Bahaism and Its Claims Part 2

Abdul Baha[46] says: "Consider the time of Jesus. This is greater than that for as much as it is the calling of the Lord of Hosts." "All the great prophets were perfect mirrors of G.o.d--manifestations of the 'Primal Will' of G.o.d--and sinless, but in Baha[47] in some sense the Divine Essence is manifested." Phelps[48] says: "He is greater than his predecessors." "Baha," says Kheiralla,[49] "is the Everlasting Father, who spoke in Abraham, Moses, and Jesus Christ, who were His ministers, and at these latter days He came Himself in the flesh to judge the quick and the dead." Abbas said to Mrs. Grundy: "Baha is the consummation of all degrees. He is the Revelation of all truth and light." "Christ is the vine, Baha is the husbandman--the Lord of the vineyard." A poem says of Baha:

By His life-fostering lip live a hundred such as Jesus; By the Sinai of His aspect sit a thousand such as Moses; Thou, on the night of ascent, didst entertain the prophet as Thy guest.

Refrain:--

The Temple of G.o.d's glory is none other than Baha; If one seeks G.o.d, let him seek Him in Baha.

Thou art the King of the Realm of the everlasting, Thou art the Manifestation of the essence of the Lord of Glory, The Creator of Creation.

Such are some of the "great swelling words" with which his followers exalt Baha. Yet when we examine his life we find nothing to justify such extravagance. He was simply a man of like pa.s.sions as others. It may seem invidious to refer to scandalous stories of Baha's youth in Teheran. But does not truth demand that it be stated that his reputation in Persia is sullied by definite accusations of vice and immorality? I have heard such narratives with statements of the time, place, and a.s.sociates who were partakers of his guilt. His family in riper years exhibits no higher example than a bigamous household. According to the narrative of Abdul Baha in the "Traveller's Narrative,"[50] he planned in duplicity to reach the headship of the Babis; for while purposing all the while to set forth a claim for himself, he put forward his half-brother, Subh-i-Azal, as the successor of the Bab--to protect himself and to insure his own safety during times of danger. He outwardly supported Azal for many years, while secretly planning to supplant him. While acting as Azal's trusted minister, he was drawing the people to himself. We pa.s.s over the attempts of these brothers to poison each other. Each accuses[51] the other, and, as the Persians say, "G.o.d knows" whether both speak the truth. We pa.s.s over, at present, the definite accusations against the Bahais of a.s.sa.s.sinating the Azalis.[52] In the notorious case where Azalis were foully murdered[53]

by Bahais at Acca, and the latter were brought to trial before the Turkish authorities, they were defended and kept in favour by Baha. He had near Subh-i-Azal a spy named Maskin Kalam,[54] who by guile and deceit kept away any who wished to visit Azal. He received this disciple to his intimate circle after years of such active deception. Azal, who is called by Bahais "the point of Satan," and is likened to Cain and Judas, has a character gentler, more lovable, and more sincere than Baha as the two are depicted in the writings of Professor Browne; albeit, Baha is abler, more astute, more a leader of men. Professor Browne, in his interviews at Famagusta and at Acca, did obeisance to each of them.

His bow to Azal may have been one of respect for his character or disposition; his bow to Baha must rather have been out of regard for his influence and leadership. But after all we need not wonder so much at the delusion of the Bahais in exalting Baha, for we are familiar with Dowie and Zion City, and with Joseph Smith and the Mormons. And we are surely led to expect the appearance of such a deceiver who "as G.o.d sitteth in the temple of G.o.d, showing himself that he is G.o.d." Bahais certainly, in the words of the Apostle,[55] "have strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."

(_b_) The Bahais claim superiority for the books and writings of Baha Ullah.

(1) As to the rapidity of their composition, their style, and their quant.i.ty. One of the proofs of the Bab was the rapidity with which he composed verses,[56] "with amazing rapidity, without any reflection."

