Baha's Grounds of Pretension - The Point’s Disclaimer

13.    The BÁB-hood of the Primal Point
13.1  Summary
A later author of dispensation is the Confirmer of the Preceding One and his Revelation and the Herald and Forerunner of the succeeding One and his Revelation. A later Author and his Revelation are, as regards his personality and Revelation, greater, or more perfect, than the preceding one and his Revelation. This does not, however mean that the Author of the Age stands in relation to the following one as did John the Baptist to the Christ.

The allegation that the Primal Point was the Yahya, or a Teller-of-Good-News about the coming of Mirza Husayn Ali is a figment of imagination of the Bahai hierarchy.
The Divine Will (Irada) can in no wise be revealed except through the Will of the Volition (Mashiya), nor His wish be manifested save through the wish of the Volition.

Therefore there had been, as is, One Volition which manifests itself through One Author in each theophanic cycle.

There can be no two Suns of Truth and no two Authors in One theophanic cycle. The allegation that the Primal Point and Mirza Husayn Ali were Co-Founders of Bahaism conflicts with the Point’s theory of theophanies.

The allegation that the Primal Point had proclaimed his junction under the double title of first, the Qaim, and second, the Gate, the Gate or BÁB, is disproved by the Point’s own writings.

The allegation that the Point’s religion was limited in time to a brief period of years is belied by specific provisions of the Bayan.

All these allegations strike at the very root of the Point’s theory of theophanies summarized in the fourth installment. In a volte-face to save Mirza Husayn Ali’s face, these allegations are intended to fit Mirza Husayn Ali, by hook or by crook into the Bayani dispensation.

The Point’s concept of BÁBi-hood, the Qaim-hood, and the Mahdi-hood was not in their Shia connotation. They were titles merged in the Point’s Point-hood (Nuqtiyyat نقطیت).

All that is in the macrocosm is in the Bayan; All that is in the Bayan is summed up in a prescribed verse; all that is in the verse is synthesized in the formula Bism-allah; and all the Letters in Bism-allah are created from the Point of the Letter BA in Bism-allah and returns unto it.

The letter BA is composed of a single straight line with a diacritical point directly beneath it, ب . The Point differentiates the letter BA from its follows and is in reality its essence. This Point (Nuqta) is the Station of Volition of the Divine Manifestation. The Author of the Age is this Point. The Point is like the Sun and the other letters like mirrors placed before it, … The whole Bayan is but the evolution of this Point. III, 8; III, 12.

That is why the Primal Point calls himself, the Point, the Primal Point, the Letter BA, the Point of BA, the Point of Bayan. Exordium; II, 17, III, 8; III;10, VIII, 15.
The Bahai hierarchy has not explained the meaning of the title of the Point or the Primal Point. The Author of the Age, the Primal Point in the Bayanic Dispensation, is the Living (Hayy), Exordium.

The Eighteen Letters of the Living, also called the Eighteen Mirrors, or Letters of Bismillah, namely, the 18 disciples who first believed in the Primal Point, have become ‘living’ because of the Primal Point, the Living, who shone upon them. IV,1.

Mulla Husayn became the First Letter of the Living. The First Name of God, and the First believer. In the Persian Bayan, Wáhid (Unity) Viii, BÁB (Chapter) 15, the Primal Point refers to him as follows: “Understand in the same way the beginning of the manifestation of the Bayan; during forty days no one but Letter Sin (i.e. the second Letter of Bismillah-al-Amna’-al-Aqdas) believed in the [Letter] BA [i.e. the First Letter of Bismillah, the Primal Point].

It was only little by little, that forms of the letters of Bismillah (clothed themselves with garment of faith until finally the Primal Unity (Wáhid0i-Awal) was completed.” Later the Primal Point conferred on Mulla Husayn the title BÁB-al BÁB (Gate of the Gate).”

At length, little by little, Letters of the Living were completed. The last to enter was Muhammad Ali of Barfurush near the Caspian sea. He became the Last Letter of the Living, the Last name of God and the Last to believe. He was addressed by the Primal Point as follows:
“O Name of the First and the Last, the Apparent of the Hidden”, Subh-i-Azal’s Narrative, Appendix III, New History, P. 399.
The Last Letter of Bismillah is the letter Sin. Mulla Muhammad Ali received the title Quddus (the Holy) from the Primal Point.

