Baha'u'llah's Education

On the strength of the Persian Bayan, Unity (Wahid) II, chapter (BAB) 1; II. 17; vi.1; vi.8, “verses revealed through the power of the true Faith (Fitra) are the chiefest proof and greatest argument” of a divine mission. The power of the true Faith is identical with the illiteracy (Ummiyya) of the prophet Muhammad.

The same criterion or standard is made applicable by the BAB, ibid, vi.8. to the next manifestation of god, whom he names Man-Yuzhiruhullah (He- Whom-God-Will-Make-Manifest). He will “reveal verses through the power of the true Faith”. He will be uninstructed in the learning of the world. His knowledge would be immanent.

According to the Tanbih-un-Naimin, P.4 Baha received “private tuition” at home in accordance with the norms then obtaining in Iran as regards persons whose parents were in affluent circumstances. He practiced calligraphy and learned the “rudiments of Arabic and literature”. He displayed an aptitude for the “science of philosophy” and for matters connected with “spiritual knowledge (Irfan). He frequented the company of philosophers, knowers of spiritual knowledge and Dervishes”.

In Suleymaniyya, following his flight from Baghdad, ibid, P. 13, Baha studied the “occult sciences”. According to Risala-i-Raddiyya of A.H. 1284 (1867) by the BAB’s brother-in-law Aqa Ali Muhammad of Isfahan, murdered by Baha’s men at Baghdad, the author associated with Baha daily during the whole period of the BABi exiles’ sojourn in Baghdad and was closely acquainted with him. “Most of the time”, the author writes, PP. 59, 60, I saw and heard Baha murmurs something like verses and supplications, as he placed up and down “in the room in his House. “In private he studied the BAB’s and Subh-i-Azal’s works and then practiced writings to acquire rapidity of composition and utterances”.

“When a considerable number of these exercises-books are exhausted,” Baha told me, “either I have them destroyed in the Shat-al-Arab through Mirza Aqa Jan of Kashan [who later became Baha’s amanuensis], or I call for a basin in which I wash them out [i.e. obliterate them].”

Aqa Ali Muhammad of Isfahan’s account is confirmed by Haji Mirza Ahmad of Kerman in his Risala-i-Raddiyya incorporated in the Tanbihun- Naimin, P. 137. Haji Mirza Ahmad adds that Baha studied the “science of Grammar and Syntax” at the hands of one of the believers, “Shaykh Abu Turab of Ishtahard.” According to Subhi’s Payam-i-Padar, P.129, Baha joined the Takya (Convent) of Dervishes in Suleymaniyya and identified himself with them under the name of Dervish Muhammad.

According to Awara, the Kashf-al-Hiyal, Vol. I, 6th impression, P.116, Baha “was taught by Mirza Ali, the Philosopher, as well as by other scholars”. Baha “completed his studies in Suleymaniyya (ibid, p.18)”. In Suleymaniyya, Baha studied the works of the Nakshbandi Order (ibid, P.47)”.

The emphasis by all these authors on Baha’s knowledge acquired by study.

Now Baha was fifty years old, stanza 10, Nabil’s chronological poem [see section 9.1.1], when he set up his pretensions to the office of Him-Whom-God-Will-Make-Manifest. His liabilities, an open street were his knowledge acquired by study; and by his scribbling-notes during the Baghdad period to acquire rapidity of writing and utterance.

To camouflage his knowledge acquired by study, in his epistle addressed to the Shah of Iran from Acre, the Traveller’s Narrative, PP. 57-58, footnote 2 by Prof. Browne, Baha says:

“I have not studied the science which men have, neither I have entered the colleges: Ask the city wherein I was that thou mayest be sure that I am not of those who lies”.

In the epistle to the son of the wolf, Shoghi Effendi’s translation, the passage in question is rendered as follows: (P. 39) “The learning current among 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 speaks falsely.”

This belated statement seeks to represent Baha to have been an illiterate person, and to demonstrate that his verses were sent down through the power of the true faith. Baha’s followers have taken this statement for gospel.

This statement does not prove Baha’s lack of instruction and education, and does not rule out Baha’s private education and study. Baha was not an illiterate person (Ummi).

(The Religion of The Religion of Religion of the Bayān and The Claims The Claims of the Bahā’is By Jalal S. Azal, Page 212)

Calligraphic exercises written by Baha’u’llah in His childhood

https://news.bahai.org/story/1358/slideshow/4/

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"my master, my support, my teacher, Sayyid Kazim al-Rashti"

Finally, this book, on the proper method of search, is kept brief for those possessed of insight. In it is that which will suffice for the pure amongst the believers in the divine unity. The particulars have been fully written about by my master, my support, my teacher the pilgrim Sayyid Kazim al-Rashti, may God lengthen his life and bring forth from it good results. So seek the way of your Lord made smooth for thee. 

