Symbol and Secret: Chapter Two

[page 51]

CHAPTER TWO

EXEGESIS AND IDEOLOGY:
THE DOCTRINAL CONTENT OF
THE BOOK OF CERTITUDE

THE PLACE OF THE KITÁB-I ÍQÁN IN
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH'S WRITINGS

All of the writings of Bahá'u'lláh in the post-Baghdad period (1863-1892) ideologically presuppose The Book of Certitude. Its ever-expanding dissemination was boosted after 1863 by its post-declaration status as revelation. This single work went far toward establishing Bahá'u'lláh's prophetic credentials in every missionary enterprise. One reason for the popularity of The Book of Certitude, according to sociologist Peter Smith, was its "lucidity" which, in the context of contemporary Bábí literature, was "revolutionary."' "To an unprecedented degree," Smith writes, "in terms of their own literary tradition the Bábís now had access to books which not only evoked feelings of wonderment or spiritual ecstasy, but which communicated coherent statements of belief."²

Those who wished to oppose Bahá'ís on doctrinal grounds were obliged to refute the Kitáb-i Iqan, which was in circulation among Bahá'ís wherever they went. The work became so closely identified with Bahá'u'lláh that its place as the first

[page 52]

published Bahá'í work was assured, not merely because of its doctrinal importance but by virtue of its popularity.

From a Bahá'í perspective, The Book of Certitude occupies a position of "unsurpassed preeminence among the doctrinal . . . writings of the Author of the Bahá'í Dispensation."³ Bahá'u'lláh himself distinguishes the Kitáb-i Íqán as "the Lord of Books" (sayyid-i kutub).⁴ Beyond this is the fact that Browne attests that "almost every Bábí [meaning, Bahá'í] who possesses any books at all has a copy of it, and from its pages their arguments are for the most part drawn."⁵

Bahá'u'lláh's authorization of its printing established the Kitáb-i Íqán as the ideological foundation upon which was based the more weighty Kitáb-i Adqas (Bahá'u'lláh's book of laws).⁶ Bahá'u'lláh's choice of the Persian language for The Book of Certitude was helpful in its diffusion, since most of the early Bahá'ís, for much of the first century of Bahá'í expansion, were Persians.⁷ Persian Bahá'ís who "pioneered" to other countries to spread'the Faith invariably were confronted with the need to translate the text (or its ideas) into the languages of new teaching frontiers.

In the three decades after the Kitáb-i Íqán, literally thousands more Tablets were revealed. Even so, Bahá'u'lláh expresses satisfaction with the work as sufficient, in argument, unto itself. In his last major work, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Bahá'u'lláh states: "Briefly, there hath been revealed in the Kitáb-i Íqán concerning the Presence and Revelation of God that which will suffice the fair-minded."⁸ Its importance in Bahá'í personal "deepening" and propagation of the Faith cannot be overemphasized. Shoghi Effendi recommended:

The [Bahá'í] friends, and particularly those who wish to be come competent and useful teachers, should indeed consider it to be their first duty to acquaint themselves, as thoroughly as they can, with each and every detail in this Holy Book, so that they may be able to present the Message in a befitting manner.⁹

[page 53]

The importance of The Book of Certitude is by no means restricted to the realm of faith, since the text is fundamental to the study of the Bahá'í religion. Its significance resides in its doctrinal content, epitomized by Shoghi Effendi as follows:

Within a compass of two hundred pages it proclaims unequivocally the existence and oneness of a personal God, unknowable, inaccessible, the source of all Revelation, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and almighty; asserts the relativity of religious truth and the continuity of Divine Revelation; affirms the unity of the Prophets, the universality of their Message, the identity of their fundamental teachings, the sanctity of their scriptures, and the twofold character of their stations; denounces the blindness and perversity of the divines and doctors of every age; cites and elucidates the allegorical passages of the New Testament, the abstruse verses of the Qur'án, and the cryptic Muhammadan traditions which have bred those age-long misunderstandings, doubts and animosities that have sundered and kept apart the followers of the world's leading religious systems; enumerates the essential prerequisites for the attainment by every true seeker of the object of his quest; demonstrates the validity, the sublimity and significance of the Báb's Revelation; acclaims the heroism and detachment of His disciples; foreshadows, and prophesies the worldwide triumph of the Revelation promised to the people of the Bayán; upholds the purity and innocence of the Virgin Mary; glorifies the Irnams of the Faith of Muhammad; celebrates the martyrdom, and lauds the spiritual sovereignty, of the Imam Husayn; unfolds the meaning of such symbolic terms as "Return," "Resurrection," "Seal of the Prophets" and "Day of Judgment," adumbrates and distinguishes between the three stages of Divine Revelation; and expatiates, in glowing terms, upon the glories and wonders of the "City of God," renewed, at fixed intervals, by the dispensation of Providence, for the guidance, the benefit and salvation of all mankind. Well may it be claimed that of all the books revealed by the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation, this Book alone, by sweeping away the age-long barriers that have so insurmountably separated the great religions of the

[page 54]

world, has laid down a broad and unassailable foundation for the complete and permanent reconciliation of their followers.¹⁰

ADVANCE LEGITIMATION OF
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH'S OWN MISSION

From a historical perspective, The Book of Certitude was written in support of the prophetic vocation of the Báb. It focused on spiritual authority from an Islamic perspective. The Book of Certitude rationalized the eschatologically conceived break from Islam. At the same time, this work served to heighten the adventist fervor current in the Bábí community in anticipation of the appearance of another prophetic figure foretold by the Báb.

In The Book of Certitude, a subtext may be discerned, in which Bahá'u'lláh intimates his own mission through a new messianic paradigm employing the old symbols of Shí'ísm. To the extent that Bahá'u'lláh succeeded in vindicating the qá'imiyya (messianic status) of the Báb, he succeeded, by implication, in legitimating his own authority as well. The Book of Certitude is, after all is said and done, an apology for two eschatological figures: the Báb (as Qá'im) and, in anticipation of Bahá'u'lláh's own mission, "He Whom God Shall Make Manifest" (man yuzhiruhulláh).

From this vantage, The Book of Certitude may be thought of as a work of covert revelation, during the period of Bahá'u'lláh's messianic secrecy (1852-63), when intimation preceded proclamation. In actual usage, The Book of Certitude—within a year or two of its circulation among the Bábí community—reflexively legitimated Bahá'u'lláh's own spiritual authority. Internal evidence within the text suggests that The Book of Certitude was ideologically circumlo-cutional. In the course of foreshadowing his own authority through a defence of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh sought to disenchant popular as well as clerical speculations on the eschaton.

[page 55]

This approach to the text has heuristic value in discerning the structure of Bahá'u'lláh's argument and in following how the author overcame theoretical obstacles to a realized eschaton, the most formidable of which was Islam's doctrine of revelatory finality.