Sayid Yahya of Darab, one of his first converts,[57] was gained by such a "sign," implying, as was supposed, divine inspiration. He propounded certain questions. The messenger brought the answer, of which he says: "I beheld a marvel a hundred thousandfold beyond what I sought for. Over two thousand verses and ill.u.s.trations of eloquence and beauty of style revealed and written down during five or six hours." So also in Ispahan, in answer to the Imam-Juma[58]: "The Bab began to write, and in three hours wrote 1,000 verses. Then the Imam-Juma was convinced that such power was from G.o.d, being beyond the capacity of man." In his trial at Tabriz[59] the Bab cited as a proof of his divine mission: "I can write in one day 2,000 verses. Who else can do this?"

In like manner the claim was made for Baha Ullah that he could compose with miraculous rapidity. "The maximum speed of Baha's revelation is said to be 1,500 verses in one hour." These were "written without premeditation or reflection,"[60] and often dictated to his amanuensis.

To Baha is attributed the marvellous feat of composing and writing the "Ikan" in a single night. This book in its English translation consists of 184 printed pages. The translator, Mirza Ali Kuli Khan, Persian Charge des Affaires at Washington, a zealous Bahai, says in his preface:[61] "According to the prevailing opinion of Bahais, the 'Ikan'

was written in one night by the supreme pen." He argues (faint-heartedly apparently) for the truth of the statement, and cites Abul Fazl as corroborating the tradition. It is altogether probable that Baha prepared the "Ikan" during his retirement for two years to Kurdistan, in the region of Suleimaniyeh. It is curious to note how the Bahais have outdone Mohammed. He made his verses (ayat = signs), and their eloquence and beauty the signs of his mission. But Babis and Bahais add rapidity of composition as an additional sign or miracle.

The quant.i.ty of the writings is also emphasized as proving their divine source and power. It was a matter of boasting that the Bab's writings were from 100,000 to 500,000 verses, and he was executed at twenty-five years of age. Of Baha's Abdul Baha says: "The Books of his Holiness number more than 100; each one sufficient for mankind." Abul Fazl[62]

writes: "His Holy Tablets exceed in quant.i.ty the Heavenly Books and Divine Writings possessed by all the different nations of the earth."

The number of these tablets is stated to be over 1,000. By way of contrast, Christ's teachings are said by Abdul Baha to consist of only a dozen pages scattered in the Gospels.

When they speak of the style, the eloquence, the enlightening power of Baha's writings, it is with similar superlative adjectives of high-flown Persian rhetoric.

It is hardly necessary to call attention to the fact that this so-called proof is simply a matter of a.s.sertion and opinion. As to rapidity, we could wish Baha had taken more time and made such books as the "Kitab-ul-Akdas" more systematic, for, as we have pointed out, it is sadly lacking in plan. The veriest tyro could improve on it by rewriting.

If quant.i.ty were an argument, the product of Baha's pen has been exceeded by many Christian and Moslem divines. Besides, what advantage is it for a religion to be set forth in 100 volumes? Will G.o.d be heard for His much speaking any more than man would be? The story of redemption and G.o.d's revelation through 4,000 years makes but one goodly volume.

As to style, the Persians would scorn to have the beauty of their great poets or of such writings as the "Masnavi" put into comparison with the "Ikan" or "Akdas." The Bab's writings were not even grammatical. Baha's are more intelligible than the Bab's, but lack his originality and depth. Baha's style is rhetorical, verbose, prolix, but with a certain strength. But Mirza Abul Fazl holds a more forceful and sagacious pen.

In some things Baha's writings remind one of the Church Fathers in contrast to the Gospel narratives. The quant.i.ty of his writings, his system of quotations from former Holy Books, his allegorical interpretations, recall Irenaeus or Origen.

As to "verses" in general, and their rhetorical quality as a proof of divine inspiration and revelation, it would be well for Bahais to remember that the Bab recognized divine quality in the verses of Subh-i-Azal, which the Bahais reject with disdain. When the "verses" of Azal came to the Bab, he "rejoiced exceedingly,"[63] nominated him as his successor, and left to him the completion of the "Bayan." Was he mistaken in so important a matter? However that may be, the Bahais contradict him and p.r.o.nounce the "verses" of Azal good for nothing. M.

