an American woman knelt to Abbas Effendi

Dr. Henry H. Jessup recounted an incident where an American woman knelt to Abbas Effendi, crying "My Lord, my Lord," believing herself to be "in the very presence of the Son of God, the Christ". Jessup questioned Abbas Effendi about accepting worship "due only to the Creator," to which Abbas Effendi reportedly smiled, seemed disturbed, and deflected the conversation to "theological themes". Speer stated, "This is not an attitude which we, as Christians, can approve".

(Robert Elliott Speer Manuscript Collection; Series II: Correspondence; Box 32, File 32:10)

https://archive.org/details/correspondenceba00unse_1/page/n1/mode/2up

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Quddus’s own claims to divine status for himself are reinforced by many of the Bab’s statements about him.

As in the case of claims of Qāʾimiyya, it seem to have been Muḥammad ʿAlī Bārfurūshī, Quddūs, who was the Bāb’s chief rival in respect of claims to some form of divinity. Abbas Effendi ʿAbd al-Bahāʾ, maintains that Quddūs’s commentary on the letter sād ̣ of the word al-samad ̣ (Qurʾān 112:2) which he “revealed” (nāzil farmūdand) at Shaykh Tabarsī, was ̣ “from beginning to end . . . (filled with the words) “Verily, I am God.” There certainly appears to be confirmatory evidence that, in the course of the Shaykh Tabarsī siege, Quddūs did, in fact, make claims of this ̣ kind. Zawāraʾī refers to him as a “place of God’s manifestation” (mazhar-i ̣ khudā) while a Bābī apostate who encountered him in Bārfurūsh after the end of the siege is said to have rebuked him with the words: “You claimed . . . that your voice was the voice of God.” Quddūs’s own claims to divine status for himself are reinforced by many of the Bāb’s statements about him. In a Tablet of visitation (ziyārat) written at some point after Quddūs’s death in 1849, the Bāb writes:

from all eternity you have existed in the exaltation of holiness and majesty, and unto all eternity you shall exist in the exaltation of holiness and majesty. You are the one who is manifested through the manifestation of your Lord (anta ’l-zāhir bi-z ̣ uhūri rabbika ̣ ) and the one who is concealed through the concealment of your Lord. In the beginning when there was no beginning but you, and in the end when there will be no end save you; you ascended through all creation to a horizon unto which none preceded you.” In a section of the Kitāb-i Panj shaʾn written for Mullā Shaykh ʿAlī Turshīzī, the Bāb explicitly declares that “the last name of God has shone forth and flashed and gleamed and become manifest; well is it with him who sees in him nothing but God.

Within the context of such statements, it may be possible to suggest a fresh dimension to our understanding of the events which occurred at the Bābī assembly at Bidasht in 1848, which is generally associated with the abrogation of the Islamic laws (sharīʿa), the proclamation of the inauguration of a new age of inner truth (though not, I am inclined to think, at this stage the implementation of a Bābī sharīʿa), and the announcement of the imminent appearance of the Qāʾim. (A secondary objective of the meeting was to draw up plans for the release of the Bāb from prison in Azerbaijan.) In what is in some respects a curious letter, ʿAbd al-Bahāʾ states that “many have manifested divinity (ulūhiyyat) and lordship (rubūbiyyat). . . . At Bidasht, her excellency Tahirih [Qurrat ̣ al-ʿAyn] to the highest heaven the cry of “Verily, I am God,” as did many of the friends at Bidasht.” Brief as it is and lacking in direct evidence, this theologically uncharacteristic statement is nonetheless extremely suggestive and may prove an important starting point for fresh inquiries into the significance of the Bidasht gathering. It may well be the case, for example, that the recorded divisions between the participants in the meeting, in particular that between Qurrat al-ʿAyn and Quddūs, relate in some way to the advancement of competing claims of this kind.

Certainly a number of Bābī texts of the post-Bidasht period contain what would only a few years previously have been regarded as pure blasphemy. Some of the Bāb’s later writings, including numerous sections of the Kitāb-i Panj shaʾn, contain exordia such as “this is a letter from God, the Protector, the Self-subsisting, to God, the Protector, the Self-Subsisting,” or ‘this is a letter from God to him whom God shall manifest.” Even more direct is the following passage from a letter of the Bāb to Mullā Ibrāhim Qazvīnī, Raḥīm: “ ʿAlī before Nabīl [i.e., ʿAlī Muḥammad, the Bāb] is the Self of God (nafs Allāh). . . and the name of al-Azal, al-Waḥīd [i.e., Mīrzā Yahyā Nūrī, Subh ̣ ̣-i Azal] is the Essence of God (dhāt Allāh).” In a letter also written to Qazvīnī after the Bāb’s death, the latter’s former amanuensis, Sayyid Ḥusayn Yazdī, declares “were it not for the existence of God in my beloved, the Eternal, the Ancient (al-azal al-aqdam)[i.e., Qazvīnī], I should not have addressed these words to you, my beloved,” and goes on to refer to the Bāb’s death as “the disappearance of God” ( ghaybat Allāh) and “the ascension of God” (suʿūd Allāh).”

