"I was walking
in the Land of Tá (Tihrán)—the dayspring of the signs of thy Lord—when lo, I
heard the lamentation of the pulpits and the voice of their supplication unto
God, blessed and glorified be He. They cried out and said: 'O God of the world
and Lord of the nations! Thou beholdest our state and the things which have
befallen us....'" (Baha’u’llah, ‘Epistle to the Son of Wolf’)
We, the two billion people currently on the planet, are
living at a time when not only the pulpits of all the religions, but all things
must be condemning us, each in that voice which, according to the Qur'án, God
has given to all things: "God, Who giveth a voice to all things, hath
given us a voice...." (41:20). We who have killed some forty-five million
human beings in the past thirty-five years, strangers whom we did not even know
by name. We who have denied our qualitative difference from the animals and
have tried to live in their world, an attempt which has proved as successful as
would be the animal's to turn into a tree or the tree's to be a stone. We who
spend our time devising elaborate excuses to justify our ways; who always blame
someone else, who always want someone else to save us.
It is not surprising that Bahá’u’lláh, the Persian nobleman
Who declared His spiritual mission in 1863, should also say: "... ye walk
on My earth complacent and self-satisfied, heedless that My earth is weary of
you and everything within it shunneth you."
Meanwhile we long for happiness, and then reject it when it
is brought to us. Because happiness for human beings means being raised out of
the blind physical world into the conscious life of the spirit, and this can
only be done by the Prophet of God. At His advent we fight Him and resist Him,
whether He is Moses or Buddha, Jesus or Muhammad, or Bahá’u’lláh.
Man is showing by his acts that he has lost God and in consequence has also lost himself. "And be ye not like those," the Qur'án warns, "who forget God, and whom He hath therefore caused to forget their own selves." (59:19). Man is bewildered—straying in a wilderness. He must find the meaning in the universe again, and this meaning is God as expressed by the Prophet; then he will rediscover his own self, the reflection of the meaning; then he will have a way of life in keeping with the facts and will consciously follow it.
Badi: Baha'u'llah's messenger
A seventeen year old boy is referred to in this book. He was
a troublesome youth and his father was worried about him. Then Bahá’u’lláh,
imprisoned in the barracks of `Akká, summoned him. Following their interview,
the boy, alone and on foot, carried to Persia Bahá’u’lláh's Tablet to the Sháh.
He reached the capital after a four months' journey; he fasted, prayed, and
waited on a rock until he saw the Sháh and his suite going hunting in the
direction of the hill villages north of Tihrán. He approached them and called
out in Arabic: "O King! I have come to thee from Sheba with a weighty
message." (This is what the lapwing said to Solomon when it returned from
seeing Balkis on her golden throne: Qur'án 27:22) The Tablet was taken from the
boy and delivered to the priests. They read it, and recommended that the boy be
put to death. The executioners branded him with hot irons for three days; a
photograph, taken of him under torture, is extant. Then they beat his head to a
pulp with a rifle butt and threw his body down a hole.
Bahá’u’lláh wrote, in a Tablet to the boy's father—Hájí
`Abdu'l-Majíd, who himself was to suffer martyrdom later on in Khurásán:
"Dost thou think that he is dead? No, by the Revealer of Signs! Through
him the spirit of life joyfully moveth in the hearts of the universe." In
the same Tablet, Bahá’u’lláh says that in Badí` "the spirit of might and
power was breathed"; that he was created anew; that he smiled, and
"should We have commanded him, he would have subdued all in heaven and
upon the earth." That "Joy overtook him," and that he went to
his death "with power and authority, advancing with such strength as to
overturn the Supreme Concourse and the denizens of the Cities of Names."
The point is that Badí` was recreated. He was in Bible
terminology born again. He saw the truth and died as a sacrifice to it. Those
who believe in Bahá’u’lláh today are seldom called to join the ranks of the
more than 20,000 who gave up their lives in the Heroic Age of His Cause—who, as
the present text states, "threw down the precious crown of life for the
sake of Him Who is the Incomparable Friend." But they are repeatedly
obliged to disregard their own likes and dislikes, to discipline their conduct,
to win a victory over their own selves—a process longer, less spectacular, and
perhaps more painful than martyrdom.