BEYOND THE "SEAL OF THE PROPHETS"

Islam is founded on the conviction that Muhammad is the final Messenger of God, marking the revelatory crescendo of prophetic history. The Prophet is first among equals, but last in historical sequence, having imparted to humankind the fullest revelation ever vouchsafed by God in history. The residue of this revelation is the Qur'án, arguably the most influential book in human history. The term "Seal of the Prophets" is quranic; thus the doctrine of the Prophet's finality brooks no compromise in Muslim eyes.

Bahá'u'lláh faced a doctrinal impasse. This was no mere creedal abstraction. The doctrine was central. It was effectively enforced throughout Islamic history to ward off any attempts at innovation. Fresh in Bahá'u'lláh's memory was the fate of his predecessor, the Báb, silenced by a firing squad in 1850. The Báb had dared advance a claim to revelation and to effect a renovation of Islam, tantamount to a break from it. Muslim and state authorities had all but exterminated the Bábís. In effect, it took no less than a new revelator, Bahá'u'lláh, to revitalize the movement. In The Book of Certitude, Bahá'u'lláh advanced what might be thought of as a theory of religious relativity. This theory was grounded in the Qur'án. By way of background, it is illuminating to look back in retrospect to the origins of Islam, as a kind of prospectus on the emergence of Bahá'í doctrine.

The history of religions shows evidence that new religions are often first proclaimed through universalisms, and later through dogmatic exclusivities and triumphal formulas

[page 56]

expressing revelatory and salvational uniqueness. Tension between inclusive and exclusive proclamations is seen in Acts 10:34-35 and Acts 4:12 in the New Testament. In the former verse, salvation is given to righteous God-fearers among the gentiles, whereas in the latter "no other name" apart from Jesus can effect salvation. In the case of Islam, Friedmann observes:

Bearing in mind the notion of Islamic superiority, so manifest in the Qur'án as well as in numerous other branches of Islamic literature, it is noteworthy that a considerable body of material found in the earliest sources regards all prophets as equal and refrains from according the Prophet Muhammad any superior standing among them."

But this egalitarian approach toward other prophets (i.e., Qur'án 2:136, 285; 3:84; 4:152) soon lost its primacy. The notion of differences of rank between prophets (i.e., Qur'án 2:253; 17:55) helped to justify the superiority of Muhammad. Accordingly, no doctrine is more cardinal to Islam than the belief that Muhammad is the "Seal of the Prophets" (khátam [or khatim] al-nabiyyin). This distinct title derives from Qur'án 33:40: "Muhammad was not the father of any man among you, but the messenger of Alláh and the Seal of the Prophets."¹² In the earliest currents of Islamic consciousness, however, this honorific was by no means understood uniformly. There is, moreover, no logical relation between the denial of Paternity on Muhammad's part and his being the Seal of the Prophets.¹³ Yet, according to some traditionalists, were a person to acknowledge Muhammad as a prophet, but not as the last prophet, such a person is not a believer.¹⁴

As formulated and interpreted, the doctrine of the Seal effectively denies the possibility of future revelations from God, securing the Qur'án as the last word on God and sacred law. This doctrine of finality safeguards the authority of

[page 57]

institutional Islam. Questions of Islamic legislative adaptability aside, on principle alone the doctrine of revelatory finality precludes any claim to a fresh revelation from God. The received understanding of Qur'án 33:40, and the priority given to it, override consideration of any and all future revelatory acts of God. This single verse stood as the most formidable doctrinal obstacle facing Bahá'u'lláh, who not only recognized this fact, but had to bear the brunt of its institutional enforcement throughout his forty-year imprisonment and exile.

The Book of Certitude is formally and ostensibly a vindication of the divine mission of the Báb. Bahá'u'lláh argues that: (1) although Muhammad is the Seal of the Prophets, this is a title that can be meaningfully applied to all the messengers of God; (2) Muhammad is not the last prophet in a temporal sense; (3) Shí'í as well as Sunni tradition foretells the advent of another eschatological figure (the Mahdi/Qá'im); (4) exegetically, the Qá'im is to be identified with the quranic promise of divine encounter ("meeting God"); (5) this "Manifestation of God" is none other than the Báb; (6) the world awaits another theophany, "He Whom God Shall Make Manifest."

The significance of Bahá'u'lláh's argument against revelatory finality (the foundation for which argument was laid by the Báb) is seen in Amanat's observation:

As the Qur'an itself points out, Islam is the final revelation and Muharmnad the "seal of the prophets." This claim, consistently upheld by Islamic orthodoxy, not only militates against the notion of prophetic continuity but also hinders any attempt at the renovation of doctrine. No intellectual current in the course of Islamic history-not even the Sufis' claim to intuitive inspiration or the philosophers' rational exposition of the fundamentals of the Islamic faith-has ever escaped this predicament. ¹⁵

Bahá'u'lláh overrides the obstacle of the "Seal" from several directions. In so doing, he defines the designation as an attribute common to all messengers of God. The concept of

[page 58]

the "Seal" as "Last" is kept intact, but "Last" indicates importance rather than temporality. Bahá'u'lláh sets up his argument by citing a tradition in which Muhammad is reported to have said, "I am Jesus."¹⁶ Enlarging on the quranic theme of the oneness of the prophets, Bahá'u'lláh writes:

Hath not Muhammad, Himself, declared: "I am all the Prophets."? Hath He not said as We have already mentioned: "I am Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus."? Why should Muhammad, that immortal Beauty, Who hath said: "I am the first Adam," be incapable of saying also: "I am the last Adam."? For even as He regarded Himself to be the "First of the Prophets"-that is Adam-in like manner, the "Seal of the Prophets" is also applicable unto that Divine Beauty. It is admittedly obvious that being the "First of the Prophets," He likewise is their "Seal."¹⁷

Viewed in this light, they [the Prophets] are all but Messengers of that ideal King, that unchangeable Essence. And were they all to proclaim: "I am the Seal of the Prophets," they verily utter but the truth, beyond the faintest shadow of a doubt. For they are all but one person, one soul, one spirit, one being, one revelation. They are all the Manifestation of the "Beginning" and the "End," the "First" and the "Last," the "Seen" and the "Hidden"—all of which pertain to Him Who is the innermost Spirit of Spirits and eternal Essence of Essences.¹⁸

Having linked quranic concepts of prophetic unity with this quranic distinction (Quran 33:40), a tenable leap in logic for Bahá'u'lláh was to suggest that if the prophets share the same essence, they should also share the same attributes, including that expressed by the title, "Seal of the Prophets." (Bahá'u'lláh does allow for distinctions in station and intensity of revelation, however.) By the force of this argument, Jesus is fully equal with the prophet Muhammad, since Jesus is considered "the Seal of the Prophets" as well. The same is likewise the case with the prophet Adam and the Patriarchs of yore:¹⁹ "Behold, O concourse of the earth," Bahá'u'lláh

[page 59]

exclaims, "the splendours of the End, revealed in the Manifestations of the Beginning!"²⁰

In fine, Bahá'u'lláh applies quranic concepts of the oneness of the prophets to relativize the idea of the "Seal of the Prophets." The accepted notion of the "Seal" as meaning "last" is kept intact, but "last" indicates authority rather than succession. Through an associative equivalence grounded in the Qur'án's message of prophetic oneness, the "Seal of the Prophets" distinguishes all the Messengers of God. The argument has other nuances as well. Some of these will be discussed later. In The Book of Certitude, Bahá'u'lláh shows orthodox claims to Muhammad's ultimacy as trading on notions of triumphalism to the exclusion of the quranic concept of prophetic unity. Bahá'u'lláh has used one quranic doctrine as a constraint on another.

