The Bahāʾīs Chicken Out, and a Bayānī Tractatus Logico-Theosophicus
1.
لا اله الا الله حقاً حقاً
بِسم اللهِ الازهقِ الباطلِ
There is no god but God Truly, Truly!
In the Name of
God the One Who Brings about the Defeat of Falsehood! (= 385 in Arabic
equivalent to the Hebrew ‘Shekinah’ שׁכִינה)
2.
Todd Lawson, “The Dangers of Reading: Inlibration
Communion and Transference in the Qur'an Commentary of The Bab”
3.
Tārīkh-i-Jadīd, Mīrzā Ḥuseyn Hamadānī,
or New History of Mirza 'Ali Muhammad The Bab. Translated by Edward G.
Browne. Cambridge:
University Press, 1893,
Intro xviii to xxiii:
4. سبحانك اللهم انك انت الهان السماوات و الارض و ما بينهما لتؤتين
الالوهية من تشاء و لتنزعنها عمن تشاء....
Glorified art Thou, my God, verily Thou art the Twin Divinity of the Heavens and the earth and what is between them! Thou givest divinity to whomsoever Thou will and taketh it away from whomsoever Thou will…Book of the Five Grades (kitāb-i-panj shaʾn), page 1-2, lithograph edition, (page 4-5 in Bayanic.com version), http://www.bayanic.com/showPict.php?id=panj&ref=4&err=0&curr=4 .
سبحانك اللهم انّكَ انتَ الهان
السماوات و الارض و ما بينهما لتؤتين الاُلوهية على نيما وحيد أزل و لتعزنها عمن
ميرزا حسينعلي نوري هباء الافك انك انت على كّلشئ قديراً
Glorified art Thou, my God, verily Thou
art the Twin Divinity of the Heavens and the earth and what is between them!
Thou givest divinity to Nīmā Wahīd Azal and taketh it away
from Mirza Husayn ʿAlī Nurī Habāʾ al-Afak (the Evil Hot
Airy One)! Verily Thou art powerful over all things!…
سبحانكَ اللهُمَّ يا إلهَ
الآلهَةَ تُؤْتِي الْاُلهيةَ مَن تَشَاءُ وَتَنزِعُ الْاُلهيةَ مِمَّن تَشَاءُ
بِيدكَ الخير انكَ انتَ على كلّ شيء اُلوهاً
Glorified art
Thou O God, O God of gods! Thou givest the divinity to whomsoever Thou will and
taketh it away from whomsoever Thou will! In Thy Hands is All-Good! Verily Thou
art Divine over all-things!
5.
Mullā ʿAlī
Muḥammad Sirāj kitāb-i-sirāj (the Book of Sirāj), digital
edition, online, http://bayanic.com/showPict.php?id=seraj&ref=0&err=0&curr=0 (accessed
September 18, 2017), 32-3. Sirāj quotes the Bāb as saying, “…there shall
reflect from that Mirror another Mirror then [from] that [next] Mirror another
Mirror then from that [next] Mirror another Mirror then from that [next] Mirror
another Mirror then from that [next] Mirror another Mirror; and if mention were
to be made to the end of which there is no end, there would be no cessation to
the love in my blaze-flux (fuʾādī) in regard to those scintillant
reflections and rising theophanies. However, with the absolute latent purity (bi-fitraṭi
maḥḍa) [in which he appeared, i.e. Ṣubḥ-i-Azal], until that time God shall
not manifest another Mirror [of his like]. And God shall manifest him [the
future Mirror or even the Bābī messiah?] howsoever he wills. Verily he is
powerful over all things!” (ibid.) His brother Mullā Rajab ʿAlī Qahīr quotes
another item from the Bāb reinforcing the point even further, stating that “…as
long as the sun shines all will be illumined by its radiance; and afterwards if
one like him should arise then you will be guided by one similar to him, and
you will be illumined by the radiance of God until it reaches/concludes with
the unity (wāḥid)…” to which point Qahīr asserts that this indicates that there
may be nineteen overall individual mirrors who will arise in the Bayān (i.e.
wāḥid, one/unity, being nineteen in abjad numerology), in kitāb-i-mullā
rajab ʿalī-i-qahīr, 21-2.
