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Christ and Baha'u'llah
by George Townshend
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chapter 11 | start page | single page | chapter 13 |  |
Chapter 12
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH
BAHÁ’U’LLÁH was descended from Abraham
by His wife Katurah, thus fulfilling the prophecy to Abraham that in Him would
all the families of the earth be blessed.
It is difficult for an English reader to learn much about
Bahá'u'lláh's early days. We know, however, that He was born on 12th November,
1817, two years before the Báb . From His early days He showed signs of wonder
and power. His father dreamed a dream of Him while He was yet a child, which is
recounted by Nabíl.
"Bahá'u'lláh appeared to him swimming in a vast, limitless ocean. His body shone upon the waters with a radiance that illumined the sea. Around His head, which could distinctly be seen above the waters, there radiated, in all directions, His long, jet-black locks, floating in great profusion above the waves. As he dreamed, a multitude of fishes gathered round Him, each holding fast to the extremity of one hair. Fascinated by the effulgence of His face, they followed Him in whatever direction He swam. Great as was their number, and however firmly they clung to His locks, not one single hair seemed to have been detached from His head, nor did the least injury affect His person. Free and unrestrained, He moved above the waters and they all followed Him.
[page 70]
"The Vazír,[1] greatly impressed by this dream, summoned a soothsayer, who had achieved fame in that region, and asked him to interpret it for him. This man, as if inspired by a premonition of the future glory of Bahá'u'lláh, declared: "The limitless ocean that you have seen in your dream, O Vazír, is none other than the world of being. Singlehanded and alone, your son will achieve supreme ascendancy over it. Wherever He may please, He will proceed unhindered. No one will resist His march, no one will hinder His progress. The multitude of fishes signifies the turmoil which He will arouse amidst the peoples and kindreds of the earth. Around Him will they gather, and to Him will they cling. Assured of the unfailing protection of the Almighty, this tumult will never harm His person, nor will His loneliness upon the sea of life endanger His safety.'"[2]
Bahá'u'lláh loved people, especially children. He loved to
be surrounded by them and they loved Him. From childhood He delighted in
country life, in trees, in flowers and horseback riding.
He came of a noble and wealthy family which had long been
prominent in the political sphere and He Himself was endowed with a gift of
eloquence like a rushing torrent. As the years passed on He showed no inclination
for political affairs but spent His time in looking after the needy, the poor
and the sick. When His father died He succeeded to the management of a large
estate and married the daughter of a well-known vazír. Her tastes resembled His
and they became known as the Father of the Poor and the Mother of Consolation.
1. Bahá'u'lláh's father.
2. The Dawnbreakers, Nabíl’s Narrative, chap v.
[page 71]
One day, when He was twenty-seven years old, a messenger
brought Him a package containing a manuscript which had been written by the Báb
and sent by the hand of His first disciple, Mullá Ḥusayn . From this
document He learned that the Kingdom of God, so long expected by the devout,
had indeed at last come, that the Báb had declared Himself its Prophet and was
sending out through Persia His messengers to announce the breaking of the new
Day. The document was none other than some pages of the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá, the
"first, greatest and mightiest"
of the Báb’s works, the first chapter of which He had revealed on the night of
His declaration. In it He called on the Sháh and the kings and princes of the earth to acknowledge His
station and He called even the people of the West to come forth and welcome
Him.
On reading a portion of this manuscript Bahá'u'lláh at
once discerned that the spiritual note of the writing was the same as that of
the Qur'án and He accepted its message. Casting aside at once all thought of
His personal interest, regardless of His wealth, of His social eminence, of His
youth, of His talents and of the brilliant future open before Him, He espoused
the Cause of an obscure merchant and began to serve it with the utmost ardour.
Though He must long before have realized the divinity of the station which
really belonged to Himself, Bahá'u'lláh promptly joined the Báb’s followers and
never disclosed His own true rank to anyone.
During the years of the Báb’s Ministry He showed Himself a
loyal and devoted coadjutor, not only by His outstanding character and His
extraordinary ability but also by His heart-whole enthusiasm and personal
devotion to the Báb .
