The Reconciliation of Races and ReligionsCheyne, T. K. (Thomas Kelly)
Religion
The Reconciliation of Races and Religions
Cheyne, T. K. (Thomas Kelly)
Bahais
On Aḥmad's death the unanimous choice of the members of the school
fell on Seyyid (Sayyid) Kaẓim of Resht, who had been already
nominated by the Sheykh. He pursued the same course as his
predecessor, and attracted many inquirers and disciples. Among the
latter was the lady Kurratu'l 'Ayn, born in a town where the Sheykhi
sect was strong, and of a family accustomed to religious controversy.
He was not fifty when he died, but his career was a distinguished one.
Himself a Gate, he discerned the successor by whom he was to be
overshadowed, and he was the teacher of the famous lady referred
to. To what extent 'Ali Muḥammad (the subsequent Bāb) was
instructed by him is uncertain. It was long enough no doubt to make
him a Sheykhite and to justify 'Ali Muḥammad in his own eyes for
raising Sheykh Aḥmad and the Seyyid Kaẓim to the dignity of Bāb.
[Footnote: _AMB_, pp. 91, 95; cp. _NH_, p. 342.]
There seems to be conclusive evidence that Seyyid Kaẓim adverted
often near the close of life to the divine Manifestation which he
believed to be at hand. He was fond of saying, 'I see him as the
rising sun.' He was also wont to declare that the 'Proof' would be a
youth of the race of Hashim, i.e. a kinsman of Muḥammad,
untaught in the learning of men. Of a dream which he heard from an
Arab (when in Turkish Arabia), he said, 'This dream signifies that my
departure from the world is near at hand'; and when his friends wept
at this, he remonstrated with them, saying, 'Why are ye troubled in
mind? Desire ye not that I should depart, and that the truth [in
person] should appear?' [Footnote: _NH_, p. 31.]
I leave it an open question whether Seyyid Kaẓim had actually fixed
on the person who was to be his successor, and to reflect the Supreme
Wisdom far more brilliantly than himself. But there is no reason to
doubt that he regarded his own life and labours as transitional, and
it is possible that by the rising sun of which he loved to speak he
meant that strange youth of Shiraz who had been an irregular attendant
at his lectures. Very different, it is true, is the Muḥammadan
legend. It states that 'Ali Muḥammad was present at Karbala from
the death of the Master, that he came to an understanding with members
of the school, and that after starting certain miracle-stories, all of
them proceeded to Mecca, to fulfil the predictions which connected the
Prophet-Messiah with that Holy City, where, with bared sabre, he would
summon the peoples to the true God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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