SIYYID ‘ALI MUHAMMAD CALLED THE BAB ____ THE PERSIAN BAYAN Translated from the Persian By A.-L.-M NICOLAS French Consul in Tabriz ____ THIRD VOLUME ____ PARIS LIBRAIRIE PAUL GEUTHNER 68, RUE MAZARINE, 68 ___ 1913 1 PREFACE It is perhaps not necessary to explain point by point the differences that exist between Babism, Baha’ism and ‘Abdu’l-Baha’ism1, and furthermore, this does not enter at all in our program. It suffices me to say that the Bab, Prophet, greater than Jesus, greater than Muhammad - He says it and He proclaims it in express and reiterated terms which cannot be lessened by those who claim to be His successors. Fairly similar to us2, Muslims have two sorts of Prophets - the great and the little. They divide them into carriers of religious laws, of revealed Books - shariah - and the simple heralds. The Bab is a shari’3, it is useless to deny it. He says it Himself and, as well, the work that we translate is a part of his shari’at. Thus, to represent Him as a simple herald of Baha’u’llah is an historical lie.4 It is another to claim the universalization of the religion of the Bab by Baha’u’llah (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf and other works 1Nicolas came to believe, after reading Baha’i literature, that the claims of the Bab were incompatible with the claims of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha. He retained this belief until very late in life, when he read The Dawn-Breakers, sent to him by its editor and translator, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith. 2 Nicolas assumes that his readers are Christians, in heritage if not in conviction. is defined by Steingass (p. 723) as “An expounder of the law; or of the articles of faith; a (ﺷﺎرع) ’3Shari legislator, law-giver; a highway, main road, thoroughfare”: https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/steingass_query.py?qs=shari&matchtype=default 4The Guardian of the Baha’i Faith made a similar claim in one of his letters entitled “The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah”: “That the Bab, the inaugurator of the Bábí Dispensation, is fully entitled to rank as one of the self-sufficient Manifestations of God, that He has been invested with sovereign power and authority, and exercises all the rights and prerogatives of independent Prophethood, is yet another fundamental verity which the Message of Bahá'u'lláh insistently proclaims and which its followers must uncompromisingly uphold. That He is not to be regarded merely as an inspired Precursor of the Bahá'í Revelation, that in His person, as He Himself bears witness in the Persian Bayan, the object of all the Prophets gone before Him has been fulfilled, is a truth which I feel it my duty to demonstrate and emphasize. We would assuredly be failing in our duty to the Faith we profess and would be violating one of its basic and sacred principles if in our words or by our conduct we hesitate to recognize the implications of this root principle of Bahá'í belief, or refuse to uphold unreservedly its integrity and demonstrate its truth. Indeed the chief motive actuating me to undertake the task of editing and translating Nabil's immortal Narrative has been to enable every follower of the Faith in the West to better understand and more readily grasp the tremendous implications of His exalted station and to more ardently admire and love Him. “There can be no doubt that the claim to the twofold station ordained for the Bab by the Almighty, a claim which He Himself has so boldly advanced, which Bahá'u'lláh has repeatedly affirmed, and to which the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá has finally given the sanction of its testimony, constitutes the most distinctive feature of the Bahá'í Dispensation. It is a further evidence of its uniqueness, a tremendous accession to the strength, to the mysterious power and authority with which this holy cycle has been invested. Indeed the greatness of the Bab consists primarily, not in His being the divinely-appointed Forerunner of so transcendent a Revelation, but rather in His having been invested with the powers inherent in the inaugurator of a separate religious Dispensation, and in His wielding, to a degree unrivaled by the Messengers gone before Him, the scepter of independent Prophethood.” (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, pp. 122-123) 2 of the same kind). Jesus, or at least His successors claimed to establish a catholic religion, that is to say, universal. Muslims are of the same opinion in that which concerns Muhammad and it is hardly needed to say that the Bab in His turn, realizing all the previous and divine prophecies, is catholic. We have never reproached Him for having announced His return in the person of Him Whom God shall make manifest. We have, on the contrary, highly anticipated. But perhaps he announced Him in leaving to an imposter too many facilities to usurp the place that He Himself indicates as requiring to be occupied by a greater one than Himself. I wish for testimony no more than Bab 8 of Vahid VI, which will be found in this volume. The objection founded upon the fact that His religion would be inapplicable for humanity as a whole, is not one. Either this religion is divine, or it is not. If it is divine, by what right do we judge it? If it is not, how can Baha’u’llah Prophet of God proceed from it? Or, humanity, if it is not under the influence of Satan, can it have the audacity to criticize the work of the Most High? It belongs thus to us, men, to whom it is forbidden to question Him Whom God shall make manifest, on His mission, to ask for explanations from Him Whom God has manifested, about Himself! The argument, taken from the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, appears to me to be quite precarious. The Bab announced, it is said, the appearance of the new Prophet for the year 9. Evidently the Baha’is take their argument from the Epistle of the Bab to Mulla Baqir. This epistle was, says the legend, written in response to a letter sent by Mulla Baqir to the Bab about the authority of Mulla Husayn Bushru’i, who did not understand anything due to the contradictions that swarm in the work of the Bab precisely on the subject of the date of the appearance of the new Prophet. Whatever may be the import of what is reported of it, this letter is far from being as explicit as one wishes to make it. It begins thus: “In truth I heard your letter, it contained a jewel, and if it had not been found, I would not have replied to your letter. Now I do not give the reply that is contained in the world of the intimate (I do not reply except following your intelligence) and how much great is the mention of the person on the subject about which you have asked. In truth, this question is too elevated, too precious and too exalted for the hearts to have the power to know it; and that the spirits might prostrate themselves before them, that the souls might make praise of them and that the bodies might describe its luminosity. How great then is your question, and how small your existence!,,,” “If you had not been of the first Vahid, I would have chastised you...” 3 “And, in truth, Him Whom God shall make manifest cannot be indicated by my indication, nor by what was mentioned in the Bayan…” “Thus, in the measure in which you have known God, know Him Whom God shall make manifest, and know that He is too exalted, too great to be known by anyone but Himself, or to be indicated by an indication of His creature! And in truth, me, who am I, I am the first slave who gave Him my faith!...” “How then can I mention Him? Because all that could mention Him is but a mention from His creatures...In truth, Him Whom God shall make manifest cannot be mentioned by a mention…” “In truth you, if you by chance are present on the day of His appearance, and if you know Him by the teaching of the ‘ulama of the Bayan, you will not know Him as He should be known…” “Hence, in truth, the day of His manifestation is the last day relative to this first life. And, if the book of Him Whom God shall make manifest did not exist, mine would not have descended; if His being did not exist, God would not have manifested me!...” “And, in truth, I am Him and He is Me!...” “It is to be hoped that in the year 8, you see the day of His manifestation and it will be in that moment, find yourself in the presence of God!...” “If you do not see Him at the beginning, you will see Him at the end of the year. I say that, but be convinced that the order is great above all greatness! “Since the promise of Jesus son of Mary passed 1270 years until the day of the Bayan and the believers in the Gospels sleep in awaiting Him! And it is that and not something else: will come to you the one on the subject of which you have asked about the mention of His greatness and of His order.