaze forth in all its dark and ruthless
savagery. The powerful and sagacious Mu'tamid, the one solitary figure who
could have extended Him the support and protection He so sorely needed,
was taken from Him by a sudden death. The Sherif of Mecca, who through the
mediation of Quddus had been made acquainted with the new Revelation on
the occasion of the Bab's pilgrimage to Mecca, had turned a deaf ear to
the Divine Message, and received His messenger with curt indifference. The
prearranged gathering that was to have taken place in the holy city of
Karbila, in the course of the Bab's return journey from Hijaz, had, to the
disappointment of His followers who had been eagerly awaiting His arrival,
to be definitely abandoned. The eighteen Letters of the Living, the
principal bastions that buttressed the infant strength of the Faith, had
for the most part fallen. The "Mirrors," the "Guides," the "Witnesses"
comprising the Babi hierarchy had either been put to the sword, or hounded
from their native soil, or bludgeoned into silence. The program, whose
essentials had been communicated to the foremost among them, had, owing to
their excessive zeal, remained for the most part unfulfilled. The attempts
which two of those disciples had made to establish the Faith in Turkey and
India had signally failed at the very outset of their mission. The
tempests that had swept Mazindaran, Nayriz and Zanjan had, in addition to
blasting to their roots the promising careers of the venerated Quddus, the
lion-hearted Mulla Husayn, the erudite Vahid, and the indomitable Hujjat,
cut short the lives of an alarmingly large number of the most resourceful
and most valiant of their fellow-disciples. The hideous outrages
associated with the death of the Seven Martyrs of Tihran had been
responsible for the extinction of yet another living symbol of the Faith,
who, by reason of his close kinship to, and intimate association with, the
Bab, no less than by virtue of his inherent qualities, would if spared
have decisively contributed to the protection and furtherance of a
struggling Cause.
The storm which subsequently burst, with unexampled violence, on a
community already beaten to its knees, had, moreover, robbed it of its
greatest heroine, the incomparable Tahirih, still in the full tide of her
victories, had sealed the doom of Siyyid Husayn, the Bab's trusted
amanuensis and chosen repository of His last wishes, had laid low Mulla
'Abdu'l-Karim-i-Qazvini, admittedly one of the very few who could claim to
possess a profound knowledge of the origins of the Faith, and had plunged
into a dungeon Baha'u'llah, the sole survivor among the towering figures
of the new Dispensation. The Bab--the Fountainhead from whence the
vitalizing energies of a newborn Revelation had flowed--had Himself, ere
the outburst of that hurricane, succumbed, in harrowing circumstances, to
the volleys of a firing squad leaving behind, as titular head of a
well-nigh disrupted community, a mere figurehead, timid in the extreme,
good-natured yet susceptible to the slightest influence, devoid of any
outstanding qualities, who now (loosed from the controlling hand of
Baha'u'llah, the real Leader) was seeking, in the guise of a dervish, the
protection afforded by the hills of his native Mazindaran against the
threatened assaults of a deadly enemy. The voluminous writings of the
Founder of the Faith--in manuscript, dispersed, unclassified, poorly
transcribed and ill-preserved, were in part, owing to the fever and tumult
of the times, either deliberately destroyed, confiscated, or hurriedly
dispatched to places of safety beyond the confines of the land in which
they were revealed. Powerful adversaries, among whom towered the figure of
the inordinately ambitious and hypocritical Haji Mirza Karim _Kh_an, who
at the special request of the _Sh_ah had in a treatise viciously attacked
the new Faith and its doctrines, had now raised their heads, and,
emboldened by the reverses it had sustained, were heaping abuse and
calumnies upon it. Furthermore, under the stress of intolerable
circumstances, a few of the Babis were constrained to recant their faith,
while others went so far as to apostatize and join the ranks of the enemy.
And now to the sum of these dire misfortunes a monstrous calumny, arising
from the outrage perpetrated by a handful of irresponsible enthusiasts,
was added, branding a holy and innocent Faith with an infamy that seemed
indelible, and which threatened to loosen it from its foundations.
