Traditions, ESW 257-268

And then, after all this, Baha'u'llah ends with traditions. Really? That surprised me, partly because it reminded me so much of the Iqan. After everything Baha'u'llah does in that book, after helping the uncle of the Bab develop the capacity to investigate for himself, after putting forward all the various proofs, He turns to the traditions. And now, at the end of this book, He does something similar. But there is a difference. These traditions are all about Akka.

And they are addressed to Hadi. Baha'u'llah says that He has deemed it necessary to mention these traditions so that Hadi might "seek a path unto the Truth, and a road leading unto God". The book itself may have been addressed to Muhammad-Taqi, but these final paragraphs seem to be directed towards someone else. Hadi has been the one addressed throughout the last section, and now Baha'u'llah gives him one final collection of evidence to consider.

Before we get to the traditions themselves, though, the next paragraph begins, "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." Well, that sure rings a bell. It is the opening of nearly every Surih of the Qur'an. And here it appears just as Baha'u'llah is about to begin this collection of traditions attributed to Muhammad.

Then the traditions begin, and there are a lot of them. Akka, Akka, Akka over and over again. This isn't a case of Baha'u'llah finding one convenient tradition that happens to mention the city in which He is living. They speak of visiting Akka, dwelling there, praying there, suffering there, drinking from its spring and looking upon its sea. The poor of Akka are described as "the kings of Paradise". Remembering God there is said to be better than bearing swords and weapons in His path.

And all of this is being said to Hadi. Why him? Because Hadi has been supporting the claims of Mirza Yahya. When the exiles were separated, Mirza Yahya was sent to Cyprus, while Baha'u'llah was sent to Akka. Muhammad didn't say these things about Cyprus. That doesn't prove anything by itself, of course, but once again Baha'u'llah doesn't seem to be asking Hadi simply to accept His word over somebody else's. He is giving him something he can examine. Here are the traditions. Here are the two claimants. Here are the places to which they were sent. Does the evidence support the claim? After the last section, this method seems remarkably familiar.

Near the end, the sea appears. One tradition speaks of someone who looks upon the sea "at eventide", and specifically "at sunset". He watches the sea and counts forty waves. Now I don't know how far to take this, but the imagery is difficult for me to ignore. This is a book written near the end of Baha'u'llah's earthly life. He is in Akka, on the shore of the sea, and among the final traditions He chooses to quote is one about looking upon that sea at sunset. Could there be an allusion here to the approaching end of His own earthly life? I don't know, but the possibility seems worth pondering.

And then there is the number forty. Forty has a long history in Islam, as well as in the earlier Abrahamic traditions. Moses spends forty nights on the mountain. The Qur'an speaks of reaching full strength at the age of forty. Again and again, forty appears in connection with a period reaching maturity or completion, often through testing and preparation. And here the person looking at the sea at sunset counts forty waves. Maybe that's coincidence. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But after everything I’ve seen in the Writings, I'm not quite ready to walk past it without at least looking.

Especially because the sea itself is hardly a new image. Only a short while ago Baha'u'llah told Muhammad-Taqi to "seek thou the shore of the Most Great Ocean, and enter, then, the Crimson Ark". That reminded us of the very beginning of the Iqan, where the seeker is told that no one can attain "the shores of the ocean of true understanding" without detachment. And now, here we are again at the shore, looking at the sea.

The next tradition continues the image, speaking of the one who "looketh upon the sea a full night". That word "looketh" seems particularly appropriate after the journey we've been taking through these last sections. What were they looking at? How will you know Him when you see Him? Look at the evidence. Look at what people say. Look at what they write and what they do. Don't rely upon somebody else's judgement. Look for yourself. And the Epistle ends with someone looking out over the sea, not merely glancing at it, either, but looking for a full night.

Then comes the final paragraph: "Verily, the Apostle of God... hath spoken the truth." And that's it. Baha'u'llah doesn't end by telling Hadi what conclusion he has to reach. He has put the traditions before him. Muhammad spoke of Akka. Baha'u'llah is in Akka. Hadi knows where Mirza Yahya is. Once again, he has been given something he can examine for himself.

Perhaps that is a fitting way for this book to end. The Iqan was written for a man who came with questions, and Baha'u'llah helped him learn how to search. This book was written to a man who seemed to have all the answers, and Baha'u'llah asked him to examine the evidence for himself. Even here, at the very end, the door remains open to another who has already made up their mind. There is still "a path unto the Truth, and a road leading unto God". He just has to be willing to look.

And then, after all this, Baha'u'llah ends with traditions. Really? That surprised me, partly because it reminded me so much of the Iqan. After everything Baha'u'llah does in that book, after helping the uncle of the Bab develop the capacity to investigate for himself, He turns reluctantly to the traditions. And now, at the end of this book, He does something similar. But there is a difference. These traditions are all about Akka.

And they are addressed to Hadi. Baha'u'llah says that He has deemed it necessary to mention these traditions so that Hadi might "seek a path unto the Truth, and a road leading unto God". The book itself may have been addressed to Muhammad-Taqi, but these final paragraphs seem to be directed towards someone else. Hadi has been the one addressed throughout the last section, and now Baha'u'llah gives him one final collection of evidence to consider.

Before we get to the traditions themselves, though, the next paragraph begins, "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." Well, that sure rings a bell. It is the opening of nearly every Surih of the Qur'an. And here it appears just as Baha'u'llah is about to begin this collection of traditions attributed to Muhammad.

