Claimants to The Office of He Whom God Will Make Manifest
Baha's Claim
The Allegation of Subh-i-Azal's Serving As A Screen
4. The Allegation of Subh-i-Azal's Serving As A Screen
Subh-i-Azal's serving as a screen behind which Baha sought shelter to work with impunity devoid of historical foundation.
4.1 Abbas Effendi's Account
Says Sir Abbas Effendi in the Traveller's Narrative: "(PP. 58-59) When the question of the B?B was noised abroad, signs of partiality appeared in him [i.e. Baha]. At the first he apprised his relatives and connections, and the children and dependents of his own circle; subsequently he occupied his energies by day and night in inviting friends and strangers to embrace the new faith �. When he had [thus] established the foundation in Teheran he hastened to Mazandaran, where he displayed is assemblies, meetings, conferences, inns, mosques, and colleges a mighty power of utterance and exposition.
(P. 62) For some while he wandered about in those districts. After the death of the late Prince Muhammad Shah he returned to Teheran, having in his mind [the intention] corresponding and entering relations with the B?B the medium of this correspondence was the celebrated Mulla Abd al Karim of Qazwin [also known as Mirza Ahmad-i-Katib], who was the B?B's mainstay and trusted intimate. Now since a great celebrity had been attained for Baha in Teheran, and the heart of men were disposed towards him, he together with Mulla �Abd-al-Karim, considered it as expedient that, in face of the agitation amongst the doctors, the aggressions of the great part of [the people of] Iran, and the irresistible power of the Amir-Nizam [i.e. Mirza Raqi Khan, Prime Minister and Chief Regent, ibid, P. 32], whereby both the B?B and Baha were in great danger and liable to incur severe punishment, some measure should be adopted to direct the thoughts of men towards some absent person by which Baha would remain protected from the interference of all men and since further, having regard to sundry considerations, they did not consider an outsider as suitable, they cast the lot of this (P. 63) augury to the name of Baha's brother Mirza Yahya [Subh-i-Azal].
By the assistance and instruction of Baha, therefore, they made him notorious and famous, on the tongues of friends and foes, and wrote letters, ostensibly at his dictation, to the B?B.
But since secret correspondence were in process the B?B highly approved of this scheme. So Mirza Yahya was concealed and hidden while mention of him was on the tongues and in the mouth of men. And this mighty plan was wondrous efficacy, for Baha, though he was known and seen, remained safe and secure, and this veiled the cause that no one outside [the sect] fathomed the matter or fell into the idea of molestation, until Baha quitted Teheran at the permission of the king and was permitted to withdraw to the Supreme Shrines.
When he reached Baghdad and the crescent moon of the month of Muharram of the year [A.H. One thousand two hundred and] sixty nine [which was termed in the books of the B?B "the year of 'after a while'" and wherein he had promised the disclosure of the true nature his religion and its mysteries] shone forth from the horizon of the world, this covert secret, as is related, became apparent amongst all within and without [the society]."
According to Sir Abbas Effendi's Baha having allegedly incurred the wrath of the powers-that-be, the clergy and the people of his espousal of the B?B's cause in Iran, allegedly in collusion with "the B?B's amanuensis Mulla Abd-al-Karim of Qazwin" otherwise known as Mirza Ahmad the amanuensis, worked out "a mighty plan of wondrous efficacy" allegedly "highly approved by the B?B since secret correspondence were in process", whereunder Baha "the Promised One of the Bayan, Him-Whom-God-Will-Manifest, the Shah Bahram, the fifth Buddha, the lord of Hosts, the return of Christ, the master of the Day of Judgment" to quote H.M Balyuzi in his short biography "Bahaullah", the chosen Highway by lady Bloom Field, P.58, took shelter behind his half brother Mirza Yahya Subh-i Azal a lad in his teens, and saved his skin.
This "scheme" of diversionary tactics, we are told by Sir Abbas Effendi, fell into desuetude as soon as Baha "reached Baghdad", shook the dust of Iran off his feet, and "revealed" himself to be Him-Whom-God-Will-Manifest in Muharram (October 15-November 13, 1852)" on which date Baha was undergoing imprisonment in Tehran for his complicity in the attempt on the then Shah's life which took place on Shawal 28, A.H. 1269 (August 15, 1852). And this imprisonment lasted for "a term of four months" according to Baha and his Epistle to the Son of the Wolf. P.16.
No documentary evidence is produced to substantiate alleged "Secret Correspondence". We are let to infer from this version that "His Holiness the Exalted One (the Primal Point), the Manifestation of the Unity and Oneness of God" allegedly colluded with Baha, "the Supreme Manifestation of God and the Day-Spring of His Most Divine Essence", according to Sir Abbas Effendi, to quote Sir Abbas Effendi in his will and testament, the Bahai World, 1926-1928, Vol. II. P.87, for blue-prints of this "Mighty Plan of wondrous efficacy", which in fact existed only in the fertile imagination of Baha and Sir Abbas Effendi. The least that can be said about it is that it is indeed an insult to the memories of the Primal Point and his amanuensis Mulla Abd-al-Karim of Qazwin.
The "Mighty Plan and wondrous efficacy" aborted: The Primal Point was martyred and Baha was imprisoned in the attempt on the Shah's life. Baha himself was arrested on suspicion of complicity in the attempt on the then Shah's life which took place on 28th Shawwal A.H. 1269 (15th August A.D. 1852) and was cast into prison. "He was only saved from imprisonment for life thanks to the unremitting efforts of his own sister by a lavish expenditure of funds, subject to his good behaviourism and desistance from undesirable activities in future, and to his expulsion from Iran (pages 7 & 8 the Tanbihun Naimin (the Awakening of Sleepers).