ignorant men and smokers of opium.

It is impossible in this brief note to do justice to this remarkable book (Haji Mirza Jani Kashani's Nuqtat-al-Kaf), which contains many particulars not to be found elsewhere. For instance, in discussing (on p. 179) my allusion to the "stationary" Babis called "Kullu-Shay'i," the author describes and names the small group at Yazd of whom they consisted, their leader being Mirza Ja'far the shoe-maker (kaffash), whose chief followers were Sayyid Isma'il the dyer (sabbagh) and Mirza Sulayman the builder (banna). These he had taken the trouble to visit, and found them ignorant men and smokers of opium.

(Edward G. Browne)

https://books.google.com/books?id=SuU8AAAAIAAJ

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Extravagant claims by the Babis

In July of 1850 the Bab was executed by the Iranian government. Thereafter a number of important Babis put forth extravagant claims, including, in 1851, Sayyid Basir-i Hindi of Multan. Bahá'u'lláh challenged Sayyid Basir, and asserted his own divinity instead (many Babi leaders of the time represented themselves as participating in a pleroma of divine manifestation, similar in some ways to that claimed by Sufis or mystics). In June, 1851, the vizier put pressure on Bahá'u'lláh to leave the country, which suggests that the government had by that time infiltrated the Babis and discovered who the community's real leader was. Bahá'u'lláh went to the shrine city of Karbala in Iraq, the site of the tomb of the Imam Husayn, where a small but active Babi group existed. He found that it was led by a Sayyid 'Uluvv, who had made claims to being God incarnate. Bahá'u'lláh faced the man down and convinced him to retract those claims. On the other hand, during his stay in Karbala between August 1851 and March 1852, Bahá'u'lláh told some of his close companions that he was himself the return of the Imam Husayn, whose return Shi'ites expected after the advent of the Qa'im or Mahdi.

(Juan Cole, https://bahai-library.com/cole_encyclopedia_bahaullah)

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Production of revelation-like verses

Baha'u'llah complains that Azal has asserted that whereas the production of eloquent divine verses [of the sort Baha'u'llah produced] constituted a valid proof of prophethood in the time of the Bab, this particular feat was no longer probative later in the Babi dispensation. I have not read enough of Azal to know the details of this controversy, but it could be that Azal was convinced that no new prophet could arise so soon, and if it was not the right time for a prophet to appear then the production of revelation-like verses was not in itself enough to establish prophethood. There were after all many eloquent self-proclaimed prophets in Islamic history long before the Bab, including the famed poet al-Mutanabbi (who gave up his claims and turned to earning a nice living praising princes). They couldn't from a Babi point of view have been prophets, because it wasn't 1260/1844. In the same way, Azal felt that no prophet was expected in the 1280s/1860s, so the production of verses that sounded like the Qur'an and the Bayan was irrelevant.

-Juan Cole

https://www.h-net.org/~bahai/trans/vol5/son/son.htm

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cast him out from the congregation of the people of Baha

My object is to show that the Hands of the Cause of God must be ever watchful and so soon as they find anyone beginning to oppose and protest against the Guardian of the Cause of God, cast him out from the congregation of the people of Baha and in no wise accept any excuse from him.

-The Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha
https://www.bahai.org/abdul-baha/articles-resources/from-will-testament-abdul-baha

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Conflict between Baha'u'llah and Subh-i-Azal

In Baghdad, says Bahiyyih Khanum, "disharmony and misunderstanding arose among the believers--discord--strife--contention." Therefore Baha'u'llah went, off to Kurdistan.