It is only through such a process that the planet can be
made habitable again: that human beings, motivated by love, will voluntarily
begin to act in ways that are worthy of the nature of man. Bahá’u’lláh writes
in the Hidden Words, "I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself
down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself?"
The thinking world has caught up with Baha’u’llah’s basic
teachings
The thinking world has caught up, by now, with the basic
teachings which Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892) enunciated more than seventy years ago.
Today no enlightened mind can disagree with such Bahá’í fundamentals as these:
"The oneness and wholeness of the human race." (This is the most
vital of them all, the establishment of this principle being the central
purpose of the Bahá’í Faith. The unification of mankind is, Bahá’u’lláh says,
inevitable, and marks the last stage in the evolution of man toward maturity.)
Service to humanity the worthiest of all endeavors. Religion, "the chief
instrument of the establishment of order in the world," to be taught to
children in all schools in such a way as not to produce fanaticism or
prejudice. All religions are essentially one, differing in their outer aspects
only because they appeared at different periods in history and thus addressed
themselves to varying situations. The reconciliation of religion and science,
which are the two most powerful forces in human life. Education available to
all. Equal opportunities for both sexes, equality for women being directly
linked to world peace. A world federal system, reduction in national armaments,
collective security. The adoption of an international auxiliary language and
script. Work for all.
Bahá’u’lláh states that justice is "the best beloved of
all things," and its advent inevitable. That consultation, frank and unfettered,
is "the bestower of understanding," and the bedrock of His Order.
That the acquisition of knowledge is incumbent on everyone, "acts, crafts
and sciences" being extolled. That wealth gained through crafts and
professions is praiseworthy. That poverty will disappear, as will exorbitant
wealth. That the trustees of the "House of Justice" are to legislate
on all matters not expressly set forth in Bahá’í writings (this international
Bahá’í body is empowered to rescind its previous legislation and to incorporate
into its machinery whatever is considered necessary to keep the Faith "in
the forefront of all progressive movements."). Constitutional government,
combining "the ideals of republicanism and the majesty of kingship"
is recommended. Agriculture is to be given special regard. The press is
specifically extolled, newspapers being described as "the mirror of the
world" and those responsible for their production directed to free
themselves from "malice, passion, and prejudice, to be just and
fair-minded, to be painstaking in their inquiries and ascertain all the facts
in every situation." Bahá’u’lláh further reemphasizes the ban on the
waging of holy war and the destruction of books; requires of His followers that
they obey the Government of the country in which they live; and singles out for
special praise individuals of learning and wisdom whom He describes as
"eyes" to the body of mankind.
Baha’u’llah’s projected world order
What the world does not yet guess at is the capacity of
Bahá’u’lláh's projected world order, functioning in the universal recognition
of one God, to "re-create society." The world community is His
primary concern. Religion has often, in the past, produced the good individual.
The primary object of Bahá’u’lláh's religion is to produce the good society.
His administrative system offers, Bahá’ís believe, the only satisfactory
arrangement between individual and community, between free will and authority,
equilibrating the prerogatives of each.
This balance will have to be created if humanity is to
develop an age of peace. We have seen the dictator state crushing out the
individual, and we have seen lynch law flouting the group. The point has been
debated down the ages. Rúmí the mystic begs God to deliver him from his free
will, a burden which he says even heaven and the angels refused, and only man
accepted; he compares himself to a camel with pack sores, whose panniers sag
first on one side and then on the other, and asks that the ill-balanced load be
taken from him, and that instead he be made to roll here and there like a polo
ball. In contrast with such a view was the way of life in Calvin's Geneva,
where according to laws regulating inns, no one was permitted "to sit up
after nine o'clock at night, except spies."
When the balance between the person and society finally
obtains we shall know that man has begun his maturity. Obviously, both
individual and group will have to give up something of what they now have, just
as the nations will have to yield some of their present sovereignty in favor of
the world commonwealth, but this will prove no more of a hardship than the
sacrifice of bait to catch fish.