And yet the Fire which the Hand of Omnipotence had lighted, though
smothered by this torrent of tribulations let loose upon it, was not
quenched. The flame which for nine years had burned with such brilliant
intensity was indeed momentarily extinguished, but the embers which that
great conflagration had left behind still glowed, destined, at no distant
date, to blaze forth once again, through the reviving breezes of an
incomparably greater Revelation, and to shed an illumination that would
not only dissipate the surrounding darkness but project its radiance as
far as the extremities of both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Just
as the enforced captivity and isolation of the Bab had, on the one hand,
afforded Him the opportunity of formulating His doctrine, of unfolding the
full implications of His Revelation, of formally and publicly declaring
His station and of establishing His Covenant, and, on the other hand, had
been instrumental in the proclamation of the laws of His Dispensation
through the voice of His disciples assembled in Bada_sh_t, so did the
crisis of unprecedented magnitude, culminating in the execution of the Bab
and the imprisonment of Baha'u'llah, prove to be the prelude of a revival
which, through the quickening power of a far mightier Revelation, was to
immortalize the fame, and fix on a still more enduring foundation, far
beyond the confines of His native land, the original Message of the
Prophet of _Sh_iraz.
At a time when the Cause of the Bab seemed to be hovering on the brink of
extinction, when the hopes and ambitions which animated it had, to all
human seeming, been frustrated, when the colossal sacrifices of its
unnumbered lovers appeared to have been made in vain, the Divine Promise
enshrined within it was about to be suddenly redeemed, and its final
perfection mysteriously manifested. The Babi Dispensation was being
brought to its close (not prematurely but in its own appointed time), and
was yielding its destined fruit and revealing its ultimate purpose--the
birth of the Mission of Baha'u'llah. In this most dark and dreadful hour a
New Light was about to break in glory on Persia's somber horizon. As a
result of what was in fact an evolving, ripening process, the most
momentous if not the most spectacular stage in the Heroic Age of the Faith
was now about to open.
During nine years, as foretold by the Bab Himself, swiftly, mysteriously
and irresistibly the embryonic Faith conceived by Him had been developing
until, at the fixed hour, the burden of the promised Cause of God was cast
amidst the gloom and agony of the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran. "Behold,"
Baha'u'llah Himself, years later, testified, in refutation of the claims
of those who had rejected the validity of His mission following so closely
upon that of the Bab, "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 has
been most secretly consummated." "That so brief an interval," He, moreover
has asserted, "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."
St. John the Divine had himself, with reference to these two successive
Revelations, clearly prophesied: "The second woe is past; and, behold the
third woe cometh quickly." "This third woe," 'Abdu'l-Baha, commenting upon
this verse, has explained, "is the day of the Manifestation of
Baha'u'llah, the Day of God, and it is near to the day of the appearance
of the Bab." "All the peoples of the world," He moreover has asserted,
"are awaiting two Manifestations, Who must be contemporaneous; all wait
for the fulfillment of this promise." And again: "The essential fact is
that all are promised two Manifestations, Who will come one following on
the other." _Sh_ay_kh_ Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i, that luminous star of Divine
guidance who had so clearly perceived, before the year sixty, the
approaching glory of Baha'u'llah, and laid stress upon "the twin
Revelations which are to follow each other in rapid succession," had, on
his part, made this significant statement regarding the approaching hour
of that supreme Revelation, in an epistle addressed in his own hand to
Siyyid Kazim: "The mystery of this Cause must needs be made manifest, and
the secret of this Message must needs be divulged. I can say no more. I
can appoint no time. His Cause will be made known after Hin (68)."