Then the traditions begin, and there are a lot of them. Akka, Akka, Akka over and over again. This isn't a case of Baha'u'llah finding one convenient tradition that happens to mention the city in which He is living. They speak of visiting Akka, dwelling there, praying there, suffering there, drinking from its spring and looking upon its sea. The poor of Akka are described as "the kings of Paradise". Remembering God there is said to be better than bearing swords and weapons in His path.

And all of this is being said to Hadi. Why him? Because Hadi was a staunch supporter of Mirza Yahya, eventually being appointed as his successor. When the exiles were separated, Mirza Yahya was sent to Cyprus, while Baha'u'llah was sent to Akka. Muhammad didn't say these things about Cyprus. That doesn't prove anything by itself, of course, but once again Baha'u'llah doesn't seem to be asking Hadi simply to accept His word over somebody else's. He is giving him something he can examine. Here are the traditions. Here are the two claimants. Here are the places to which they were sent. Does the evidence support the claim? After the last section, this method seems remarkably familiar.

Near the end, the sea appears. One tradition speaks of someone who looks upon the sea "at eventide", and specifically "at sunset", and counts forty waves. Now I don't know how far to take this, but the imagery is difficult for me to ignore. This is a book written near the end of Baha'u'llah's earthly life. He is in Akka, on the shore of the sea, and among the final traditions He chooses to quote is one about looking upon that sea at sunset. Could there be an allusion here to the approaching end of His own earthly life? I don't know, but the possibility seems worth pondering.

And then there is the number forty. Forty has a long history in Islam, as well as in the earlier Abrahamic traditions. Moses spends forty nights on the mountain. The Qur'an speaks of reaching full strength at the age of forty. Again and again, forty appears in connection with a period reaching maturity or completion, often through testing and preparation. And here the person looking at the sea at sunset counts forty waves. Maybe that's coincidence. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But after everything I’ve seen in the Writings, I'm not quite ready to walk past it without at least looking.

Especially because the sea itself is hardly a new image. Only a short while ago Baha'u'llah told Muhammad-Taqi to "seek thou the shore of the Most Great Ocean, and enter, then, the Crimson Ark". That reminded us of the very beginning of the Iqan, where the seeker is told that no one can attain "the shores of the ocean of true understanding" without detachment. And now, here we are again at the shore, looking at the sea.

The next tradition continues the image, speaking of the one who "looketh upon the sea a full night". That word "looketh" seems particularly appropriate after the journey we've been taking through these last sections. What were they looking at? How will you know Him when you see Him? Look at the evidence. Look at what people say. Look at what they write and what they do. Don't rely upon somebody else's judgement. Look for yourself. And the Epistle ends with someone looking out over the sea, not merely glancing at it, either, but looking for a full night.

Then comes the final paragraph: "Verily, the Apostle of God... hath spoken the truth." And that's it. Baha'u'llah doesn't end by telling Hadi what conclusion he has to reach. He has put the traditions before him. Muhammad spoke of Akka. Baha'u'llah is in Akka. Hadi knows where Mirza Yahya is. Once again, he has been given something he can examine for himself.

Perhaps that is a fitting way for this book to end. The Iqan was written for a man who came with questions, and Baha'u'llah helped him learn how to search. This book was written to a man who seemed to have all the answers, and Baha'u'llah asked him to examine the evidence for himself. Even here, at the very end, the door remains open to another who has already made up his mind. There is still "a path unto the Truth, and a road leading unto God". He just has to be willing to look.

How Will You Know?, ESW 236-256

So what were they looking at?

That was the question I was left with at the end of the last section. The prophets of the past were all looking forward towards the Promised One. The Bab spent much of His Revelation doing the same thing, preparing His followers for the One who would come after Him. But that raises another fairly obvious question.

How will you know Him when you see Him?

Baha'u'llah has already quoted the Bab saying, "Behold ye Him with His own eyes. Were ye to behold Him with the eyes of another, ye would never recognize and know Him." And throughout these passages He keeps returning to the same ideas. Look. Examine. Reflect. Don't let somebody else do your seeing for you.

This reminds me of Quddus and the Bab. Quddus was the last of the Letters of the Living to find the Bab. When he arrived in Shiraz, he saw the Bab walking with Mulla Husayn and immediately recognized Him. He looked, and he knew.

Of course, most of us don't seem to have the perception of Quddus. At least I don't. So what are we supposed to do?

This next section may offer an answer.

Baha'u'llah turns His attention towards someone named Hadi, who had apparently been summoning people and claiming to be a “vicegerent and mirror”. I have to admit, I don't know who Hadi is, or even exactly what he was claiming. But Baha'u'llah's response is interesting. Once again, He starts giving us things to look at.

This has been the method throughout this book. “Does the evidence support the claim?” Baha'u'llah has repeatedly refused to let Muhammad-Taqi rest on reputation, accusation, inherited expectation or somebody else's judgement. When there is an accusation, investigate it. When someone makes a statement, examine it. When a tradition appears to say something extraordinary, compare it with other traditions already accepted. When people say something about Baha'u'llah, look at what He actually wrote. And when someone else makes a claim, look at them.

Hadi has made a claim about himself. Baha'u'llah asks him to reflect. Mirza Yahya has made claims of his own, and Baha'u'llah begins putting his actions before us. What happened when danger came? What happened when he was entrusted with the writings of the Bab? What did he actually do with them?