(The Messiah of Shiraz, Dennis MacEoin, Page 333-335)

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Former Baha'i, Payam Aryan exposes Baha'i belief about Baha'u'llah

https://www.youtube.com/live/osoVlbf3Uzk?si=i3G4GegNqHIGIOhp&t=941

Starts at 15:40

Baha'u'llah is the sender of the prophets.

https://www.youtube.com/live/osoVlbf3Uzk?si=i3G4GegNqHIGIOhp&t=3180

Starts at 58:00

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Rashid Ridá's encounter with the Baha'i faith in Egypt

Rashid Ridá, then a student in Tripoli, read the al-Muqtataf article and with a group of friends wrote a letter to Gulpáygání protesting its contents. This was the beginning of Ridá's antipathy to the Bahá'í Faith. Later, when he arrived in Cairo, he met with Gulpáygání and was unhappy with the latter's exposition of the divinity of Bahá'u'lláh. As a strict Sunní Muslim, Ridá was unable or unwilling to understand the doctrine of theophany (zuhuru'lláh) preached by the Bahá'ís. It smacked to him of incarnationism and seemed to make the Bahá'í Faith far more similar to Christianity than to the transcendalist faith of Islám.

Juan R.I. Cole. "Muhammad `Abduh and Rashid Rida: A Dialogue on the Baha'i Faith." World Order Vol. 15, nos. 3-4 (Spring/Summer 1981):7-16.

https://www.h-net.org/~bahai/diglib/articles/A-E/cole/abduh/abduh.htm

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How Baha'i scholars understand the claims of divinity of the Bab and Baha'u'llah

In his Qayyum al-asma’ and innumerable other writings of his last years, the Bab frequently and in various contexts uttered the words, “I, verily, am God, no God is there except Me” (or the like). It was his conviction that the eschatological ‘‘Day of God” had come to realization and that he was a manifestation of Divinity.

As, furthermore, “Divinity” and “Lordship” were conferred by the Bab on certain of his major disciples, they too made exalted claims. The Babi cycle came to be seen as the cycle of the manifestation of Divinity in the person of the Bab and the leading Babis. The eschatological ”encounter with God” (liqa’ Allah) mentioned in the Qur’an found fulfillment through the Bab and the “pleroma of Divinity” manifested by his exalted disciples on the “Day of God.” It is in this context, and in view of the Bab’s assertion that the Babi messiah, “Him whom God shall make manifest” (man yuzhiruhu’llah), shall utter the words “I, verily, am God, no God is there except Me.” that certain of Baha’u’llah’s exalted claims are to be understood. Both the Bab and Baha’u’llah claimed divinity by uttering adapted versions of the Sinaitic declaration of divinity, though they did not thereby claim identity with the absolute Godhead. They saw themselves as pure mirrors reflecting the divinity of the transcendent and unknowable Lord and as manifestations of the eschatological advent of Divinity.

(Stephen Lambden in "Studies in the Babi and Baha’i Religions (formerly Studies in Babi and Baha’i History) Volume Five)

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It is Baha'u'llah Who, in the Old Testament hath been named YHWH (Jehovah)

In a number of his epistles of the late ‘Akka period, Baha’u’llah clearly claimed to be YHWH, the Divinity Who conversed with Moses from the burning bush and whose eschatological advent as “YHWH of hosts” (“the Lord of hosts’’) was predicted by the Israelite prophets. In, for example, the following lines addressed to a Jewish convert to the Baha’i Faith named Aga Jan, Baha’u’llah writes:

The Face of the Ancient One [Baha’u’llah] hath turned towards the sages (hukama) in the Land of al-ha and al-mim [Hamdadan, in Iran] and announceth unto them the glad-tidings of the Ridvan (Paradise) of God, the Lord of all the worlds: “By God! He Who hath been named YHWH ‘‘Jehovah” in the Torah hath come.

On similar lines is the following extract from an epistle of Baha’u’llah to the Baha’i poet ‘Andalib (and others):

He [Baha’u’llah] it is Who, in the Old Testament (Torah) hath been named YHWH “Jehovah”...