The Author of the Age, the Primal Point in the Bayanic Dispensation, is independent of Mirrors and all things. He is dependent on god alone. III, 1; VIII, 14.
The allegation that the Primal Point did not embody in himself the whole Manifestation is repugnant to the Point’s theory of theophanies enunciated in the Bayan.

Following the precedent established by the Authors of the past, the Primal Point as Him who has appeared promised his return in a minimum period of 1511 years or a maximum period of 2001 years, subject to the implementation of certain prerequisites as are laid down in the Bayan.

Mirza Husayn Ali brushed aside all those specific provisions, stated out his pretensions, and in support produced truncated versions, read out of their context, from the Point’s reply to the Letter of the Living Mulla Baqir of Tabriz, who had inquired from him regarding Him whom god will make manifest. The prerequisites and the Point’s reply will be dealt with as a separate instalment of Mirza Husayn Ali’s grounds of pretensions.

13.2  Evaluation of the Title ‘BÁB
Every writer who has made mention of the BÁB has pointed out that this title assumed by him at the beginning of his mission in 1844 signifies in Arabic “Gate or ‘Door’, but in specifying whereunto he professed to be the “Gate” they are no longer in accord.

13.3  The Bahai hierarchy’s evaluation of the BÁB

13.3.1 Mirza Husayn Ali’s account

“His [i.e. the Point’s] rank excelleth that of all the prophets, and His Revelation transcendth the comprehension and understanding of all their chosen Ones. A Revelation of which the prophets of god, His saints, and chosen ones, have either not been informed, or which, in pursuance of God’s inscrutable decree, they have not disclosed.” The Iqan of 1862, Shoghi Effendi’s translation, P.244, written by Baha “when as he still appeared in the guise of, and continued to labor as one of the foremost disciples of the BÁB.” God passes by, P. 128.
Mirza Husayn Ali becomes the Primal Point returned again “Had they reflected, they would not on my second manifestation have been veiled from my Beauty by a Name.”
“Amongst my Names [in allusion to Subh-i-Azal] the Traveller’s Narrative, English Translation, Vol. II. P. 96, footnote 1, Lawh-i-Nasir.
Mirza Husayn Ali forgets that the Primal Point was a major manifestation “whose rank excelleth that of all the prophets, and whose Revelation transcendeth the comprehension and understanding of all their chosen ones”. Mirza Husayn Ali forgets that he was the Primal Point returned again. In his Aqdas, Elder’s translation, P. 29, P. 54, Mirza Husayn Ali refers to the Primal Point not as a major manifestation but as a “Teller-of-Good-News about the coming of Mirza Husayn Ali”.
In his Epistle to the Son of the Wolf written by him about one year before his death in 1892, Shoghi Effendi’s translation, P. 141, Mirza Husayn Ali still speaks of the Primal Point as “My Forerunner”.

13.3.2 Abbas Effendi’s Account

In his Traveler’s Narrative of 1885-1886 Sir Abbas Effendi speaks of the Primal Point as a “herald or forerunner”.
Sir Abbas Effendi died in November 1921. In his Will and Testament, the Bahai World, 1926-1928, Vol. II, PP. 86-87, Sir Abbas Effendi overrated his father Mirza Husayn Ali and said “This is the foundation of the belief of the people of Baha. His Holiness, the Exalted One (the Primal Point), is the Manifestation of the Unity and Oneness of god and the Forerunner of the Ancient Beauty [i.e. Mirza Husayn Ali]. His Holiness the Abha Beauty [i.e. Mirza Husayn Ali] is the Supreme Manifestation of god and the Day-Spring of His Most Divine Essence”.