The circumstances in which the Vehicle of this newborn Revelation,
following with such swiftness that of the Bab, received the first
intimations of His sublime mission recall, and indeed surpass in poignancy
the soul-shaking experience of Moses when confronted by the Burning Bush
in the wilderness of Sinai; of Zoroaster when awakened to His mission by a
succession of seven visions; of Jesus when coming out of the waters of the
Jordan He saw the heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descend like a dove
and light upon Him; of Muhammad when in the Cave of Hira, outside of the
holy city of Mecca, the voice of Gabriel bade Him "cry in the name of Thy
Lord"; and of the Bab when in a dream He approached the bleeding head of
the Imam Husayn, and, quaffing the blood that dripped from his lacerated
throat, awoke to find Himself the chosen recipient of the outpouring grace
of the Almighty.
What, we may well inquire at this juncture, were the nature and
implications of that Revelation which, manifesting itself so soon after
the Declaration of the Bab, abolished, at one stroke, the Dispensation
which that Faith had so newly proclaimed, and upheld, with such vehemence
and force, the Divine authority of its Author? What, we may well pause to
consider, were the claims of Him Who, Himself a disciple of the Bab, had,
at such an early stage, regarded Himself as empowered to abrogate the Law
identified with His beloved Master? What, we may further reflect, could be
the relationship between the religious Systems established before Him and
His own Revelation--a Revelation which, flowing out, in that extremely
perilous hour, from His travailing soul, pierced the gloom that had
settled upon that pestilential pit, and, bursting through its walls, and
propagating itself as far as the ends of the earth, infused into the
entire body of mankind its boundless potentialities, and is now under our
very eyes, shaping the course of human society?
He Who in such dramatic circumstances was made to sustain the overpowering
weight of so glorious a Mission was none other than the One Whom posterity
will acclaim, and Whom innumerable followers already recognize, as the
Judge, the Lawgiver and Redeemer of all mankind, as the Organizer of the
entire planet, as the Unifier of the children of men, as the Inaugurator
of the long-awaited millennium, as the Originator of a new "Universal
Cycle," as the Establisher of the Most Great Peace, as the Fountain of the
Most Great Justice, as the Proclaimer of the coming of age of the entire
human race, as the Creator of a new World Order, and as the Inspirer and
Founder of a world civilization.
To Israel He was neither more nor less than the incarnation of the
"Everlasting Father," the "Lord of Hosts" come down "with ten thousands of
saints"; to Christendom Christ returned "in the glory of the Father," to
_Sh_i'ah Islam the return of the Imam Husayn; to Sunni Islam the descent
of the "Spirit of God" (Jesus Christ); to the Zoroastrians the promised
_Sh_ah-Bahram; to the Hindus the reincarnation of Krishna; to the
Buddhists the fifth Buddha.
In the name He bore He combined those of the Imam Husayn, the most
illustrious of the successors of the Apostle of God--the brightest "star"
shining in the "crown" mentioned in the Revelation of St. John--and of the
Imam 'Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, the second of the two
"witnesses" extolled in that same Book. He was formally designated
Baha'u'llah, an appellation specifically recorded in the Persian Bayan,
signifying at once the glory, the light and the splendor of God, and was
styled the "Lord of Lords," the "Most Great Name," the "Ancient Beauty,"
the "Pen of the Most High," the "Hidden Name," the "Preserved Treasure,"
"He Whom God will make manifest," the "Most Great Light," the "All-Highest
Horizon," the "Most Great Ocean," the "Supreme Heaven," the "Pre-Existent
Root," the "Self-Subsistent," the "Day-Star of the Universe," the "Great
Announcement," the "Speaker on Sinai," the "Sifter of Men," the "Wronged
One of the World," the "Desire of the Nations," the "Lord of the
Covenant," the "Tree beyond which there is no passing." He derived His
descent, on the one hand, from Abraham (the Father of the Faithful)
through his wife Katurah, and on the other from Zoroaster, as well as from
Yazdigird, the last king of the Sasaniyan dynasty. He was moreover a
descendant of Jesse, and belonged, through His father, Mirza Abbas, better
known as Mirza Buzurg--a nobleman closely associated with the ministerial
circles of the Court of Fath-'Ali _Sh_ah--to one of the most ancient and
renowned families of Mazindaran.