Ahmad Zohrab,[64] the interpreter of Abdul Baha, avers that "the writings of Azal are most childish. They are jumbled, confused, meaningless composition." Another Bahai, Nabil the poet, at one time wrote "revealed verses," and Azal approved of them and sealed their inspiration. Afterwards Nabil repudiated his own "divinity." Evidently, then, the "proof from verses" is a very uncertain and unreliable one.

(2) They claim superiority for the contents of the Revelation. In describing the substance and variety of it, their "great swelling words" know no bounds. Abdul Baha says: "They are universal, covering every subject. He has revealed scientific explanations ranging throughout all the realms of human inquiry--astronomy, biology, medicine, etc. He wrote lengthy tablets upon civilization, sociology, and government." "One book of the Blessed Perfection is more comprehensive than fifty volumes of the world's greatest wisdom." Empty boasting!

Professor Browne[65] says: "The countless tablets are for the most part rhapsodies interspersed with ethical maxims." Let us give a few of Baha's "revelations" on morals, philosophy, and science. His ethics permit bigamy and _tagiya_, dissimulation regarding one's faith; his Law punishes habitual theft by branding, and arson by burning, and compounds adultery with a small fine; his philosophy affirms the eternity of matter and the emanation theory of divine Manifestations; his science decides the purity of water by three points--"colour, taste, and smell"--but knows nothing of a.n.a.lysis, and affirms that "the food of the future will be fruits and grains"; it abolished the weeks and months and subst.i.tutes nineteen months of nineteen days each, and a system of nineteen units for the decimal or metric system; it creates a new alphabet to bother childhood; its ritual for prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage somewhat resembles the Moslem, with times and places changed.

These are samples of its new and superior (?) laws and precepts, which are mingled with a ma.s.s of ordinary moral teaching. There is far too much of it for a religious system, but it is entirely inadequate as a judicial and criminal code. Abul Fazl[66] grossly exaggerates when he writes that "Baha has enacted laws and regulations concerning every point or subject."

As a system Bahaism is not superlative. "It is," says Professor Browne,[67] "at most a new synthesis of old ideas; ideas with which the Eastern mind has for centuries been familiar, and which have ere now been more clearly and more logically systematized by older schools of thought, though perhaps they were without a certain tincture of modern Western terminology which is perceptible in Bahaism." "Of the doctrines of the Bab"--and the same is true of Bahaism--"taken separately, there was hardly one of which he could claim to be the author, and not many which did not remount to a remote antiquity."[68] "The theories of symbolism,[69] incarnation, and other doctrines differ in no essential particular from those held by the Ismielis." If desirable, the doctrines and laws could be traced severally, as has been done by Doctor Tisdall in his "Yanab-ul-Islam" regarding the Koran, and the source of each shown. Borrowing so much from the Shiah sects, its fundamental basis in philosophic thought is inferior even to Islam. But because it borrows so much from the enlightened principles and practices of advanced Christian peoples, its moral system is an advance on Islam. Christianity may boldly a.s.sert its unique superiority to this "half-cooked" system, to use a Persian idiom. Professor Browne[70] vetoes its claim to superiority, saying: "I do not admit that the Bahai or any other religion can supply a rule of life higher than that which Christ has given us." Discussing with the Bahais in Shiraz,[71] he said: "The religion of Mohammed was certainly not a higher development of the religion of Christ. It is impossible for any one who has understood the teachings of Christ to prefer the teachings of Mohammed. As you say each Manifestation must be fuller, completer, and more perfect than the last, you must prove that the doctrines taught by Baha are superior to those of Christ--a thing that I confess seems to be almost impossible, for I cannot imagine a doctrine purer and more elevated than that of Christ."

