Reconciliation of Races and Religions — 20 – [Part V. A Series of Illustrative Studies Bearing on Comparative Religion]: Eighteen (or, with the Bāb, Ninteen) Letters of the Living of the First Unity; Titles of the Bāb, etc.; The Bahai View of Religion; The New Dispensation; Manifestation.
A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIVE STUDIES BEARING ON COMPARITIVE RELIGION EIGHTEEN (OR, WITH THE BĀB, NINETEEN) LETTERS OF THE LIVING OF THE FIRST UNITY
The Letters of the Living were the most faithful and most gifted of the disciples of the so-called Gate or Point.
See _Traveller's Narrative_, Introd.
p. xvi.
Babu'l Bāb. A.
Muḥammad Hasan, his brother.
A.
Muḥammad Baghir, his nephew.
A.
Mulla Ali Bustani.
Janabe Mulla Khodabacksh Qutshani.
Janabe Hasan Bajastani.
Janabe A. Sayyid Hussain Yardi.
Janabe Mirza Muḥammad Ruzi Khan.
Janabe Sayyïd Hindi.
Janabe Mulla Maḥmud Khoyï.
Janabe Mulla Jalil Urumiyi.
Janabe Mulla Muḥammad Abdul Maraghaï.
Janabe Mulla Baghir Tabrizi.
Janabe Mulla Yusif Ardabili.
Mirza Hadi, son of Mirza Abdu'l Wahab Qazwini.
Janabe Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali Qazwini.
Janabi Tahirah.
Hazrati Quddus.
TITLES OF THE BĀB, ETC.
There is a puzzling variation in the claims of 'Ali Muḥammad.
Originally he represented himself as the Gate of the City of Knowledge, or--which is virtually the same thing--as the Gate leading to the invisible twelfth Imâm who was also regarded as the Essence of Divine Wisdom.
It was this Imâm who was destined as Ḳa'im (he who is to arise) to bring the whole world by force into subjection to the true God.
Now there was one person who was obviously far better suited than 'Ali Muḥammad (the Bāb) to carry out the programme for the Ḳa'im, and that was Hazrat-i'-Ḳuddus (to whom I have devoted a separate section).
For some time, therefore, before the death of Ḳuddus, 'Ali Muḥammad abstained from writing or speaking _ex cathedra_, as the returned Ḳa'im; he was probably called 'the Point.'
After the death of this heroic personage, however, he undoubtedly resumed his previous position.
On this matter Mr. Leslie Johnston remarks that the alternation of the two characters in the same person is as foreign to Christ's thought as it is essential to the Bāb's. [Footnote: _Some Alternatives to Jesus Christ_, p. 117. ] This is perfectly true.
The divine-human Being called the Messiah has assumed human form; the only development of which he is capable is self-realization.
The Imāmate is little more than a function, but the Messiahship is held by a person, not as a mere function, but as a part of his nature.
This is not an unfair criticism.
The alternation seems to me, as well as to Mr. Johnston, psychologically impossible.
But all the more importance attaches to the sublime figure of Baha-'ullah, who realized his oneness with God, and whose forerunner is like unto him (the Bāb).
The following utterance of the Bāb is deserving of consideration: 'Then, verily, if God manifested one like thee, he would inherit the cause from God, the One, the Unique.
But if he doth not appear, then know that verily God hath not willed that he should make himself known.
Leave the cause, then, to him, the educator of you all, and of the whole world.'
The reference to Baha-'ullah is unmistakable.
He is 'one like thee,' i.
e. Ezel's near kinsman, and is a consummate educator, and God's Manifestation.
Another point is also important.
The Bāb expressed a wish that his widow should not marry again.
Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, however, who was not, even in theory, a monogamist, lost no time in taking the lady for a wife.
He cannot have been the Bāb's successor.
LETTER OF ONE EXPECTING MARTYRDOM
[Footnote: The letter is addressed to a brother.
] 'He is the Compassionate [_superscription_].
O thou who art my Ḳibla!
My condition, thanks to God, has no fault, and "to every difficulty succeedeth ease."
You have written that this matter has no end.
What matter, then, has any end?
We, at least, have no discontent in this matter; nay, rather we are unable sufficiently to express our thanks for this favour.
The end of this matter is to be slain in the way of God, and O!
what happiness is this!
The will of God will come to pass with regard to His servants, neither can human plans avert the Divine decree.
What God wishes comes to pass, and there is no power and no strength, but in God.
O thou who art my Ḳibla!
the end of the world is death: "every soul tastes of death."
If the appointed fate which God (mighty and glorious is He) hath decreed overtake me, then God is the guardian of my family, and thou art mine executor: behave in such wise as is pleasing to God, and pardon whatever has proceeded from me which may seem lacking in courtesy, or contrary to the respect due from juniors: and seek pardon for me from all those of my household, and commit me to God.
God is my portion, and how good is He as a guardian!'
THE BAHAI VIEW OF RELIGION
The practical purpose of the Revelation of Baha-'ullah is thus described on authority: To unite all the races of the world in perfect harmony, which can only be done, in my opinion, on a religious basis.
Warfare must be abolished, and international difficulties be settled by a Council of Arbitration.
