8.    Red Ruby Ships
8.1  Shoghi’s God Passes By
In God Passes By, P. 23, Shoghi Effendi says that “the BÁB in his Qayyum-al-Asma [i.e. the First Book (Kitab-i-Awwal] see references in section Introduction to Ahsan-al-Qisas (This link is not provided yet], eulogizes the high station ordained for the people of Baha” and guests the BÁB designating them as the “Companions of the Crimson-colored ruby Ark.”

8.2  Baha’s Risala
In his Risala, P. 106, Mirza Husayn Ali quotes the Primal Point as saying:
“Indeed god has created around this BÁB [i.e. Sayyid Ali Muhammad] seas of elixir vitae …. And god has decreed for him red ruby ships, which no one embarks save the people of al-Baha …”

8.3  Baha’s Aqda
In his Kitab-i-Aqdas, Elder’s translation, P. 47, Mirza Husayn Ali says:
“Blessed is the King who arises to help my Cause in my kingdom and cuts himself off from all but me! He is of the companions of the Red Ship which god made for the people of al-Baha.”

8.4  Shoghi’s E.S.W
In his Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Shoghi Effendi’s translation, PP. 139-140, Mirza Husayn Ali says: “Seek thou the shore of the most great ocean, and enter, then, the Crimson Ark which god hath ordained in the Qayyum al-Asma for the people of Baha, verily, it passeth over land and sea. He that entereth therein is saved, and that turneth aside perisheth.”

8.5  Baha’s Risala-i Badi
(699) In his Risala-i-Badi composed by him in reply to an objection from the people of the Bayan, and embodying Mirza Husayn Ali’s statement made in Edirne, Aqa Muhammad Ali of Isfahan, a Bahai exile, PP. 207-211, quotes the Primal Point as saying in the Qayyum-al-Asma: “O Multitudes of lights! Verily we are the Truth …. Not a single letter has been sent down in this Book save with the permission of god. In truth the secret of this BÁB [i.e. the Primal Point] is hidden in the divine mystery …….. Indeed god has created this BÁB [i.e. the Primal Point] seas of elixir vitae …. And indeed god has decreed for him red ruby ships, which no one embarks save the people of al-Baha … Here eight souls of the angels of the divine mystery bear up the throne of god … Sinners shall be brought before the Merciful…”

8.6  BAqa Muhammad Ali of Isfahan
Aqa Muhammad Ali of Isfahan comments: The throne stands for the “cause of god”, whose bearer is “Baha” [i.e. Mirza Husayn Ali]. At the beginning of every Manifestation believers to embark the divine Ark” are few and far between. Hence the reference to the ‘eight angels’ who bear up this ‘great trust’, and whose “number 8 points to the blessed name [i.e. Baha], which is also numerically 8, with its Hamza dropped.” The “Sinners” are from “the people of the Baya (who have denied Mirza Husayn Ali's claims).

8.7  The Merits of the Claim
The passage is from the Point’s First Book written by him in Shiraz at the beginning of his mission in 1844.
Without going into an analysis of the passage, the Primal Point speaks, not of the Crimson-colored ruby ark in the Red ship, but of red ruby ships, meant for him.
“The people of Baha” refer to the Primal Point, who as the Manifestation in the Bayanic dispensation was Bahaullah Title of Baha and Bahaullah.
Mirza Husayn Ali pilfered the passage from the Point’s First Book, gave a truncated and corrupt version of it, and arrogated it to himself as a ground for his pretensions.

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