IV. Bahaism claims to be the Universal Religion. Dreyfus called his book on Bahaism "The Universal Religion." Remey[72] says: "The Universal Religion is what the Bahai movement offers to the world." Phelps[73]

says: "It is divinely inspired world-religion in its first youth. Baha Ullah is a world-teacher in a broader sense than they"--_i. e._, the founders of other religions. This claim is not only that it is intended "for all people, under all conditions," and is adapted to all, but that it is so all-inclusive and lat.i.tudinarian that it can[74] "unite all those now following many systems into one universal faith," and that "each religious sect[75] will hear in the words of Baha its own oft-repeated message, which has been dulled and distorted."

The latter phase of this claim we may dismiss in a word. It is simply a gloss. It is an imagination of enthusiastic Bahais. Neither Christians, Moslems, nor others will be thus included, except some few before they understand Bahaism. The only inclusion it offers is by accepting the divine character and mission of Baha and Abbas;[76] in other words, by becoming Bahais. When they address the Hindu, saying, "We are one with you," "We teach the original Hinduism of your fathers," it is simply to add: "Baha is the fulfillment of your books, follow him." When they allow the Jewish Bahai of Hamadan still to consort with the Jews as a Jew, and to be baptized and pa.s.s as a Christian at the same time, it is an inclusiveness which is unjustifiable and deceitful. It is teaching _tagiya_ or religious dissimulation to other races after the manner of the Persian Shiahs. It is, at most, merely a temporary subterfuge.

Let such double-faced Bahais read Remey's article in the _Star of the West_,[77] ent.i.tled "Let the New follow the New," and they will see how untenable is their position. He says: "The Bahai Cause is not merely one of many phases of universal truth (as some say), but is the only living truth to-day; the only source of divine knowledge to mankind. The revelation of Jesus was for His own dispensation--that of 'the Son.' Now it is no longer the point of guidance to the world. We are in total darkness if we are refusing the revelation of the present dispensation.

Bahais must be severed from all and everything that is past--things both good and bad--everything. Now all is changed. All the teachings of the past are past. Abdul Baha is now supplying all the world." We read this, with amazement at such pretensions, such groundless a.s.sumptions, yet are pleased with the ring of sincerity. We, too, say, "Let a Bahai stand for Bahaism." Even so, let a Christian stand for Christianity, and not stultify his intellect by professing to hold to both religions. But such teachings as Remey's absolutely negative the claim of Bahaism to be able to include the professors of all religions. In conclusion, Bahaism aims at being universal just as every other "ism," even as Mormonism, by persuading the world to forsake its old faiths and adopt its new dogmas.

Baha[78] states in a tablet: "Blessed is the brave one, who, with a firm step, walks out of the corridors of intimacy [the old religious restrictions] and takes a place in the ranks."

Is Bahaism fitted to be a universal religion? It has copied much from Christianity and Islam; it would not be strange if it has caught something of the same impetus towards universality. This is specially to be looked for in Bahaism, since it is historically a revision of Babism--revised with an aim to broadening it. Babism was notoriously unfitted to be universal. Dreyfus[79] confesses: "Looking at the Bab's work, we cannot fail to notice in it a certain sectarian particularism which would have confined to Shiah Islam its benefits." Similarly Professor Browne p.r.o.nounced it[80] "utterly unfitted for the bulk of mankind," and refers to[81] "the useless, impractical, and irksome regulations and restrictions" which Baha abolished in order to make it more capable of becoming what he intended it to be--"a universal system suitable to all mankind." The question arises, Where was the Bab's power of supernatural revelation if he promulgated a system and regulations of such inferiority and destined to be superseded in less than a score of years? Among these regulations[82] were the prohibition of the learning of foreign languages, logic, philosophy, and jurisprudence, discouraging foreign travel, enjoining the expulsion of all unbelievers from the five chief provinces of Persia, together with the confiscation of their property, the destruction of all books more than 202 years old, etc.