A good many passages are to be found in the Tablets of the late ‘Akka period in which Baha’u’llah refers to himself as “the Lord (YHWH) of hosts” (Arabic: rabb al-junud). One such passage reads as follows:

This is the Day in which He Who cried out on the Mount (munadi at-tur) hath held converse and the Lord of Hosts (rabb al-junud) proclaimed before all the world: ‘‘No God is there except Me, the Mighty, the Knowing.’’

‘Abdu’l-Baha specifically identified the Biblical ‘‘Lord of Hosts’’ with his father and spoke of the “hosts’’ as the stalwart members of the Baha’i community.”

(Stephen Lambden in "Studies in the Babi and Baha’i Religions (formerly Studies in Babi and Baha’i History) Volume Five)

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Baha'u'llah is the Self of God

The most great infallibility as a doctrine, Bahá'u'lláh says, acts to protect his religion. He reiterates that no one can share in it other than the Self of God. This phrase refers to the universal manifestation of God, who is the manifestation of the Self of God,...

(The Concept of Manifestation in the Bahá'í Writings by Juan Cole published in Bahá'í Studies, 9 Ottawa, ON: Bahá'í Studies Publications, 1982)

https://bahai-library.com/cole_concept_manifestation/

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Tablet of the Báb for Quddús as reproduced in Nabíl. Translation by Stephen Lambden

...“Verily He, no God is there except I myself" for all should be aware of Myself. And I verily, I am God! (innani anā Allāh) no God is there except I myself. This before any before relative to the very essences ["atoms", or dhurwa "uttermost acme"] of antecedence [“beforeness”] (min qabl qabl fī dharrat [dhurwa] al-qabl) as well as after the after within the very essences ["atoms", or dhurwa "uttermost acme"] of futurity [“afterwards”] (min ba`da ba`da fī dharrat [dhurwa] al-ba`da).

`Alī before the Quadruple Configuration [ḥarf al-rubā’ رباع , rubā` = 1-M 2-H 3-M 3-D = Muḥammad = the Bāb) is the Manifestation of Myself (maẓhar nafsī) while the Eighteenth Letter (of the Living = Quddūs) among the Letters [of the Living] is [even as] Mine Own Self (li- nafsihi). At My Command, as a result of My Command, do all derive existence! I, verily am God, no God is there except I Myself. Whatsoever is other than Me, is My creation.

Say: I Indeed am God! No God is there except I myself and all should direct themselves towards Me! There is no single thing but that it should offer glorification (s-b-ḥ) through my laudation (ḥ-m-d) yet shall these realities at the moment of my theophany [manifestation] (ẓuhūr), by virtue of the manifestation of Myself (maẓhar nafsihi), remain entirely veiled therefrom.

Say: Nothing at all should remain veiled for all should show piety [be God-fearing] before Me since I was thy Lord aforetime as well as in the hereafter. I Indeed, I am God, the Mighty, the Beloved (al-`azīz al-maḥbūb)!

This book (kitāb) [letter, Tablet] contains verses (al-āyāt) from Myself unto the Letter thā’ of Eternaled Pre-Eternity [= thamarah al-azal al-īzūl) [sic.] to the end that all may bear witness that he [Quddus] is My servant (`abdī). I [the Bab] divulged My glory (tajallyyat) unto Him through Mine own Logos-Self/Myself (nafsī) for there is no Deity except I Myself, God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting (al-muhayymīn al-qayyūm). I did cast into his [Quddus'] inmost heart (fū’ād) [such] expository verses (āyāt bayyināt), as, “I [Quddus] indeed am God the Ruler (al-malik) Almighty [sic] (al-qaydūr), I indeed am God, no God is there except I Myself. I created everything through My Command (bi-amrī) for I am indeed the Foreordainer (al-qaddār), the Sanctified (al-qaydūs)!

Say: Nothing can compromize [sic] mine inimitability within the Divine Realm (lāhūt), within the Omnipotent Domain (jabarūt) of everything (kull shay’). I [the Bab], verily, am the Omnipotent Ordainer (al-jabbār), the Supremely Great [sic.](al-`ayẓūm). Yet of a certainty (balā)! Thou [Quddūs] art indeed God, no God is there except Thee, the Supremely Powerful Lord (rabb al-muqtadir), the One of Talismanic Potency (al-badūḥ = 2-4-6-8)! Thou createth whatsoever thou willeth and thou will create whatsoever thou desireth. No God is there except thee. All should be worshipful of thee. There exists nothing but that it should offer glorification through the Praise of thyself. All should be especially mindful of thee. Thou art indeed God! No God is there except Thee. Before thee we are all in a state of certainty!