To Him Isaiah, the greatest of the Jewish prophets, had alluded as the
"Glory of the Lord," the "Everlasting Father," the "Prince of Peace," the
"Wonderful," the "Counsellor," the "Rod come forth out of the stem of
Jesse" and the "Branch grown out of His roots," Who "shall be established
upon the throne of David," Who "will come with strong hand," Who "shall
judge among the nations," Who "shall smite the earth with the rod of His
mouth, and with the breath of His lips slay the wicked," and Who "shall
assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of
Judah from the four corners of the earth." Of Him David had sung in his
Psalms, acclaiming Him as the "Lord of Hosts" and the "King of Glory." To
Him Haggai had referred as the "Desire of all nations," and Zachariah as
the "Branch" Who "shall grow up out of His place," and "shall build the
Temple of the Lord." Ezekiel had extolled Him as the "Lord" Who "shall be
king over all the earth," while to His day Joel and Zephaniah had both
referred as the "day of Jehovah," the latter describing it as "a day of
wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a
day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day
of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high
towers." His Day Ezekiel and Daniel had, moreover, both acclaimed as the
"day of the Lord," and Malachi described as "the great and dreadful day of
the Lord" when "the Sun of Righteousness" will "arise, with healing in His
wings," whilst Daniel had pronounced His advent as signalizing the end of
the "abomination that maketh desolate."
To His Dispensation the sacred books of the followers of Zoroaster had
referred as that in which the sun must needs be brought to a standstill
for no less than one whole month. To Him Zoroaster must have alluded when,
according to tradition, He foretold that a period of three thousand years
of conflict and contention must needs precede the advent of the
World-Savior _Sh_ah-Bahram, Who would triumph over Ahriman and usher in an
era of blessedness and peace.
He alone is meant by the prophecy attributed to Gautama Buddha Himself,
that "a Buddha named Maitreye, the Buddha of universal fellowship" should,
in the fullness of time, arise and reveal "His boundless glory." To Him
the Bhagavad-Gita of the Hindus had referred as the "Most Great Spirit,"
the "Tenth Avatar," the "Immaculate Manifestation of Krishna."
To Him Jesus Christ had referred as the "Prince of this world," as the
"Comforter" Who will "reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and
of judgment," as the "Spirit of Truth" Who "will guide you into all
truth," Who "shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear,
that shall He speak," as the "Lord of the Vineyard," and as the "Son of
Man" Who "shall come in the glory of His Father" "in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory," with "all the holy angels" about Him, and
"all nations" gathered before His throne. To Him the Author of the
Apocalypse had alluded as the "Glory of God," as "Alpha and Omega," "the
Beginning and the End," "the First and the Last." Identifying His
Revelation with the "third woe," he, moreover, had extolled His Law as "a
new heaven and a new earth," as the "Tabernacle of God," as the "Holy
City," as the "New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband." To His Day Jesus Christ Himself had
referred as "the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne
of His glory." To the hour of His advent St. Paul had alluded as the hour
of the "last trump," the "trump of God," whilst St. Peter had spoken of it
as the "Day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." His Day he, furthermore,
had described as "the times of refreshing," "the times of restitution of
all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy Prophets
since the world began."
To Him Muhammad, the Apostle of God, had alluded in His Book as the "Great
Announcement," and declared His Day to be the Day whereon "God" will "come
down" "overshadowed with clouds," the Day whereon "thy Lord shall come and
the angels rank on rank," and "The Spirit shall arise and the angels shall
be ranged in order." His advent He, in that Book, in a surih said to have
been termed by Him "the heart of the Qur'an," had foreshadowed as that of
the "third" Messenger, sent down to "strengthen" the two who preceded Him.