Baha, like a tailor trying to change a misfitting garment, ripped up the seams, cut a piece out here and there, added some patches imported from Christian civilization, until he had a coat of many colours, which he advertised as the latest style of religion, fitted to humanity in general. But he should have heeded the precept not to put new cloth on an old garment. No wonder they have never yet published the "Kitab-ul-Akdas" in English. It would tax their ingenuity to adapt all its regulations and laws to the world-life.

Again I return to the question, "Is Bahaism specially adapted to be universal?" By no means. It is unfitted in the most essential particular. It is a religion of laws, not of principles. Mirza Abul Fazl, in "The Brilliant Proof,"[83] emphasizes the fact that Bahaism enjoins, commands, has imperative ordinances, laws, and enactments. But the Gospels enunciate principles. These principles of the New Testament are conscience-educating and life-directing. They are applicable to all conditions the world over, and to every stage of human development.

Christianity implants in the heart great ruling motives. Its laws and regulations are few. Hence it does not find itself b.u.t.ting against a wall of unforeseen circ.u.mstances. Bahaism, on the contrary, is full of the "beggarly elements." It has regulations, as we have noticed, in regard to personal habits, hygiene, sociology, languages, the calendar, civil government, penology, etc. It is like an omnibus with its top overloaded with all sorts of baggage, which will delay and finally wreck the vehicle. It has made itself a "judge and divider of inheritances."[84] It gives directions as to the barber and the undertaker; how you must bathe and wash your face, and what prayers you shall say during each process. It directs as to the use of knives and forks, of chairs, of perfumes. It graciously permits one to shave his beard, but "the hair must not be allowed to grow below the level of the ear." It tells us that "the nails are to be cut at least once a week,"

that "every one should wash his feet daily in summer, and at least every three days in winter." And alas! for antique furniture and old Persian rugs! For house furnishings must be changed every nineteen years. In obedience to this command my old teacher in Persia got rid of his rugs, whose sheen was polished and colours were mellowed with age, and refurnished his house with gaudy modern rugs. In prescribing the Moslem fast and namaz (prayer-rite), with some modifications, Bahaism limits the spirit of liberty, which is the essence of universality.

Copying from the Bab, Baha has seen fit to regulate the calendar.

Following the Zoroastrian custom, Baha ordains that the year begin at the vernal equinox--March 21--because that is the spring-time, the time of the renewal of vegetable life. Good! But in Australia it is the time of death--of the approach of winter. The reason a.s.signed is not universal, and is not adapted to all climes. As has been said above, the months are ordained to be nineteen of nineteen days each, with four or five intercalary days in March. The week is abolished, that primitive division of time which has such a definite place in nature, in the phases of the moon, and is established in the three great monotheistic religions with their weekly Sabbaths. Instead of the latter is subst.i.tuted the nineteenth day Unity feast. How do such changes aid universality or unification? Coinage, fines, taxes, and t.i.thes are arranged on the number 19. Remey's book has nineteen chapters, as the "Bayan" has. _The Star of the West_, a magazine of the American Bahais, is published every nineteen days, and bears the Bahai calendar on its editorial page. Instances might be indefinitely extended. But later the number nine, the number of Baha, has come more into use. Abbas has set apart the ninth day of the month as well as the nineteenth for certain religious purposes. The Bahai era is sometimes dated from the declaration of the Bab in 1844, and sometimes from the birth of Baha in 1817. Are these innovations more an aid to universality than adherence to the established calendar and era, or than the decimal system or the metric system which the civilized world has been striving to extend?

Professor Browne says: "What could be more impractical than the adoption of the number nineteen as the basis of measures or calculations?" It bears the mark of Oriental fancy rather than of divine revelation.