So far, such argumentation in itself is highly abstract. Islamic history, indeed religious history, is presented by Bahá'ís, with a test case: the Báb's claim to be an eschato'logical figure of world historical proportions. To complicate matters, the Báb himself spoke of yet another eschatological figure, with some indications that the advent of such a figure was imminent. This problem had to be worked out in an Islamic context; but, as destiny would have it, Bahá'u'lláh's arguments in The Book of Certitude were soon to be applied, in principle, to non-islamic contexts as well. We proceed now to Bahá'u'lláh's apologetic as it applies to the Báb.

THE QÁ'IM AND HE WHOM GOD
SHALL MAKE MANIFEST

As stated, the formal purpose of The Book of Certitude is to vindicate the prophetic credentials of the Báb. The Báb is identified with the eschatological figure known in Sunni Islam as the Mahdi, and known more commonly in Shí'ísm as the Qá'im. In Sunni Islam, the Mahdi (literally, "Guided One") is a restorer who reestablishes a just theocracy under

[page 60]

Islamic law. In Shí'ísm, the Qá'im (literally, "Riser") is a redresser of wrongs, an avenger. Though in both traditions the Mahdi is to be a descendant of Muhammad, Shí'í tradition is more specific: the Qá'im is the visible return of the Twelfth Imam, who disappeared in year 260 A.H. The Báb identified himself with this figure. Less dramatic than his many other proclamations but explicit as to this specific identification is the Báb's affirmation: "He Who hath revealed the Qur'án unto Muhammad, the Apostle of God, . . . hath likewise revealed the Bay.an.... unto Him Who is your Qá'im, your Guide, your Mahdi."²¹

The Báb's proclamations took various forms. Many were expressed in a language of power and authority. More significant, as far as Bahá'u'lláh's own authority is concerned, is the Báb's foretelling of a future prophetic advent following his own. This has little to do with Shí'í tradition itself, which expects no major eschatological figure after the Qá'im. Even the return of Imám Husayn (with whom Bahá'u'lláh would later identify himself) plays a relatively minor role in Shí'í expectations. The Báb, however, was quite emphatic about the advent (imminent or distant is a matter of dispute) of an eschatological figure more important than he. The Bábís were, of course, quite aware of the Báb's teachings on this count. To be a Bábí was not only to believe in the Báb, but to prepare for the advent of a still greater Manifestation of God. The currency and vitality of this expectancy is evident in the rash of eschatological claims made by Bábís immediately following the martyrdom of the Báb.²²

The Báb is clear as to the ultimate purpose of his mission:

It behooveth you to await the Day of the appearance of Him Whom God shall manifest. Indeed My aim in planting the Tree of the Bayán hath been none other than to enable you to recognize Me. In truth I Myself am the first to bow down before God and to believe in Him. Therefore let not your recognition become fruitless, inasmuch as the Bayán, notwithstanding the

[page 61]

sublimity of its station, beareth fealty to Him Whom God shall make manifest

... 0 congregation of the Bayán ... Suffer not yourselves to be shut out as by a veil from God after He hath revealed Himself. For all that hath been exalted in the Bayán is but as a ring upon My hand, and I Myself am, verily, but a ring upon the hand of Him Whom God shall make manifest-glorified be His mention!²³

We have seen how Bahá'u'lláh uses quranic concepts of prophetic oneness to explain the concept of the Seal of the Prophets. This distinction, which in Islamic tradition is exclusively reserved for Muhammad, is distributed by Bahá'u'lláh to the other Messengers of God as well. But quranic interpretation can be taken only so far. Bahá'u'lláh stretched interpretation of "Seal of the Prophets" far beyond Islamic limits. To bolster interpretation, Shí'í traditions were available in abundance, a fund on which any exegete might legitimately draw. Islamic traditions have a certain attraction: though less authoritative, they tend, on the whole, to be quite literal, forthright, and easy to understand. Bahá'u'lláh, somewhat reluctantly it seems, invokes Shí'í tradition, selecting some rather unusual and striking traditions on the figure of the Qá'im and his legislative role in the eschaton.²⁴

The gist of the traditions cited is that a new code of law (shari'a) will replace the old. For example: "A Youth from Bani-Háshim shall be made manifest, Who will reveal a new Book and promulgate a new law. Most of His enemies will be the divines." Ascribed to Ja'far al-Sádiq, the Sixth Imám (d. 148 A.H./765 C.E.), is a similar tradition: "There shall appear a Youth from Baní-Háshim, Who will bid the people plight fealty unto Him. His Book will be a new Book, unto which He shall summon the people to pledge their faith. Stern is His Revelation unto the Arab. If ye hear about Him, hasten unto Him!"²⁵ Momen locates such traditions in Majlisí's Bihár al-anwár and in Shaykh al-Mufíd's Kitáb aI-irshád.²⁶

[page 62]

Drawn from the often contradictory and overburdening fund of Shí'í traditions, Bahá'u'lláh's citations suggest the eventuality of a new sharia, with a clear anti-clerical strain. Bahá'u'lláh states:

Notwithstanding all the verses of the Qur'án, and the recognized traditions, which are all indicative of a new Faith, a new Law, and a new Revelation, this generation still waiteth in expectation of beholding the promised One who should uphold the Law of the Muhammadan Dispensation. The Jews and the Christians in like manner uphold the same contention.²⁷

Beyond the "Seal of the Prophets" is uncharted exegetical territory. Bahá'u'lláh opens up a whole new line of interpretation by drawing a simple quranic equation: The Qaim of Islamic tradition is the "presence of God" in the Qur'án. Throughout The Book of Certitude, Bahá'u'lláh consistently identifies the figure of the Qá'im with the quranic "presence of God," in which Gods "presence" (not essence) is incarnated in the person of an eschatological fulfiller whose charisma is the numinosity of God. The latter identification is not exclusive to the Qá'im for good reason, since it equally applies to the messenger foretold by the Báb.

