The Allegation of Subh-i-Azal's Serving As A Screen

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

Sultan Khanum's Account

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.

4.6 Sultan Khanum's Account
Sultan Khanum was Sir Abbas Effendi's full sister. She was renamed Bahiyya Khanum following Baha's pretensions in Edirne.
She was surnamed the Supreme Leaf (Waraqa-i-Ulya). In god passes by, P. 347, Shoghi Effendi says that "the greatest Holy Leaf Bahiyya Khanum is compared in rank to those heroines as Sarah, Asiya, the virgin Mary, Fatima and Tahira (Qurrat-al-Ayn), each of whom has outshone every member of her sex in previous Dispensation."

Says Bahiyya Khanum in the Spoken Chronicle, the Chosen Highway of 1940 by Lady Blomfield, (PP. 48-50: "Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri [i.e. Baha] wrote on one occasion a letter to the BÂB, at the request of his half-brother [i.e. Mirza Yahya Subh-i-Azal], he being too illiterate to write it himself. The BÂB, in his reply, referred to this youth as ‘a mirror'. Thereupon Subh-i-Azal assumed the title of ‘the mirror', as being particularly bestowed upon him, the fact being that the title, if not quite a general one, at least had been given to a number of the BÂBis."

"Now the BÂB thought out a plan of protecting Baha by veiling him from general recognition until ‘the appointed time.'

For, if it had been noised abroad prematurely that he was the "one whom god shall make manifest,' the opposing forces would undoubtedly have plotted to put him to death, and the great Design would, for that reason, have suffered delay.
It was therefore above all things necessary to make sure and certain plans in two matters:

Baha must be known (eventually by all the world) to have been recognized by the BÂB as ‘Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest', of whom he was the forerunner, the Herald! Of this recognition there must be no shadows of doubt, no possibility of uncertainty, no ground for controversy in the future. This was the sublime meaning of the mission, for which he, the BÂB, endured scorn and persecution and imprisonment, and would in a short time sacrifice his life.
The proclamation must not be made prematurely. The ‘Great One' must for obvious reasons, be veiled until the ‘appointed time.' "

"In order that these two most important plans should be successful, the BÂB confided in Mirza [Mulla] Abd al Karim of Qazwin … Subh-i-Azal, not one of the nineteen letters of the living (he was one of the ‘Mirrors', not the mirror, as he afterwards declared, might well be thought by the uninitiated of these days of confusion, as well as by the uncomprehending open enemies of the cause, to be a sort leader of the BÂBis after the death of the Herald, the BÂB. He certainly could be counted upon to assume that position, so overwhelming was his vanity."

"Subh-i-Azal would thus, unconsciously, serve as a screen in attracting the attention of the people to himself, thus preventing the premature recognition of ‘Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest' until his appointed time.
One point has been raised, i.e. the danger to Subh-i-Azal himself of such a prominent position. Now, it was his own arrogance which prompted him to seize the leadership, for which he was ludicrously unfitted, both by nature and by training. His character being weak, his intelligence small and his indolence great. Moreover, he could be relied upon to hide himself very effectively when danger threatened, till it should be ? !"

No documentary evidence is produced by the Supreme Leaf.

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