The story of those writings seems particularly striking after Baha'u'llah's recent emphasis on trustworthiness. He had arranged for the writings of the Bab to be collected and copied, and Mirza Yahya was entrusted with them. He was supposed to take them to Persia and disseminate them. Instead, he left the writings behind and joined Baha'u'llah and the other exiles. So was he trustworthy?

Then we hear about Hasan-i-Mazindarani, who was carrying seventy Tablets. He died before they could be delivered, and the Tablets eventually ended up elsewhere. He didn't succeed in completing what he had set out to do, but that doesn't seem to make him untrustworthy. He was still trying to carry out the task entrusted to him.

Maybe trustworthiness can't simply be measured by the outcome. Sometimes the outcome is beyond our control. What we can control is what we do with whatever has been entrusted to us.

And then He gives us more examples. What did the Bab actually say about Baha'u'llah? What does Hadi claim compared with what Hadi has actually done? What did the Bab say about Dayyan, and how did Mirza Yahya treat him?

Dayyan is a fascinating example. The Bab had spoken of him in extraordinary terms, calling him the "third Letter to believe in Him Whom God shall make manifest" and entrusting him with hidden knowledge. And yet Dayyan was eventually killed, due to the inflammatory language used by Mirza Yahya about him.

Again, don't just listen to the claims. Look at what happened.

And then Baha'u'llah does something I particularly like. He doesn't even ask Hadi to take His word for what Mirza Yahya has written. Yahya's book is already in Hadi's possession. Read it. "Although thou hast seen the book, peruse it again."

That feels very much like the method we have been watching throughout the Epistle. Don't take My word for it. Check it out.

And this is where I find myself thinking about the Iqan again.

The uncle of the Bab came to Baha'u'llah with questions. He knew there were things he didn't understand. Baha'u'llah didn't simply give him the answers. He guided his search. He asked questions of His own. He told stories. He asked him to look at the history of earlier religions. He challenged his assumptions and gradually helped him become the sort of person who could recognize the answer for himself.

Muhammad-Taqi is almost the reverse. He doesn't come with questions. He comes with answers. He already knows what the Baha'is are. He knows what Baha'u'llah is. He already has ideas of what should be done about them. And he has acted on those answers.

So perhaps Baha'u'llah has to do something slightly different with him. Before He can guide Muhammad-Taqi's search, He has to get him searching again.

And so He keeps presenting evidence. Look at what people have said. Look at what they have written. Look at what they have done. Does the evidence support the claim?

The uncle of the Bab came with questions, so Baha'u'llah guided his search. Muhammad-Taqi came with answers, so Baha'u'llah keeps asking him to examine the evidence for himself.

What Were They Looking At?, ESW 203-235

Well, it seems we’re back at the Ocean. And not only does Baha’u’llah tell us where we are to go, but evidently how to get there, too. The Crimson Ark.

But this whole passage rings a bell. Remember the first paragraph of the Kitab-i-Iqan? “No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth.”

Baha'u'llah begins this section by telling Muhammad-Taqi to "seek thou the shore of the Most Great Ocean, and enter, then, the Crimson Ark".

They are both told to be detached, and then guided to the ocean. Now, however, Muhammad-Taqi is told to board the ship. I’m not really sure what to make of this, but it could be due to when these books were written. The Iqan was written just a year or so before Baha’u’llah’s declaration. This book was written just a year or so before His passing. The beginning of His Revelation, and the end of it. Either way, it’s a fascinating parallel.

From here Muhammad-Taqi is told to turn towards God, and the doors of the Kingdom will be opened before him. Once again we have eyes and ears. He will behold what eyes have never beheld and hear what ears have never heard.

We've seen those eyes and ears before. Way back near the beginning of this book Baha'u'llah was preparing Muhammad-Taqi to listen, and throughout the book He has repeatedly asked him to look, observe, ponder and judge fairly. Now, once again, He is being asked to see and hear. But this time Baha'u'llah begins pointing him towards some very specific things to look at.

First comes the Bab.

Baha'u'llah tells Muhammad-Taqi to listen to what His Forerunner said about Him. And there is a lot of it. The Bab speaks of the One to come after Him in extraordinary terms. He describes Himself as "the first servant to believe in Him and in His signs", speaks of attaining the Presence of God in the year nine, and points repeatedly towards the Revelation that is to follow His own.

And once again we find detachment. Baha'u'llah tells Muhammad-Taqi to recite these words "with a detached heart, and a dilated breast, and an utterly truthful tongue". That sounds rather familiar by now. It isn't enough merely to read the evidence. How we approach it matters. We can read something having already decided what we think about it, or we can make some effort to clear away our assumptions and see if we’ve missed anything.

But then Baha'u'llah turns his attention even further back. From the Bab He turns to the Gospel, then Joel, Jeremiah, David, Isaiah and Amos. One after another, voices from the past are brought forward, all of them looking towards a Day still to come. "Prepare to meet thy God." "Behold your God!" "Our God will come, and He will not be silent." Baha'u'llah asks Muhammad-Taqi to look at these passages and consider whether the Day they were describing might actually have arrived.

There is something almost dizzying about all this. We are looking back at people who were looking ahead. Isaiah and Amos are both looking towards things to come. Jesus speaks of things His followers cannot yet bear and says that more will be revealed later. The Qur’an says that this “Great Announcement” is what people are talking about. The Bab appears centuries later and spends much of His own Revelation pointing towards the One who will come after Him. And now Baha'u'llah is asking Muhammad-Taqi to look back at all of them and ask whether he can recognize what they were seeing.