The Book of Certitude then, after all is said and done, is an apology for two eschatological figures: the Báb (as Qá'im) and "He Whom God Shall Make Manifest." In this light, The Book of Certitude can be seen as advance legitimation for Bahá'u'lláh's own prophetic credentials, regardless of whether or not his own self-consciousness was messianic in 1861-62. The common denominator here is the significance of the eschatological "presence of God" found in the Qur'án's forewarnings of the meeting with God on the Day of Judgment.

[page 63]

THE ESCHATOLOGICAL "PRESENCE OF GOD"

The notion of divine encounter in the eschaton forms a major exegetical theme in The Book of Certitude. Bahá'u'lláh, nonetheless, takes pains to distance God from all anthropomorphisms, quranic or otherwise. He extends his purge of anthropomorphic concepts to quranic eschatology as well, such that God never makes a personal appearance in the apocalyptic drama, but rather directs it.

The divine encounter, therefore, is realized through the person of the Manifestation of God, since God cannot otherwise be seen or even known. Thus understood, the Qur'án's repeated threat of encounter with God on the Judgment Day must refer not to God as a person but to a person ("Manifestation") of God. Just as Muhammad manifests the Will and Presence of the transcendent deity, so also must the quranic eschatological "God" be a mediated deity. According to Bahá'u'lláh, the Qur'án refers to this deputy of God in vario.us ways, one of which is its cryptic references to "the presence of God":

Even as the Lord of being hath in His unerring Book, after speaking of the "Seal" in His exalted utterance: "Muhammad is the Apostle of God and the Seal of the Prophets," [Qur'án 33:401 hath revealed unto all people the promise of "attainment unto the divine Presence." [Qur'án 33:44] To this attainment to the presence of the immortal King testify the verses of the Book, some of which We have already mentioned. The one true God is My witness! Nothing more exalted or more explicit than "attainment unto the divine Presence" hath been revealed in the Qur'án ...

It hath been demonstrated and definitely established, through clear evidences, that by "Resurrection" is meant the rise of the Manifestation of God to proclaim His Cause, and by "attainment unto the divine Presence" is meant attainment unto the presence of His Beauty in the person of His Manifestation. For verily, "No vision taketh in Him, but He taketh in all vision."[Qur'án 6:103]

[page 64]

Notwithstanding all these indubitable facts and lucid statements, they have foolishly clung to the term "seal," and remained utterly deprived of the recognition of Him Who is the Revealer of both the Seal and the Beginning, in the day of His presence.²⁸

Bahá'u'lláh attaches great importance to the Qur'án's forebodings of the eschatological encounter with God. Every reference to "presence of God" (liqá' Alláh) in the Qur'án has particular significance for Bahá'u'lláh, who suggests that the "Seal of the Prophets" verse at Qur'án 33:40 is eclipsed four verses later by the eschatological event of meeting God.

DOES THE BOOK OF CERTITUDE HARBOR A "MESSIANIC SECRET"?

The problem arises as to whether Bahá'u'lláh was harboring his own messianic secret during the Baghdad period, and whether The Book of Certitude should be interpreted in this light. If so, the entire work can be read in allusive, selfreferential terms, much like the Nazareth pericope in Luke 4 in which Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah, concluding with the momentous declaration: "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." (Luke 4:21) The imminence of the Báb's predictions is a matter of controversy,²⁹ but if the Bábí eschaton was considered imminent, The Book of Certitude would have resonated with the heightened expectations of the Bábí community at that time.

Having argued on behalf of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh would soon find it necessary to shift the focus of the Bábí community to himself as the source of new authority. Within less than a year or two he would advance his own eschatological claims. To what extent, therefore, does The Book of Certitude foreshadow this event? And to what degree had Bahá'u'lláh's messianic self-consciousness evolved at the time of writing?

[page 65]

The Book of Certitude, as Gulpaygani points out, is ostensibly not an apology for Bahá'u'lláh himself.³⁰ It was written while he was still a Bábí, before he had advanced any prophetic claim.³¹ This is significant, since a reading of the text is likely to disappoint expectations that Bahá'u'lláh states his own case, though the effect of the text became just the same for Bahá'ís at a later date. Purposed as an apology for the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh articulates an open-ended prophetology within a theology of revelation.

Bahá'u'lláh develops his argument exegetically, by means of a rhetorical rationale, with occasional appeals to the reader's common sense (i.e., pointing out the rhetorical fallacies to which literalism leads). This style of argument will be analyzed in Chapter Four. That the allusive self-referential style which characterizes Bahá'u'lláh's writings in the Baghdad period presents real difficulties is a given. A further complication is the plethora of claims to divinity which overburdened the Bábí community in the 1850s. Questions over successorship (wisáya) to the Báb and messianic claims to being "Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest" (man yuzhiruhu'lláh) are two distinct but interrelated problems. MacEoin has brought together the relevant texts and presented them with greater clarity and precision than perhaps any other study so far.³²

The problem of Bahá'u'lláh's self-consciousness having been stated, a look at certain Shí'í and Bábí eschatological expectations is in order. What of Shí'í traditions regarding the return of Imam Husayn? Indeed, there is a legitimate question over how important the Husayn traditions in Shí'í apocalypticism actually were. Certainly these presuppose and are overshadowed by the sheer weight and confusion of traditional material concerning the return of the Twelfth Imaam, who was identified with the Mahdi of Sunni tradition (though the early Mahdi traditions might themselves have had a Shí'í provenance).

[page 66]

One of the traditions concerning the return of Husayn is a well-known hadíth related by al-Mufaloal ibn 'Umar from Ja'far al-Sadiq, the Sixth Imam. Its importance is underscored by the fact that it is "perhaps the longest tradition ever recorded in the Imamite hadíth literature."³³ However, in this tradition, Husayn plays a relatively minor role compared to that of the Qá'im (or Mahdi). The purpose of his return in this tradition is to exact revenge for his marytrdom and for the massacre of his followers at Karbala.³⁴ But another tradition, described by Sachedina, ascribes a more significant role to Husayn:

Al-Sadiq, in explaining the passage of the Qur'án which says "Then returned We unto you the turn [to prevail] against them and aided you . . ." (17:6) says that by "returned" is meant the return of al-Husayn, who will be accompanied by his seventytwo companions who were killed with him on the battlefield of Karbala'. The companions will announce the return of algusayn to the people. At the same time, the Imam says, the believers should not doubt him, since he is neither Antichrist (al-dajjál) nor the devil. The Qá'im. will be among the people. When the people have gained certainty about his being al-Husayn, the Qa'm will die, and al-ijHusayn will perform his funeral rites and bury him.³⁵

Supplementing Sachedina's description, MacEoin adds material with a direct bearing on Bábí eschatological expectations:

According to a number of traditions, the Qá'im will be the first of the Imams to return to earth, after which he will rule for seven or nine years, each of which will be the equivalent of ten normal years. . . . After fifty-nine years of the Qa'im's rule have passed, the Imam Husayn will come forth; he will remain silent (samit) for eleven years (i.e., until the year seventy) whereupon the Qá'im will be killed and his place taken by Husayn for nineteen years until the appearance of 'Ali.³⁶

