The Title ‘Bahaullah’
The Title is Self-Assumed
1. The Title ‘Bahaullah’
1.1 The Title is Self-Assumed
Appropriation of the title of Baha or Bahaullah by Mirza Husayn Ali is confirmed by Tanbihun-Naimin, P.5. No such title was conferred on Mirza Husayn Ali commonly called Bahaullah.
A garbled version of the bestowal of this title in page 211 of the Dawn-Breakers (Nabil’s Narrative of the early days of the Bahai? Revelation) translated by Shoghi Effendi:
“Those who had gathered in Badasht were eighty-one in number …… everyday He (Baha) revealed a Tablet which Mirza Suleyman-i Nur chanted in the presence of the assembled believers. Upon each he bestowed a name. He himself was henceforth designated by the name Baha …. To each of those who had convened at Badasht a special Tablet was subsequently revealed by the BÂB, each of whom He addressed by the name recently conferred upon him.
…. Even the identity of Him [i.e. Bahaullah] who had bestowed a name upon each of those who had congregated in that hamlet remained unknown to those who had received them. … Few, if any, dimly surmised that Bahaullah was the author of the far-reaching changes which were being fearlessly introduced”.
In page 317 of the Dawn-Breakers, the author Nabil refers to an epistle, “penned in the BÂB’s own handwriting, in which He commits Mirza Yahya [surnamed Subh-i Azal] to the care of Baha and urges that attention be paid to his education and training”. … “that communication the people of the Bayan [followers of Subh-i Azal, footnote 2] have misconstrued as an evidence of the exaggerated claims which they have advanced in favour of their leader” [i.e. Subh-i Azal].
The epistle in question is none other than the one, the text of which appears in page 32 of the Tanbihun-Naimin, It is referred to in the Point’s Personal Diary (See The Point’s diary). The Epistle in question was addressed to 238, brother of Thamara. As is stated, the numerical value of Mirza Husayn Ali in the Abjad notation is 238.
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