This may require further consideration.
It is commanded that every one should practise some trade, art, or profession.
Work done in a faithful spirit of service is accepted as an act of worship.
Mendicity is strictly forbidden, but work must be provided for all.
A
brilliant anticipation!
There is to be no priesthood apart from the laity.
Early Christianity and Buddhism both ratify this.
Teachers and investigators would, of course, always be wanted.
The practice of Asceticism, living the hermit life or in secluded communities, is prohibited.
Monogamy is enjoined.
Baha-'ullah, no doubt, had two wives.
This was 'for the hardness of men's hearts'; he desired the spread of monogamy.
Education for all, boys and girls equally, is commanded as a religious duty--the childless should educate a child.
The equality of men and women is asserted.
A universal language as a means of international communication is to be formed.
Abdul Baha is much in favour of _Esperanto_, the noble inventor of which sets all other inventors a worthy example of unselfishness.
Gambling, the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, the taking of opium, cruelty to animals and slavery, are forbidden.
A certain portion of a man's income must be devoted to charity.
The administration of charitable funds, the provision for widows and for the sick and disabled, the education and care of orphans, will be arranged and managed by elected Councils.
THE NEW DISPENSATION
The contrast between the Old and the New is well exemplified in the contrasting lives of Rammohan Roy, Debendranath Tagore, and Keshab Chandra Sen. As an Indian writer says: 'The sweep of the New Dispensation is broader than the Brahmo Samaj.
The whole religious world is in the grasp of a great purpose which, in its fresh unfolding of the new age, we call the New Dispensation.
The New Dispensation is not a local phenomenon; it is not confined to Calcutta or to India;
our Brotherhood is but one body whose thought it functions to-day; it is not topographical, it is operative in all the world-religions.'
[Footnote: Cp.
Auguste Sabatier on the _Religion of the Spirit_, and Mozoomdar's work on the same subject.
] 'No full account has yet been given to the New Brotherhood's work and experiences during that period.
Men of various ranks came, drawn together by the magnetic personality of the man they loved, knowing he loved them all with a larger love; his leadership was one of love, and they caught the contagion of his conviction....
And so, if I were to write at length, I could cite one illustration after another of transformed lives--lives charged with a new spirit shown in the work achieved, the sufferings borne, the persecutions accepted, deep spiritual gladness experienced in the midst of pain, the fellowship with God realized day after day' (Benoyendra Nath Sen, _The Spirit of the New Dispensation_).
The test of a religion is its capacity for producing noble men and women.
MANIFESTATION
God Himself in His inmost essence cannot be either imagined or comprehended, cannot be named.
But in some measure He can be known by His Manifestations, chief among whom is that Heavenly Being known variously as Michael, the Son of man, the Logos, and Sofia.
These names are only concessions to the weakness of the people.
This Heavenly Being is sometimes spoken of allusively as the Face or Name, the Gate and the Point (of Knowledge).
See p. 174. The Manifestations may also be called Manifesters or Revealers.
They make God known to the human folk so far as this can be done by Mirrors, and especially (as Tagore has most beautifully shown) in His inexhaustible love.
They need not have the learning of the schools.
They would mistake their office if they ever interfered with discoveries or problems of criticism or of science.
The Bāb announced that he himself owed nothing to any earthly teacher.
A heavenly teacher, however, if he touched the subject, would surely have taught the Bāb better Arabic.
It is a psychological problem how the Bāb can lay so much stress on his 'signs' (ayât) or verses as decisive of the claims of a prophet.
One is tempted to surmise that in the Bāb's Arabic work there has been collaboration.
What constitutes 'signs' or verses?
Prof. Browne gives this answer: [Footnote: E. G.
Browne, _JRAS_, 1889, p. 155. ] 'Eloquence of diction, rapidity of utterance, knowledge unacquired by study, claim to divine origin, power to affect and control the minds of men.'
I do not myself see how the possession of an Arabic which some people think very poor and others put down to the help of an amanuensis, can be brought within the range of Messianic lore.
It is spiritual truth that we look for from the Bāb. Secular wisdom, including the knowledge of languages, we turn over to the company of trained scholars.
Spiritual truth, then, is the domain of the prophets of Bahaism.
A
prophet who steps aside from the region in which he is at home is fallible like other men.
Even in the sphere of exposition of sacred texts the greatest of prophets is liable to err.
In this way I am bound to say that Baha-'ullah himself has made mistakes, and can we be surprised that the almost equally venerated Abdul Baha has made many slips?
It is necessary to make this pronouncement, lest possible friends should be converted into seeming enemies.
The claim of infallibility has done harm enough already in the Roman Church!
Baha-'ullah may no doubt be invoked on the other side.
This is the absolutely correct statement of his son Abdul Baha.
'He (Baha-'ullah) entered into a Covenant and Testament with the people.
He appointed a Centre of the Covenant, He wrote with his own pen ...
appointing him the Expounder of the Book.'
[Footnote: _Star of the West_, 1913, p. 238. ] But Baha-'ullah is as little to be followed on questions of philology as Jesus Christ, who is not a manifester of science but of heavenly lore.
The question of Sinlessness I postpone.