(Quddús: A Twenty-first Century Bahá’í Looks at the Life of a Nineteenth Century Bábí Hero, Master’s Thesis by Karen Anne Webb)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V-4t9v7haZXCuESbOSImVGxX9sj4C26f

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The One Who had sent down the Prophets

After my arrival in Haifa, Shoghi Effendi had often spoken of another task he would entrust to me, a task which he defined as ‘spiritual’. It concerned the erection of the Most Holy Shrine of the Bahá’í world: “The Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh, the One Who had sent down the Prophets”.

(Shoghi Effendi: Recollections by Ugo Giachery, Oxford: George Ronald, 1973)

https://bahai-library.com/giachery_shoghi_effendi_recollections

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Those who were connected to Baha'u'llah

Baha'u'llah's bread-maker was titled as "The Bread-maker of God", his amanuensis was titled as "Khadim'u'llah (the servant of God)", his barber was titled as "the barber of God", his tailor was titled as, "the tailor of God", his friends were titled as "the friends of God".

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Baha'u'llah's claims in Edirne and Acre

A full discussion of the claims eventually advanced by Bahā Allāh in Edirne and Acre would take us far beyond the dates assigned to this survey and would involve a lengthy and complex analysis of the abundant scriptural materials available. I shall instead conclude by drawing attention once more to a point I have mentioned elsewhere, namely that Bahāʾ Allāh’s developed claims represent the most extreme expression of Shīʿī and Bābī theories of theophany. With his mature writings, the themes discussed in this article and its predecessor reach their apogee in claims that come very close to assertion of out and out divinity or even incarnation.

One of the most striking references to this idea occurs in the undated (probably Acre—1868–92) Lawḥ-i mīlād-i ism-i aʿzaṃ , in which he declares that “he has been born who neither begets nor is begotten”—a direct allusion to and contradiction of Qurʾān 112. Similarly, in the Sūrat al-ḥajj, written in Edirne after the split with Azal, he declares that “the educator of all beings and their Creator has appeared in the garment of humanity, but you were not pleased with that, until he was imprisoned in this prison.”

That at least some of Bahāʾ Allāh’s followers endorsed a radical interpretation of such claims is evident from a number of sources. Ḥājī Mīrzā Haydar ʿAlī Isfahānī, a prominent Bahā ̣ ʾī missionary in late 19th-century Iran, describes a discussion he held with an Iranian ʿālim following a visit to Bahāʾ Allāh in Acre. In the course of their conversation, he stated: “He is unique by Himself. No one in the world can ever compare to Him. He is the One Whom the Qurʾān has declared to have neither father nor son [i.e. God].” The same writer also narrates an anecdote concerning Bahāʾ Allāh to the effect that, when told that Shaykh Muḥammad Bāqir Isfahānī asked for a translation of sūra 112 to be made and sent to him, ̣ retorted that “Moses had heard the call of ‘I am your God’ from a burning bush. Why not from a man?”

The authors of the Hasht bihisht quote two verses from the poetry of Mullā Muḥammad Nabīl Zarandī that indicate a strong tendency to the use of extreme hyperbole in reference to Bahāʾ Allāh:

Lordship has entered the plain of his majesty with lacerated chest. Divinity has become like a trembling willow in the garden of his exaltation.

And:

Men call you God, and I grow angry.

Draw aside the veil, and do not accept the shame of Godhood.

While in Kermān, E. G. Browne encountered a number of Bahāʾīs who entertained similarly exaggerated ideas about their prophet, among them a certain Shaykh Ibrāhīm, who told him: “God is something real, visible, tangible, definite. Go to Acre and see God!”

(The Messiah of Shiraz, Studies in Early and Middle Babism by Denis Martin MacEoin)

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Circumambulating Baha'u'llah

Bahá'u'lláh dismissed us from His presence, saying : "Go in God's care." Every one of us prostrated at His blessed feet and circumambulated His bed. We left the room in deepest sorrow, burning from separation from the Beloved.

(Moments with Baháʼuʼlláh - Memoirs of the Hand of the Cause of God Ṭarázuʼlláh Samandarí)

'Abdu'l-Bahá was present too; as I recall He was standing. He directed us to circumambulate the bed. Those of us in our group simply walked around Bahá'u'lláh's bed, and He said to us: "Fí amánu'lláh-go in God's care." We went out of the room. That was the very last time that I was present at the meeting with God.

