How the NSA warns the Baha'i believers

ANNOUNCEMENT

The National Spiritual Assembly advises the friends that Mr. Dale Williams, sometimes known as Allen Warren Hanson, and at other times by other aliases, who, it is reported, may be travelling in Canada at the present time, had his voting rights removed by the N.S.A. a year ago. Once again the friends are reminded of the need for insisting that Baha’i credentials be presented by all strangers claiming to be Baha’is in good standing so that the Canadian communities may be protected from abuses of their hospitality and the borrowing of money etc.

https://bahai.works/Canadian_Bahá’í_News/Issue_97/Text

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Abdul Baha's station of divinity

Mrs. P.: Was Abdul Baha the first who knew and realized the reality of Baha'u'llah?

Ibn Asdaq: As he had the station of divinity, he would know. Baha'u'llah says Abdul Baha is not a human being. How is it possible that man should not know himself first? In the world of man my father was one of the first to realize the station of Baha'u'llah. Baha'u'llah while in Baghdad, wrote a tablet with his own hand for my father:

"O thou Sadiq, that Word which his holiness The Bab wrote has appeared. That Word has appeared through the Lord. It has appeared in the form of man. Then prepare to meet his Beauty and see him in that beautiful garment (garment of man) and be humble and submissive to him."

My father became humble and submissive before his declaration...

All the qualities of Baha'u'llah are seen in Abdul Baha. The form, movement, talking, walking, even the feet, are the same. When Abdul Baha begins to chant, the Words and the voice are the same. The other day I was present when Abdul Baha was revealing tablets, and it reminded me of Baha'u'llah.

https://bahai-library.com/pdf/p/pilgrims_notes_us-archives_1919.pdf

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The Bab was insane

Following the Tribunal, the matter of the Báb’s sanity was raised, and a conditional death sentence was issued pending a confirmation of the Báb’s sanity. Dr. William Cormick, the crown prince’s physician, and two Persian physicians were instructed to examine the Báb and determine “whether he was of sane mind or merely a madman.” In his recollections of his visit to the Báb in the Tabríz citadel, Dr. Cormick wrote:

"He only once deigned to answer me on my saying that I was not a Musulman and was willing to know something about his religion, as I might perhaps be inclined to adopt it. He regarded me very intently on my saying this, and replied that he had no doubt of all Europeans coming over to his religion. Our report to the Shah at that time was of a nature to spare his life." (Qtd. in Amanat, Resurrection 391)

The “of a nature to save his life” carried within it the implicit assumption that the Báb was insane.

https://bahai-library.com/pdf/w/woodman_metaphor_language_revelation.pdf

Edward Browne also brings this is his book "Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion".

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Abdul Baha's miracles

There was a certain inhabitant of ‘Akká whose name was ‘Abdu’l-Mutallib, a son of a certain Mustafa-Dallál. He was devoted to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He acquired intense hiccups and no remedy was working. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went to visit him in his home and to inquire of his health. He noticed that hiccups would not let the man speak a word. He asked, “Are there any apples here?” He was told, “It is not the season for apples.” He said, “Someone should go to the House and search for one.” An apple was found [in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s House] and brought to His blessed presence. A corner of this apple had gone bad. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá instructed, “Eat the apple.” He ate a piece of the apple and his hiccup subsided some. He continued eating the apple and his hiccup was completely cured. He even started eating the apple core, but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said to him, “There is no need to eat these.” However, he ate it anyway, perhaps thinking that his cure was due to the apple. In short, he was rescued from this intense ailment.

Such incidents would occur very often, each evidence of the might and influence of His blessed Person. The Guardian of the Cause of God used to say, “Whatever we have willed has occurred.” It is certain that whatever the divine manifestations will, will occur since their will is God’s will.

(A Lifetime with 'Abdu'l-Bahá: Reminiscences of Khalíl Shahídí - translated and edited by Ahang Rabbani. Vol. 9, 2008)

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Nader Saiedi's ignorance and Baha'u'llah evolving claims