(The Bab, Risalah fis-Suluk ila Allah)

https://bahai-library.com/pdf/l/lawson_babs_epistle_2005.pdf

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"four pillars" of the Shaykhi sect

Indeed, [true] Religion is supported (mutaqawwam; QWM) by four pillars.

1) Tawhid (affirming the divine unity)

2) Nubuwwa (prophethood)

3) Walaya (guardianship), and

4) Shi'a (the community of true believers) 

(The Bab's Risalah fis-Suluk ila Allah) 

https://bahai-library.com/pdf/l/lawson_babs_epistle_2005.pdf

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According to Baha'u'llah, Who is a learned person and who is an illiterate?

Consider, how can he that faileth in the day of God’s Revelation to attain unto the grace of the “Divine Presence” and to recognize His Manifestation, be justly called learned, though he may have spent aeons in the pursuit of knowledge, and acquired all the limited and material learning of men? It is surely evident that he can in no wise be regarded as possessed of true knowledge. Whereas, the most unlettered of all men, if he be honoured with this supreme distinction, he verily is accounted as one of those divinely-learned men whose knowledge is of God; for such a man hath attained the acme of knowledge, and hath reached the furthermost summit of learning.

(“The Kitáb-i-Íqán” (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1983), pp. 145–146)

https://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/SCH/sch-11.html

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Bahaism is a chameleon changing its colour to suit its environment.

Bahaism is a chameleon changing its colour to suit its environment.

(Jalal S.Azal)


The Babi-Baha'i movements underwent an odyssey from militancy in the 1840s to pacifist, liberal globalism under Baha'u'llah and thence in the twentieth century to two contending emphases: a liberal stream that maintains a universalist and tolerant outlook and a conservative one that dreams of theocratic domination and insistence on scriptural literalism. The movement thus defies any easy teleology of modernity, and in many ways parallels the major reformist intellectual currents of modern Iran Shi'ite majority.

(Cole, Juan R. I. 1999. The Genesis of the Baha’i in Middle Eastern Modernity. ISIM Newsletter. 2/99: 9)

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Baha'u'llah is actually the Bab.

Bahá’u’lláh claims:

"Thus doth the Tongue of God proclaim to all beings that verily I am He that liveth in this Horizon which hath in truth been manifested, Who among the Concourse on high hath been named the Most Exalted 'Alí [the Báb], and Who in the cities of Names beareth the glorious name of Abhá [Bahá’u’lláh]."

https://journal.bahaistudies.ca/online/article/view/114

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put all non-Babis to death

In what is probably the last substantial work of the Bab, the Haykal al-din (The Temple of Religion, 1850) the waging of a kind of holy war is spelled out when the Bab states that a future Babi king should, as a manifestation of the 'wrath of God' (qahr Allah), put all non-Babis to death.

(The Messianic Roots of Babi-Baha'i Globalism, by Stephen Lambden)

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striking of necks, the burning of books and papers, the destruction of shrines

In a letter apparently addressed to the Baha'is of either Baghdad or Shiraz (madinat Allah), he (Abdul Baha) puts forward the view that, in every religious dispensation, a particular teaching was given special emphasis. Thus, in the time of Moses, obedience and submission to God were stressed; in the days of Jesus, moral behaviour, friendship, harmony, and turning the other cheek; and, in the dispensation of Muhammad, the smashing of idols and the prohibition of the worship of false gods. In the days of the Bab, he goes on, 'the decree of the Bayan was the striking of necks, the burning of books and papers, the destruction of shrines, and the universal slaughter of all save those who believed and were faithful'.

(Babism to Bahaism by Denis MacEoin)

Baha'i Scholar Abd al-Hamid Ishraq Khavari states that "the decree of 'jihad' with the unbelievers, and insistence on treating them harshly, was revealed repeatedly, time and again, by the pen of the Bab in the 'Qayyum al-asma', and there is hardly a sura in this blessed book (Bayan) which does not contain this decree".

(Ganjina, p.272.)

Abul Fadl Gulpaygani makes a similar statement in his Al-hujjaj al-bakiyya: "The unseemly actions of the Babis cannot be denied or excused, but to arrest Baha'is for them is oppression, for these unfortunates have no connection with the Babis, who took up arms, nor are they of the same religion or creed."