He refers in the "Iqan" to the dissensions, "Such an odour of jealousy was diffused, banners of discord hoisted, enemies endeavoured to destroy this servant,--hardships, calamities and sufferings inflicted by Moslems were as nothing compared with what hath been inflicted by the believers." His opponents say that he wished to introduce innovations, relax the law and put forward on his own account a claim to be a Manifestation and being resisted in this, he" got angry." After they were removed to Adrianople the quarrel waxed hotter. Abul Fadl describes it as one of "interior fires of dissension and jealousy between the rival leaders, far exceeding the jealousy of outsiders. Mohammed Jawad Qazvini says there were "all manner of intrigues, falsehoods and untruths." I have received from a Muslim convert to Christianity an interesting account of conditions then and there. He was at that time a peesh-khidmat to the Persian Minister at Constantinople. He was at Samsun when Subh-i-Azal and Baha'u'llah and their parties embarked and was introduced to them by Haji Rajab Ali Khan, brother-in-law of my informant. He saw them day by day and became a serious inquirer. Afterwards he went to Adrianople bearing presents to Baha'u'llah. He found Baha'u'llah and Subh-i-Azal living in separate rooms of the same house under guards. The two brothers were in dispute over the supremacy, and the mureeds had been won over by Baha'u'llah. He narrates "I entered one day. I heard words of angry disputation and revilings. Yahya said, "Ay! Husayn Ali, you are vile! Do you not remember your sodomies? You are defiled. Your wife is a bad one!" Husayn Ali (Baha'u'llah) answered, "Ay, cursed one! Your son Nur'u'llah is not your son but son of Sayyid --. You yourself are a sodomite, an adulterer." Such like revilings they hurled at each other. I called Mishkin Qalam and said to him, "What are these words and doings? If Baha'u'llah is true why does he talk so? Why do these brothers revile each other? What a fool I am to come so many miles to hear such revilings from a divinity!" We then went to the room of Ishan. My companion said to Ishan, "Why do they curse so?" I said, "I wish to ask a question." He said, "What is it?" I said, "You say they do not work miracles, but must there not be personal power and influence in words?" [1]

The condition at Adrianople culminated in a series of crimes, which now come before us for examination. Charges have been made, in detail, against the companions of Baha'u'llah of assassinating the Azalis, the followers of his rival Subh-i-Azal. Most of the information regarding the matter is to be found in the books and translations of Professor Browne, the great authority on Baha'i Faith in the Anglo-Saxon world.

[1] Professor Browne, afterwards in Persia, found the attitude of the Bahais towards the Azalis "unjust and intolerant" and reprimanded them, for "their violence and unfairness." They cursed and reviled in the presence of Professor Browne ("A Year Among the Persians," pp. 525-530).

http://bahai-library.com/books/bahaism/bahaism10.html

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Establishment of a Babi state and twenty-four claimants to supreme authority

The system propounded by the Bāb depended for its implementation on the establishment of a Babi state, which was now only a very remote possibility. There was, moreover, a lack of certainty over the question of leadership. Although the consensus seemed to favor the acceptance of Subh-i Azal as head of the faith, he appears to have lacked the qualities of a good leader and to have adopted a retiring mode of life. The concept of theophanies, already apparent in the roles ascribed to Bāb al-Bāb, Quddūs, and Qurrat-al-ʿAyn, led to a succession of at least twenty-four claimants to supreme authority in the movement, few of whom obtained a substantial following.

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/babism-index

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Baha'u'llah about the Twelfth Imam of the Shi'ih