To His Day He, in the pages of that same Book, had paid a glowing tribute,
glorifying it as the "Great Day," the "Last Day," the "Day of God," the
"Day of Judgment," the "Day of Reckoning," the "Day of Mutual Deceit," the
"Day of Severing," the "Day of Sighing," the "Day of Meeting," the Day
"when the Decree shall be accomplished," the Day whereon the second
"Trumpet blast" will be sounded, the "Day when mankind shall stand before
the Lord of the world," and "all shall come to Him in humble guise," the
Day when "thou shalt see the mountains, which thou thinkest so firm, pass
away with the passing of a cloud," the Day "wherein account shall be
taken," "the approaching Day, when men's hearts shall rise up, choking
them, into their throats," the Day when "all that are in the heavens and
all that are on the earth shall be terror-stricken, save him whom God
pleaseth to deliver," the Day whereon "every suckling woman shall forsake
her sucking babe, and every woman that hath a burden in her womb shall
cast her burden," the Day "when the earth shall shine with the light of
her Lord, and the Book shall be set, and the Prophets shall be brought up,
and the witnesses; and judgment shall be given between them with equity;
and none shall be wronged."
The plenitude of His glory the Apostle of God had, moreover, as attested
by Baha'u'llah Himself, compared to the "full moon on its fourteenth
night." His station the Imam 'Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, had,
according to the same testimony, identified with "Him Who conversed with
Moses from the Burning Bush on Sinai." To the transcendent character of
His mission the Imam Husayn had, again according to Baha'u'llah, borne
witness as a "Revelation whose Revealer will be He Who revealed" the
Apostle of God Himself.
About Him _Sh_ay_kh_ Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i, the herald of the Babi Dispensation,
who had foreshadowed the "strange happenings" that would transpire
"between the years sixty and sixty-seven," and had categorically affirmed
the inevitability of His Revelation had, as previously mentioned, written
the following: "The Mystery of this Cause must needs be made manifest, and
the Secret of this Message must needs be divulged. I can say no more, I
can appoint no time. His Cause will be made known after Hin (68)" (i.e.,
after a while).
Siyyid Kazim-i-Ra_sh_ti, _Sh_ay_kh_ Ahmad's disciple and successor, had
likewise written: "The Qa'im must needs be put to death. After He has been
slain the world will have attained the age of eighteen." In his
_Sh_arh-i-Qasidiy-i-Lamiyyih he had even alluded to the name "Baha."
Furthermore, to his disciples, as his days drew to a close, he had
significantly declared: "Verily, I say, after the Qa'im the Qayyum will be
made manifest. For when the star of the former has set the sun of the
beauty of Husayn will rise and illuminate the whole world. Then will be
unfolded in all its glory the 'Mystery' and the 'Secret' spoken of by
_Sh_ay_kh_ Ahmad.... To have attained unto that Day of Days is to have
attained unto the crowning glory of past generations, and one goodly deed
performed in that age is equal to the pious worship of countless
centuries."
The Bab had no less significantly extolled Him as the "Essence of Being,"
as the "Remnant of God," as the "Omnipotent Master," as the "Crimson,
all-encompassing Light," as "Lord of the visible and invisible," as the
"sole Object of all previous Revelations, including The Revelation of the
Qa'im Himself." He had formally designated Him as "He Whom God shall make
manifest," had alluded to Him as the "Abha Horizon" wherein He Himself
lived and dwelt, had specifically recorded His title, and eulogized His
"Order" in His best-known work, the Persian Bayan, had disclosed His name
through His allusion to the "Son of 'Ali, a true and undoubted Leader of
men," had, repeatedly, orally and in writing, fixed, beyond the shadow of
a doubt, the time of His Revelation, and warned His followers lest "the
Bayan and all that hath been revealed therein" should "shut them out as by
a veil" from Him. He had, moreover, declared that He was the "first
servant to believe in Him," that He bore Him allegiance "before all things
were created," that "no allusion" of His "could allude unto Him," that
"the year-old germ that holdeth within itself the potentialities of the
Revelation that is to come is endowed with a potency superior to the
combined forces of the whole of the Bayan." He had, moreover, clearly
asserted that He had "covenanted with all created things" concerning Him
Whom God shall make manifest ere the covenant concerning His own mission
had been established. He had readily acknowledged that He was but "a
letter" of that "Most Mighty Book," "a dew-drop" from that "Limitless
Ocean," that His Revelation was "only a leaf amongst the leaves of His
Paradise," that "all that hath been exalted in the Bayan" was but "a ring"
upon His own hand, and He Himself "a ring upon the hand of Him Whom God
shall make manifest," Who, "turneth it as He pleaseth, for whatsoever He
pleaseth, and through whatsoever He pleaseth." He had unmistakably
declared that He had "sacrificed" Himself "wholly" for Him, that He had
"consented to be cursed" for His sake, and to have "yearned for naught but
martyrdom" in the path of His love. Finally, He had unequivocally
prophesied: "Today the Bayan is in the stage of seed; at the beginning of
the manifestation of Him Whom God shall make manifest its ultimate
perfection will become apparent." "Ere nine will have elapsed from the
inception of this Cause the realities of the created things will not be
made manifest. All that thou hast as yet seen is but the stage from the
moist-germ until We clothed it with flesh. Be patient until thou beholdest
a new creation. Say: Blessed, therefore, be God, the Most Excellent of
Makers!"
