The Reconciliation of Races and ReligionsCheyne, T. K. (Thomas Kelly)
Religion
The Reconciliation of Races and Religions
Cheyne, T. K. (Thomas Kelly)
Bahais
It has already been remarked that such 'transfiguration' is not wholly
supernatural. Persons who have experienced those wonderful phenomena
which are known as ecstatic, often exhibit what seems like a
triumphant and angelic irradiation. So--to keep near home--it was
among the Welsh in their last great revival. Such, too, was the
brightness which, Yaḥya Khan and other eye-witnesses agree, suffused
the Bāb's countenance more than ever in this period. Many adverse
things might happen, but the 'Point' of Divine Wisdom could not be
torn from His moorings. In that miserable dark brick chamber He was
'in Paradise.' The horrid warfare at Sheykh Tabarsi and elsewhere,
which robbed him of Bābu'l Bāb and of Ḳuddus, forced human tears
from him for a time; but one who dwelt in the 'Heaven of
Pre-existence' knew that 'Returns' could be counted upon, and was
fully assured that the gifts and graces of Ḳuddus had passed into
Mirza Yaḥya (Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel). For himself he was free from
anxiety. His work would be carried on by another and a greater
Manifestation. He did not therefore favour schemes for his own
forcible deliverance.
We have no direct evidence that Yaḥya Khan was dismissed from his
office as a mark of the royal displeasure at his gentleness. But he
must have been already removed and imprisoned, [Footnote: _NH_,
p. 353.] when the vizier wrote to the Crown Prince (Nasiru'd-Din,
afterwards Shah) and governor of Azarbaijan directing him to summon
the Bāb to Tabriz and convene an assembly of clergy and laity to
discuss in the Bāb's presence the validity of his claims.
[Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 284.] The Bāb was therefore sent, and
the meeting held, but there is (as Browne has shown) no trustworthy
account of the deliberations. [Footnote: _TN_, Note M, 'Bāb
Examined at Tabriz.'] Of course, the Bāb had something better to do
than to record the often trivial questions put to him from anything
but a simple desire for truth, so that unless the great Accused had
some friend to accompany him (which does not appear to have been the
case) there could hardly be an authentic Bābī narrative. And as
for the Muslim accounts, those which we have before us do not bear the
stamp of truth: they seem to be forgeries. Knowing what we do of the
Bāb, it is probable that he had the best of the argument, and that
the doctors and functionaries who attended the meeting were unwilling
to put upon record their own fiasco.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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