…In every
theophany (ẓuhūr) God has chosen what It wills for the locus of the
manifestation of Its logos-self (maẓhar nafsihi), among them being secure
proofs (adillāʾ mustadillūn) and sanctified witnesses (shuhadāʾ muqaddasūn) and
protective preservers (ḥuffāẓ ḥāfiẓūn) and purified pioneers (ruwād ṣāffūn) and
lucent verifiers (qunnād madqūn) in order to safeguard the commands of God from
theophanic cycle to theophanic cycle and thereby call all to God from cycle of concealment
to cycle of concealment (buṭūn ila buṭūn); and God, glorified be It, chose in
this cycle of theophany a mirror victorious (mirʾātan mumtaniʿan) and a crystal
elevated (bulūrīya murtafiʿa) reflecting in it the Sun of Reality (shams
al-ḥaqīqa) and disclosing upon it the Point of Divinity (nuqṭa ilāhīya) and
divulging within it the Pre-Eternal Being (kaynūnīya azalīya)… The Book of the
Five Grades (kitāb-i-panj shaʾn) online, http://bayanic.com/showPict.php?id=panj&ref=0&err=0&curr=0 and https://www.h-net.org/~bahai/areprint/bab/M-R/panj/panjshan.htm,
198-9 of the lithograph (201-02 Bayanic.com version).
On pages 358 and 360 of The
Messiah of Shīrāz, MacEoin indicates, “…The Bāb’s own writings, as we have
seen, imply an interval similar to that between any two previous prophets. The
reference to temples appearing every sixty-six years would seem to preclude any
manifestation before at least one such period. More telling are the numerous
passages that anticipate the appearance of Bābī kings, ministers, governors,
and ulamā; or the conquest of the entire earth by the Bābīs; or the general
application of Bābī laws, including that of pilgrimage; or the construction of
mosques and tombs; or the levying of taxes; or the regulation of trade -- all
of which necessitate the existence of a developed and stable Bābī state…It is
also, I think, obvious that it is impossible to maintain that the Bāb clearly
foretold the year of the appearance of him whom God shall manifest or
identified him with a living individual, and at the same time to hold that he
set no time at all or, indeed, that he felt some need to refer to the latest
date of the manifestation as 1511 or 2001 years in the future. Early Bābī
opinion as to the probable lateness of the next manifestation would have been
reinforced by numerous statements of the Bāb, particularly in the Panj shaʾn,
to the effect that, unless the creation begun under one manifestation has
reached a state of completion (or perfection), the next manifestation will not
arrive…”, see http://b-ok.cc/book/831328/647821
Mullā Muḥammad
Jaʿfar Narāqī confirms that “…in his [earlier] professed declarations of
servitude [towards Ṣubḥ-i-Azal], [Bahā’u’llāh] would make the cap of pride and
boastful vainglory reach the summit of the heavens…” in tadhkirāt
al-ghāfilīn (Remonstrance to the Heedless Ones), CUL, E.G.
Browne Collection, F.63(9), 172, online, http://bayanic.com/showPict.php?id=tazk&ref=0&err=0&curr=0 (pagination
at 171 in digital Bayanic.com edition).
Asad’ullāh Fāḍil Māzāndarānī asrār al-āthār, vol.
5 (n.p., 129 badīʿ/1972-3 CE), 347, https://www.h-net.org/~bahai/areprint/authors/mazandarani/asrar.htm where
Bahāʾuʾllāh is quoted as saying, “Glory be to God!
