15.    Perquisites of Him Whom God Will Make Manifest

15.2.   Definitions

15.2.1  The Day of Resurrection
Bayan's Testimony
“… what is meant by the Day of Resurrection is this, that from the time of the appearance of the Tree of Truth, at whatever period, and under whatever name it be, until the moment of its disappearance is the Day of Resurrection .. From the moment of the Manifestation of the Tree of the Bayan until its disappearance is the Resurrection of the Prophet of god, which god has promised in the Quran; whereof the beginning was after two hours and eleven minutes had passed of the Night of the fifth of Jamad Awwal, A.H. 1260, which was the year 1270 of the Mission [of Muhammad]. This was the beginning of the Resurrection of the Quran, and till the disappearance of the Tree of Truth [i.e. the Primal Point] the Resurrection of the Quran continues. For of no thing does the Resurrection occur till it reaches the stage of perfection.
The perfection of the religion of Islam was consummated ere the beginning of this Manifestation, and from the beginning of this Manifestation till the moment of its disappearance the fruits of Islam, whatever they are, will be revealed. The Resurrection of the Bayan will occur in the Manifestation pf Him whom god will make manifest; for today the Bayan is in its stage of seed and at the beginning of the manifestation of Him whom god will make manifest the Bayan will attain its ultimate perfection, when he will appear to gather the fruits of the trees which he planted, even as the Manifestation of the Qaim-i-Al-i-Muhammad (He who shall arise of the family of Muhammad) is identical with that of the apostle of god; he appears not save to gather the fruits of Islam of the Quranic verses which he planted in the hearts of men. There can be no gathering of the fruits of Islam except through belief in and acknowledgement of him”. II, 7.

After stating that he had been “unjustly” incarcerated on “Mount Maku”, the Primal Point says that what is what is meant by attainment unto the divine presence or meeting with god mentioned in the Quran is attainment unto the presence of, and meeting with the Primal Tree or the Tree of Truth”, namely the manifestation of the Age, “in the Day of Resurrection None can meet the Most Holy Essence”. “An infinitesimal part of a moment in the Day of Resurrection is better than the years that elapse between two Resurrections”.

The Primal Point continues: “From the beginning of this Manifestation till that of Him whom god will make manifest the fruit thereof appearing to the later Resurrection, which will be the Manifestation of the latter. O People of the Bayan! Take pity upon yourselves and make not void the length of your over night in the Day of the Resurrection, even as the veiled ones of the Quran have made.” These provisions are also confirmed in VI, 13 and IX, 3.

On the strength of the above quoted provisions the Day of the Resurrection is the period from the time of the appearance of the Manifestation of the Age until his death. He is the Author of the Resurrection (Qaim Qiyamat). Meeting with god is equivalent to meeting with the person of His Manifestation. Fruits of the earlier Manifestation are gathered in the succeeding Manifestation. There must be an interval of time between two Manifestations.
The Resurrection of the Quran begun on May 23rd, 1844, the Point's declaration and terminated on July 8, 1850, the Point's martyrdom.

Bahai Accounts
(1) Iqan
In his Iqan of 1862, Shoghi Effendi’s translation, PP. 142-144, Mirza Husayn Ali says: “These prophets and Chosen Ones of god are the recipients and revealers of all the unchangeable attributes and names of god. The knowledge of Him and attainment unto Him are impossible save through knowledge of, and attainment unto, these luminous Beings. By attaining, therefore, to the presence of the Holy Luminaries, the ‘Presence of God’ Himself is attained … Attainment unto such presence is possible only in the Day of Resurrection, which is the Day of the rise of god Himself through His all-embracing Revelation. This is the meaning of the “day of Resurrection’, spoken of in all the scriptures…. Having thus conclusively demonstrated that no day is greater than this Day, and no Revelation more glorious than this Revelation…. How can man possibly through the idle contention of the people of doubt and ? deprive themselves of such a bountiful grace? Have they not heard the well known tradition ‘When the Qaim riseth, that day is the day of Resurrection? In like manner, the Imams, those unquenchable Lights of divine guidance, have interpreted the verse: “what can such expect but that god should come down to them overshadowed with clouds,’ [Quran 2:210], a sign which they have unquestionably regarded as one of the features of the Day of Resurrection”, as a reference to Qaim and His Manifestation”.

This was Mirza Husayn Ali’s appreciation of the Primal Point and his Revelation, when he was “still a disciple of the BÁB”, shortly before the former’s alleged manifestation in the Ridvan garden in Baghdad in 1863, of which no record exists.

(2) Baha's Letter to Pope
Subsequent to his pretension in Edirne there comes the change: Mirza Husayn Ali regarded “the verse” as referring to himself. In his letter written by him at Acre addressed to the Pope and alleged to have been sent to the latter. Mirza Husayn Ali says “O Pope! Rend asunder the veils! The lord of lords has come in the shadow of clouds ….”, J.R.A.S October 1889, PP. 963-967, Prof. Browne’s translation.

(3) God Passes By
Shoghi Effendi’s translation, god passes by, P. 209: “He who is the lord of lords is come overshadowed with clouds ….”

In god passes by, P. 96, Shoghi Effendi regards “the verse” as referring to Mirza Husayn Ali “Muhammad, the apostle of god declared His [i.e. Mirza Husayn Ali’s] Day to be the Day whereon ‘god’ will ‘come down’ ‘overshadowed with clouds’.”