Perhaps this is one of the difficulties with prophecy. It is easy to say you know what it means while its fulfilment is still safely in the distant future. We can believe that something wonderful is going to happen someday. The real difficulty comes when somebody says that someday is now.

Earlier in this book Baha’u’llah pointed out that people have always had trouble recognizing the Manifestations when They appeared. Just as in the Iqan, He reminds the reader that this is part of the pattern. But here He seems to approach that problem from another direction. Instead of looking primarily at the people who failed to recognize Them, He turns our attention towards the people who were looking forward to Their coming. What did they actually say? What were they actually looking for?

And so Baha'u'llah keeps returning to their words. He doesn't merely tell Muhammad-Taqi that the earlier scriptures support His claim. He puts the evidence in front of him. Look at what was said, and look at what has happened since.

At one point He turns from the old prophecies to His own writings. Jesus had said, "But ye cannot bear them now", speaking of things that would be revealed later. Baha'u'llah then points to the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Tablets to the Kings and other writings in which events were announced before they happened. The movement is rather interesting. Don't merely look back thousands of years and try to decide what Isaiah or Amos meant. There are things written within your own lifetime that can be examined as well.

And then comes a phrase that seems to bring much of this together. Baha'u'llah quotes the Bab saying, "Recognize Him by His verses."

That certainly takes me back to the Iqan. Again and again in that book Baha'u'llah points to the verses themselves as evidence. The uncle of the Bab was trying to understand how he could recognize a new Messenger of God, and one of the answers was right there in front of him. Read what has been revealed. Consider it. Don't dismiss it because it doesn't fit what you expected.

Now Muhammad-Taqi is being asked to do the same thing.

There is another little twist in this that I find worth pondering. The Bab Himself is repeatedly pointing beyond His own Revelation. Even while establishing His own Dispensation, He is preparing His followers to recognize the One who will come after Him. Even the Bayan, the Book around which His community was being formed, keeps pointing beyond itself.

And maybe this brings us back to Muhammad-Taqi. He has spent much of his life studying the past. He knows the Qur'an. He knows the traditions. He knows the expectations surrounding the Promised One. But all that knowledge only becomes useful if it helps him recognize what those things were pointing towards.

What Is It For?, ESW 195-202

It is often difficult to see where Baha’u’llah moves on to another theme, because they often flow seamlessly from one to the next. We just read about the fear of God being “the fountain-head of all goodly deeds and virtues.” And now He talks about some of these virtues. Seamless.

Even more, though, He has just said that this fear is also “the commander of the hosts of justice”, and the standard that is flying above. He also mentions the Crimson Ark, so maybe this army is a naval force. Sailing on the Ocean of His Writings? Never mind. Let’s move on before we get lost in the analogy.

These next few paragraphs begin with trustworthiness and piety, goodly deeds and a praiseworthy character. Baha'u'llah tells the people to adorn themselves with these qualities, while once again warning them against dissension and conflict.

Then comes the fear of God, once again. Here He describes it as the "chief commander" of His army, while a praiseworthy character and goodly deeds are its hosts, similar to what we just saw. And then, in the next paragraph, He returns to trustworthiness again. That's a number of paragraphs in a row touching on these same themes. It certainly feels as if He wants us to notice them.

At first I thought this little section was simply about character development. And it is, at least in part. But as I kept reading, I began to wonder if there was something else going on. Baha'u'llah doesn't seem interested in these qualities merely because they make us better people. He immediately begins showing us what they are for. He says that all He has done is for the purpose of summoning people to that which will exalt them and draw them nearer to God. Then He turns towards the divines and the Shah and says that they, too, should cleave to whatever will exalt the nation. He speaks of enlightening the people, improving their condition and helping them acquire useful knowledge. These qualities are not there just for our own amusement. They are supposed to be doing something.

And then He tells a little story that, at first, seemed like a bit of a change of subject. Kamal Pasha once visited Baha'u'llah and mentioned that he had studied several languages. Now, normally I would think that was rather impressive. I mean, I’m struggling to learn French right now. I know what’s involved. Learning another language takes work. Learning several would seem like quite an accomplishment. But Baha'u'llah's response is somewhat different. He tells him, essentially, that he has wasted his life. Gulp.

But I don't think the point is that learning languages is bad, or even that Kamal Pasha shouldn't have done it. Instead, Baha'u'llah takes his gift and points it towards something larger. Rather than spending years learning all these different languages, why not help establish a single language that everyone can learn? Then other people won't have to spend their lives doing what Kamal Pasha has done. Suddenly the question isn't whether learning languages is good or bad. The question is what all that effort was for.

And Baha'u'llah doesn't stop with Kamal Pasha. He hopes Persia will take the lead in establishing such a language, and then turns again towards the Shah, asking him to exert himself so that the people will experience justice. What began with trustworthiness, piety and good character in an individual has expanded into the actions of the divines and the Shah, the welfare of a nation, and finally something that might benefit the entire world.

This made me go back and look at those opening qualities again. What is our character for? What is our learning for? What is our influence for? What is political power for? Even, perhaps, what is our time for? Baha'u'llah doesn't seem particularly interested in our simply possessing qualities or capacities. He keeps pointing towards what they produce. Trustworthiness contributes to the prosperity of the world. Learning can be used to reduce the burden on others. The divines can use their influence to help exalt the nation. The Shah can use his power to establish justice.