1. The Báb was a wool-merchant, with His uncle in Shíráz.
[page 72]
The two Prophets never met on this earth but kept in the
closest touch by letter and otherwise. Both were to suffer for the Cause and
vied with one another in doing so. Three times Bahá'u'lláh was scourged as a
Bábí, three times imprisoned, and the Báb in His turn three times suffered the
same punishments. After the Conference at Badasht Muḥammad Sháh determined to put Bahá'u'lláh to death,
but died too soon to carry out his threat. It was to Bahá'u'lláh that the Báb
sent His most precious personal possessions (His pen and His ring) when He felt
His martyrdom was drawing near, and it was Bahá'u'lláh Who, on the night of the
Báb’s execution, arranged for some of the disciples to carry away the body from
the moat into which it had been thrown and to conceal it in a safe place of
hiding.
At the time of the attempt on the Sháh's life
Bahá'u'lláh was staying at Lavásán as the guest of the Grand Vizír. Rejecting
the protection and the good offices tendered Him, Bahá'u'lláh went to the
headquarters of the Imperial Army at Níyávarán and was conducted thence under
escort and in chains, bareheaded and with bare feet to Ṭihrán. There He was taken at once to the
Síyáh-Chál, the most terrible of all the dungeons in the capital.
Bahá'u'lláh in His Epistle to the Son of the Wolf
gives the following description of the place in which He found Himself: "The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness,
and Our fellow-prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves,
assassins and highwaymen. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the
passage by which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe
its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding
[page 73]
to lie on. God alone knoweth what befell
Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!" (pp. 10-21).
Such was the place and such the occasion which God chose for
the Call of Bahá'u'lláh to the office of Prophethood, and to the assumption of
His Ministry.
An independent Prophet has two stations: one a divine and
the other a human station. His essential being is divine. As such He is the
Word of God. The Kitáb-i-Íqán states of these Beings that:
"These sanctified Mirrors, these Day-springs of ancient glory are one and all the Exponents on earth of Him Who is the central Orb of the universe, its Essence and ultimate Purpose. From Him proceed their knowledge and power; from Him is derived their sovereignty. The beauty of their countenance is but a reflection of His image, and their revelation a sign of His deathless glory. They are the Treasuries of divine knowledge, and the Repositories of celestial wisdom. Through them is transmitted a grace that is infinite, and by them is revealed the light that can never fade." (pp. 99-100)
And again in the same book it is written,
"These ancient beings, though delivered from the womb of their mother, have in reality descended from the heaven of the will of God. Though they be dwelling on this earth, yet their true habitations are the retreats of glory in the realms above. Whilst walking amongst mortals, they soar in the heaven of the divine presence. Without feet they tread the path of the spirit, and without wings they rise unto the exalted heights of divine unity. With every fleeting breath they cover the immensity of space, and at every moment traverse the kingdoms of the visible and the invisible. . . . They are sent forth through the transcendent power of the Ancient of Days, and are raised up by the exalted will of God, the most mighty King. This is what is meant by the words: "coming in the clouds of heaven." (p. 67, U.S. ed.).
[page 74]
But they undergo a very definite, moving and tremendous
experience when God wills that their Mission should open and the full power of
the sovereignty which belongs to them shall be disclosed. Every Prophet goes
through this experience and often finds it altogether overwhelming. We read of
Moses falling into a swoon, and of Muḥammad running to His home and
imploring His wife, Khadíjih, to envelop Him in His mantle. The
experience alters altogether the relation between Almighty God and the Prophet,
but does not necessarily make any difference between the Prophet and the people
until the Prophet Himself so elects. Jesus Himself, for instance, is thought to
have been called to His Ministry at the time of His baptism by John in Jordan,
but He did not openly declare Himself till His pronouncement to the Jewish
Sanhedrin on the last night of His life.
Bahá'u'lláh describes this Call in the following words in
His letter to the Sháh : "O
King! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes
of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all
that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and
All-Knowing. And He bade Me lift up My voice between earth and heaven, and for
this there befell Me what hath caused the tears of every man of understanding
to flow. . . This is but a leaf which the winds of the will of Thy Lord, the
Almighty, the All-Praised, have stirred."
Many years later, in His Epistle to the Son of the Wolf He tells how, "One night, in a dream, these exalted words
were heard on every side: ’Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself
and by Thy pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be
Thou afraid, for Thou art in
[page 75]
safety. Ere long will God raise up the
treasures of the earth-men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through Thy
Name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized Him’"
(p. 21).
'Abdu'l-Bahá pointed out that the Prophet's experience
when this call comes to Him is purely physical. There is no change of the
Prophet's individuality. He remains precisely the same.