All that thou hast heard regarding Muhammad the son of Hasan - may the souls of all that are immersed in the oceans of the spirit be offered up for His sake - is true beyond the shadow of a doubt, and we all verily bear allegiance unto Him. But the Imams of the Faith have fixed His abode in the city of Jabulqa, which they have depicted in strange and marvellous signs. To interpret this city according to the literal meaning of the tradition would indeed prove impossible, nor can such a city ever be found. Wert thou to search the uttermost corners of the earth, nay probe its length and breadth for as long as God's eternity hath lasted and His sovereignty will endure, thou wouldst never find a city such as they have described, for the entirety of the earth could neither contain nor encompass it. If thou wouldst lead Me unto this city, I could assuredly lead thee unto this holy Being, Whom the people have conceived according to what they possess and not to that which pertaineth unto Him! Since this is not in thy power, thou hast no recourse but to interpret symbolically the accounts and traditions that have been reported from these luminous souls. And, as such an interpretation is needed for the traditions pertaining to the aforementioned city, so too is it required for this holy Being. When thou hast understood this interpretation, thou shalt no longer stand in need of "transformation" or aught else. Know then that, inasmuch as all the Prophets are but one and the same soul, spirit, name, and attribute, thou must likewise see them all as bearing the name Muhammad and as being the son of Hasan, as having appeared from the Jabulqa of God's power and from the Jabulsa of His mercy. For by Jabulqa is meant none other than the treasure-houses of eternity in the all-highest heaven and the cities of the unseen in the supernal realm. We bear witness that Muhammad the son of Hasan was indeed in Jabulqa and appeared therefrom. Likewise, He Whom God shall make manifest abideth in that city until such time as God will have established Him upon the seat of His sovereignty. We, verily, acknowledge this truth and bear allegiance unto each and every one of them. We have chosen here to be brief in our elucidation of the meanings of Jabulqa, but if thou be of them that truly believe, thou shalt indeed comprehend all the true meanings of the mysteries enshrined within these Tablets.

-Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries

https://www.bahai-library.net/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30:gems-of-divine-mysteries-&catid=2:bahaullah-writings&Itemid=3

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Though sprung from Shi'ih Islam...

Though sprung from Shi'ih Islam, and regarded, in the early stages of its development, by the followers of both the Muslim and Christian Faiths, as an obscure sect, an Asiatic cult or an offshoot of the Muhammadan religion, this Faith is now increasingly demonstrating its right to be recognized, not as one more religious system superimposed on the conflicting creeds which for so many generations have divided mankind and darkened its fortunes, but rather as a restatement of the eternal verities underlying all the religions of the past...

-Shoghi Effendi

https://www.bahai-library.net/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70:summary-statement-1947-special-un-committee-on-palestine

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No fewer than twenty-five separate individuals claimed to be "him whom God shall manifest".

The most striking feature of Babism during the 1850s is the proliferation of claims to some form of theophanic status on the part of individual members of the sect. ʿAbbās Effendi maintains that no fewer than twenty-five separate individuals claimed to be man yuẓhiruhuʾllāh at this time. Browne goes even further, saying that religious speculation “threatened, especially during the two or three years succeeding the Bāb’s martyrdom (1850–1853), to destroy all order and discipline in the young church by suffering each member to become a law unto himself, and by producing as many ‘Manifestations’ as there were Bābīs.” Both these statements are exaggerations: the real number of distinct ẓuhūrāt may indeed have been around twenty-five...

(Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Page 376)

After the martyrdom of the Bab there came to view twenty-five individuals, each claiming to be the fulfillment of “Him whom God shall Manifest.” Wherever one turned, one came across such persons, all bent on exaggerating their egos. There was a vendor of sweets in Teheran, a hasheesh smoker in Esphahan, a baker in Bagdad and so on. Yet, when Baha-u-llah appeared, all repented and confessed their error.

(I Heard Him Say - Words of Abdul Baha as Recorded by his Secretary Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, Page 119)

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...at the mosque, during the prayers with Abdul Baha

The exaggerated and discourteous behavior of the other children, and especially that of Mirza Shua'u'llah, was shocking to me. His same attitude at the mosque, during the prayers with 'Abdu'l Baha, caused such a deep feeling of disgust in me that I never wanted to see Shua' again.

-Moments with Baháʼuʼlláh: Memoirs of the Hand of the Cause of God, Taraz Allah Samandari

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Abdul Baha was responsible for Haji Siyyid Muhammad Afnan's death

After returning from the said voyage and remaining a few years under the shadow of the Great Sun of Truth, Baha'u'llah, again by His command I journeyed to Bombay (East India) [in 1889]. This time my son Shua'u'llah and the late Haji Khavar accompanied me. The previous voyage was for the purpose which I have already explained, and this time also the object was to serve the cause of God. The existence of a printing press was essential, in order to publish some of the blessed revelations [of Baha'u'llah] and spread them abroad, that the ears of those who seek may hear the call of the Supreme Pen. It was difficult to attain this object in this land [i.e. Palestine] and I therefore humbly petitioned to Baha'u'llah to grant me permission to fulfill this important service during my visit to India.