(The Baha'i Proofs trans. Eshtael-ebn-Kalenter (New York, 1902), pp. 77-78; cf. p. 63)

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How Moojan Momen misleads the less-informed reader?

Shoghi Effendi insisted that new Baha’is should leave their churches (and mosques and synagogues), indicated that believers should not celebrate Christmas and other religious festivals, and inveighed against the various rituals and the clergy of other faiths. Momen knows all this (he has written books on world religions and even one on Buddhism), so why does he pretend that converts do not have to reject any of their old religious beliefs? Simply, I believe, because the Baha’i doctrine of a single revelation that has progressed from one ‘Manifestation’ to the next entails the assumption that all religions are basically the same, even when they are not. This is misleading for the less-informed reader...

(Making the invisible visible: introductory books on the Baha'i religion, Denis MacEoin)

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Fear and anguish are womanly qualities

O friends! Fear and anguish are womanly qualities...

(Tablet of Medicine, by Bahá'u'lláh)

https://bahai-library.com/bahaullah_lawh_tibb_anonymous

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Unity of Religions! How is that possible?

The doctrine of mazhariyya, which turns all religious founders into ‘Manifestations of God’ derives from the esoteric systems of Shi'ism and Sufism, which means that most Sunni Muslims will find it repugnant. Other components of the world religions, from the Jewish halakha to the crucifixion (which Baha’is accept, but which Muslims deny) to the Trinity to circumcision (which Baha’is have abandoned) to Holy Communion to performing the hajj all have to be consigned to the dustbin.

(Making the invisible visible: introductory books on the Baha'i religion, Denis MacEoin)

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Talisman investigation

Since the Talisman investigation, there have been no further threats to name online dissidents as covenant-breakers. Instead, three such critics have been summarily dropped from the membership rolls, with the explanation that their “behavior and attitude” disqualifies them. The UHJ has further explained to inquirers about these cases that had these people not been expressing their views publicly, their “misconceptions” would have remained their “personal spiritual problem,” but since they decided to disseminate them on the Internet they had to be removed from the rolls for the sake of the Faith’s unity. According to the accounts of those expelled from the Faith this way, the announcements have come without prior warning that their membership status was in jeopardy. The UHJ, however, has claimed that such actions have only been taken after extensive counseling. In the case of Alison Marshall of New Zealand members of her national community wrote letters of protest, provoking this scolding response from House member Peter Khan:

"But the point is that here it is an indication that something is fundamentally wrong with the Baha'i community in this country in terms of its depth of understanding of the covenant and the authority of the institutions of the Faith. What you take as normal is not normal, but abnormal. What is normal is to have in a Baha'i community a number of Baha'is who are very knowledgable about the covenant who can share their insights with others so that the entire community has a good knowledge of the covenant and follows it. And if that is not done, then what I foresee in the future in New Zealand is more of the same - more vitriol, more foulness, more people rebelling against that crowd of kill-joys in Haifa who call themselves the Universal House of Justice and what do they know and this kind of stuff. That is what I see in the future in this country unless there is sharp, urgent and prolonged attention to a far greater deepening and understanding of the covenant."

That is, the New Zealanders’ sense of injustice at their countrywoman’s sudden expulsion is seen as wrong and abnormal, and that loyalty to the supreme governing body entails seeing all of its decisions as right and just. Unlike those excommunicated as covenant-breakers, adherents dropped from membership are not shunned, but are to be treated as any other non-Baha’i.

https://www.angelfire.com/ca3/bigquestions/enemies.html

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Shoghi Effendi maintained contact with a number of prominent people including Zionists

In addition to Queen Marie, the Guardian corresponded with, among others, Grand Duke Alexander of Russia, Princess Kadria of Egypt, Princess Marina of Greece, Lord Lamington, and Professor Norman Bentwich (attorney-general of Mandatory Palestine and a lifelong Zionist). He sent personal messages to the Universal Congress of Esperantists from 1927 to 1931.

(Helen, John, and Amelia Danesh, “The Life of Shoghi Effendi,” in Studying the Writings of Shoghi Effendi, ed. M. Bergsmo)

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Baha'i groups

But we must consider also those groups before 1957 that continue to be active, as to their continuing exploits (the Azalis and Free Baha’is of Germany, the latter otherwise known as the World Union for Universal Religion and Universal Peace [(WURUP)]. A recent group in America is the Reform Baha’is, founded by Frederick Glaysher. Then there are those who claim to believe in Baha'u'llah, not identified with previously existing groups or guardianist groups, who for various reasons have been cast out of the main group (disenrolled Baha’is), or who have voluntarily left (unenrolled Baha’is). Many of these — at least, some of these — are Baha’i scholars who have differed in their understandings with the alleged infallible UHJ as to what is permissible to say or write about the faith.