Thus it was that Bahá'u'lláh's Ministry began in the year
9 (1853 A.D., 1269 A.H.) as the Báb had already indicated, a time which imbued
the whole world with unimaginable potentialities. The attempt on the life of
the Sháh had taken place on
15th August, 1852; Bahá'u'lláh had been thrown into the Síyáh-Chál
almost immediately afterwards and about the middle of October this Divine Call
had come, endowing Him with the fullness of the power of the sovereignty which
went with His Divine Mission. Two months later He was proved innocent of any
connection with the crime, having been strongly defended by His friends and by
the Russian Ambassador.
Delivered from the Síyáh-Chál Bahá'u'lláh found
Himself still the prisoner of the Sháh , reduced almost to destitution
by the confiscation of all His property and under sentence of banishment from
His native land to Baghdád in 'Iráq whither He was to start within one
month.
During the ten years He spent in Baghdád His fame
and personal influence reached their highest point. So great was His influence
that by degrees He spread among the Bábís cheer and hope and confidence in
their Faith, not only in His neighbourhood but even among the lonely
1. Some Answered Questions, chap. xxxix.
[page 76]
hamlets of Persia. Still acting as a Bábí and without going beyond the Báb’s
teachings, He made the Faith more universal than it had been before, and bringing
into prominence higher teachings of the Báb, long disused, lifted the religion
to a higher level. His intuitive understanding of scripture astonished and
attracted Bábí pilgrims from all directions and also drew eager Muslim students
from Karbilá and Najaf. His modest home became the constant resort of enquirers
on spiritual matters. That same unique Spirit of Divine Love which suffused so
much of His writings was felt by His companions in its original intensity and
won Him their love and devotion to a degree which chroniclers of the time
record. Joyous feasts celebrating their love for Him were held, in spite of
poverty, and many writings still testify to His little parlour being felt as an
avenue to Paradise such as men's hearts had never known before. The ethical
level of the Bábí community was exalted beyond recognition and the good name of
the Faith began to extend itself in all directions. His great religious
revelation, the Book of Certitude,[1] written in Baghdád, summarizes in two
hundred pages the grand universal scheme of Redemption and explains not only
the great central truths of God's revealing method but those difficulties of
interpretation which have always caused discord among the great religious
systems of the world.
So rapid was Bahá'u'lláh's ascent to heights of brilliance
and spiritual power that the ecclesiastical authorities of such neighbouring
cities as Karbilá were moved to bitter jealousy and took counsel together how
to get rid of Him. They represented that He was still too near Persia to be a
1. Persian Kitáb-i-Íqán
[page 77]
harmless neighbour and persuaded the Sháh that He should be removed further away, and by degrees
brought pressure on Turkish officials to keep Him under stricter surveillance.
Bahá'u'lláh's undoubted influence among the people and many leaders of opinion
in Baghdád made Him open to suspicion of personal designs. By 1863 His
enemies had secured His sentence of exile to Constantinople.
Ten years had now elapsed since the time of His Call and
the time was ripe for an open declaration of the power and sovereignty which
for so long had been flooding His soul. On the 21st April, for a period of
twelve days, Bahá'u'lláh, in the beautiful Najíbíjjih garden on the river banks
outside Baghdád, instituted the great Feast of Riḍván which is
held as the most joyous and triumphant of all Bahá'í Feasts. He assumed before
His followers and the wide world the supreme authority which He had received
from the Most High at the time of His Call. Now it was that Jesus Christ ascended
His throne in the power of God the Father. Now it was that He took upon Himself
the sceptre of the fullness of God's might and thus set Himself as Supreme
Overlord of all that is in heaven and on earth.
The significance of that Feast for Himself and for the
world is expressed by His calling it "the
King of Festivals," "the
Day of God." In His own greatest work, the Aqdas,[1] He characterizes it
as the Day whereon "all created
things were immersed in the sea of purification." In another Tablet He
refers to it as the day whereon "the
breezes of forgiveness were wafted over the entire creation." And
again He writes, "Rejoice with
exceeding gladness, O people of Bahá, as ye call
1. Kitáb-i-Aqdas.
[page 78]
to remembrance the Day of supreme
felicity, the Day whereon the Tongue of the Ancient of Days hath spoken, as He
departed from His House, proceeding to the Spot from which He shed upon the
whole of creation the splendours of His Name, the All-Merciful."
Surely this Day must be the greatest day in the history of
mankind.
[page 79]
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