Haven’t the critics and detractors (muʿariḍīn va munkirīn) realized by
now that what was sent over to the forerunner (mubashshir), meaning the
Point [i.e. the Bāb], was by whom? The knowledge is with God, the Lord of the
worlds!” Glossing upon this statement, Asad’ullāh
Fāḍil Māzandarānī writes: “The intention here is that the letters of
correspondence between Mīrzā Yaḥyā [i.e. Ṣubḥ-i-Azal] and the Point [i.e. the
Bāb] in the prison of Mākū (sic) [it was actually Chihrīq – trans.], which
became the reason for issuing the specified written decree [of succession], was
at the dictation of that holiness [i.e. Bahā’ullāh].” However, such statements
by the Bahā’ī founder are from the later period when the Azalī-Bahā’ī schism
was already an established fact. They do not explain his own recorded
utterances and statements regarding Ṣubḥ-i-Azal during this Baghdad
period, especially those made in his own Baghdad era will and testament as well
as other surviving documents; nor, for that matter, do they explain the Bāb’s
own expressed attitude towards Bahā’ullāh himself (whom he addressed only with
the abjad notation of ‘238’, i.e. the numerical value of
Ḥusayn-ʿAlī, and as the ‘brother of the Fruit’ [akh al-thamara] i.e.
Ṣubḥ-i-Azal) in one existent piece of correspondence where he directs him to
protect Ṣubḥ-i-Azal, a short epistle whose key section in
translation we quote here in full: “…From the element of the Most Splendorous (az
ʿunṣur-i-abhāʾ), namely Yaḥyā [i.e. Ṣubḥ-i-Azal], the written
tablets (alvāḥ-i-mastūrih), which hath disclosed from the simple
substance of ecstatic spiritual attraction, were perused, thanks be the
discloser of majesty, majestic and tremendous be he! Exercise a perfect
watchfulness over the spirit and vitality (rūḥ va irtivāh) of that
considered one [i.e. Ṣubḥ-i-Azal] so that the fierce simoom winds (aryāḥ-i-mushriqa)
do not settle upon the heart of that inhabitant; and, in writing and dictation,
the means of joy and delight in the acme of perfection should be facilitated
for his sake such that he, absolutely, never ever beholds any grief or sorrow,
neither secretly nor openly. And take the utmost care of him and his treasured
works (āthār-i-makhzūna) until your own time arrives (tā vaqt-i-khud),
for God is with the patient!” http://www.bayanic.com/showPict.php?id=some&ref=45&err=0&curr=45 & http://www.bayanic.com/showPict.php?id=some&ref=34&err=0&curr=10
…Hear the call
of the most holy leaf speaking unto you from behind the veils, for it is he who
is the one whom God [i.e. the Bāb] hath appointed as the peerless
self-subsistent (al-qayyūm). Verily he is the pre-eternal
luminary…Whomsoever turns aside from him hath perished…He is the white hand in
the siniatic mount for the Israel of the Bayān…God hath ordained in the book
that after the remembrance [dhikr, i.e. the Bāb] that all should turn
themselves towards the axis of this cause…O people of the Bayān, can anyone
produce like verses (āyāt) as unto those revealed in the book?…Verily
the remnant of God (baqīyatʾuʾllāh) in these days is the ascendant
light…Witness in your hearts the appearance of that ascendant light, for the
remnant of God who will appear in mustaghāth [i.e. 2001] is
indeed the real truth...Say, is not the face of light sufficient unto you all,
who is seen from behind the veils of glory by a command from God, the
all-seeing, the peerless self-subsistent? O people, have I not summoned you unto
God and his verses and unto the ascendant light?...Upon you all be the
remembrance [i.e. the Bāb] and unto those who prostrate themselves before the
face of God...Verily God hath made that Joseph, the light, the sovereign of the
true one in the city of the Bayān. But the people are as dead, concealing
themselves behind the veils of their own base egos, for the leaves of these
pages are proof of my servitude to his face [i.e. wajh, one of
Subh-i-Azal’s epithets bestowed by the Bāb], would you but know it, otherwise
destroy them in the river so that those in the realm of contingency might bear
witness to the verses of God, their Lord… http://www.bayanic.com/notes/bahaTest/BahaTestament.html
All above are
my translations. See my,
“The
Organizational Hierarchy of the Bābīs during the period of Ṣubḥ-i-Azal’s
Residency in Baghdad,
1852-1863,”
6.
In the first
chapter of the number of All Things, the decree which God - praised be It and
glorified - has rendered obligatory is the declaration :‘there is no god but
God, truly, truly’ (lā ilāha illa allāh ḥaqqan ḥaqqan). Wherefore, the whole of
the Bayān shall return to this declaration, and the appearance of a new
creation shall take place from it ~ Persian Bayān, 1:1.