Here is a world religion to match the new world. It has no
priesthood; it accepts no funds except from registered adherents. It has solved
the problems of successorship, administration and schism, factors which
virtually destroyed, almost at their inception, the unity of all previous
faiths. In this case Bahá’u’lláh the Founder Himself designated in His written
Covenant that His eldest son `Abdu'l-Bahá was His authorized Successor and
Interpreter. ‘Abdu'l-Bahá in His own Will and Testament appointed as Guardian
and Interpreter His grandson Shoghi Effendi, who in turn is to appoint the next
Guardian, the written appointment to be ratified by vote of a council of
"Hands of the Cause." The democratically-elected institutions which
in conjunction with the Guardian administer the Faith were likewise stipulated
in the writings of the Founder. The present task of Bahá’ís the world over is
two-fold, involving both consolidation in studying the Teachings and practicing
the Bahá’í way of life—and expansion: presenting this Faith to the public for
free investigation. Bahá’í communities are now to be found in more than hundred
countries around the globe.
Study of the Baha’i Writings
Study of the writings is a lifetime occupation. Although the
tenets of the Faith are readily grasped, the Teachings are vast, disclosing new
horizons as the individual's experience develops. It is far from true that all
Bahá’ís are intellectuals—there are communities of Persian villagers—but it is
certain that the Teachings themselves and the effort to bring them before the
public act as a strong incentive to acquire diversified knowledge. `Abdu'l-Bahá
writes, "The dominion of kings has an ending ... but the sovereignty of
science is everlasting...." and again, "All blessings are divine in
origin but none can be compared with this power of intellectual investigation
and research which is an eternal gift producing fruits of unending delight ...
All other blessings are temporary; this is an everlasting possession."
Bahá’u’lláh wrote a hundred books. They consist of laws,
principles, and exhortations; of warnings and prophecies; of prayers and
meditations; of commentaries, interpretations, discourses, and homilies; of the
proclamation of His mission to kings, ministers, and ecclesiastics of both East
and West; of writings addressed specifically to leaders in intellectual,
political, literary, mystical, commercial and humanitarian fields. His last major
Tablet is this present book. It was revealed about one year before His death in
1892.
Bahá’u’lláh expressed His wish to leave the world
Some three months after this text was finished, Bahá’u’lláh
expressed His wish to leave the world. He was now living, still an exile and
prisoner as He had been, here and there throughout the Middle East, for the
previous forty years, in the Mansion of Bahjí outside `Akká. From this time on
it became clear from the tone of His remarks, although He made no open
reference to it, that the end of His life on earth was approaching. Years
before, He had described in His Tablet of the Vision—revealed on the
anniversary of His Forerunner and Prophet-Herald, the martyred Báb—how the
white-clad "Luminous Maid" had appeared before Him and urged Him to
hasten to His "other dominions," dominions "whereon the eyes of
the people of names have never fallen." Now a few more months passed,
until after a brief illness He died at dawn, on May 29, 1892, in the
seventy-fifth year of His age.
Then the famous telegram was sent to Sultán ‘Abdu'l-Hamíd,
whose prisoner He had been. It began with the words: "The Sun of Bahá has
set." Then mourners from `Akká and the neighboring villages crowded the
fields around the Mansion, and notables of the Shí’ih and Sunní, Christian,
Jewish and Druse communities, poets, divines and officials, from cities as far
away ad Damascus, Aleppo, Beirut and Cairo, sent their written tributes to Him,
and Nabíl the historian could not be consoled and drowned himself in the
Mediterranean Sea.
This book has therefore a special place in the hierarchy of
all Bahá’u’lláh's books. It is the last one. It is besides, a kind of
anthology, and one particularly valuable, the material having been selected by
the Author Himself. It includes some of the best-known and most characteristic
of His writings, as well as proofs establishing the validity of His Cause.
The two martyred brothers in Isfahan
There were two brothers in Isfáhán, men of wealth, widely
known for their philanthropies and the excellence of their character. The head
priest, Mír Muhammad-Husayn, the cleric whose function it was to recite the
prayers in the Friday mosque, owed them a large sum of money. To evade the
debt, he denounced them as followers of the Báb. He knew exactly what this
would mean. Their beautiful houses were at once given over to the mob and
stripped, and even the trees and flowers in their gardens were torn away.
