bahai_studies

WHO IS THE BAB ?                   

                                                             

This article is the first in a series which will deal with the life and the times of Mirza Ali Mohammed Shirazi - The Bab.

One may question the reason behind this series given that Bahaullah abrogated the religion of the Bab. However, readers will agree that to understand the Bahai Faith, one must dig deeper and verify the source of its revelation. Therefore it is important to establish the veracity of the Bab prior to establishing the truthfulness of Bahaullah. The Bahais claim that Bab was the forerunner of the Bahai Faith - and nothing could be closer to the truth than this. For it is only the appearance of the Bab which paved the way for Bahaullah and his claims. If the Bab is compromised, either in personality or in belief, it affects the credibility of the Bahai Faith. It is the recognition of this aspect which has led me to this treatise on the Bab.

The life and times of the Bab are colorful, yet terribly immersed in confusion. If the Bab is to be believed, he was the door to the hidden Imam Mahdi, then the return of Imam Mahdi himself and finally God incarnate Himself. If Bahai history is to be believed, the Bab was the return of the hidden Imam Mahdi, a prophet and the forerunner of Bahaullah all rolled into one. All in all, the Bab apparently was a personality so multi-faceted that it boggles the mind.

I hope to establish conclusively through my articles that the Bab was no better than any other false claimant to the position of the Hidden Imam; that he was ignorant in his thoughts, wavering in his claims and that his appearance was part of a larger conspiracy to destroy Islam and create factions in it. In fact the Bahais have claimed and raised the position of the Bab more than what the Bab claimed for himself. There is a reason for the multiplicity of the claims of the Bab and I will explain in my articles the reason for the same. I hope this will be established with the help of notes and references from existing Babi and Bahai writings. I will make liberal use of the writings of the Bab himself and provide links to the original documents as well wherever possible.

I seek help from the Almighty Allah that he grants me life and the opportunity to complete this work. I also request my readers to be objective in their reading; to be fair to the effort which has gone into painstakingly collecting the references about the life and times of the Bab and reasonable while pronouncing their final judgment.

Before moving ahead, I leave you, my readers with some of the impressions of the Bab. Do pay attention to the praise showered on the Bab, the lavish extolling of his virtues and the tributes paid to him by the Bahais.

"Bahais believe that the Bab (1819-1850) was an independent Messenger of God, whose mission was to inaugurate a new cycle in humanity's spiritual development. His writings prepared the way for the mission of Bahaullah."
(Ref: Official Bahai version on the position of the Bab)

"Bab was the gate to the hidden Imam Sahibuz Zaman, rather a rank which excelled Sahibuz Zaman, the Qaem awaited by Shiahs, the Mahdi awaited by the Sunnis, the perfection of Moses, the radiance of Jesus and the patience of Job (Hazrat Ayyub)."
(Ref: God Passes By, Shoghi Effendi. One may read the article on God Passes By for the respective page numbers)

Bahaullah affirmed that the Bab was "the Herald of His Name and the Harbinger of His Great Revelation which hath caused...the splendor of His light to shine forth above the horizon of the world." The Bab's appearance marked the end of the "Prophetic Cycle" of religious history, and ushered in the "Cycle of Fulfillment."
(Ref: Tablets of Bahaullah, p. 102)

The Bahai writings attest that "the greatness of the Bab consists primarily, not in His being the divinely-appointed Forerunner of so transcendent a Revelation, but rather in His having been invested with the powers inherent in the inaugurator of a separate religious Dispensation, and in His wielding, to a degree unrivaled by the Messengers gone before Him, the scepter of independent Prophethood.
(Ref: The World Order of Bahaullah, p. 123)

Abdul Baha says, "The Bab, the Exalted One, is the Morn of Truth, the splendor of Whose light shineth throughout all regions. He is also the Harbinger of the Most Great Light, the Abha Luminary (Bahaullah)."
(Ref: The World Order of Bahaullah, p. 127)

Source: www.bahaiawareness.com

Was the Bab unlettered?

The hallmark of prophets divinely appointed prophets and messengers is that they were taught directly in the divine school - they did not have any human teacher who taught them the nuances of knowledge or introduced worldly sciences to them.