Another problem within the same and other chapters is that Saiedi attempts to bypass the degree to which Baha'-Allah's voicing of his claims evolved from 'ubudiyya' ("servitude") and 'Husayniyya' (being the spiritually returned eschatological Husayn b. 'Ali), to 'mazhariyya' (theophanology) and 'rububiyya' ("Lordship"), or (subordinate) 'ilahiyya' (divinity). Such a progression, from "messianic secret" to the claim of divine theophany, was affirmed by both the Bab in his (Persian) 'Dala'il-i sab'a' (Seven Proofs) and Baha'u'llah himself in, for example, his little studied 'Surat al-fath' (early 1860s?). In the latter work, Baha'u'llah clearly states that the claims of both the Bab and himself evolved in accordance with the capacity of their hearers and according to a divinely ordained progression. At one point in the 'Surat al-fath', Baha'u'llah clarifies his earlier position by writing, "O people! I did not desire any 'amr' (religious "Cause") for myself and followed all the [founding] theophanies of old (mazahir al-qabl)" Unaware of this and related passages, Saiedi renders a phrase in Baha'u'llah's (Persian) 'Sahifah-i shattiyya' (Scroll of the Torrent, c. 1857) in a way that dismisses the nature of his unfolding claims. In so doing he mistakenly criticizes Juan Cole's translation of 'amr' in the aforementioned 'Sahifah' as "Cause," over-confidently reckoning 'amr' as having the basic sense of "issue" or "task." Much work remains to be done in order to clarify the evolving nature of Baha'-Allah's multi-faceted and ultimately theophanic claims.

-Stephen N. Lambden

(Logos and Civilization, Spirit, History and Order in the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh by Nader Saiedi Review by: Stephen N. Lambden Iranian Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Mar., 2003), pp. 118-121)

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iranian-studies/article/abs/logos-and-civilization-spirit-history-and-order-in-the-writings-of-bahaullah-nader-saiedi-bethesda-university-press-of-maryland-2000-404-pp-isbn-1883053609-cloth-isbn-1883053633-pb/201B0B0C99E02697C8D785E3ACFB4D0E

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Misleading loyal Baha'i scholars

Twentieth century Baha'i attempts to survey Baha'u'llah's writings are for the most part highly selective, often digressive and unreliable. Such is to some extent the case with Abd al-Hamid Ishraq Khavari's (d. 1972) Persian 'Ganj-i shaygan' (The Befitting Treasury,1968) and Adib Taherzadeh's (d. 1998) often disappointing four-volume English language 'The Revelation of Baha'u'llah' (first edition, 1974-83). Little solid academically and philologically informed writing on this subject has appeared until now aside from Juan Cole's 'Modernity and Millennium' (1998), several of the findings of which are contested in the uneven, often polemically oriented and convoluted volume under review.

'Logos and Civilization', written by a professor of sociology at Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota, USA), does not exactly carry matters forward. Saiedi's book is divided into three major parts: (1) "The Dynamics of Spiritual Journey" (15-110); (2) "The Critique of Spiritual and Historical Reason" (113-210) and (3) "The New World Order" (211-370) spanning ten chapters. These sections contain distasteful and distracting polemic against a few Baha'i academic scholars whose opinions are often misrepresented or overstated. Throughout the book there are numerous overly categorical statements about Baha'u'llah's writings and contemporary academic scholarship which say more about the author's own apologetical concerns than anything especially illuminating. Saiedi bemoans allegedly "reductionist" methodologies utilized by largely unnamed Baha'i and other scholars working within modem Islamic and Middle East studies and out of line with conservative, traditionalist currents in the Baha'i world.

Not an easy work to digest, 'Logos and Civilization' mixes up the author's polemic with attempts to survey some of Baha'u'llah's major writings as if they dropped down from heaven uninfluenced by Islamic categories or a progressive unfolding over a forty-year period. Islamic dimensions of Baha'u'llah's works (e.g. the use of 'dhikr', "recollection of God") are played down, implying that a proper understanding of his doctrines does not require a knowledge of their Islamic roots and the nineteenth-century Sufi-Shi'i milieu. Saiedi has it that the use of 'dhikr' by the Bab in his 'Qayyum al-asma' is "a subtle but unmistakable declaration of His station as a Manifestation of God" (106) though this messianic term is often a cipher representative of the Hidden Imam. Although chapter 1 very loosely sketches "the background, in Islamic Sufism of Baha'u'llah's early writings," the diverse, multi-faceted phenomenon of Sufism and the opinions of some of its major figures, are several times portrayed in generalized, misleading ways.