(Moments with Baháʼuʼlláh - Memoirs of the Hand of the Cause of God Ṭarázuʼlláh Samandarí)

“By the one true God, Elijah hath hastened unto My court and hath circumambulated in the day time and in the night season My throne of glory.” “Solomon in all his majesty circles in adoration around Me in this day, uttering this most exalted word: ‘I have turned my face towards Thy face, O Thou omnipotent Ruler of the world! I am wholly detached from all things pertaining unto me, and yearn for that which Thou dost possess.’”

(Selections from the writings of Shoghi Effendi about Bahá’u’lláh published in The Bahá’í World, Volume 14)

When the ship reached Haifa the very thought of prostrating ourselves at His threshold and attaining His presence which the Prophets and His chosen ones had wished to attain invoked such eagerness and excitement in our hearts that with tears streaming down our cheeks, we were transported into a different world. We arrived at a spot where the souls of all the Manifestations of God were circumambulating day and night around His Blessed Person.

(The Revelation of Baháʼuʼlláh by Adib Taherzadeh - 1988)

‘Andalib, overtaken by grief and with tears flowing, exclaimed, ‘O, Baha! O, Baha!’ He gave us permission to leave. Immersed in sorrow and with hearts consumed with grief, we prostrated ourselves at His feet, circumambulated Him, and left the room.

(Ṭarázu’lláh Samandarí, Lights of Fortitude)

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if it was not for Him, no divine Messenger would have been raised

 ...it all comes from Baha'u'llah, from the soul of Baha'u'llah. Besides, as He Himself says that, if it was not for Him, no divine Messenger would have been raised up in this whole universal cycle on this planet.

-Hooper Dunbar

https://youtu.be/QS0mcaFGpKE?t=202

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I immediately threw myself at His feet, held the hem of His robe

I then opened the door and saw ‘Abdu’l-Baha seated at a desk. I bowed and said ‘Allah’u’Abha’. He gave me permission to enter.

I immediately threw myself at His feet, held the hem of His robe and entreated Him tearfully saying: ‘O my Beloved! Do not leave me to myself, cause me to move in accordance with Thy Will, and confirm me in my servitude and obedience to Thee.’

‘Abdu’l-Baha bountifully lifted me up with the hand of His power and with a penetrating voice said, ‘God hath confirmed thee in serving His Cause, in elevating His Word, and in spreading His fragrances.’

https://bahai.works/Bahá’í_World/Volume_19/Essays_and_Reviews

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Claims to divinity

A third significant convert during this time was a blind Sayyid, Jinab-i-Basir. Nabil states that he was the above mentioned Sayyid converted by Shaykh Sa'id-i Hindi. In contrast the Tarikh-i-Jadid claims that Jinab-i-Basir heard of the Bab's appearance in Bombay from where he traveled to Mecca and met him in person. After the Bab's death Jinab-i-Basir, along with several other Babis, made extravagant claims, but he was eventually "faced-down" by Bahá'u'lláh who made his own claim to divinity.* Jinab-i-Basir was later executed for his beliefs in Luristan.

*Juan R. Cole, ""Baha'-Allah, Mirza Hosain `Ali Nuri." Encyclopaedia Iranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater, (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983-), vol. 3, pp. 422-429.

(The Bahá'í Faith in India: A Developmental Stage Approach by William Garlington, published in Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Bahá'í Studies, 2, 1997-06)

https://bahai-library.com/garlington_bahai_faith_india

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This is the day wherein the "neither born nor begotten" was born

 حضرت بهاء‌الله در يکى از الواح نازله به مناسبت يوم تولّد خودشان فرموده‌اند:

"فيه ولد من لم يلد و لم يولد" يعنى امروز روزى است که "لم يلد و لم يولد" در آن متولّد شد.

English Translation : 'in it is the one who is neither born nor begotten' [i.e. in reference to the 3rd verse of Quran 112]; meaning, today is the day wherein the "neither born nor begotten" was born therein.

The claim Baha'u'llah is attempting to make here, which falls flat on its face, is that he is the One Uniquely Single (الأحد) Who is the Everlasting (الصمد) that in high Islamic metaphysics is glossed as the completely unknowable and transcendent aspect of the ipseity of the Essence of the Godhead. 

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Baha'u'llah is the Godhead who had sent the other prophets.

One faction of Iranian emigrants to the U.K. in the 1980s and early 1990s led by a Cambridge-trained Iranian scholar even developed a doctrine that Baha'u'llah was the Godhead who had sent the other prophets.

Juan Cole, Review of Religious Research, Vol. 43, no. 3 (March, 2002)

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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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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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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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