Whatever they had was taken. Then Shaykh Muhammad-Báqir, whom Bahá’u’lláh names
"The Wolf," pronounced their death sentence. The Prince-Governor,
Zillu's-Sultán, eldest son of the Sháh, ratified it. The brothers were chained.
Their heads were severed. Their bodies were dragged to the great open square of
the city, and there they were exposed to every indignity the mob could inflict.
"In such wise,", ‘Abdu'l-Bahá has written, "was the blood of
these two brothers shed that the Christian priest of Julfa cried out, lamented
and wept on that day."
What happened to Wolf
Afterward "The Wolf," whom Bahá’u’lláh condemned
in His Lawh-i-Burhán ("Tablet of the Proof") and called "the
last trace of sunlight upon the mountain-top," saw the steady decline of
his prestige and died miserably, in acute remorse. As for his accomplice Mír
Muhammad-Husayn, Bahá’u’lláh stigmatized him as the "She-Serpent,"
and declared him to be "infinitely more wicked than the oppressor of
Karbilá." This man was expelled from Isfáhán, wandered from one village to
another, and finally sickened and died of a disease so foul-smelling that his
own wife and daughter could not bear to attend him.
Zillu's-Sultán meets ‘Abdu’l-Baha in Paris
Years later the Governor, Zillu's-Sultán, was exiled to
Geneva. In 1911 when `Abdu'l-Bahá was at Thonon, staying at the Hôtel du Parc,
Zillu's-Sultán came there. Hippolyte Dreyfus, distinguished scholar and
traveler, the first French Bahá’í, had met him in Persia, visiting him in his
tent when the prince was on a hunting trip. Now he saw him again, on the
terrace of the hotel. M. Dreyfus described the meeting to Juliet Thompson, who
arrived the following day, and she has recorded it in her diary:
"The Master too was on the terrace, pacing up and down
at a little distance. Hippolyte was standing in the doorway when he saw
Zillu's-Sultán coming up the steps. The prince approached and greeted him, then
turned a startled look toward the Master. `Who is that Persian nobleman?' he
asked. `That,' answered Hippolyte, `is `Abdu'l-Bahá.' And now Zillu's-Sultán
spoke very humbly. `Take me to Him,' he begged. Hippolyte told me all about it.
`If you could have seen the brute, Juliet, mumbling out his miserable excuses!
But the Master took him in His arms and said, `All those things are in the
past. Never think of them again.'"
King and Beloved of Martyrs
The two brothers who were put to death by "The
Wolf" and his accomplice are known to Bahá’ís as the King of Martyrs and
the Beloved of Martyrs. They are also referred to as the Twin Shining Lights.
Their names were Mírzá Muhammad-Hasan and Mírzá Muhammad-Husayn, and they were
siyyids—descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. In after years a special link
associated them with the West, because in 1933 the American Keith
Ransom-Kehler, representing her country's National Bahá’í Assembly, visited
their graves and placed flowers there. Not many days afterwards she fell ill of
smallpox and died, and her body was brought back and laid in the neighborhood
of theirs.
Shaykh Muhammad Taqíy-i-Najafí – Son of the Wolf
This present book is addressed to the son of the man who
murdered the Twin Shining Lights, the Son of the Wolf. He was called Shaykh
Muhammad Taqíy-i-Najafí. A Muslim cleric of Isfáhán, he and his pupils kicked
and trampled the corpse of Mírzá Ashraf, still another Bahá’í who, in 1888, was
killed by order of the mullás of that city. He is often addressed in this text
as "O Shaykh!."—this being a title denoting a chief, prelate or man
of learning. Other persons are also called upon in the course of the work; the
people of the Bayán—those followers of the Báb who failed to recognize
Bahá’u’lláh, reminiscent of those followers or John the Baptist who failed to
acknowledge Jesus Christ, are addressed. And Hádí, a religious leader terrified
of losing his rank when he was called a disciple of the Báb, and who tried to
destroy every copy of the Bayán, the Báb's great book. And the Wolf himself, in
passages quoted from the "Tablet of the Proof," and Queen Victoria
and Napoleon III and others, in quoted passages. Although the Tablet is primarily
directed to the Son of the Wolf he seems almost incidental; Bahá’u’lláh is,
rather, speaking beyond him to all humanity.