"He around Whom the Point of the Bayan (Bab) hath revolved is come" is
Baha'u'llah's confirmatory testimony to the inconceivable greatness and
preeminent character of His own Revelation. "If all who are in heaven and
on earth," He moreover affirms, "be invested in this day with the powers
and attributes destined for the Letters of the Bayan, whose station is ten
thousand times more glorious than that of the Letters of the Qur'anic
Dispensation, and if they one and all should, swift as the twinkling of an
eye, hesitate to recognize My Revelation, they shall be accounted, in the
sight of God, of those that have gone astray, and regarded as 'Letters of
Negation.'" "Powerful is He, the King of Divine might," He, alluding to
Himself in the Kitab-i-Iqan, asserts, "to extinguish with one letter of
His wondrous words, the breath of life in the whole of the Bayan and the
people thereof, and with one letter bestow upon them a new and everlasting
life, and cause them to arise and speed out of the sepulchers of their
vain and selfish desires." "This," He furthermore declares, "is the king
of days," the "Day of God Himself," the "Day which shall never be followed
by night," the "Springtime which autumn will never overtake," "the eye to
past ages and centuries," for which "the soul of every Prophet of God, of
every Divine Messenger, hath thirsted," for which "all the divers kindreds
of the earth have yearned," through which "God hath proved the hearts of
the entire company of His Messengers and Prophets, and beyond them those
that stand guard over His sacred and inviolable Sanctuary, the inmates of
the Celestial Pavilion and dwellers of the Tabernacle of Glory." "In this
most mighty Revelation," He moreover, states, "all the Dispensations of
the past have attained their highest, their final consummation." And
again: "None among the Manifestations of old, except to a prescribed
degree, hath ever completely apprehended the nature of this Revelation."
Referring to His own station He declares: "But for Him no Divine Messenger
would have been invested with the Robe of Prophethood, nor would any of
the sacred Scriptures have been revealed."
And last but not least is 'Abdu'l-Baha's own tribute to the transcendent
character of the Revelation identified with His Father: "Centuries, nay
ages, must pass away, ere the Day-Star of Truth shineth again in its
mid-summer splendor, or appeareth once more in the radiance of its vernal
glory." "The mere contemplation of the Dispensation inaugurated by the
Blessed Beauty," He furthermore affirms, "would have sufficed to overwhelm
the saints of bygone ages--saints who longed to partake for one moment of
its great glory." "Concerning the Manifestations that will come down in
the future 'in the shadows of the clouds,' know verily," is His
significant statement, "that in so far as their relation to the source of
their inspiration is concerned they are under the shadow of the Ancient
Beauty. In their relation, however, to the age in which they appear, each
and every one of them 'doeth whatsoever He willeth.'" And finally stands
this, His illuminating explanation, setting forth conclusively the true
relationship between the Revelation of Baha'u'llah and that of the Bab:
"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."