And then, towards the end of this section, "Happy are they who act". Not merely those who know, or those who possess admirable qualities, but those who act. Character, knowledge and capacity seem to find their purpose in what we actually do with them.

Check it Out, ESW 167-194

We begin this section with a series of traditions that I am not familiar with. I mean, I can see what they are saying, but I am not sure why Baha'u'llah has placed them here. They use some fairly extraordinary language about the Imams and other individuals, referring to them in ways that, taken literally, could sound very much like claims to Divinity.

And then I began to wonder if that was the point.

Muhammad-Taqi knows these traditions. He presumably knows how they are understood. He knows that language such as this doesn't mean that the unknowable Essence of God has somehow been contained within a person. And yet similar language used by Baha'u'llah has been one of the objections raised against Him.

It seems almost as though Baha'u'llah is saying, "You understand how to interpret these traditions, so now apply the same level of interpretation to what I say."

In other words, use the same standard.

We've seen this sort of argument before, especially in the Iqan. It isn't enough to have one way of understanding scripture when it supports what you already believe, and another when you're examining something you don't. If the same sort of language appears in both, then surely the same principles of interpretation should apply.

From there Baha'u'llah moves into the fulfilment of prophecy, and once again we find ourselves on familiar ground from the Iqan. The Divine Presence is a real thing. Muhammad-Taqi presumably believes that. But if you believe in the Divine Presence, then what happens when it actually occurs? You have to be willing to check it out.

This is one of the problems Baha'u'llah spends so much time addressing in the Iqan. People believe in the prophecies. They believe in the promised Day. They believe in the return. The difficulty comes when those promises are fulfilled in a way that doesn't match what they expected. Their belief in the prophecy itself can become the very thing that prevents them from recognizing its fulfilment.

And Baha'u'llah seems to be confronting Muhammad-Taqi with much the same problem here. The time of fulfilment is now. The Divine Presence isn't merely something to believe will happen someday. The implication is that it is happening now. Check it out.

Then He turns back towards Muhammad-Taqi himself. This is a man reputed to be learned, and Baha'u'llah reminds him of what a learned person should be doing. He should be encouraging people towards that which is praiseworthy. I could be wrong, but I suspect calling for bloodshed doesn't qualify.

And then the argument becomes even stronger. Baha'u'llah seems to tell him that he has a choice: recognize this Revelation or, if he applies the same standard consistently, deny the Prophets he already accepts.

That's quite a challenge.

But again, Baha'u'llah doesn't merely tell him what conclusion to reach. He keeps giving him things to investigate.

Look at what the Shi'ih leaders have done. None of them recognized the Bab. Instead, they put Him to death. Meditate on that and be fair. Look at the Shaykhis and see how they responded.

Then comes something I find particularly curious. Baha'u'llah tells Muhammad-Taqi to appoint someone to go and speak with Mirza Yahya.

Why?

I don't know.

It does make me wonder, though. My impression is that many of those who actually dealt with Mirza Yahya found him rather pathetic, and his arguments insubstantial and inconclusive. So perhaps there is something in the comparison itself. Go speak with him. Find out what he has to say. Then come and investigate Baha'u'llah.

I mean, this is just my own thinking. Nothing official, of course. But it does fit the pattern of, “Don't take My word for it. Check it out for yourself.”

And Baha'u'llah doesn't end the argument there. Instead, He gives Muhammad-Taqi more material to investigate.

He has just heard about Baha'is being arrested in Tihran. Yet the Baha'is have been commanded to support the government and refrain from sedition. At the same time, officials connected with the Persian Embassy in Constantinople have been trying to stir up opposition against them and spreading accusations about their behaviour.

And then Baha'u'llah does something that we've seen Him do before. He is fair.

He points out that the Ambassador himself wasn't present when some of these accusations were made. It would have been very easy to throw everyone together into the same group and condemn them all. After all, these are people actively working against Him. But Baha'u'llah doesn't seem willing to accuse someone of something for which He doesn't have the evidence.

Given how often He has told Muhammad-Taqi to judge fairly, that little detail stood out to me.

Then comes another accusation. Some Baha'is have been accused of stealing money. So Baha'u'llah gives Muhammad-Taqi passages showing how His followers are actually taught to regard gold and material wealth. Again, check it out.

Don't accept the accusation. Don't merely accept Baha'u'llah's denial, either. Look at what He actually teaches.

He talks again about the tribulations He has endured and says something that, by now, shouldn't surprise us. He wouldn't trade them away. In the path of God, these trials are "manifest glory and a supreme attainment". Then He returns to the Shah and once again asks that the matter be investigated. But Baha’u’llah asks if there is anyone who will actually be just.

Which raises another question. If all this evidence is available, why have the Shi'ih divines turned away?

Baha'u'llah has admonished them before. He has called upon them to reconsider. He has given them standards against which they can measure themselves. He even cites what He told them in the Aqdas. And once again He invites Muhammad-Taqi to come and see for himself, which seems to happen over and over throughout this Epistle.

Don't accept what people say about Mirza Yahya. Ask him.

Don't accept what people say about Baha'u'llah. Ask Him.

Don't accept the accusations against the Baha'is. Investigate them.

Don't reject Baha'u'llah's language because it sounds blasphemous. Compare it with the traditions you already accept.

Don't merely profess belief in the Divine Presence. Consider whether it might actually be before you.

And don't let being reputed to be learned substitute for learning.

That last one may be especially difficult.