Another ill.u.s.tration of this point--namely, that Bahaism enjoins and regulates specifically, and does not, like Christianity, inculcate guiding principles, is seen in the law regarding civil government. In "Glad Tidings"[85] Baha teaches, as from G.o.d, that "although a republican form of government profits, yet the majesty of kingship is one of the signs of G.o.d. We do not wish that the countries of the world should be deprived thereof." "Statesmen should combine the two," and[86]

"At present the form of government followed by the British nation seems good, for that nation is illuminated both with the light of kingship and consultation--_i. e._, parliament." "In the princ.i.p.al Laws [of Bahaism]

affairs have been placed in the hands of just kings and chiefs, and the House of Justice." As a matter of opinion, I can join with Baha in expressing my admiration for the British Const.i.tution, but prescribing it as a law of revelation is a different matter. A "universal religion"

should be adapted to all conditions. It is a fact of history that when the tablet "Glad Tidings" was sent to Russia, section 15 was omitted.

The Bahais suppressed this portion from expediency, and it appears thus mutilated in Baron Rosen's translation.[87] Is not this a high-handed way to deal with G.o.d's Word, as they profess to regard it? Is it not also conceivable that republics might take offense against Bahaism because it maintains monarchy, even as autocracies because it approves of parliamentary government? Had not a "universal religion" better let politics alone? Christianity could adapt itself even to the government of a Nero.

Another inst.i.tution of Bahaism, ill-adapted to all races and conditions, and certain to bring the very conflict and strife against which it is supposed to guard, is the House of Justice. This is a religious court, with civil and political functions, to be set up in every town and country. It is to be composed of nine or more Bahai men. "They are divine agents, representatives of G.o.d." Much is said of this House of Justice in the Books of Revelation.[88] Dreyfus devotes a chapter to it.[89] It is to have legislative, judicial, and administrative functions. It will regulate estates, taxes, t.i.thes, fines, capital and labour, marriage, divorce, inheritances, minors, servants, charities, reforms, houses of correction, schools, besides all matters of religion and morals. They will rule "absolutely," and be "infallible," "guided by G.o.d." It is the old dream of theocratic rule. I must leave it to the imagination of the student of history to picture the dire confusion which would ensue if this politico-religious hierarchy should begin its sway. Those who are familiar with the perpetual conflict between the urfi and the shari, the civil and the religious law in Persia, know how this proposed organization would work confusion worse confounded.

Similar to these invasions of the province of science and Caesar is the attempt to improve philology by "revelation." Following the Bab again, Baha Ullah promulgated a new alphabet. The Babi alphabet, unlike the Arabic and Persian, was written from left to right. "Each letter consists of thick, oblique straight lines, parallel and equidistant from each other, running down to the left, to which thin hooks and curves are appended to make separate letters." It is called the Khatti-Badi. There were nineteen kinds of it; one kind was called the Khatti-Baha. It was intended for the time when Babism would be prevalent. It appears that Bahais have a new alphabet, different from that of the Babis.

In the Akdas and in the sixth Ishrak[90] it is commanded that the "House of Justice" must select one tongue out of the present languages, or a new language, to teach the children in the schools of the world. Let us suppose they decide on Persian or Arabic. The Anglo-Saxon children must all begin to learn Arabic. Suppose they decide on English. Then Germans, French, and Russians will have an additional reason for opposing the religion. Suppose that Abdul Baha decides on Esperanto, as he seems inclined to do, then will it be heresy for some one to invent a language as much superior to Esperanto as it is to Volapuk? Had not a "universal religion" better let linguistics alone? The spirit of Christianity gives a free field to all tongues--this is the essence of liberty, of universality. After this brief review of some of the provisions of the "New Revelation," we can deny the claim that "its statutes meet the necessity of every land," and that they can serve the world well for 1,000 years.

FOOTNOTES:

[18] Phelps' "Life of Abbas Effendi," p. 144.

[19] "Some Answered Questions," by Barney, p. 19.

[20] _Star of the West_, May 17, 1913, p. 68. Abbreviated hereafter as _S. W._

[21] Page 158 f.

[22] "Story of the Bahai Movement," p. 23.

[23] Phelps, _ibid._, p. 256.

[24] Phelps, "Jewels of Wisdom," p. 237.

[25] _Ibid._, p. 145.

[26] _Ibid._, p. 144.

[27] "The Bahai Movement," p. 20.