To attempt an exhaustive survey of the prophetic references to
Baha'u'llah's Revelation would indeed be an impossible task. To this the
pen of Baha'u'llah Himself bears witness: "All the Divine Books and
Scriptures have predicted and announced unto men the advent of the Most
Great Revelation. None can adequately recount the verses recorded in the
Books of former ages which forecast this supreme Bounty, this most mighty
Bestowal."
In conclusion of this theme, I feel, it should be stated that the
Revelation identified with Baha'u'llah abrogates unconditionally all the
Dispensations gone before it, upholds uncompromisingly the eternal
verities they enshrine, recognizes firmly and absolutely the Divine origin
of their Authors, preserves inviolate the sanctity of their authentic
Scriptures, disclaims any intention of lowering the status of their
Founders or of abating the spiritual ideals they inculcate, clarifies and
correlates their functions, reaffirms their common, their unchangeable and
fundamental purpose, reconciles their seemingly divergent claims and
doctrines, readily and gratefully recognizes their respective
contributions to the gradual unfoldment of one Divine Revelation,
unhesitatingly acknowledges itself to be but one link in the chain of
continually progressive Revelations, supplements their teachings with such
laws and ordinances as conform to the imperative needs, and are dictated
by the growing receptivity, of a fast evolving and constantly changing
society, and proclaims its readiness and ability to fuse and incorporate
the contending sects and factions into which they have fallen into a
universal Fellowship, functioning within the framework, and in accordance
with the precepts, of a divinely conceived, a world-unifying, a
world-redeeming Order.
A Revelation, hailed as the promise and crowning glory of past ages and
centuries, as the consummation of all the Dispensations within the Adamic
Cycle, inaugurating an era of at least a thousand years' duration, and a
cycle destined to last no less than five thousand centuries, signalizing
the end of the Prophetic Era and the beginning of the Era of Fulfillment,
unsurpassed alike in the duration of its Author's ministry and the
fecundity and splendor of His mission--such a Revelation was, as already
noted, born amidst the darkness of a subterranean dungeon in Tihran--an
abominable pit that had once served as a reservoir of water for one of the
public baths of the city. Wrapped in its stygian gloom, breathing its
fetid air, numbed by its humid and icy atmosphere, His feet in stocks, His
neck weighed down by a mighty chain, surrounded by criminals and
miscreants of the worst order, oppressed by the consciousness of the
terrible blot that had stained the fair name of His beloved Faith,
painfully aware of the dire distress that had overtaken its champions, and
of the grave dangers that faced the remnant of its followers--at so
critical an hour and under such appalling circumstances the "Most Great
Spirit," as designated by Himself, and symbolized in the Zoroastrian, the
Mosaic, the Christian, and Muhammadan Dispensations by the Sacred Fire,
the Burning Bush, the Dove and the Angel Gabriel respectively, descended
upon, and revealed itself, personated by a "Maiden," to the agonized soul
of Baha'u'llah.
"One night in a dream," He Himself, calling to mind, in the evening of His
life, the first stirrings of God's Revelation within His soul, has
written, "these exalted words were heard on every side: 'Verily, We shall
render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy pen. Grieve Thou not for that
which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety.
Ere long will God raise up the treasures of the earth--men who will aid
Thee through Thyself and through Thy Name, wherewith God hath revived the
hearts of such as have recognized Him.'" In another passage He describes,
briefly and graphically, the impact of the onrushing force of the Divine
Summons upon His entire being--an experience vividly recalling the vision
of God that caused Moses to fall in a swoon, and the voice of Gabriel
which plunged Muhammad into such consternation that, hurrying to the
shelter of His home, He bade His wife, _Kh_adijih, envelop Him in His
mantle. "During the days I lay in the prison of Tihran," are His own
memorable words, "though the galling weight of the chains and the
stench-filled air allowed Me but little sleep, still in those infrequent
moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the crown of My head
over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon
the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of My body
would, as a result, be set afire. At such moments My tongue recited what
no man could bear to hear."
