Selections From the Writings of the BábBab, ʻAli Muhammad Shirazi
Religion
Selections From the Writings of the Báb
Bab, ʻAli Muhammad Shirazi
Babism; Bahai Faith
Gracious God! Within the domains of Islám there are at present seven
powerful sovereigns ruling the world. None of them hath been informed of
His [the Báb’s] Manifestation, and if informed, none hath believed in Him.
Who knoweth, they may leave this world below full of desire, and without
having realized that the thing for which they were waiting had come to
pass. This is what happened to the monarchs that held fast unto the
Gospel. They awaited the coming of the Prophet of God [Muḥammad], and when
He did appear, they failed to recognize Him. Behold how great are the sums
which these sovereigns expend without even the slightest thought of
appointing an official charged with the task of acquainting them in their
own realms with the Manifestation of God! They would thereby have
fulfilled the purpose for which they have been created. All their desires
have been and are still fixed upon leaving behind them traces of their
names.
“Ponder likewise the Dispensation of the Apostle of God ...”
Ponder likewise the Dispensation of the Apostle of God which lasted twelve
hundred and seventy years(67) till the dawn of the manifestation of the
Bayán. He directed everyone to await the advent of the Promised Qá’im. All
deeds which in the Islamic Dispensation began with Muḥammad should find
their consummation through the appearance of the Qá’im. God hath made Him
manifest invested with the proof wherewith the Apostle of God was
invested, so that none of the believers in the Qur’án might entertain
doubts about the validity of His Cause, for it is set down in the Qur’án
that none but God is capable of revealing verses. During the period of
1270 years no one among the followers of the Qur’án ever witnessed a
person appearing with conclusive proofs. Now the Ever-Living Lord hath
made manifest and invested with supreme testimony this long-awaited
Promised One from a place no one could imagine and from a person whose
knowledge was deemed of no account. His age is no more than twenty-five
years, yet His glory is such as none of the learned among the people of
Islám can rival; inasmuch as man’s glory lieth in his knowledge. Behold
the learned who are honoured by virtue of their ability to understand the
Holy Writings, and God hath exalted them to such a degree that in
referring to them He saith: ‘None knoweth the meaning thereof except God
and them that are well-grounded in knowledge.’(68) How strange then that
this twenty-five-year-old untutored one should be singled out to reveal
His verses in so astounding a manner. If the Muslim divines have cause for
pride in understanding the meaning of the Holy Writings, His glory is in
revealing the Writings, that none of them may hesitate to believe in His
Words. So great is the celestial might and power which God hath revealed
in Him that if it were His will and no break should intervene He could,
within the space of five days and nights, reveal the equivalent of the
Qur’án which was sent down in twenty-three years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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