[page 67]

Was Bahá'u'lláh consciously observing this prophecy?³⁷

A much longer period of time associated with the expected return of Husayn is to be found in the tradition Rafati has culled from Shaykhi sources:

Then Husayn will take over the Qá'im's responsibilities and will kill Shimr, Yazid, and other enemies who will have returned. Finally, Husayn will defeat all the enemies and will reign for fifty thousand years.³⁸

In any event, far from espousing reincarnation, Bábí doctrine and practice simply aimed at a symbolic reenactment of the past projected into the eschatological drama of the future. As Amanat points out: "The Traditions provided the general context, whereas the Shaykhi theory of nonmaterial Ma'ád [Return of the Dead] permitted symbolic identification with past heroes."³⁹ Bahá'u'lláh's claim to be the return of Husayn was not given prominence in the Baghdad period, nor is this expectation specifically set up in The Book of Certitude. One reason for this, as MacEoin tentatively concedes for the sake of argument, may be that "the view that Bahá' Alláh was the return of Husayn ... is subsumed by wider notions of messianic fulfillment."⁴⁰

These wider notions included the narrower expectations of the Bábí community, which was oriented by the Báb toward anticipation of "He Whom God Shall Make Manifest" (man yuzhiruhu'lláh). This, in turn, may be subsumed under the concept of independent manifestation (mazhar) of God, since this was also part and parcel of Bábí doctrine.

To give the reader an idea of the kinds of messianic claims Bahá'u'lláh was to advance not long after the revelation of The Book of Certitude, what follow are three representative proclamations. Bahá'u'lláh's messianic declarations are partially described in the following Tablets: (1) the Tablet to Nasir (Lawh-i Nasir), revealed in Adrianople (1864-68); (2) the Words of Paradise (Kalimát-i firdawsiyyih); and (3) the

[page 68]

Tablet of the Challenge (Lawh-i mubáhilih), in which Bahá'u'lláh recounts what he proclaimed in the face of the counterclaims made in 1867 by rival Bábí leader Subh-i Azal:

(1) Claim to be the Return of Imam Husayn:
By God! This is He Who hath at one time appeared in the name of the Spirit [Jesus Christ], thereafter in the name of the Friend [Muhammad], then in the name of 'Ali [the Bábl, and afterwards in this blessed, lofty, self-subsisting, exalted, and beloved Name. In truth, this is Husayn, Who hath appeared through divine grace in the dominion of justice, against Whom. have arisen the infidels, with what they possess of wickedness and iniquity.

Thereupon they severed His head with the sword of malice, and lifted it upon a spear in the midst of earth and heaven. Verily, that head is speaking from atop that spear, saying: "O assemblage of shadows! Stand ashamed before My beauty, My might, My sovereignty and My grandeur. "⁴¹

(2) Claim to be He Whom God Shall Make Manifest:
Were the Point of the Bayán [the Bábl present in this day and should He, God forbid, hesitate to acknowledge this Cause, then the very blessed words which have streamed forth from the wellspring of His Own Bayán would apply to Him. He saith, and His word is the truth, "Lawful is it for Him Whom God will make manifest to reject him who is the greatest on earth [the Báb]." Say, O ye that are bereft of understanding! Today the Most Exalted Being [the Báb] is proclaiming: "Verily, verily, I am the first to adore Him.". . . The Dawn hath broken, yet the people understand not.... Who else but the face of Bahá hath the power to speak before the face of mankind?. . . Peruse ye the Persian Bayán revealed by Him Who heralded this Revelation and look at it with the eye of fairness.⁴²

(3) Claim to be an Independent Manifestation of God:
He Who is the Spirit [Jesus=Bahá'u'lláh] hath, verily, issued from His habitation, and with Him have come forth the souls of God's chosen ones and the realities of His Messengers. Behold, then, the dwellers of the realms on high above Mine head, and all the

[page 69]

testimonies of the Prophets in My grasp. Say: Were all the divines, all the wise men, all the kings and rulers on earth to gather together, I, in very truth, would confront them, and would proclaim the verses of God, the Sovereign, the Almighty, the All-Wise. I am He Who feareth no one, though all who are in heaven and all who are on earth rise up against Me ... This is Mine hand which God hath turned white for all the worlds to behold. This is My staff; were We to cast it down, it would, of a truth, swallow up all created things.⁴³

Bahá'u'lláh frequently draws parallels between other messengers of God and himself. This affinity is also expressed in terms of specific eschatological proclamations centering on fulfillment. For example, a Christian who was to embrace the new faith would be deemed the most faithful follower of Christ, as Christ himself (in Bahá'í belief) had foretold the advent of Bahá'u'lláh. In this way, the eschatological terms of the "covenant" of Christ are satisfied.

Correlating, moreover, to the four religions which then predominated in Persia, Bahá'u'lláh claimed to be four messianic figures at once: (1) Shil Islam: the return of Husayn; (2) Christianity: the Comforter/Spirit of Truth; (3) Judaism: the Everlasting Father, the Lord of Hosts; (4) Zoroastrianism: Shah Bahram Varjavand. To this list, a fifth messianic figure may be added: He Whom God Shall Make Manifest, the Bábí messiah.⁴⁴

In principle, Bahá'u'lláh claimed to be all messiahs. It is obvious that such a proclamation, its veracity apart, could scarcely be more universal. Why, then, was it kept secret for over ten years? MacEoin has documented Bahá'u'lláh's outward attitude of servitude to Azal during the Baghdad period,⁴⁵ and at the same time has speculated on the emerging sense of personal mission Bahá'u'lláh had erstwhile been incubating.⁴⁶ In what may perhaps be his methodological reluctance to adduce later texts as evidence, MacEoin has not exhausted the concept of ayyam-i butún ("Days of Concealment"),

[page 70]

a term used by Bahá'í chroniclers and evidently coined by Bahá'u'lláh himself. A concept traceable to the Báb,⁴⁷ ayyam-i butún must be factored into any contextual reading of The Book of Certitude, if Bahá'u'lláh's later testimony on this question is to be admitted as evidence. What Bahá'u'lláh retrospectively termed the "delay" and the "set time of concealment"⁴⁸ was a decade-long silence. One Arabic passage in The Book of Certitude typifies the ambiguity Bahá'u'lláh adopts in self-referential contexts--a passage that can be taken either as mystical ebullience or as oblique disclosure of divine mission:

Say: O people of the earth! Behold this flamelike-Youth that speedeth across the limitless profound of the Spirit, heralding unto you the tidings: "Lo: the Lamp of God is shining," and summoning you to heed His Cause which, though hidden beneath the veils of ancient splendour, shineth in the land of 'Iraq above the day-spring of eternal holiness.⁴⁹

Shoghi Effendi succeeds in capturing a vigorous sense of mission on the verge of disclosure. The many hints to this effect in Bahá'u'lláh's writings during the Baghdad years are not all that subtle. In reflecting on this period, Shoghi Effendi speaks of "Bahá'u'lláh's reluctance to unravel the mystery surrounding His own position,"⁵⁰ though, from another point of view, such a sense of destiny must have been hard to contain.