Explanation of certain words and phrases
Some of the terminology will be familiar only to students of
Islámics, for the Bahá’í Faith comes out of Islám as Christianity comes out of
Judaism. For example the Arabic verse on p. 17 contrasts the Sanctuary (Haram),
the sacred place where no blood may be shed, with the place outside the
Sanctuary (Hill) where the shedding of blood is not unlawful, and refers to
Bahá’u’lláh's willingness to sacrifice His life anywhere and under any
conditions. Or there is reference to the Sadratu'l-Muntahá. This is the
"Divine Lote-Tree," the "Sidrah Tee, which marks the
boundary," the "Lote-Tree of the extremity," the "Tree
beyond which neither men nor angels can pass," and which stands in the
Seventh Heaven, the highest Paradise, at the right hand of the Throne of God.
Reference to it occurs obliquely in Qur'án 53:9 and directly in 53:14, and the
two visions there described are traditionally related to Muhammad's Vision of
the Ascension or Mi`ráj (cf. Súrih 17:1). In Bahá’í writings the Tree
symbolizes the Prophet or Manifestation of God.
The Mother-Book is referred to in Qur'án 43:3; Rodwell
translates this as "the archetypal Book" and comments, "the
Mother of the Book, i.e. the original of the Koran, preserved before God."
Sale says, "the preserved table; which is the original of all the
scriptures in general." To Bahá’ís the Mother Book, or Preserved Tablet,
or Guarded Tablet, means the Word of God, the Manifestation of God in every
age, or His Book.
The Súrih of Tawhíd, called "The Unity," is Súrih
112 of the Qur'án.
"Name" sometimes means the Prophet or
Manifestation of God. On p. 58 we read, "Be thou not of them who called
upon God by one of His names, but who, when He Who is the object of all names
appeared, denied Him and turned aside from Him ..."
The Aqsá Mosque is the Temple that is "most
remote." It is built on the site of Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem.'
On p. 73 there is a play upon words. The martyr cries out
that he has kept both Bahá’u’lláh and the blood money; Bahá in Arabic means
glory, in Persian value.
Balál, great, early believer in Muhammad, was an Ethiopian
slave. Cruelly tortured by the idolatrous Meccans, he refused to recant his
faith in Islám. Later he was freed, and although he stammered Muhammad
appointed him the first muezzin. The reference on p. 76 is to the fact that
because of his affliction he pronounced the letters "sh" as
"s."
"Remnant of the Prophet" on p. 80 refers to the
fact that the martyred brothers were descendants of Muhammad.
To "rend the Veil of Divinity," p. 83, means to
perpetrate an act of sacrilege, symbolized by tearing the veil of the
tabernacle in which was the Shekinah,—the Dwelling, the Glory of God—emblem of
the Divine Presence.
The hamstringing of the She-Camel goes back to Qur'án 7:71;
11:67; 54:27, etc. The She-Camel was a sign of God, the proof of the Prophet
Sálih's mission. The reference again is to an act of blasphemy.
Ishmael, p. 101, refers to Qur'án 37:100. It is the Muslim
teaching that the "son" who was sacrificed was Ishmael, not Isaac,
the former being Abraham's only son at that time. (Cf. Gleanings from the
Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 75).
"Verses concerning the Divine Presence," referred
to on p. 115 and elsewhere, are numerous in the Qur'án. Among them are these:
Súrih 39:69: "And the earth shall shine with the light [núr] of her Lord,
and the Book shall be set, and the prophets shall be brought up, and the
witnesses ... and none shall be wronged." 89:22-23: "... when the
earth shall be crushed with crushing, crushing, And thy Lord shall come and the
angels rank on rank ..." 83:6: "The day when mankind shall stand
before the Lord of the worlds." 20:107, 110: "On that day shall men
follow their summoner ... and low shall be their voices before the God of
Mercy, nor shalt thou hear aught but the light footfall ... And humble shall be
their faces before Him that Liveth ...
Rawdíh-khání, p. 121, is ritualistic lamentation for the
martyred Imám Husayn. With the new Advent, the time of mourning was over; as a
symbol of this, Táhirih, the great poetess who became a convert to the Faith of
the Báb, refused to wear the traditional mourning for Husayn on the anniversary
of his martyrdom, thus openly defying the people of Karbilá.