The Supreme Will commanded [it], and after my arrival at Bombay I held a meeting with the late Haji Siyyid Muhammad Afnan, upon him be His Mercy and Glory. He showed a great deal of enthusiasm, and though it was financially difficult for him at that time, he arranged it eventually, and opened the Naseri Press. I petitioned to Baha'u'llah and explained the situation. Permission was granted with one understanding, that the said Afnan should control the press and I should have no interest in it whatsoever.

When the project was carried out and the printing press was in full action, the Book of Aqdas and the Book of Haykal were copied by the late Haji Mirza Husayn Shirazi, better known as Khartumi, and the late Mulla Ahmad Ali Nayrizi. I carefully compared them with the original manuscripts, then sent them to the printing press. When the proofs of both books came, I presented them to Baha'u'llah through the mail and again secured His permission for the final printing. Also an epistle which was composed by Ghusn-i-A'zam ('Abdu'l-Baha) and which I asked the late Mirza Muhammad of Isfahan, who was the caretaker at the pilgrim house in Acre, to inscribe. This was also printed. Later on, other holy books [by Baha'u'llah] were printed, namely the Book of Ishraqat, the book inscribed by Mishkin-Qalam, the Book of Aqdas in modern type, the book of supplications [i.e. Baha'i prayer book] inscribed by Haji Mirza Husayn Khartumi, and the small book of supplications in modern type.

All the above-mentioned books were printed by the said Naseri Press. The owner was Haji Siyyid Muhammad Afnan and the manager [was his cousin] Aqa Mirza Ibrahim Afnan. Doubtless Baha'u'llah considered this as one of the most important events [in his ministry], and the said Haji Siyyid Muhammad Afnan was bestowed with the great favor to be the pioneer in this service. Indeed he did everything in his power either in the way of service or in spending capital to arrange this printing press. He lost a considerable amount of money in this enterprise, as after the ascension of Baha'u'llah, they (Abdu'l-Baha and his supporters) did not let him receive any earthly benefit from it, and finally he was obliged to sell the printing press at a loss and return to Shiraz, Iran. His heart was broken, and in grief he became ill and passed unto the Eternal Realms.

-A Lost History of the Baha'i Faith

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Baha'i response to the growing challenge

The rising sun of Bahá’u’lláh's Revelation is having its visible effect upon the world and upon the Bahá’í community itself. Opportunities, long dreamed of for teaching, attended by showering confirmations, now challenge in ever-increasing numbers, every individual believer, every Local and National Spiritual Assembly. The potent seeds sown by `Abdu'l-Bahá are beginning to germinate within the divinely-ordained Order expounded and firmly laid by the beloved Guardian. Humanity is beaten almost to its knees, bewildered and shepherdless, hungry for the bread of life. This is our day of service; we have that heavenly food to offer. The peoples are disillusioned with deficient political theories, social systems and orders; they crave, knowingly or unknowingly, the love of God and reunion with Him. Our response to this growing challenge must be a mighty upsurge of effective teaching, imparting the divine fire which Bahá’u’lláh has kindled in our hearts until a conflagration arising from millions of souls on fire with His love shall at last testify that the Day for which the Chief Luminaries of our Faith so ardently prayed has at last dawned.

-The Universal House of Justice

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Baha'is see William Miller as correct in his awareness of the "Return of Christ".