13.3.3 Shoghi Effendi’s Account
Shoghi Effendi overrated both Mirza Husayn Ali and Sir Abbas Effendi :

“At the beginning of his mission, the BÁB, continuing the tradition of the double title of, first, the Qaim and, second, the Gate or BÁB. He was the Qaim; but the Qaim, though a High prophet, stood in relation to a succeeding and greater Manifestation as did John the Baptist to the Christ. He was the Forerunner of One yet more mighty than himself. He was to decrease; that Mighty One was to increase. And as John the Baptist had been the Herald or Gate of the Christ, so was the BÁB the Herald or Gate of Bahaullah”. Shoghi Effendi’s introduction to the Dawn-Breakers, Nabil’s Narrative, of 1932, PP. XXX-XXXI.
The BÁB has been compared to John the Baptist, but the station of the BÁB is not merely that of the herald or forerunner. In himself the BÁB was a Manifestation of god, the Founder of an independent religion, even though that religion was limited in time to a brief period of years. The Bahais believe that the BÁB and Bahaullah were Co-Founders of their Faith, the following words of Bahaullah testifying to this truth: ‘that so brief a span should have separated the Most Mighty and wondrous Revelation from my own previous Manifestation is a secret that no man can unravel and a mystery such as no mind can fathom. Its duration had been foreordained, and no man shall ever discover its reason unless he be informed of the contents of My Hidden Book”. J. E. Esslemont’s Bahaullah and the New Era, revised dition of 1937, containing Shoghi Effendi’s authoritative interpretation of the Point’s station, P. 26.
Thus “the Manifestation of the Unity and Oneness of God” was to increase and “the Supreme Manifestation of God and the Day-Spring of His Most Divine Essence” was to decrease.
In god passes by, P. 92 of 1944, Shoghi Effendi quotes Baha as saying: “that so brief an interval should have separated this Most Mighty and wondrous Revelation from Mine own previous Manifestation is a secret such as no mind can fathom. Its duration has been foreordained”.
Shoghi Effendi makes no mention of Mirza Husayn Ali’s so-called “Hidden Book”
“the Forerunner of the Faith was Mirza Ali Muhammad of Shiraz, known as the BÁB (the Gate) who proclaimed on 23rd May, 1844, His twofold mission as an independent Manifestation of god and Herald of One greater than Himself, who would inaugurate a new and unprecedented era in the religious history of mankind”. The world Religion by Shoghi Effendi. The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield of 1940 P. 262.
“the BÁB was the Bearer of a wholly independent Revelation and the Herald of one still greater than His own”. God Passes By, P. 27.
“this Book [i.e. the Bayan, of about eight thousand verses, occupying a pivotal position in BÁBi literature, should be regarded as a eulogy of the Promised One rather than a code of laws and ordinances designed to be a permanent guide to future generations”. God Passes By, P. 25.
“the Iqan was written in fulfilment of the prophecy of the BÁB, who had specifically stated that the Promised One would complete the text of the unfinished Bayan.” God Passes By, P. 138.

13.4 The Bayan’s Testimony on The Station of BÁB-hood
The conflict of opinion amongst the Bahai hierarchy concerning the station of the Primal Point, which, according to them, varies with the change in the time stems from their desperate effort to fit Mirza Husayn Ali into the warp and woof of the Bayani dispensation.

The fact that the Primal Point was treated as an impostor and executed is no bar to an examination of Mirza Husayn Ali’s pretensions in the light of theophanies enunciated in the Bayan by the Primal Point, but for whom Mirza Husayn Ali would have advanced no pretensions.

In the following references from the Persian Bayan the Roman figures include the Wáhid (Unity) and the Arabic figures the BÁB (Chapter).

God is unknowable except through the Appearing-Place of Himself, whom the BÁB names He who has appeared (Man-Zahara), and He who will appear (Man-Yazhar) or He whom god will make manifest (Man-Yuzhiruhullah), Exordium.

This designation is based on the fundamental principal that what changes in different theophanic cycles is the Mortal form of the Appearing place and not the Primal Volition (Mashiya), which speaks through it and undergoes no change, VII, 10.

He who has appeared and He who will appear are identical in essence and reveal one evolving truth, with this difference that He who will appear is more perfect as regards his personality and Revelation than Him who has appeared. II, 4.

The Primal Volition that speaks through Him who has appeared or Him who will appear is like the Sun which rises and sets day after day, but is always the same sun in reality. He who has appeared will be followed by Him who will appear, who in turn, will be followed by Him who will appear to come later, who, in turn will be followed by Him who will appear to come still later. Thus the Sun of Truth rises and sets. It has neither beginning nor end. IV, 12.

He who has appeared covenants himself with god for belief in Him who will appear and in his Revelation. VI, 16.

