The Theological Falsity of the Bahāʾī Covenant: A Bayānī Critique
The central claim of the Bahāʾī covenant is that authority passed in an unbroken and divinely guaranteed line from the Bāb (d. 1850) to Bahāʾuʾllāh (d. 1892), from Bahāʾuʾllāh to ʿAbd al-Bahāʾ (d. 1921), from ʿAbd al-Bahāʾ to Shoghi Effendi (d. 1957), and ultimately to the institutions established under the so-called Bahāʾī administrative order. According to Bahāʾī doctrine, this covenant functions as a unique safeguard against schism and serves as the decisive proof of the divine origin of the religion. Yet from an Azalī-Bayānī perspective, the covenant is not merely historically problematic but theologically untenable. It rests upon a retroactive reconstruction of sacred history that conflicts with the explicit documentary record, the succession established by the Bāb Himself, and the very principles of revelation articulated within the Bayān. The first difficulty concerns the succession of the Bāb. The documentary evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates without any dou...