Abdul Baha too acknowledges this fact. He writes, "It is incumbent on every prophet that he gains knowledge from Allah alone and not from any human being and such is the practice of all prophets like Prophet Ibrahim, Hazrat Mohammed, Hazrat Bab and Bahaullah. All of them did not study in any school because the one who owes his knowledge to human schools cannot be a divine representative."
(Ref: Khutubat-e-Buzurg, page 8)

The Bab - His first declaration

God, verily, hath decreed that this Book be divulged in interpretation (tafsir) of the "Best of Narratives" on the part of Muhammad, the son of Hasan, the son of Ali, son of Muhammad, the son of Ali, the son of Musa, the son of Ja`far, the son of Muhammad, the son of Ali, the son of Husayn, the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib unto His servant (The Bab) to the end that it might be an eloquent Proof of God from the Remembrance (al-dhikr) unto all the worlds. (Ref: Qayyamul Asma, Surah Mulk, verse 10)

Dear readers, the above statement of the Bab is recorded in Qayyamul Asma, the chapter of Mulk (Kingdom) - the very first revelation of the Bab on the night of his declaration. In his very first revelation, Bab indicated the following for Mankind:

1. Imam Hasan Askari (as), the eleventh Shiite Imam did have a son
2. The name of the son was Mohammed
3. Bab considered himself as the servant of the 12 Imams
4. He put forth the Qayyamul Asma as his proof of being a servant of the 12 Imams
5. By proof, it is meant that he had some hidden connection with the 12th Imam.

Thereafter Bab proceeded to declare, "I am the Bab (Gate) and you (Mulla Hussain) are the Bab'ul Bab (Gate to the Gate)"

Once again, Shoghi Effendi has liberally added the words Door to Allah in the above statement. However when we read the words of the Bab in Qayyamul Asma, we are clearly told that Bab believed in 12 Imams - the first of whom was Imam Ali (as) and the last was the Hidden Imam - Mohammed, the son of Hasan (as).

The book Traveller's Narrative translated by E G Browne too endorses the view that the Bab through his declaration assumed the leadership of the headless Shaykhi sect.

It seems that the support of the Shaykhis was garnered more by Mulla Husayn than by Bab himself. "No sooner was he (Mulla Husayn) convinced, than,.....he hastened to apprise his friends and comrades of his discovery. Thus did he become the 'Gate of the Gate' *Bab-ul-Bab)". The Shaykhis who "were in general, anxiously expecting the appearance of someone who should assume the leadership of their party", were turning to Haji Mohammed Karim Khan. "A considerable number headed by Haji Mohammed Karim Khan of Kirman utterly declined to accept Bab's pretensions". Those Shaykhis who were not impressed by Haji Mohammed Karim Khan accepted the Bab on the behest of Mulla Husayn.
(Ref: Traveller's Narrative, pages 240-241)

Lastly, the Bab ordered his "new" disciple to exercise Taqaiyyah (dissimulation). He ordered Mulla Hussain thus: "It is incumbent upon you not to divulge, either to your companions or to any other soul, that which you have seen and heard. Be engaged in the Masjid-i-Ilkhani in prayer and in teaching. I, too, will there join you in congregational prayer. Beware lest your attitude towards Me betray the secret of your faith. You should continue in this occupation and maintain this attitude until our departure for Hijaz."
(Ref: Dawn Breakers, Chapter 3, page 63)

To conclude, as per the narration of Dawn Breakers,

1. Ali Mohammed Shirazi made a declaration of being the Bab of the Hidden Imam on 5th Jamadiul Awwal 1260. At no place during the declaration did Bab say that he was the Hidden Imam.
2. If Mulla Hussain believed him to be the Hidden Imam, he would have expressed it clearly and would have addressed the Bab with at least one of the titles of the 12th Imam at that time. This aspect is notably missing during the incident.
3. Bab ordered Mulla Hussain to remain in the condition of Taqaiyyah and not to reveal the subject matter of the meeting to any person. One possible explanation could be that about five months had passed from the death of Sayyed Kazim Rashty. There was an entire community of Shaykhis who were leaderless. At the same time, there were claimants to the coveted post of the leader of the Shaykhis. The Bab sought to occupy this position and presented his case to Mulla Hussain on that fateful evening.

Source: www.bahaiawareness.com

A CRUCIAL QUESTION: WHO IS MUHAMMAD ibn Al-Hassan Al-Mahdi?

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On page 27 of the book Sahifae Adaliyah , the Bab outlines the Shiite belief of Imamate and says that there are 12 Imams and takes their names. The last name he takes is "Al Qaem Mohammed Ibnil Hasan Sahebazzaman". The link to this page is: http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/areprint/bab/S-Z/sahifadl/adl027.jpg

Who was Mohamed Ibnil Hasan whom the Bab says was the 12th Imam? and if Bab says that Mohammed Ibnil Hasan was the 12th Imam, then where is the question that the Bab was the 12th Imam?