The uncle of the Bab came to Baha'u'llah with questions. He knew there were things he didn't understand, and the Iqan was revealed in response to those questions. Muhammad-Taqi is in a very different position. He is reputed to be learned. People look to him for answers. And he has already decided what he thinks about Baha'u'llah and His followers.

Perhaps part of what Baha'u'llah is doing throughout this book is trying to get him back to the point where he is willing to ask a question.

Towards the end of this section we encounter those "perspicuous verses". This paragraph is so rich that a book has literally been written about it.

Baha'u'llah has repeatedly referred Muhammad-Taqi to what He has actually written, and now He gives him some of it. These are the teachings that people have cast aside. These are the standards His followers have been given. Once again, instead of asking Muhammad-Taqi to rely upon what other people say the Baha'is believe, He puts the words before him to read for himself.

And I think this may be what has struck me most about these paragraphs. Baha'u'llah doesn't seem afraid of investigation.

He doesn't say, "Don't read that." He doesn't say, "Don't talk to him." He doesn't ask Muhammad-Taqi to avoid evidence that might challenge His claims. He sends him towards it. Speak to Mirza Yahya. Look at the traditions. Examine the accusations. Read the teachings. Look at the history. Come to the Most Great Prison. See for yourself. What is it you are actually judging? Are you judging Baha'u'llah, or what other people have told you about Him? Are you judging the teachings, or the accusations made against those who follow them? Are you judging the evidence according to the same standards you apply to what you already believe, or changing those standards depending upon the conclusion you want to reach?

I don't think these are questions only for Muhammad-Taqi.

How much of what I'm certain about have I actually investigated for myself? How often have I accepted somebody else's description of an idea I oppose without bothering to see whether that description is fair? How often do I carefully interpret evidence that supports what I already believe, while taking the least charitable interpretation possible of evidence that challenges it?

I don't know.

But I suspect those are questions worth asking.

Maybe that's one of the problems with being certain that we already know. Once we have the answer, we stop checking.

And Baha'u'llah just keeps saying, in one way after another, check it out.

 

A Coda, ESW 161-166

Whoops.

In the last article I thought paragraph 160 was the end of a section. It certainly felt like one. After everything Baha'u'llah had said to Muhammad-Taqi, after repeatedly asking him to reconsider his actions, judge fairly and choose another path, He gave him a prayer. It felt like a natural place to stop.

And maybe it was, at least for the article. But after reading the next few paragraphs, I think 161 through 166 are really a sort of coda to what came before. They take some of those ideas and show us what they look like when put into practice. That's one of the things I enjoy about reading this book this way. I don't know where it's going. I make a guess, keep reading, and sometimes discover I was wrong. That's ok. Sometimes the mistake leads somewhere interesting.

Paragraph 161 begins with another accusation. This time it concerns one of Baha'u'llah's friends, who has been accused of taking some money. Baha'u'llah says the accusation is false, and then tells us what happened. But what struck me wasn't so much the accusation itself as His reaction to it.

We've just spent a lot of time looking at justice, especially at the repeated call for Muhammad-Taqi to judge fairly. Now we get a very practical example. Here is someone being falsely accused. What do you do?

Baha'u'llah doesn't lash out. He doesn't respond with another accusation. In the next paragraph He says that what is hidden in the hearts of people will eventually be disclosed, and ends with the observation that people don't discern between the trustworthy and the treacherous. Then He expresses the hope that the Shah will investigate the matter for himself rather than merely believing those making the accusations.

That last part feels familiar by now. Check it out, He seems to say.

Don't just believe what people are telling you. Investigate. Look at the evidence. Find out what actually happened. We've seen Baha'u'llah repeatedly ask Muhammad-Taqi to do exactly this with His own claims, and now He asks the Shah to do the same thing with an accusation against one of His friends.

And while all this is going on, Baha'u'llah describes Himself as calm and silent, detached from all save God.

This doesn't mean the injustice doesn't matter. He still wants the truth to be known. He still wants the Shah to investigate. The trustworthy and the treacherous still need to be distinguished from each other. Forgiveness doesn't somehow make justice unnecessary.

That was something we were talking about in the last article. Refusing to condemn a person doesn't mean ignoring what they have done. If a crime has been committed, justice still needs to prevail. If someone has been falsely accused, the truth still needs to be discovered. But the injustice done to us doesn't have to determine how we respond to it.

And then Baha'u'llah gives us an example of a very different response.

He tells the story of Haji Shaykh Muhammad-Ali, a believer who had been so deeply affected by the calumnies and trials surrounding Baha'u'llah that he reached a terrible point. Baha'u'llah had forbidden His followers from engaging in sedition, conflict and contention. For this man, disobedience to that command simply wasn't an option. But neither, apparently, could he continue to endure what was happening.

So he killed himself.

I don't think Baha'u'llah is holding up his suicide as an example to follow. Quite the opposite. After all, He prays for the man's forgiveness. The act itself was wrong.

But look at the contrast.

Baha'u'llah has shown us His own response to calumny. He remains calm. He trusts in God. He asks that the matter be investigated and the truth discovered. Then He shows us someone else pushed so far by these same sorts of attacks that he can no longer see a way forward. He will not retaliate. He will not disobey. And tragically, he seems to believe that the only remaining direction for the violence is towards himself.

That is a very different response from Baha'u'llah's.

And yet Baha'u'llah asks Muhammad-Taqi to ponder the influence of the Word of God.