In His Suratu'l-Haykal (the Surih of the Temple) He thus describes those
breathless moments when the Maiden, symbolizing the "Most Great Spirit"
proclaimed His mission to the entire creation: "While engulfed in
tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My
head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden--the embodiment of the remembrance
of the name of My Lord--suspended in the air before Me. So rejoiced was she
in her very soul that her countenance shone with the ornament of the
good-pleasure of God, and her cheeks glowed with the brightness of the
All-Merciful. Betwixt earth and heaven she was raising a call which
captivated the hearts and minds of men. She was imparting to both My
inward and outer being tidings which rejoiced My soul, and the souls of
God's honored servants. Pointing with her finger unto My head, she
addressed all who are in heaven and all who are on earth, saying: 'By God!
This is the Best-Beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is
the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within
you, could ye but understand. This is the Mystery of God and His Treasure,
the Cause of God and His glory unto all who are in the kingdoms of
Revelation and of creation, if ye be of them that perceive.'"
In His Epistle to Nasiri'd-Din _Sh_ah, His royal adversary, revealed at
the height of the proclamation of His Message, occur these passages which
shed further light on the Divine origin of His mission: "O King! I was but
a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the
All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that
hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and
All-Knowing. And he bade Me lift up My voice between earth and heaven, and
for this there befell Me what hath caused the tears of every man of
understanding to flow.... This is but a leaf which the winds of the will
of Thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-Praised, have stirred.... His
all-compelling summons hath reached Me, and caused Me to speak His praise
amidst all people. I was indeed as one dead when His behest was uttered.
The hand of the will of Thy Lord, the Compassionate, the Merciful,
transformed Me." "By My Life!" He asserts in another Tablet, "Not of Mine
own volition have I revealed Myself, but God, of His own choosing, hath
manifested Me." And again: "Whenever I chose to hold My peace and be
still, lo, the Voice of the Holy Spirit, standing on My right hand,
aroused Me, and the Most Great Spirit appeared before My face, and Gabriel
overshadowed Me, and the Spirit of Glory stirred within My bosom, bidding
Me arise and break My silence."
Such were the circumstances in which the Sun of Truth arose in the city of
Tihran--a city which, by reason of so rare a privilege conferred upon it,
had been glorified by the Bab as the "Holy Land," and surnamed by
Baha'u'llah "the Mother of the world," the "Day-spring of Light," the
"Dawning-Place of the signs of the Lord," the "Source of the joy of all
mankind." The first dawnings of that Light of peerless splendor had, as
already described, broken in the city of _Sh_iraz. The rim of that Orb had
now appeared above the horizon of the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran. Its rays
were to burst forth, a decade later, in Ba_gh_dad, piercing the clouds
which immediately after its rise in those somber surroundings obscured its
splendor. It was destined to mount to its zenith in the far-away city of
Adrianople, and ultimately to set in the immediate vicinity of the
fortress-town of Akka.
The process whereby the effulgence of so dazzling a Revelation was
unfolded to the eyes of men was of necessity slow and gradual. The first
intimation which its Bearer received did not synchronize with, nor was it
followed immediately by, a disclosure of its character to either His own
companions or His kindred. A period of no less than ten years had to
elapse ere its far-reaching implications could be directly divulged to
even those who had been intimately associated with Him--a period of great
spiritual ferment, during which the Recipient of so weighty a Message
restlessly anticipated the hour at which He could unburden His heavily
laden soul, so replete with the potent energies released by God's nascent
Revelation. All He did, in the course of this pre-ordained interval, was
to hint, in veiled and allegorical language, in epistles, commentaries,
prayers and treatises, which He was moved to reveal, that the Bab's
promise had already been fulfilled, and that He Himself was the One Who
had been chosen to redeem it. A few of His fellow-disciples, distinguished
by their sagacity, and their personal attachment and devotion to Him,
perceived the radiance of the as yet unrevealed glory that had flooded His
soul, and would have, but for His restraining influence, divulged His
secret and proclaimed it far and wide.