Adrianople, p. 132, is in Arabic Adirnih. Every letter of
the Arabic alphabet has a numerical value, and according to this (abjad)
reckoning the words Adirnih and Mystery (sirr) are equivalent, the Arabic
letters composing each totalling 260.
The language and script referred to on p. 138 were never
communicated to anyone by Bahá’u’lláh.
The Qayyúm-i'Asmá, p. 139, is the Báb's Commentary on the
Súrih of Joseph, whose first chapter was revealed in the presence of Mullá
Husayn, on the night when the Báb declared His mission in Shíráz, May 22, 1844.
Bahá’u’lláh speaks of it in the Íqán as "the first, the greatest and
mightiest of all books" of the Bábí Dispensation.
The Great Announcement, p. 143, refers to Qur'án 78:1-2 and
38:67: an-Nabáu'l-`Azím.
"He maketh the morning darkness," (Amos 4:12-13)
on p. 146, refers to the fact that Mírzá Yahyá, known as Subh-i-Azal—the
Morning of Eternity—denied the Manifestation and betrayed Him.
The statement "None knoweth the time ..." on p.
157 refutes the believers who claimed that the advent proclaimed by the Báb to
be imminent, would take place only in 2,001, a date arrived at by totaling the
numerical value of the letters composing the word Mustagháth, assigned by the
Báb as the limit of time fixed for the coming of the promised Manifestation.
Mustagháth, means "He Who is Invoked."
The martyrdom of the Imám Husayn at Karbilá is described by
Gibbon in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Modern Library Edition,
III, 125, 127. Dhi'l-Jawshan is Shimr, who killed Husayn, son of `Alí and
grandson of Muhammad. (p. 158).
On p. 159, "Súrih of the Qur'án" refers to Súrih
109, "Unbelievers," in which Muhammad refuses to compromise with the
idolatrous Meccans.
Siyyid Muhammad, the Siyyid of Isfáhán, is the Antichrist of
the Bahá’í Revelation. It was he who misled Mírzá Yahyá, half-brother of
Bahá’u’lláh. (Cf. God Passes By, p. 164, 189, etc.) This reference occurs on
pages 164 and 168 of the present text.
The Mawlavís are an order of whirling dervishes, founded by
Jalál-i-Dín Rúmí, 1207-1273 A.D. For Khidr, a name which means green, see
traditions concerning Qur'án, 18:64. In Islám he is the discoverer and
custodian of the water of life, and symbol of the True Guide. Rukn is the Black
Stone set in the wall of the Ka`bih, the cube-shaped building at Mecca which is
the chief object of pilgrimage of the Muslim world. The Maqám or Station of
Abraham is near the Ka`bih. Cf. Qur'án 2:119: "Take ye the station of
Abraham for a place of prayer"; and again 3:90-91: "The first Temple
that was founded for mankind, was that in Becca (i.e., Mecca) ... In it are
evident signs, even the standing-place of Abraham: and he who entereth it is
safe." These last four references will be found on pages 164, 179, and 181
of this text.
The foregoing is admittedly minimal in the way of a gloss,
since the book is allusively very rich and offers abundant material for study.
The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf is still another proof,
if more proof were needed, that the Prophet Figure has risen again, as He did
in the past. That the mystery which surrounds us has spoken again, through the
mouth of a human being. That the old pattern—of Herald, Prophet, martyrs, and
establishment of the Faith—has been repeated in our times. That the promises of
previous Faiths as to the advent of the Day of God have at last been redeemed.
In that Tablet to the Sháh of Persia, whose bearer was put to death,
Bahá’u’lláh, the Glory of God, sums up His case:
"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. The learning current amongst men I studied not; their
schools I entered not. Ask of the city wherein I dwelt, that thou mayest be
well assured that I am not of them who speak falsely. This is but a leaf which
the winds of the will of thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-Praised, have stirred.
Can it be still when the tempestuous winds are blowing? (Marzieh Gail,
Introduction to 1953 edition of ‘Epistle to the Son of Wolf’, by Baha’u’llah)