From the official Bahá'í perspective, The Book of Certitude was indeed "revealed on the eve of His [Bahá'u'lláh's] declaration of His Mission."⁵¹ If the burden of proof rests with documenting beyond any doubt Bahá'u'lláh's self-consciousness in this regard, an equally binding methodological caveat must be added: There is the countervailing burden of proof in interpreting such texts in conformity with known Islamic mystagogical paradigms. Is there any precedent in Islam for a mystic to openly speak of a divine mission with a

[page 71]

claim to revelation? If the answer is negative, this means that Bahá'íflláh spoke as a mystic but knew himself to be a revealer. His discourse thus required decoding. This hermeneutic is arguably the heuristic key to all of Bahá'u'lláh's predeclaration writings.

Throughout his writings in Baghdad, Bahá'u'lláh evidently develops the theme of secrecy. During his two-year sojourn in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan (1854-56), Bahá'u'lláh composed a mystical ode in Arabic, "The Ode of the Dove" (al-Qasida al-Warqd'iyya) styled after Ibn al-Farid's "Poem of the Way" (Nazam al-sullik). After returning to Baghdad, Bahá'u'lláh appended some Persian annotations to the ode. One comment is explicit over secrecy.⁵²

Cole states that this ode betrays a sense in which "Bahá'u'lláh feels tortured, not simply by his remoteness from his beloved, but also because of his messianic secret."⁵³ This perception reflects Cole's sensitive reading of the ode itself, and his interpretation of it is no doubt served by his close reading of other works of Bahá'u'lláh written in the Baghdad period.

A similar motif is found in the opening of The Essence (or Jewels) of Mysteries (Jawáhir al-Asrár), also written in the Baghdad period, a paraphrase of which passage is as follows: Surrounded as I have been in days gone by, by the dogs of earth and beasts of the city, even so have I withheld mention of my secret (dhikr al-sirri) and forbidden am I still to disclose what has been given me by God, of the new knowledge of Him (bada ilmihi) and of the jewels of His wisdom and means of His power.⁵⁴

In his Sura of Sufficiency (Stirat al-Kifáya) tentatively dated in the early mid-Baghdad period, Bahá'u'lláh calls upon the reader to hearken to the captivating melodies of the Countenance (tal'at) sitting upon the couch of proximity (sarir al-iqtiráb), the Point of Manifestation (nuqtat al-zuhur), the mystery of Interiority (sirr al-butun), the inner reality of the Book (mustasirr al-kitáb). This passage is immediately

[page 72]

followed by reference to "the two stationary [letter] alifs," which Lambden interprets as an allusion to Bahá'u'lláh and Subh-i Azal.⁵⁵

Reference to Azal need not diminish the secrecy motif of passages such as this. Relevantly, Cole develops an original and involved theory of Bahá'u'lláh's purpose in prolonging his messianic secrecy until the time was ripe for disclosure. In fine, the Báb never appointed a successor or regent (wasiy), as stated by Bahá'u'lláh in the Lawh-i Siraj. Instead, Bahá'u'lláh chose to deflect attention away from himself through exploiting Azal's fondness for leadership, representing Azal as the figurehead of the Bábí community. Azal maintained his own secrecy for reasons of personal security, to evade the very real dangers his position posed.

Azal's titular leadership permitted Bahá'u'lláh's effective leadership. With Azal in perpetual hiding, under assumed names and guises, Bahá'u'lláh was free to direct the affairs of the Bábís. Furthermore, a great deal of eschatological ferment surrounded the year 1280 A.H. (1863-64 C.E.), and only then would Bahá'u'lláh openly advance his claims. That would be the time when, as Cole puts it: "The true situation would become manifest, that the exoteric play (of Azal as the leader and Bahá'u'lláh as his lieutenant) would close and the esoteric truth (that Bahá'u'lláh was the Manifestation and Azal his lieutenant) would become apparent."⁵⁶ In 1850, even while the Báb was alive, Cole believes that Bahá'u'lláh wrote letters to the Báb in Azal's name and that the Báb addressed Bahá'u'lláh through Azal.⁵⁷

Returning to the passage above, the reader may discern here the deliberate apposition of manifestation and concealment, a recurrent theme throughout Bahá'u'lláh's writings. The secrecy motif is sustained, while a clue to Bahá'u'lláh's covert messianic status as a Manifestation of God is given for the reader to ponder. Lambden paraphrases another passage from this same Tablet: "O people of the realms of being!

[page 73]

Eat of the succulent fruit of the Crimson Tree which hath been planted in the land of realization, the Point of Origin, the Sealed Mystery, the Secret of the Divine Decree ... Issue forth from your habitations before the Presence."⁵⁸ Here the secrecy motif evokes the eschatological theme of divine encounter, entering into the "presence" of God.

Secrecy is one thing, the secret another. Its messianic content is, I think, possible to divine from the following exhortation to the Bábís at the close of Part One of the two-part Book of Certitude:

And now, We beseech the people of the Bayán, all the learned, the sages, the divines, and witnesses amongst them, not to forget the wishes and admonitions revealed in their Book. Let them, at all times, fix their gaze upon the essentials of His Cause, lest when He, Who is the Quintessence of truth, the inmost Reality of all things, the Source of all light, is made manifest, they cling unto certain passages of the Book, and inflict upon Him that which was inflicted in the Dispensation of the Qur'án. For, verily, powerful is He, the King of divine might, to extinguish with one letter of His wondrous words, the breath of life in the whole of the Bayán and the people thereof, and with one letter bestow upon them a new and everlasting life ... Take heed and be watchful ... that haply ye may seek the shelter of the shadow extended, in the Day of God, upon all mankind.⁵⁹

SYMBOLISM AS SOLUTION TO THEORETICAL
OBSTACLES TO A REALIZED ESCHATON

The foregoing remarks concerned specific eschatological figures which came to be associated with the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh. There was also the problem of certain omens and miraculous events which, both in tradition and in exegesis, were expected to signal the eschaton. In this respect, Bahá'u'lláh was confronted with official as well as popular notions of the eschaton, largely derived from a literal reading

[page 74]

of the Qur'án. A number of objections could be raised to challenge a claim to revelation. One category of denial on interpretive grounds is lack of fulfillment of prophecy. A prophet's credentials are, after all, predicated on such fulfillment. The eschaton depends on it. One may be in the dark as to what the Islamic deliverer might look like, but the contours of the eschatological earth, given the fantastic Last Day imagery in the Qur'án, should not be hard to recognize.