-Stephen N. Lambden

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iranian-studies/article/abs/logos-and-civilization-spirit-history-and-order-in-the-writings-of-bahaullah-nader-saiedi-bethesda-university-press-of-maryland-2000-404-pp-isbn-1883053609-cloth-isbn-1883053633-pb/201B0B0C99E02697C8D785E3ACFB4D0E

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Number of writings of Baha'u'llah

The Arabic and Persian writings of the Iranian born messianic claimant Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri (born in Tehran in 1817; died in Acre in 1892), self-designated 'janab-i baha' and subsequently Baha'Allah (= Baha'u'llah, "The Splendor of God") are extensive. They perhaps number between 15,000 and 20,000 items of varying length, from letters of a few lines to weighty books. Regarded by Baha'is as expressions of 'wahy' (divine revelation), many texts within this massive canon of Baha'i sacred scripture are identified by their author as 'alwah' (scriptural "Tablets"), sometimes also further designated after such time-honored (Abrahamic) Islamic literary forms as 'kitab' (communication, letter, book), 'sura' (portion, "chapter"), 'sahifa' (paper, scroll), 'risala' (tract, epistle) and 'ziyarat-namah' (commemorative visitation texts).

This Baha'i sacred literature has been only inadequately and very selectively surveyed, dated, and studied by believing adherents and trained academics. Most nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholars and orientalists, including E. G. Browne (d. 1926), A. L. M. Nicholas (d.1937) and more recently Denis MacEoin, concentrated on Babi history and scripture, largely bypassing the writings of Baha'u'llah. Much work thus needs to be done to establish the precise Sitz im Leben of these numerous alwah penned and dictated by Baha'u'llah over a more than forty-year period...

-Stephen N. Lambden

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iranian-studies/article/abs/logos-and-civilization-spirit-history-and-order-in-the-writings-of-bahaullah-nader-saiedi-bethesda-university-press-of-maryland-2000-404-pp-isbn-1883053609-cloth-isbn-1883053633-pb/201B0B0C99E02697C8D785E3ACFB4D0E

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Bab's "tawba-namih" (recantation text)

Edward Granville Browne published the official transcript of the meeting in Tabriz in the "Materials for the Study of the Bábí Religion" (pp. 248-55), along with the Báb's "tawba-namih" [recantation text] (Ibid., pp. 256-258).

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Dishonesty of Moojan Momen

Mr. Azal visited Iran in 1963 and was a guest of Atiyya Ruhi a great-grand daughter of Subh-i Azal. According to his relatives, Mr. Azal suffered from high blood pressure and died as a result of a heart at the age of 74 on April 5, 1971 with no prior warning. The Baha'i Moojan Momen who has been on a dirt finding mission to Cyprus claims in his report that the cause of Jalal's heart attack was 'excessive use of alcohol'. Momen's claim like the rest of the Baha'i has no foundation and is a pure speculation. Jalal's wife and his relatives reject it as plain lie.

His death occurred only a few days before their planned second visit to Iran. His wife says: "Our luggage was still packed when Jalal suddenly died".

(The Religion of the Bayān and The Claims of the Bahā’is, Foreword, Page 21)

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Personal pronouns referring to the Manifestations of God or to Abdul Baha should invariably be capitalized!

February 3. On this date in 1975, the Universal House of Justice wrote "In English translations of the Sacred Bahá'í Writings personal pronouns referring to the Manifestations of God or to 'Abdu'l-Bahá should invariably be capitalized; in the Guardian's writings in English his own style must be followed. Capitalization of pronouns relating to the Manifestations of God and to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in introductory books or books about the Faith in the English language is left to the personal choice of the author."

In English translations of the Sacred Bahá'í Writings personal pronouns referring to the Manifestations of God or to 'Abdu'l-Bahá should invariably be capitalized; in the Guardian's writings in English his own style must be followed. Capitalization of pronouns relating to the Manifestations of God and to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in introductory books or books about the Faith in the English language is left to the personal choice of the author. (3 February 1975)

https://bahai-library.com/uhj_mihdi_pronouns_english 

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The Bab's prayer from Kitab-i-Panj Sha'n

In the Name of God, Very God, Very God!

I, I am God--No God is there but Me--Very God, Very God.

In God's Name, Very God, Very God.

God by God, Very God, Very God.

In God's Name, Godlike God, Godlike God.

God, no God is there but He, Very God, Very God.

God, no God is there but He, Godlike God, Godlike God.

God, no God is there but He, God as God in Godhead.

God, no God is there but He, God, attain'd Godhood.

God of the heavens, God of the earth, God of the void between, that

Godhead is God's, is His,

and God is High God, God, Divine.

God of the heavens, God of the earth, God of the void between, that

Godhead is God's, is

Read it fully here

https://bahai-library.com/walbridge_kitab_panj-shan_commentary

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