I think that's the key to why this story is here. The suicide isn't the evidence. The degree to which this man had been transformed by the Word is. Even when pushed beyond what he could bear, turning against the people tormenting him was not an option he was willing to consider.

There is something else here, too. Baha'u'llah can recognize the man's devotion while still recognizing that what he did was wrong. He doesn't have to turn Haji Shaykh Muhammad-Ali into either a hero whose every action must therefore be praised, or a sinner whose terrible choice somehow wipes away everything else about him.

Funny. We were just talking about that.

In the last article I wandered off into thinking about our own divided society and the ease with which we reduce people to the worst thing we believe about them. Someone does something unjust, and before long the action becomes the person. We stop saying, "You did something unjust," and begin saying, "You are an unjust person."

Here is a man who made a terrible choice. Baha'u'llah doesn't pretend otherwise. But He still prays for him.

Maybe that's part of the coda, too.

The more I look at these six paragraphs, though, the more I think the larger question may be about what opposition produces in us.

The calumniators reveal something about themselves through their actions. They lie. They make accusations. They fail to distinguish between the trustworthy and the treacherous. Baha'u'llah reveals something through His response. He remains calm, asks that the truth be investigated, and leaves the matter in the hands of God. Haji Shaykh Muhammad-Ali reveals something else. The Word of God has affected him so profoundly that retaliation and disobedience are no longer choices he is willing to make, although tragically he still makes another choice that Baha'u'llah does not approve.

What does opposition produce in us?

That's not such an easy question.

It's easy enough to talk about our principles when nobody is challenging them. It's easy to talk about justice when we're not the ones being falsely accused. It's easy to talk about kindness and forbearance when the person standing opposite us isn't doing something we find truly horrible.

But what happens when they are?

Do their lies make us liars? Does their hatred make us hateful? Does their injustice make us unjust? Or can we insist upon the truth, insist upon justice, and still refuse to allow their actions to determine our own?

Perhaps that's another way of looking at the fruit of the Word of God.

We've seen that image again and again throughout this book. What does belief produce? What does knowledge produce? What does hatred produce? What does the Word of God produce in the life of someone who actually allows it to change them?

And perhaps these six paragraphs really do belong with the section we just finished. We simply stopped a little too soon.

That's ok.

We kept reading. We changed our minds. And somehow that seems rather appropriate after the last article.

You Can Still Choose, ESW 134-160

Whew. This has been quite the journey so far.

Before going any further, though, I probably need to remind you of something. If you're following along with these articles, I really hope you're reading the passages from the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf before reading my comments on them. What I'm writing here is only half of a conversation. Most of these observations are responses to what Baha'u'llah has just said, and without His half of the conversation I'm not sure mine will make much sense.

It might also be a good time for a quick recap, because I'm beginning to see something about this book that reminds me very much of the Iqan.

In the Iqan, Baha'u'llah was responding to the uncle’s questions. He had not recognized the station of his Nephew, but he wasn't actively persecuting Him, either. He was just uncertain. Baha'u'llah showed him the patterns of the past, helped him look at the evidence, and gradually brought him to the point where he had to make a choice.

Here the situation is very different. Muhammad-Taqi has already made his choice. He has actively opposed Baha'u'llah and persecuted His followers. And yet, strangely enough, Baha'u'llah seems to be using much the same basic argument.

Look at the past. See the pattern. Look at what happened to Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Look at what people said about Them, and how They reacted. Now look at what is happening today. Look at the evidence before you. Judge fairly. And then choose.

The tone is quite different, as you would expect. The man receiving the Iqan was an undecided seeker. The man receiving this Epistle was an active enemy. But Baha'u'llah still seems to leave the door open. Muhammad-Taqi has made his choice, but he is being given the opportunity to make a different one.

Which brings us back to paragraph 134.

Baha'u'llah begins by telling him what it means to be truly learned. This is quite a thing to say to a man who is already regarded as one of the learned. He tells him to look at the signs before him and see what has happened to the Messengers of the past. There are all sorts of references here, some of which I recognized and some of which sent me looking things up. The hamstrung she-camel rang a bell, but I couldn't have told you much more than that. And then, amidst all these images, there is the tree again. If Muhammad-Taqi looks at the Divine Lote-Tree with fairness, Baha'u'llah says, he will see the marks of his own sword upon it. Whew. What a statement. What a thing to consider.

But that's not where He leaves him. Muhammad-Taqi was created to recognize and serve that very Tree.

That's quite a contrast. Here is what you have done, and here is what you could be doing instead.

From there we get more references to Moses and Sinai, more stories of the martyrs, and then the contrast with those who turned away out of fear. Baha'u'llah tells Muhammad-Taqi to investigate for himself. And then, remarkably, He calls upon this man who has been actively opposing the Faith to arise and serve it.

Baha'u'llah then turns to the Shah and speaks about stopping the persecutions. He talks about the role of the sovereign, the obligations of the people towards their rulers and the obligations of those rulers towards the people. Rulers and ministers should work together for the welfare and security of everyone. Muhammad-Taqi is told once again to look at the past, recognize the pattern and act accordingly. He is told how to behave. He is asked to judge Baha'u'llah fairly. Then He prays that God might help him open the door of justice, and then tells Muhammad-Taqi that he, too, should pray for God to help the people and remove the malice from their hearts.

He is even told to go read the Iqan.

After everything Muhammad-Taqi has done, Baha'u'llah is still giving him a way forward.

Towards the end of this section He reminds him that his fame will pass away. Look at the religious leaders of the past who opposed the Messengers of God. What became of them? And then Baha'u'llah gives him a prayer.