Bahá'u'lláh employs an array of exegetical techniques to demonstrate the figurative nature of the quranic eschaton. Making the case for underlying figuration, Bahá'u'lláh proceeds to interpret symbolically eschatological verses in terms of their contemporary fulfillment. This hypothetical pattern of rhetorical method and symbolic exegesis in The Book of Certitude will be tested in the course of our investigation.

Having given a cursory overview of the origin and impact of The Book of Certitude, I will now concentrate on Bahá'u'lláh's quranic exegesis. The Book of Certitude is essentially an extended rhetorical argument leading to a symbolic interpretation of eschatological images which occur and recur in the Qur'án.

NOTES

^1. Smith, The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions, p. 63.
^2. Ibid., pp. 63-64.
^3. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 140.
^4. Bahá'u'lláh, "Lawh-i mubarak dar javab-i 'aridih-i jinab-i 'Abu'l-Fada'l-i Gulpaygani," in Maidih-i asmani, ed. by 'Abdu'l Hamid Ishraq-Khavari (Tehran: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 129 B.E. [1972-731) p. 157. Also cited by Ehazeh Fananapazir and Seena Fazel in "The Station of the Kitáb-i Íqán," Bahá'í Studies Review, Vol. 3, no. 1 (1993) p. 56.
^5. E. G. Browne, "The Bábís of Persia, II: Their Literature and Doctrines," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 21 (October 1889) p.945.

[page 75]

^6. Shoghi Effendi writes: "The Íqán is, from a Bahá'í point of view, far more important and significant than any other of the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, with the exception of the Aqdas. In it, the entire religious philosophy of the Cause is clearly sketched and every thoughtful student of religion cannot but be interested in it." (From a letter dated December 2, 1933, on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer.)
^7. Circumstances now being different, Persian Bahá'ís account for around 7% of the worldwide Bahá'í community.
^8. Bahá'u'lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 119.
^9. From a letter dated August 7, 1943, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer.
^10. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 139.
^11. Friedmann, "Finality of Prophethood in Sunni Islam," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, Vol. 7 (1986) p. 178.
^12. Ibid., p. 180.
^13. Ibid., p. 212.
^14. Ibid., p. 183.
^15. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, p. 7.
^16. Cited by Bahá'u'lláh, The Book of Certitude, pp. 20-21. Ishraq-Khavari states that this tradition is variously reported, at times ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad, at other times to 'Ali, One work which has attributed the tradition to Muhammad is that by Shaykh Rajab Bursi, entitled al-Alfayn. See entry in IshraqKhavari, Qamus-i-Íqán, Vol. 4, pp. 1539-1540. Cf. B. Todd Lawson, "The Dawning Places of the Lights of Certainty in the Divine Secrets Connected with the Commander of the Faithful by Rajab Bursi (d. 1411)," in The Legacy of Medival Persian Sufism, ed. L. Lewisohn (London: Khaniqahi Nimatulláh Publications/SOAS Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, University of London, 1992) pp. 26176.
^17. Bahá'u'lláh, The Book of Certitude, p. 162. A similar tradition, known as the Hadíth al-Sahaba, reports 'Ali to have said: "I am Adam, I am Noah, I am Abraham, I am Moses, I am Jesus, I am Muhammad; I move through the forms as I wish—whoso has seen me has seen them, and whoso has seen them has seen me." (Cited by MacEoin, "Hierarchy, Authority, and Eschatology," pp. 103 and 142 n. 55, where it is noted that Shaykh Ahmad al-Msaf—founder

[page 76]

of the Shaykhi school—quotes this tradition in Sharh al-ziyara, Vol. 2, p. 54.) Bahá'u'lláh acknowledges the dual ascription of this tradition to both Muhammad and 'Ali in Shí'ísm (though the longer form has to be attributed to the latter, since Muhammad would scarcely have committed the tautology of stating his own name). Bahá'u'lláh observes, "Similar statements have been made by'Ali." (The Book of Certitude, p. 153.)
^18. Ibid., p. 179.
^19. Islamic belief in the prophethood of Adam finds roots in Jewish tradition (especially in certain midrashes on Genesis 2:21 in which the sleep that overtakes Adam is the torpor of prophecy") and, more prominently, in Ebionite Christianity, according to patristic reports and possibly the older strata of the pseudo Clementine Homilies and Recognitions (the latter was a doctrinal quarry for Maximinus and Gothic Arianism). See Schoeps, Jewish Christianity, passim.
^20. Bahá'u'lláh, The Book of Certitude, p. 168.
^21. Selections from the Writings of the Báb, p. 139.
^22. See MacEoin's useful survey of Bábí claimants, in which he states, "The most striking feature of Bábísm during the 1850s is the proliferation of claims to some form of theophanic status on the part of individual members of the sect. 'Abbas Effendi UAbdu'l-Bahál maintains that no fewer than twenty-five separate individuals claimed to be man yu-7hiruhu'lláh at this time." ("Divisions and Authority Claims in Bábísm," p. 100) Cf. idem, "Hierarchy, Authority, and Eschatology," pp. 109-13.
^23. Selections from the Writings of the Báb, pp. 167-68. The second paragraph was translated by Shoghi Effendi.
^24. Bahá'u'lláh, The Book of Certitude, p. 237, writes, "Although We did not intend to make mention of the traditions of a bygone age, yet, because of Our love for thee, We will cite a few which are applicable to Our argument. We do not feel their necessity." p. 241
^25. Cited by Bahá'u'lláh, The Book of Certitude, p. 241.
^26. Momen, Shi'i Islam, p. 169, item 6, and 337 n. 29, also citing Howard's English translation of Shaykh al-Muffd's Kitáb al-irshad (1981) p. 552. 1 am at a loss to explain the curious transmission of such traditions, although Persian anti-Arab sentiment is undoubt edly a factor. All of the various traditions Bahá'u'lláh cites are to

