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.
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