Persian Bayān,
8:2…the death to the truth of which all are obliged to testify is
not this death which is well known to men, but rather that death in the
presence of the Tree of Reality (which involves dying
to) all save It/Him. This death is established only in five
degrees (1.) either the phrase ‘there is no God but It/He’ (lā
ilāha illa hūwa) or (2.) ‘there is no God but
I’ (lā ilāha illa anā) or, (3.) ‘there
is no God but God’ (lā ilāha illa allāh), or (4.)
‘there is no God but Thee’ (lā ilāha illa anta) or,
(5.) ‘there is no God but It in whom all are confident’ (lā
ilāha illa alladhī kullun bihi mawqinūn)…
What are the meanings of these, O
people of Hot Air (i.e. Bahāʾīs)?
7.
7.
جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ
الْبَاطِلُ إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا 17:81Qur’ān
The Truth has come and falsehood is extinguished. Verily falsehood is ever bound to pass away. ~ Al-Isra (the Night Journey)
لا حجّة إلا علي قبل نبيل
No Proof other
than ʿAlī before Nabil!
413
---
Post hoc ergo
propter hoc fallacy
---
Addendum
Afrooz Anvari's message on Telegram throwing in the towl.
Addendum
Afrooz Anvari's message on Telegram throwing in the towl.
Greetings dear
friends,
I hope all goes well. You have requested me to provide a response to a challenge put forth by Mr. Wahid Azal and I would like to begin by stating that I appreciate the time and energy that you all have put into this area of study. In recognition of Mr. Azal's preference to have a Skype or YouTube discussion, I am very also very appreciative of Mr. Azal and Dr. Keyvan Yahya'i, who have sacrificed their own likes and dislikes and been kind enough to respond to my request of creating a Telegram account for the continuation of this discussion. Wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors and may God Almighty watch over them as they strive to fulfill their dreams and desires.
Firstly, I would like to respond briefly to the video-response provided by Mr. Azal on the 'Baha'i Narrative' by asking questions on the subjects raised in the video and I hope we can reach an understanding via dialogue. Mr. Azal had mentioned in the video that the response I provided was a mere ' rehashing and regurgitating the Ruhi institute's points of the claims of Baha'u'llah'. I would like to ask Mr. Azal the following:
1. What do you mean by rehashing and regurgitating?
2. What did it look like prior to its being supposedly rehashed and regurgitated?
3. In your opinion, what would have been the method of rehashing and what do you consider regurgitating?
4. Who is responsible for such an act?
5. What do you mean by Ruhi-ized?
6. What is Ruhi-used synonymous with and what was it prior to it being supposedly Ruhi-ized?
The next point I would like to response to is Mr. Azal's claim that, '... false assumption that the Bab is the Mubashir [bringer of glad tidings] of Baha'u'llah. I would like to ask the following:
1. What do you mean buy false assumption that the Bab is the Mubashir?
2. Did he or did he not indicate the Coming of a Figure greater than Himself? If not, then the Bab lied, in both the Bab and Baha'u'llah are false meaning that we are still to expect the coming of the Twelfth Imam. And if yes, then the Bab was right and baha'u'llah is Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest. What are your thoughts?
Next, Mr. Azal mentioned in the video response that, 'the concept of Tubashir is one that has been concocted in the Baha'i Writings'. I would like to ask the following:
1. Bisharat means glad tidings and Mubashir is One who brings glad tidings. Mr. Azal has unfortunately and not surprisingly, misrepresented the Baha'i position by suggesting that this terminology was introduced by Baha'u'llah in 1867, hence the term concocted. I believe he refers to this as a concoction because he is aware of the implications. The fact that the Bab explicitly points to the Coming of a Messianic Figure, I would have to therefore say that the act of giving Bisharat is very much present, thus making the Bab, a Mubashir of Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest. My question is, how can the term 'concocted' be applied here when there is a direct indication to the Coming of a Greater Personage?
2. Would John the Baptist be a Mubashir? And did He have to mention it to be deemed as such?
Once again, I thank you all for you time and efforts in the domain of study and I look forward to your responses. Blessings.