After all that, a prayer.

And somewhere in the middle of reading all this, my mind wandered to the world around me.

We live in a time that feels increasingly divided. As our society struggles towards greater equity and inclusiveness, changes that seem like long-overdue justice to one person can feel like genuine loss to another. If I have grown accustomed to an advantage, I may not even recognize it as an advantage. It may simply feel like the way things are supposed to be. When that begins to change, equality itself can feel like something is being taken away from me.

I think there is a real danger here, though, especially for those of us who believe we're working towards greater unity.

The easy contemporary analogy would be to divide society into two camps, identify the enlightened one and the backward one, and announce that Muhammad-Taqi represents the latter. But if we did that, I think we'd miss one of the most important things Baha'u'llah is doing.

Worse, we would be using division as a means of trying to create unity.

Our present divisions often seem to work in precisely the opposite direction from what Baha'u'llah is doing here. Once someone has been classified as belonging to the other camp, we stop imagining movement. We explain to them rather than speak with them. We say they're ignorant, hateful, woke, racist, fascist, communist, privileged, brainwashed, whatever word happens to belong to our particular vocabulary. Once the label has done its work, we don't have to wonder how that person might change. We certainly don't have to imagine what capacities they might contribute if they did.

But Baha'u'llah doesn't seem to do that with Muhammad-Taqi.

And let's remember who we're talking about here. This isn't someone who has merely expressed opinions with which Baha'u'llah disagrees. Muhammad-Taqi has actively persecuted the Baha'is. He has encouraged others to curse Baha'u'llah. He has called for bloodshed. Real people have suffered and died.

Baha'u'llah does not pretend otherwise. And yet He writes him a book.

He reasons with him. He shows him evidence. He challenges him. He tells him to look at history. He asks him to judge fairly. He condemns what needs condemning. But He also invites him to investigate. He calls upon him to serve. He prays for him and gives him prayers to say. He even seems to imagine a future in which this man who has helped persecute the Baha'is might use his influence to help them instead.

That last part is particularly important.

Baha'u'llah doesn't seem to be saying, You have learning and influence, therefore you need to be brought down. Quite the contrary. He keeps calling Muhammad-Taqi towards a higher expression of the very capacities he already possesses. Be truly learned. Use your influence to serve. Help end persecution. Open the door of justice. Become someone who helps rather than harms.

I've noticed elsewhere in the Writings that Baha’u’llah never seems to diminish our choices. He never brings down anyone or anything. For example, Baha'u'llah doesn't lower our understanding of Christ in order to make room for the other Manifestations. If someone says that Christ is God, the answer isn't necessarily to lower the station of Christ. Instead, our understanding of God can be raised beyond the idea that the unknowable Essence of God could somehow be contained within a physical person, while at the same time our understanding of the other Manifestations can be raised to that same station as Christ.

The movement is always upwards.

And perhaps there is something there for our present social divisions.

Someone who fears greater equity may hear, “You have too much and we're coming to take it from you.” But perhaps the better vision we should strive to convey is: “What you have is good. Why shouldn't everyone have it?” The problem isn't that you have dignity, security, opportunity or a voice. The problem is that these things have not been equally available to others.

The goal isn't to lower one group so that everyone suffers equally. It is to raise everyone.

Of course, this doesn't mean ignoring injustice. Refusing to condemn a person is not the same as refusing to condemn their actions. Nor does it mean shielding them from the consequences of those actions. If someone commits a crime, justice still applies. If someone abuses their power, society still needs to protect those being harmed. Seeing someone as capable of change doesn't require pretending that nothing happened.

Perhaps the distinction is between saying, “You have done something unjust”, and saying, “You are an unjust person and that is all you can ever be.”

The first leaves open the possibility of justice. The second doesn't leave much room for anything.

And this is where I find some hope in what Baha'u'llah is doing with Muhammad-Taqi. Not a lot, mind you. History tells us that Muhammad-Taqi didn't change. After all this, after the arguments and the evidence and the invitations and the prayers, he still made his choice. That's reality.

But he had the choice.

And I think that's important. Healing others doesn't mean that everyone will eventually agree with us if only we find the perfect argument. Some people won't change. Some injustices will still require intervention. Some crimes will still require consequences. Unity cannot depend upon pretending those realities don't exist.

But neither does unity require us to decide that another person is beyond hope.

In fact, perhaps deciding that they are beyond hope is one of the things that prevents unity in the first place.

I changed my mind back in paragraph 3 of this very book. Not about anything remotely comparable to what Muhammad-Taqi was being asked to reconsider, obviously, but I had formed an opinion about what Baha'u'llah was doing there, kept reading, and realized I was wrong. Even more recently I thought the stories of the martyrs were a change of subject, kept reading, and changed my mind.

People do that.

We see something we hadn't noticed. We learn something we didn't know. Someone asks a question we hadn't considered. We suddenly see an old problem from another angle. And sometimes we realize that something we were quite certain about was wrong.

If we want people to change, perhaps we need to leave them the space to change.

That doesn't mean softening the truth. Baha'u'llah certainly doesn't do that with Muhammad-Taqi. It doesn't mean overlooking injustice or abandoning its victims. It means continuing, somehow, to address the person who has acted unjustly as someone who is still capable of justice.

Muhammad-Taqi didn't choose that path. But Baha'u'llah left it open. And for now, maybe that's enough hope to begin with.