"The strict moral codes and ideological commitments of old-time Baha'is who tended to control Local Spiritual Assemblies and to provide the cadre for Auxiliary Board Members and their assistants may have been a powerful selecting mechanism. Liberals who joined may have been made uncomfortable and encouraged to leave at much higher rates than those of a conservative or fundamentalist mindset. Several of my liberal informants who left the religion told stories of having been publicly humiliated by such officials. (The Baha'i faith retains only about 50 percent of converts, compared to 80 percent among mainstream Christian denominations). Many of those who joined in the 1970s brought with them fundamentalist outlooks, as well. Opinion polls show that most African-Americans, despite their social liberalism, are inerrantists when it comes to scripture, and African-Americans constituted at least 10 percent, and perhaps more, of the community by the 1980s. White evangelicals attracted by books like William Sears' Thief in the Night, which explains to Christians how Baha'u'llah is the return of Christ using Millerite arguments, may have accounted for more of the converts than researchers earlier realized."

-Former Baha'i, Scholar, Professor Juan Cole

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Throne of God

The establishment of the Throne of God mentioned in the Tablet of Carmel, as interpreted by Shoghi Effendi, is none other than the establishment of the World Centre on Mount Carmel.

-Adib Taherzadeh, Revelation of Baha'u'llah, Vol 4

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All the converts among the Jews are ours

Beha bought himself lands outside the town, laid out a garden, a true Persian garden, on the banks of the river, and took up his abode in a large house in the corn-growing plain of Acre for in those days, and during all his lifetime, money flowed in from Persia to support the exiles, money enough to permit of Beha’s organising an army of missionaries both in Persia and in India. These missionaries met, and still meet, with success. “To north Persia,” said a Beha’i, “the Europeans have sent out many missions to convert the Jews. How many have they converted? Not one. All the converts among the Jews are ours, and to us many hundred have turned.” A Hindu from Lahore who had become a Babi in India and journeyed out to Acre to receive the doctrine at the fountain head, stated that the faith prospered in his country. “My wife I left and my children in Lahore,” he explained. “It is two years since I saw them, but news reaches me by the post. First, I opened a shop in Alexandria, then having made sufficient money I came here to witness to the truth. After some time I shall return, for in my city we are many.” The printing press of the sect is in Bombay. The holy books amount to some hundred, exclusively the work of Beha. They are written in Arabic and Persian, the style of them being pure and beautiful, but singularly original. For Beha was an educated Persian gentleman, unlike the Bab who was too illiterate to write Arabic correctly, which defect he explained by saying that he had come to release all creation, animate and inanimate, from the bonds which sin had laid upon it, including letters, which were henceforth to be free from the rules of grammar and orthography.

-Gertrude Bell and the Babi and Baha'i Faith, Jamileh Yazdi

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Mulla Taqí's murder

Mullá Taqí’s murder came about in this way: One day, when that besotted tyrant had mounted his pulpit, he began to mock and revile the great Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá’í. Shamelessly, grossly, screaming obscenities, he cried out: “That Shaykh is the one who has kindled this fire of evil, and subjected the whole world to this ordeal!” There was an inquirer in the audience, a native of Shíráz. He found the taunts, jeers and indecencies to be more than he could bear. Under cover of darkness he betook himself to the mosque, plunged a spearhead between the lips of Mullá Taqí and fled. The next morning they arrested the defenseless believers and thereupon subjected them to agonizing torture, though all were innocent and knew nothing of what had come to pass. There was never any question of investigating the case; the believers repeatedly declared their innocence but no one paid them any heed. When a few days had passed the killer gave himself up; he confessed to the authorities, informing them that he had committed the murder because Mullá Taqí had vilified Shaykh Aḥmad. “I deliver myself into your hands,” he told them, “so that you will set these innocent people free.” They arrested him as well, put him in the stocks, chained him, and sent him in chains, along with the others, to Ṭihrán.

