The Primal Point’s Tablet For Azim
Baha’s Claim to The Year Nine
6. Baha’s Claim to The Year Nine
6.1. Baha travelled from Teheran to Karbala.
“The month of Shawwal in the year 1267 A.H. (July 30-August 28, 1851) witnessed the arrival of Baha at Karbala. It was during that visit to Karbala that Baha encountered, as he was walking through the streets, Shaykh Hasan-i-Zanuzi, to whom he confided the secret he was destined to reveal at a later time in Baghdad. He found him eagerly searching for the promised Hussein….But for the restraint he was urged to extreme, should Hasan will have proclaimed to the people of Karbala, the return of the promised Hussein whose appearance they were awaiting.”, The Dawn-Breakers, Nabil’s Narrative, Shoghi Effendi’s translation, American Edition, PP. 593-594.
2. In the Traveller’s Narrative, Vol. II, E.T., P. 63, Sir Abbas Effendi says: “When he [i.e. Baha] reached Baghdad and the Crescent moon of the month of Muharam of the year [A.H. one thousand and two hundred and sixty nine [which was termed in the books of the Primal Point ‘the year of after a while’ and wherein he had promised the disclosure of the true nature of his religion and its mysteries) Baha revealed himself.”
“The year of ‘a while’ (sana-i-Hin سنة حین) is 68 (ح=8, ی=10,ن = 50), and the year ‘after a while’ therefore corresponds to 69, which is the number after 68.”.
Dr. Browne’s footnote 2 in ibid P. 55.
In J.R.A.S. April 1892, P. 304, Dr. Browne says: “… In the Traveller’s Narrative (P. 63) we are told that it [i.e. Baha’s Manifestation] did take place in the month of Muharram in the year A.H. 1269 (October 15-November 13, 1852), which statement appears impossible, inasmuch as Baha was arrested in August 1852, and imprisoned for four months at Teheran ere he was suffered to depart to Baghdad.”
6.2. Shaykh Ahmad of Ahsa’s Address to Sayyid Kazim of Rasht
In a reply to Sayyid Kazim of Rasht’s question “regarding when the Promised One was to be made manifest,” Shaykh Ahmad of Ahsa is quoted as saying: “The mystery of this Cause must needs be made, and the secret of this message must needs be divulged. I can say no more, I can appoint no time. His Cause will be known after Hin. Ask me not of things, if revealed unto you, might only pain you.” The Dawn Breakers, Nabil’s Narrative, Shoghi Effendi’s translation, American Edition, PP. 17-18.
In ibid, P.18, footnote 1, Shoghi Effendi says: “According to the Abjad notation, the numerical value of the word ‘Hin’ is 68. It was in the year 1268 A.H. (1852) that Baha, while confined in the Siyah Chal of Tehran (following the attempt on the then Shah’s life on August 15, 1852), received the first intimations of his divine mission. Of this he hinted in the Aqdas which he revealed in that year.”
6.3. Shoghi’s God Passes By
In God Passes by, P.29, Shoghi Effendi quotes the Primal Point as saying: “After Hin (68) a Cause shall be given unto you which ye shall come to know.” P.T.O.
In ibid, P.104, Shoghi Effendi says: “The attempt on the life of Nasir-al-Din Shah was made on the 28th of the month of Shawwal 1260 A.H, corresponding to the 15th of August 1852. Immediately after, Baha was arrested and sent into the Siyah Chal of Tehran. His imprisonment lasted for a period of no less than four month, in the middle of which the year “Nine” (1269), anticipated in such glowing terms by the Primal Point, and alluded to as the year “After Hin” by Shaykh Ahmad of Ahsa, was ushered in two months after that year was born Baha, the purpose of his imprisonment now accomplished, was released from his confinement, and set out, a month later for Baghdad.”
In ibid, P. 108, Shoghi Effendi says that “Baha left Teheran for Baghdad on Rabi’ Thani 1, 1269 A.H (January 12, 1853)”.
In ibid, P. 109 Shoghi Effendi says that “Baha reached Baghdad on Jamad Thani 28, A.H. 1269 (April 18, 1853).”
Strange enough Shoghi Effendi makes no mention of Baha’s “manifestation” on arrival at Baghdad from Tehran, as alleged by Sir Abbas Effendi.