(Baha'is in Exile by Vernon Elvin Johnson)

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"God as changing his mind"

These Baha'is, with international headquarters in Haifa, Israel, after not finding a will of Shoghi Effendi wherein he appointed a successor, were crushed in the realization that he had no sons and had declared all other believed qualified candidates as covenant-breakers.’ ‘They merely accepted what they believed to be the facts at issue. In spite of the essentiality of the guardianship in the faith in previous literature (prior to 1957, see my dissertation, pp. 339-342), these Baha'is believed there simply were no valid candidates available. So they spoke of God as changing his mind, using an Arabic word (BADA or BADAH) to describe the situation. BADA in Arabic means God changed his mind and, consequently, the living guardianship that had been so essential came to an end for these Baha'is.

(Baha'is in Exile, Vernon Elvin Johnson, Ph.D.)

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"Extraordinary moment of spiritual force flowing through the Master."

 Mrs. Gibbons, a Bahá’í, had written the Master before his coming to the United States, requesting that her own daughter be allowed to paint his portrait. In his reply he consented to this request and added, according to Mrs. Gibbons, that Juliet Thompson would paint a portrait of him. Juliet Thompson had long dreamed that she would paint the face of Christ.

During the month of June, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá allowed Juliet Thompson to paint his portrait telling her to paint his “Servitude to God”. She completed it over the course of six sittings which took place over multiple days in different rooms. Juliet remembered that fourth sitting on June 19th because of an extraordinary experience she and Lua Getsinger had on that day. As the Master prepared to sit for the portrait, he turned to Lua Getsinger who was also in the room and told her in Persian that these sittings made him sleepy. He sat down and closed his eyes. Juliet studied him but found that she could not begin painting because ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s countenance reflected the dignity and peace of the Divine Realm.

Then, as though awakened by the Holy Spirit, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá opened his eyes and with great power said: 

I appoint you, Lua, the Herald of the Covenant. And I AM THE COVENANT, appointed by Bahá’u’lláh. And no one can refute His Word. This is the Testament of Bahá’u’lláh. You will find it in the Holy Book of Aqdas. Go forth and proclaim, ‘This is THE COVENANT OF GOD in your midst.’

A great joy seemed to fill Lua while Juliet wept at witnessing this extraordinary moment of spiritual force flowing through the Master. Then ‘Abdu’l-Bahá became quiet again. The Holy Spirit receded, and  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the man re-emerged. He smiled at Juliet and told her that she must stop crying since she would not be able to paint through tears.

In the afternoon of that same day He sent Lua Getsinger downstairs to speak about the Covenant to the visitors waiting there. When he went down later, he read from Bahá’u’lláh’s ‘Tablet of the Branch’ and spoke with great power on the Covenant.

-'Abdu'l-Bahá in New York By Hussein Ahdieh and Hillary Chapman

https://bahai-library.com/pdf/a/ahdieh_chapman_abdulbaha_new-york_published.pdf

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UHJ will rule over mankind.

And it is that institution which is assisted today by all the powers of earth and heaven to rule over mankind. And it shall rule over mankind. And a time will come that the kings and rulers of the world will go there and pay homage to the House of Justice. Already, we are told by Shoghi Effendi that this thing will come in its own time. He describes the story of the pilgrim kings in his Persian writings in such eloquent manner that how these kings and rulers of the world will discard their kingdoms. Some of them. Or they will bring their crowns to the thresholds of Baha'u'llah. How they will surrender themselves to Him. How they will pray with the utmost devotion. And how at the end of their pilgrimage, they will go to the House of Justice to receive their instructions of what to do. And this is why when you go to the building of the House of Justice today, there is a magnificent hall, a banquet hall, for the reception of the kings and rulers of the future. And mankind is absolutely asleep about this. Doesn't know what is happening at all. But this is a body that Baha'u'llah has said in His Writings will establish upon this earth the sovereignty of Baha'u'llah. The sovereignty of Baha'u'llah will come into being through the instrumentality of this great institution which has to guide us because Baha'u'llah is guiding it step by step. Every step that they take is guided by Baha'u'llah and we can see it in daily life.

(Adib Taherzadeh, Longtime member of the UHJ)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjuM3JwPy1I

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