[page 77]

be found in the composite picture of the Shí'í Mahdi, which Momen has conveniently sketched out from Shí'í sources. (Momen, Shí'í Islam, pp. 166-70 and notes.)
^27. Bahá'u'lláh, The Book of Certitude, pp. 239-40.
^28. Ibid., pp. 169-70.
^29. See MacEoin's informative sections on "Long-Term Eschatological Expectations" and "Short-Term Eschatological Expectations" in "Hierarchy, Authority, and Eschatology," pp. 123-29 and pp. 129-35, respectively.
^30. Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl Gulpaygani, Kitáb al-faraid, pp. 317-23.
^31. Taherzadeh identifies three stages in the proclamation of Bahá'u'lláh: (1) The declaration in the Garden of Ridvan to a few selected Bábís in Baghdad, 1863; (2) the wider announcement to the Bábí community at large; (3) the proclamation to the world at large through epistles addressed to the great monarchs and religious potentates of the day (Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Vol. 2, pp. 301-03.)
The first public proclamation of Bahá'u'lláh in the form of letters to world leaders appears to have first taken place in 1868, with the revelation of the Sura of the Kings (Surat al-muluk). Bahá'u'lláh's 1863 declaration was made only to a few selected individuals. It might accurately be referred to as his "private declaration."
^32. MacEoin, "Divisions and Authority Claims in Bábísm (1850-1866)," Studia Iranica, Vol. 18 (1989) pp. 93-129.
^33. Sachedina, Islamic Messianism, p. 166.
^34. On the motive for RHusayn's return, see also Bliclifeldt, Early Mahdism, p. 9.
^35. Sachedina, Islamic Messianism, pp. 168-69, citing Majlisi's Bihar al-anwar. Of this collection, Vol. 13, containing the bulk of Shí'í eschatological hadfth, has been printed separately as Mahdiy-i rnaw'ud. For reference, see Sachedina, p. 221.
^36. MacEoin, "Hierarchy, Authority, and Eschatology," p. 131.
^37. Whether coincidental or intentional, Bahá'u'lláh's self-stated period of messianic secrecy does approach eleven lunar years. The calculation can be roughly made on the basis of Islamic dates. The mystical raptures he experienced in the Siyah-Chal dungeon transpired some time during his imprisonment, between the last two months of the year 1268 A.H. and the first two months of the year

[page 78]

1269 A.H. (August-December 1852). For reasons of coincidence with prophecy fulfillment, Bahá'í history inclines towards "the year nine" (1269 A.H.) to which the Báb had referred as an eschatologically significant year. Bahá'u'lláh himself has made this linkage. (Bahá'u'lláh, cited in Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 92. Cf. Browne, "Note V. Texts from the Persian Bayán Illustrating the Báb's View of His Relation to 'Him Whom God Shall Manifest," in A Traveller's Narrative, pp. 347-49.)
Historians may defer to autobiographical disclosures insofar as they are deemed veracious. The year 1269 A.R. commenced on 15 October 1852. Bahá'u'lláh's declaration in Baghdad occurred 3 Dhi'l-Qa'dih 1279 A.H. (22 April 1863). Therefore, at the outermost, the period of time that had elapsed between Bahá'u'lláh's annunciation in the Sfyah-Chal and his declaration in Baghdad would have been ten (solar) years, five months and around seven days. Rounding up or down, this period of time is slightly closer to eleven lunar years than to ten.
Aside from this Shí'í reference to an eleven-year silence, perhaps this anticipated secrecy motif was an element in Bahá'u'lláh's own "concealment" (butun) for close to eleven lunar years, from Tehran to the close of the Baghdad period. One can only speculate.
^38. Rafati, The Development of Shaykhi Thought in Shí'í Islam, p. 183.
^39. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, p. 196.
^40. MacEoin, "Divisions and Authority Claims in Bábísm," p. 120.
^41. Buck, "A Unique Eschatological Interface," p. 163.
^42. Bahá'u'lláh, Kalimat-i Firdawsiyyih, in Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, pp. 75-76.
^43. Bahá'u'lláh, cited in God Passes By, p. 168-69.
^44. See Buck, "A Unique Eschatological Interface," passim. My thanks to Prof. E. Segal for pointing out that the Lord of Hosts is not a messianic figure in Judaism. Although the Lord of Hosts is not a messianic figure, he is still an apocalyptic figure. As E. Jenni, "Eschatology of the Old Testament," in the International Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 2, p. 127, points out: "The coming of Yahweh is the central idea of the Old Testament eschatology." I owe this reference to Bahá'í scholar Stephen Menard.
^45. MacEoin, "Divisions and Authority Claims," pp. 114-16.

[page 79]

^46. Ibid., pp. 121-26.
^47. See text cited by MacEoin, "Hierarchy, Authority, and Eschatology," p. 123.
^48. Bahá'u'lláh, cited in God Passes By, p. 151.
^49. Bahá'u'lláh, The Book of Certitude, p. 147.
^50. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 127.
^51. Ibid., p. 139.
^52. "Likewise comprehend the intention of the blessed verse in which He says: "Who made a fire for you out of the green tree" [Qur'án 36:801. Would that a hearing ear might be found that but a drop out of the depths of the ocean of fire (bahr-i nar) or out of this sea that is brimming with sparks might be mentioned. Yet it is best that this pearl (lú'lu') remain hidden (maknun) in the shell of the ocean of ipseity (bahr-i huviyya) and continue to be treasured up in the repositories of mystery (sirr) in order that those that are not worthy may be shut out and those that are of the select may put on the garb of pilgrimage to the Ka'ba of glory and enter the sacred precincts of beauty." MacEoin, "Bahá' Alláh's al-Qasida al-Warqa'iyya: an English translation," Bahá'í Studies Bulletin, Vol. 2, noo, 2 (September 1983), p. 15. Transliteration supplied by the present writer after consulting the Persian original in Athar-i qalam-i a'la (Tehran: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 129 B.E. [1972-19731) Vol. 3, p. 198.
Self-referential use of "pearl" can be seen in the writings of the Báb. In Sura 108 of the Qayyum al-asma (1260/1844), the Báb refers to himself as the most concealed mystery (al-sirr fi mustasirr al-sirr) and the glorious pearl (al-durr al-jalil) in the shell of the Friend (sadaf al-khalil) preserved in the ocean of unknowing (al-bahr al'ama'. See S. Lambden, "An Early Poem of Mírzá gusayn'Ali Bahá'u'lláh: The Sprinkling of the Cloud of Unknowing (Rashh-i 'Amá," Bahá'í Studies Bulletin, Vol. 3, no. 2 (September 1984) pp. 66-67.
^53. J. Cole, "Bahá'u'lláh and the Naq.Lhbandi Sulls in Iraq, 1854-1856," in From Iran East and West, p. 15.
^54. Athar-i qalam-i a'la, Vol. 3, p. 5. My paraphrase.
^55. Translated by Lambden, "The Sprinkling of the Cloud of Unknowing," p. 84. 1 have not yet accessed the Arabic text of the Surat al-kifaya, privately published in the Iran National Bahá'í Archives, Vol. 36, pp. 277-80.

[page 80]

^56. Cole, "Bahá'u'lláh's Surah of the Companions: An Early Edirne Tablet of Declaration (c. 1864). Introduction and Provisional Translation," Bahá'í Studies Bulletin, Vol. 5, no. 3 and Vol. 6, no. 1 (June 1991) p. 5 of Cole's pre-published manuscript.
^57. Ibid., pp. 5-6.
^58. Lambden, "The Sprinkling of the Cloud of Unknowing,"p. 84.
^59. Bahá'u'lláh, The Book of Certitude, pp. 92-93.

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Books

Home ][ Sacred Writings ][ Bulletin board
Primary sources ][ Secondary sources ][ Resources
Links ][ Personal pages ][ Other sites