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
Analysis of the Accounts
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.
4.8 Analysis of the Accounts
These accounts are conflicting and contradictory: Sir Abbas Effendi says that Baha returned to Teheran after the death of Muhammad Shah, which took place on September4, 1848, when he made up his mind to correspond and enter into relations with the BÂB. The BÂB and Baha were in great danger, to provide against which, Baha, in collaboration with Mulla Abd-al-Karim of Qazwin, who was put to death following the attempt on the then Shah's life in August 1852, drew up a collusive plan, whereunder Subh-i-Azal was declared to be a nominal leader of the BÂBi community, while Baha sought sanctionary behind Subh-i-Azal, and conducted his activities, unmolested and undisturbed. Letters ostensibly written of Subh-i-Azal's dictation were sent to the BÂB, who gave him his blessing.
To the plan, since secret correspondence were in process." The BÂBi community was privy to the plan. As Baha set foot in Baghdad on "Muharram 1, A.H. 1269 (October, 15, 1852)" upon expulsion from Iran, he revealed himself then and there as the promised one of the Bayan, true to the BÂB's prophecy, termed in his book "the year of "after a while' "Ba'd Hin), the plan ceased and determined and Subh-i-Azal's nominal leadership lapsed.
Belying Sir Abbas Effendi Nabil says that it was after "January 23, 1850" that Baha dictated a letter to Subh-i-Azal and sent it in his name to the BÂB, to which a reply, penned in the BÂB's own handwriting was received concerning Subh-i Azal."
Nabil does not, however, state why Baha should have gone out of his way to write a letter to the Primal Point concerning the education of Subh-i-Azal. Nabil makes cryptic references to the reply.
In his epistle to the son of the wolf, Shoghi Effendi's translation, Baha refers the readers to carefully look into the communications addressed in his [i.e. Subh-i-Azal's name to the Primal Point', but fails to produce a single line from those communications to substantiate his statements.
Contradicting Sir Abbas Effendi Mirza Jawad says that the architects of the plan, which was intended to protect Baha only, were Baha's full brother Mirza Musa and Mulla Abd al Karim of Qazwin, on whose initiative Baha himself "wrote letters about Subh-i-Azal to the BÂB, to which answers were duly issued."
Contradicting both Sir Abbas Effendi and Mirza Jawad, Sir Abbas Effendi's sister Bahiyya Khanum says that the architect of the plan was the Primal Point himself.
Shoghi Effendi relies on Sir Abbas Effendi's "testimony" without quoting it.
The avowed object of the conflicting and contradictory accounts is to give color to Bahai hierarchy's assertion that Baha was from the first recognized by the Primal Point as Him-Whom-God-Will-Make-Manifest, the promised of Bayan, whose advent he announced.
Nailed to the counter are these falsehoods of Bahai hierarchy by Mirza Jani's Nuqta'al-Kaf of 1851, Tarikh-i-Jadid, appendix II, Mirza Jani's History, whose author Mirza Jani says that:
Mirza Jani's account exposes Bahai hierarchy's bogus plan to impose Baha on the BÂBi community as the promised one of the Bayan, and clauses the Primal Point and his scribe Mulla Abd al Karim from the pollution of the bogus plan.
Apart from Mirza Jani's account, Subh-i-Azal rests his successorship on:
Please see testamentary disposition by the Primal Point addressed to Subh-i Azal.
Notice in writing of the appointment of Subh-i-Azal as his successor was given by the Primal Point to all prominent BÂBis. Baha was the recipient of an autograph epistle from the Primal Point, in 1850, to which cryptic reference is made in the Dawn-Breakers, Nabil's Narrative.
It is addressed to "238, the brother of the Fruit" (لأخ الثمرة 238)
"The ‘Fruit' denotes Subh-i Azal as the Fruit of the Bayan, one of the titles bestowed upon him by the Primal Point. The ciphers "238" represent the numerical value of the words "Husayn Ali", Baha's name. This indicates that Baha was identified by the Primal Point through his brother Subh-i-Azal, that he had no title bestowed upon him by the Primal Point, who was the grantor of the titles, and that the title Baha and Bahaullah assumed by Mirza Husayn Ali are self-assumed and unauthorized.
