Bahai 2

claim to be the Hidden Imam has always been connected with political uprising.” In order to prevent this, the Persian authorities imprisoned the Bab. However; because the people were looking for a deliverer, the movement spread. While in prison, the Bab wrote a number of books and had visits from his disciples.

In the spring of 1848, while the Bab was still alive in prison, the babi leaders met in conference where they declared the laws of the Islamic dispensation had now been abrogated in the same way that Muslims believe that the Islamic dispensation replaced the Christian revelation. They decided that rather than being the twelfth Imam, the Bab was the prophet of the new dispensation in place of Muhammad. This declaration placed the Bab clearly outside of the Islamic fold and invited the utmost hostility from the traditional Muslims.

After the Babis sought forcefully to gain control of the province of Mazanderan, a succession of conflicts with the Persian government resulted that led to the mass defeat of the Babis and in 1850, the execution of Bab.

Those writings of the Bab which have been preserved are called the Bayan (translated = utterance or exposition). The Bab was convinced that his works were superior TO ALL OTHERS, that they were inimitable, and that they replaced Muhammad’s Quran (KORAN) as the scripture relevant to the present age. He cited the supposedly superior quality of his writings as proof of his divine mission, just as Muhammad had compared his writings to the Bible. The Bayan includes religious and social laws for the universal theocracy of this new age.

As Baha’is claim, the Bab taught that one would come after him who would be greater than he. In the Bayan there are seventy references to “He whom God will manifest.”

SUBH-I-AZAL and BAHA

In keeping with the Shi’ite belief that Muhammad appointed his son-in-law to the caliphate before his death, the Bab appointed the vice regency of his movement to Mizra Yahya Subh-IAzal, Subh-I-Azal continued as the ruler of the Babi community for about sixteen years. This appointment is noted in the book NUQ tatu ‘L-kaf, which is a history of the babi movement written in 1851 by an “authorized” Babi, Mizra Jani. There is no historical evidence to the contrary, though Baha’i histories omit mention of this appointment of Subh-I-Azal.

Subh-I-Azal instructed his followers to lay aside the sword, and under his leadership, the movement continued to grow with little opposition. He was assisted in the leadership of the movement by his older half-brother, Mizra Husayn Ali, who took for his name, BAHA (Glory).

Turmoil began when a number of claimants to the coming divine manifestation arose, citing certain verses in the Bayan and ignoring the required time span of 1,500 years. Then Azim, a devoted disciple of the Bab, devised a plot to assasinate the Shah, which failed and resulted in a search for Babi leaders and the execution of many. The Mizra brothers fled Bagdad to escape.

In Bagdad, Baha became increasingly active in the leadership of the movement, while his brother retired to seclusion in order to contemplate and write. Baha saw that the movement needed stronger leadership than his brother was supplying, but he recognized that since he had not been appointed by the Bab, the only way he could attain it would be to convince the faithful that he was “He whom God will manifest.” However; strong opposition from other leaders prevented Baha from making any such claim at that time. In spite of these thoughts, Baha wrote during that period in his “Book of Certitudes” (alleged to have been a response to others who were claiming to be the “HE”) that the time interval between the Bab and He whom God will manifest “is about 1000 years.”

After ten years in Bagdad, outbreaks of violence between Muslims and Babis forced the Turkish government to banish the Babi leaders to Adrianople on the extreme western border of Turkey. There, with no one nearby to oppose him, Baha declared that he was the one who should come. He assumed the name Baha’u’llah (Glory of God), a title applied to the Divine Manifestations in the Bayan. Baha’u’llah called upon his brother and all the Babis to submit to him without question, since this would be the only appropriate response to one who is GOD, and the Bab had instructed in the Bayan that “HE” be received in that manner.

While most of the Babis accepted Baha’u’llah’s claim and thus became known as Baha’is, Subh-i-Azal and some of his followers refused. They strongly believed that the Bab’s revelation was all sufficient for the age. They held that it was unreasonable to suggest that the elaborate system revealed by the Bab was only to last twenty-two years, but rather that it must be accepted and instituted for multitudes of people for many centuries before another manifestation would appear. After all, the Bab had indicated that it would be a minimum of 1,511 years before “HE” would appear. They reasoned that (1) since the Bab was infallible and (2) that he had appointed Subh-i-Azal to succeed him, if Baha was truly “He,” Subh-i-Azal would have to recognize him. Thus the minority that remained loyal to Subh-iAzal continued to be called Babis (sometimes Azalis).

Baha’u’llah sought to force Subh-i-Azal to recognize him by withholding his share of the allowance that the Turkish government had been supplying to the exiles. As a result, Subh-iAzal’ s children fell sick due to lack of food, and his wife complained to the wife of the Turkish governor. This “betrayal” incurred even greater wrath from Baha’u’llah. The Baha’is responded to Babis resistance by rewriting many Babi writings and records, degrading the Bab to a forerunner of Baha’u’llah, the REAL prophet for the age, and MURDERING about twenty Babis in Bagdad, Adrianople, and Akka. Two of these Babis were brothers of

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