Thus He who has appeared is a confirmer of the earlier. Him who god appeared and his Revelation, and a Forerunner or Herald of Him who will appear and His Revelation. But this does not mean that Him who has appeared stands in relation to Him who will appear, who will be greater than himself, as did John the Baptist to the Christ.
Therefore there is nothing spectacular about Him who will appear, who, in turn, will be succeeded by Him who will appear, who will be greater than himself.

The divine Will (Irada) can in no wise be revealed except through the Will of the Volition, nor His wish be manifested save through the wish of the Volition. If god were to choose two, Appearing-Places for the purpose the Manifestation of the Unity and Oneness of god will not thereby be manifest in the contingent world, and in between the two chaos will prevail. Therefore there has been, and is, One Volition in each theophanic cycle, which manifests itself through Him who has appeared or Him who will appear. God created all things by His Volition and this Volition by Himself. IV, 6.

He who has appeared or He who will appear is the Point (Nuqta). The Point is the Station of Volition of the Divine Manifestation. In the realm of divinity the Point is the Mouthpiece of god and reveals verses on His behalf. In the plane of humanity the Point is a creature and worships god. I, 15; III, 8; IV, 1.

He who has appeared or He who will appear is “the Living (Hay)”. Exordium.

He who has appeared or He who will appear is the Mirror of God. III, 17; VIII, 13.

He who has appeared or He who will appear “is like the Sun of the other Letters are like Mirrors placed before it”. III, 8; III, 12.

He who has appeared or He who will appear is “independent of Mirrors”, Letters of the Living, called the Eighteen Mirrors, including. He is dependent on god alone. VII, 15; III, 1.

He is independent of all things. VIII, 14.

Letters of the Living, the eighteen disciples who first believed in Him who has appeared, have become Living because of the latter who has shone upon them. LV, 1.

These persons “are the return of Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, the eleven Imams, and the four original gates (BÁBs),” who served as a connection between the Twelfth Imam and his fold during the period of the Minor Occultation. I, 2 – I, 19.

They held these stations from the Point of faith. What is meant by return is the appearance of another person, borne of other parents, but inspired by god, with the same spirit and power.
The manifestation of the Point of the Bayan [i.e. the Primal Point is identical with that of Muhammad in his return; but in as much as he [i.e. the Point of the Bayan] has appeared as the Divine Manifestation”, all Names point to God in the shadow of [i.e. as subsidiary or subordinate to] him; because he is the First and the Last, the apparent and the Hidden, and he it is for whom are all comely names. God has specially changed their names [i.e. of the 18 disciples, who first believed in Him who has appeared, namely, the Primal Point] into Letters of the Living in this Cycle, for these fourteen holy souls [i.e. Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, and the eleven Imams] and the Preserved and the Hidden Name, designated the names of the Four Gates (BÁBs) … constitute the number of the Living (Hay = 18); and these are the names who enjoy nearest access to god; the others are guided by their guidance, for god begun the Creation of the Bayan through them, and it is to them that the Creation of the Bayan will again return. They are the Lights that have, from everlasting, bowed down, and will everlastingly continue to bow down before the Celestial throne. In each manifestation they are called by a name by creatures. In each manifestation they change their material names, But the names of their very nature which point to god are manifesting their hearts. I, 2.

The BÁB is “Him who has appeared in the Bayanic Manifestation.” Exordium.

The BÁB is “the Book of God.” I, 1; I, 2; II, 1.

The BÁB is “the Sun of Truth that rose under the name of BÁB-hood in the Bayanic Manifestation.” IV, 6.

The Point’s station of BÁB-hood is limited to a maximum period of “five years” denoted by the word “Limit of the BÁB (= 5).” VI, 3.

In his station of BÁB-hood, the Point’s “Point-hood” (Nuqtiyyat) was inherent in him. VI, 13.

Even in his station of BÁB-hood, the Primal Point revealed “Verily I am God, there is no God besides Me.” VIII, 18.

The BÁB identified himself with the Mahdi or the Qaim foretold by Muhammad. VIII, 2; VIII, 17; IX, 3.

The BÁB is “the POINT of the Bayan”. I, 1.

The BÁB is “the place of the Manifestation of the Primal Volition”, III, 6; III, 8.

