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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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/ab...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

...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,...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More