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

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