The Primal Point held the station of BÁB-hood for a period of ‘four years’ within which to educate his followers. At the end of that period, as his followers became more receptive of his mission, the Primal Point declared himself to be “the Mahdi or the Qaim” and allowed a further period of two years” for the same purpose. The Point’s Five Grades (Panj Sha’n) of 1850 PP. 1-30.

The declaration of the Point’s BÁB-hood was on Jamad-Awwal 5, 1260 A.H (May 23, 1844). II, 7; VI, 13.

On Jamad Awwal 5, 1266 A.H. (March 19, 1850), the seventh anniversary of his declaration, the BÁB, the Primal Point (Nuqta-i-Ula), the Point of the Bayan ushered in the Bayani era, effective that date. The Point’s Five Grades, ibid, PP. 1-30.

The Primal Point’s personal diary of Jamad Awwal 5, 1264, A.H. (19 March, 1850), 1st entry; The Point’s Tablet of the Temple of the Religion (Lawh Haykal-al-Din) of 1850, which is a summary of the Point’s Laws and Ordinances. Unity (Wáhid) V, BÁB (Chapter) 3.

It will thus be seen that the Point’s concepts of BÁB-hood, Qaim-hood and Mahdi-hood was not in their Shia connotation. They are titles merged in his Point-hood with the universality of his message; according to him.

13.5 Conclusion
The allegation that:

Mirza Husayn Ali was the Primal Point returned again;
As John the Baptist had been the Herald or Gate of the Christ, so was the Primal Point the Herald or Gate of Mirza Husayn Ali;
The Primal Point proclaimed his junction under the double title of first, the Qaim, and second, the gate or BA

Is devoid of historical foundation.

As admitted by Mirza Husayn Ali in his Iqan the Point’s “rank excelleth that of all the prophets and his Revelation transcendeth the comprehension and understanding of all their Chosen Ones.”

As admitted by Sir Abbas Effendi the Primal Point is “the Manifestation of the Unity and Oneness of God.”

As admitted by Shoghi Effendi the Primal Point is “an independent Manifestation of God and the Bearer of the wholly independent Revelation.”
The allegation that the Point’s religion was limited in time to a brief period of years is devoid of historical foundation. This allegation is intended to camouflage the intrusion into the Bayanic dispensation of Mirza Husayn Ali, who is a misfit.

The allegation that the Primal Point and Mirza Husayn Ali were Co-Founders of Bahaism is devoid of historical foundation. There can be no two Suns of Truth, No two Manifestations of Lordship and divinity, and no two Manifestations of the Unity and Oneness of God in one theophanic cycle.
Until his alleged declaration in the garden of Ridvan in Baghdad in 1893, of which no record exists, Mirza Husayn Ali “still appeared under the guise of, and continued to labor as, one of the disciples of the BÁB (god passes by, P. 128).”

As admitted by Mirza Husayn Ali, Sir Abbas Effendi and Shoghi Effendi, during the Point’s lifetime, the Primal Point was the Sun of Truth and the Lord (Rabb), and Mirza Husayn Ali, the pretender, a disciple, one who had a lord and master (Mahbub), a simple Mirror. If it is alleged that Mirza Husayn Ali had since acquired the station of Lordship of god (Rububiya) and Sunship (Shamsiyyat), the answer is that the Lord continues to be the Lord and the Mirror to be the Marbub. Never does the sun loose its Sunship, and at no time does the Mirror become Creator of Sunship.

Shoghi Effendi’s evaluation of the Bayan, (vi), is not even shared by his great grandfather Mirza Husayn Ali (13.3.1) (i) and series Bahai Provisions.

Shoghi Effendi’s allegation that the Iqan was written in fulfilment of the prophecy of the BÁB, who had specifically stated that the Promised One [i.e. Mirza Husayn Ali] would complete the text of the Unfinished Persian Bayan is devoid of historical foundation. The Eight unwritten Wáhids of both Bayans, Arabic and Persian Bayan, remain concealed in the Divine Volition to this day. Shoghi Effendi’s falsehood is unfortunate.

In each manifestation news has been given of the following one. The Primal Point followed this precedent and promised his return as Him who will appear or Him whom god will make manifest in a minimum period of 1511 years or maximum period of 2001 years, subject to the implementation of certain prerequisites as are laid down in the Bayan.

Mirza Husayn Ali brushed aside all these specific provisions concerning the coming of Him whom god will make manifest, and staked out his pretensions.

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