Once there he observed that despite his confession, the others were not released. By night, he made his escape from the prison and went to the house of Riḍá Khán—that rare and precious man, that star-sacrifice among the lovers of God—the son of Muḥammad Khán, Master of the Horse to Muḥammad Sháh. He stayed there for a time, after which he and Riḍá Khán secretly rode away to the Fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí in Mázindarán. Muḥammad Khán sent riders after them to track them down, but try as they might, no one could find them. Those two horsemen got to the Fort of Ṭabarsí, where both of them won a martyr’s death. As for the other friends who were in the prison at Ṭihrán, some of these were returned to Qazvín and they too suffered martyrdom.

https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/memorials-faithful/memorials-faithful.xhtml

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Bayani Cosmology

The cosmology and metaphysics of the Bayan is a revalorized cosmology and metaphysics of pristine or integral Shi'ism which Amir-Moezzi detailed in his The Divine Guide in Early Shi'ism. It is both theosophical as well as Gnostic simultaneously, but without in any way slipping into ontological dualism and compromising Tawhid. In short, in the cosmology and metaphysics of the Bayan we have the pristine, integral Shi'ism of the Imams (ع) together with Their entire terminological lexicon -- whose esoteric/occult teachings were rejected and ejected out of Twelver Shi'ism by the hyper-rationalizers Ibn Babuyah and his students (esp. Sharif al-Murtaza) but fully re-embraced by some proto-Shaykhis (i.e. Rajab Bursi, Haydar Amuli, Ibn Abi Jumhur, et al), the Shaykhis themselves and the Bayan -- together with the assumptions of the early batini and Isma'ilis. Much of this comes from the Shaykhi school. But the Primal Point took several steps beyond even the assumptions of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i and his successor. A good example of this is the manner in which the Bab subtlety but technically employs كينونية (Essential-Being) which denotes the union of existence/being (وجود) with essence/quiddity (ماهية / عين) prior to their logical distinction as distinct metaphysical categories (the metaphysics of al-Ahsa'i still operates out of the existence/being vs essence/quiddity polarity).

None of this is present in Baha'ism. For example, the elaborate cosmology of time involving epi-cycles (kawr) and cycles (dawr) that undergirds the Bayan's notion of progressive revelation is totally whitewashed by the Baha'is since if the Baha'is had properly subscribed to it, it would by inference demote Baha'ullah's self-designation as the "supreme Manifestation of God...the likes of which would not be seen for 500,000" and other such nonsense. No need to mention that Bahaism completely rejects and throws out the occult-kabbalistic/lettrist and esoteric pivot upon which the Bayan revolves around.

An entire book could be written on the subject. But the long and short of it is that the Bayan and Baha'ism are on completely different pages.

-N. Wahid Azal

https://www.reddit.com/r/BAYAN/comments/gv2nn1/what_is_the_bayani_cosmologymetaphysics_and_how/

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How do Bayanis feel about the Kitab i-Iqan?

It is a rather mediocre text and does not remotely fulfill the hype the Baha'is have erected around it. Much better istidlaliyat (defenses of the cause) were written by the witnesses Mulla Muhammad Ja'far Niraqi and Mulla Rajab 'Ali Qahir during the 1850s, not to mention several anonymous defenses of the cause penned in that era that also surpass the Kitab-i-Iqan in depth (and have survived as texts). Without overtly coming out and mentioning the Bab or the Bayan by name, IMHO, Shaykh Hadi Najmabadi's Tahrir al-'Uqala stands as one of the best theological tracts defending the Bayanic notion of progressive revelation probably ever written: a text the Kitab-i-Iqan could not remotely hold a candle too. But this text is not an overt istidlaliyah but rather an implied one.

Kitab-i-Iqan was originally known as the Khaluiyah (for the maternal uncle) as Subh-i-Azal requested his older brother to write to Hajji Mirza Siyyid Muḥammad Afnan (the senior Afnan of the time whom earlier the Bab had had a falling out with and had even once denounced as the "return" of 'Abu Jahl') in defense of the cause of the Bayan, given that after years of shunning their great nephew, His cause and supporters, the Afnan family started gravitating towards the Bayani community of the time during the late 1850s due to largely self-interested reasons (i.e. they had lost status and prestige in Shiraz, which in turn affected their commercial interests, in the aftermath of the events of the early 1850s).

-N. Wahid Azal

Source : https://www.reddit.com/r/BAYAN/comments/gugx5x/kitab_iiqan/

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