In the epistle the Primal Point refers to Subh-i-Azal as "the most glorious Element" (Unsur-i-Abha, superlative of Baha) called Yahya, Subh-i-Azal's name. The text of the epistle appears in old BÂBi manuscripts. It is far from flattering to Baha. The terms in which it is couched proves that it is addressed from a superior, the Primal Point, to an inferior, Baha.
For the full text see Baha's grounds of pretensions.
Letters addressed by the Primal Point and his amanuensis Aqa Sayyid Husayn to Subh-i-Azal and Mulla Abd al Karim of Qazwin and reproduced in fac-simile in the collection of the Epistles of the Primal Point and his amanuensis Aqa Sayyid Husayn disprove Baha's "plan of wondrous efficacy".
In the nomination document appearing in page 1 of the collection Sub-i-Azal is directed by the Primal Point "to keep what has been revealed in the Bayan, and what has been commanded, for verily thou art a mighty way of Truth."
In the Epistle addressed to Mulla Abd al Karim of Qazwin, Subh-i-Azal's authority is once again asserted. Furthermore, in the Primal Point's epistle addressed to Subh-i-Azal reproduced in the supplement to the Persian Bayan by Subh-i-Azal, the Primal Point says: "And if god cause one like unto thee appear in thy days, then he it is to whom shall be bequeathed the authority on the part of god, the Single, the One (Wahid stands as equivalent to Yahya, i.e. Subh-i-Azal) and if [such an one] appears not, know for a surety that god hath not willed to make Himself known, and render up the authority to god, your Lord, and the Lord of the worlds all."
In the epistle, the Primal Point also conferred on Subh-i-Azal the right of completing the Bayan if the time should be perilous. A French translation of the epistle appears in page 53-66 of the preface to Le Bayan Arabe translated and published by A.L. M. Nicholas in 1905.
We are told in the Traveller's Narrative that the "manifestation" of Baha took place in Baghdad and that it did take place in the month of Muharram in the year A.H. 1269 (Oct. 15-Nov. 13, 1852). This statement is impossible since Baha was arrested soon after the attempt on the then Shah's life which took place on 28th Shawwal A.H. 1268 (15th August 1952) and was imprisoned at Teheran for four month before he was permitted to leave Baghdad.
Yet, in the Kitab-i-Iqan (the Book of Assurance) written by him in Baghdad in A.D. 1858, five years after his exodus to Baghdad, Baha makes no declaration of "manifestation". He makes no claim to supremacy. He speaks of the Bayan as the last revelation supported by augments drawn from the Pentateuch, Gospel, Quran and Traditions.
He says that "he never sought precedence over any one in any matter", adds that on his "first arrival" in Baghdad, he withdrew after two years into wilderness by himself intending to remain there all his life, since he did not wish to be the cause of strife and dissension among the believers. How could he alter his resolution since "the order to return emanated from the source of command [i.e. Subh-i-Azal] to which," he "necessarily submitted."
A copy of the Kitab-i-Iqan (The Book of Assurance) will be donated to the library in the near future. The author of the Traveller's Narrative is Abdul Baha Abbas. He wrote it under the direction of his father Baha. He had at his disposal every means of ascertaining the facts. He did not do so. Purposely and deliberately he antedated the "manifestation" of Baha. His reason for doing so is not far to seek.
He is out to whittle down the extent or duration of Subh-i-Azal's authority, and to give colour to his pretension that Baha was from the first regarded by the Primal Point as "He whom god shall manifest" whose advent he announced.
Since under Baha's alleged "plan of wondrous efficacy" Subh-i-Azal's "supremacy was a diversion intended to give authority to Baha during his continuance in Iran. Abdul Baha is compelled, in order that his pretension may appear consistent with facts, to represent this supremacy as ceasing on Baha's arrival in Baghdad. This "plan of wondrous efficacy" has no historical foundation.
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