6.4. Mirza Zayn-al Abidin
Mirza Zayn-al Abidin of Najaf Abad was a follower of the Primal Point. During the Baghdad period of the BÂBi exiles he followed Subh-i-Azal and copied BÂBi works. When Baha advanced his vain claim in Edirne he transferred his allegiance to him and became Baha’s scribe. In acknowledgment of his services Baha bestowed upon him the title of Zayn-al-Muqarabin (the Ornament of the Favoured). He is known as the Letter Za. T.A Note W, P. 363; ibid, Note Z, P. 412.
Mirza Zayn-al Abidin wrote a pamphlet in support of Baha, addressed it to Mirza Mustafa, commonly called Mulla Mustafa Sabbagh of Sadah, noted BÂBi scribe, and invited him to embrace Bahaism.
6.5. The Misidentification
Like Baha, Mirza Zayn-al-Abidin lapsed into the same “identified Him-Whom-God-Will-Make-Manifest with the Imam Hussein,” with whom Baha asserted identity. This statement is quoted in Mirza Mustafa’s written reply of 1303 A.H. (1885-6) PP. 5-6, to which reference is made in Dr. Saeid Khan’s notes on BÂBi manuscripts, P. 23 (page 31) (16).
Shoghi Effendi lapsed into the same error and identified Him Whom God Will Make Manifest with the Imam Hussein, with Whom Baha asserted identity.
In God Passes by, P.94, Shoghi Effendi says: “To Shi’a Islam Baha was the return of the Imam Hussein.”
6.6. Point’s Seven Proof
The Seven Proof: P.59, after alluding to the statement attributed to Shaykh Ahmad of Ahsa to the effect that “foreshadowing of the Manifestation are innumerable”, the Primal Point quotes the Shaykh as having written in his own handwriting to Sayyid Kazim of Rasht saying: “Certainly to this Cause is its resting-place [i.e. appointed time], and every message is its abiding place [i.e. set time], and no reply may be given fixing [the time], and after a while (Ba’ad Hin) shall ye surely know its message.”
This is the passage in which the words “after a while” appear. There is no “year” preceding the words “after a while”, as alleged.
This is the word “Hin”, to which Baha’s “divine mission” is pinned.
A printed copy of the text, P.59 is attached hereto.
6.7. Baha’s E.S.W
Baha wrote the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf at Acre “about one year before his death in 1892” (ibid, Introduction, P ix). It includes “Proofs establishing the validity of Baha’s Cause” (ibid, Introduction, P.X).” The following “Proofs” are from Shoghi Effendi’s translation of the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf.
6.8. Conclusion
In god passes by, P. 29, Shoghi Effendi gives a truncated version of Baha’s quotation from the Primal Point: “’Wait thou,’ in his [i.e. the Point’s] statement to Azim, until nine have elapsed from the time of the Bayan. Then exclaim: Blessed, therefore, be the Most excellent of Makers!’”
In god passes by, 97, Shoghi Effendi states that “the Primal Point had disclosed his [i.e. Mirza Hussein Ali son of Mirza Buzurg’s] name through his allusion to the Son of Ali, a true and undoubted leader of men.’”
The Point’s tablet for Azim appears in the Point’s Five Grades (Panj Sha’n) of 1850. Full text of the relevant passage in the communication is quoted in section 23.1. For reasons not far to seek, Baha suppressed the passages immediately preceding and following his quotation. That part of Baha’s quotation, which is underlined, is an interpolation. Shoghi Effendi suppressed this spurious passage in god passes by.
As already stated, the communication intending the ‘Two Wahids’, i.e. Sayyid Yahya of Darab, and Mirza Yahya Subh-i-Azal, with stress on the latter.
As the communication clearly demonstrates, it has nothing to do with Mirza Hussein Ali Baha. But Baha produced a truncated and distorted version of the communication, to which he pinned his “divine mission in the year nine”.
This is the very same communication which Mirza Jani invoked in support of the vain claims of Zabih and Basir prior to Baha.
Throughout the Baghdad period of the BÂBi period of the BÂBi Exiles’ sojourn Baha laboured as “the BÂB’s disciple”, god passes by, P. 128.
His alleged “Declaration” was made during his stay in the garden of Ridvan at Baghdad on the eve of his removal to Istanbul in “A.H. 1279 (1863).” God passes by P. 148; P. 151. No record exists of the alleged “declaration”. God passes by, P. 153.
This alleged “declaration” was made more than seventeen years after the declaration of the Primal Point in A.H. 1260 (1844), and more than thirteen years after the Point’s martyrdom in A.H. 1266 (1850).
How does “the year nine” fit in this picture!
The conclusion is that there was no “declaration” at Baghdad, as alleged.
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