(4) Sounding the Trumpet
In his Iqan of 1862, Mirza Husayn Ali regards the provision of the Quran concerning the Day of Resurrection as referring to Qaim [i.e. the Primal Point] and His Manifestation, whose rising is the Day of Resurrection.

In his Epistle to the Son of the Wolf written by him about a year before his death in 1892, Shoghi Effendi’s translation. P. 132, Mirza Husayn Ali produces the same provisions such as “the Inevitable is come”, “the Stunning trumpet-blast hath been loudly raised”, “the Catastrophe is come to pass, “the Resurrection is come and the Stars have fallen”, as referring to himself, “when He who is the Self-Subsisting dwelth in the land of Mystery (Edirne) [Edirne and ‘Sirr (Mystery) have the same numerical equivalent, viz., 260].”

In his god passes by, of 1944, P. 33, Shoghi Effendi contradicts Mirza Husayn Ali and states that “the ‘Bugle’ mentioned in the Quran was sounded, the ‘Stunning trumpet-blast’ was loudly raised, and the ‘Catastrophe’ came to pass’” in the Badasht Conference early in 1848.

The conference was held long before the death of the late Prince Muhammad Shah on September 4, 1848, “after whose death Mirza Husayn Ali returned to Tehran, having in his mind [the intention of] corresponding and entering into relations with the B�B�. The Traveller’s Narrative, P. 62.

The conference was held long before Mirza Husayn Ali allegedly “received the first intimations of his divine mission while confined in the Siyah-Chal of Teheran” following the attempt on then Shah’s life on August 15, 1850. The Dawn-Breaker’s Nabil Narrative, P. 18, Shoghi Effendi’s footnote 1.

In god passes by, PP. 33-34, Shoghi Effendi contradicts Mirza Husayn Ali once again and states: “A little over four years had elapsed since the birth of the BÁB’s Revelation [i.e. in 1844] when the trumpet-blast announcing the formal extinction of the old, and the inauguration of the new Dispensation was sounded [in the Badasht conference] … the trumpeter was Tahira [also known as Qurrat-al-Ayn]…. Accelerated, twenty years later, by another trumpet-blast, announcing the formulation of the laws of another Dispensation …”

In the Dawn-Breakers Nabil’s Narrative, P. 334, footnote 1, Shoghi Effendi says: “Reference to the year 1280 A.H. (1863-4 A.D), in which Bahaullah declared his mission in Baghdad”.

The second trumpet-blast was allegedly sounded by the trumpeter Mirza Husayn Ali in the course of his alleged declaration in the garden of Ridvan in Baghdad in 1863, of which no record exists: “of the exact circumstances attending that epoch-making declaration we, alas, are but scantly informed. The words Bahaullah actually uttered on that occasion, the manner of his declaration, the reaction it produced, its impact on Mirza Yahya [Subh-i-Azal, who had already left Baghdad about a fortnight before Mirza Husayn Ali’s departure, the Spoken Chronicle of Baha’s daughter Bahiyya Khanum, the Chosen Highway, by Lady Blomfield, P. 59. This account is confirmed by Sir Abbas Effendi in the Traveller’s Narrative, PP. 89-90. Therefore to talk about impact is nonsense], the identity of those who were privileged to hear him, are shrouded in an obscurity which future historians will find it difficult to penetrate”. God passes by, P. 153.

(5) Mirza Husayn Ali Calling on People of Bayan
In the Epistle to the Sun of the Wolf, P. 172, Mirza Husayn Ali quotes the following provisions from Persian Bayan, II, 7, in support of his pretensions: “O people of the Bayan! Act not as the people of the Quran have acted, for if ye do so, the fruits of your night will come to naught. If thou attainest unto His Revelation, and obeyest him, thou wilt have revealed the fruit of the Bayan; if not, then thou art unworthy of mention before god. Take pity upon thyself. If thou aidest not Him who is the Manifestation of the god, be not, thou, a cause of sadness unto him. If thou attainest not unto the Presence of god, grieve not, then the sign of god.”
The provisions do not, however, prove that Mirza Husayn Ali is Him whom god will make manifest, the promised One of the Bayan.
Mirza Husayn Ali quoted the relevant Wáhid (Unity) without quoting the chapter (BÁB) to which these provisions relate. They should not be read out of their context.

(6) Bayan at The Stage of Seed
In god passes by, P.30, Shoghi Effendi quotes the following passage in support of Mirza Husayn Ali’s pretensions, without specifying the Point’s writing to which it relates: “Today the Bayan is in the stage of seed; at the beginning of the manifestation of Him whom god will make manifest its ultimate perfection will become apparent.”
This passage appears in the Persian Bayan, II (see Qiyamat-i Quran (Resurrection of Quran)). A mere pretension is no proof. The passage does not prove that Mirza Husayn Ali is Him whom god will make manifest. Shoghi Effendi has given a truncated version of the passage.

(7) Mirza Muhammad Ali's version of The Day of Resurrection
In his lithographed Will and Testament of 1925, penned in his own handwriting, PP. 7-8, Mirza Husayn Ali’s son Mirza Muhammad Ali says: “The Sun of horizons [i.e. Mirza Husayn Ali] manifested himself to the people of concord in Iraq [i.e. Baghdad] and He whom god will make manifest of the Bayan removed from his luminous face the veil in the Day of Resurrection of the Qaim. This was however, a private manifestation.”
It is indeed unfortunate that Mirza Muhammad Ali should have corrupted the text of the relevant provision of the Bayan in a bid to prop up his father’s pretensions.

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