Writings of the Bab (was: Re: Books written by Baha'u'llah)
Ahang Rabbani ("bmoa::mrgate::a1::rabbana"@bmoa.dnet.dupont.com)
Sun, Dec 25 1994 21:58:11 GMT
Dear Nadeem and other Friends,
To answer your query about the writings of the Bab, let me share
a few thoughts.
1. By definition, the Revelation received by any of the
Manifestations of God belongs to the entire humanity. And this
applies to the whole range of their writings. Therefore, ALL the
writings of the Bab are available to any interested individual
(and no segment of it is intended for the exclusive use of some
specific group of people, such as the Babis or Baha'is).
2. In terms of range and number, the writings of the Bab are
indeed immense. The beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, has
compiled a list of "The Bab's best known works" which regularly
are printed in the volumes of "The Baha'i World" -- which
includes some 25 key books by the Bab. (If you do not have
access to "the Baha'i World" series, please let me know and I'll
post this list of the Bab's best known major writings.)
3. The Bab devoted the entire 6 years of His ministry to
revealing, books, prayers, tablets, homilies, scientific
treatise, commentaries on the previous Scripture (especially
Qur'anic verses), etc. Recently, in a study, I noted that once
all the writings of the Bab are assembled it would exceed well
over 30,000 pages of typed text.
This gives you an idea of the dimension of His writings of His
abilities to reveal text. As a point of comparison, the Holy
Qur'an which stands a few hundred pages was revealed by the
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the course of 23 years. And here we
have the Bab revealing several orders of magnitude more, in a
fraction of that time.
Indeed, as various eye-witness accounts (many non-believers, in
fact enemies of the Bab!), report that He could reveal writings
equal to the entire range of Qur'an in a single day -- every
single verse of it, of the same quality and sweetness as Qur'an!
3. If you read Persian, over the past summer I published a
series of articles in the journal "Payam-i-Baha'i" which surveys
the entire range of the writings of the Bab and details the
content of a number of them. Perhaps one of the Persian Baha'is
in your area can share those journal issues with you.
4. Also, a few months ago, I published an article in the
"Deepen" magazine, entitled "The Babi Jurisprudence and its
Relation to the Baha'i Laws". This article focuses on the
development of the Babi system of laws and jurisprudence ("fiqh")
and in this relation on two important works of the Bab:
Qayyumu'l-Asma and the Persian Bayan. In addition, it offers a
number of thoughts on the range, scope and character of the Bab's
writings. Again, perhaps some one in your area has access to
this journal and can share this article. If not, please let me
know.
5. As to the actual publication of the Text of His writings,
allow me to refer you to "The Selections from the Writings of the
Bab", published in 1976, by the Baha'i World Centre. This book
contains a few hundred pages of extracts from various works of
the Bab. A number of extracts come from His Tablets to
Baha'u'llah, Muhammad Shah, others. Some others are from His
Qayyumu'l-Asma (Commentary on the Qur'an's surih of Joseph).
While many others are from the "Persian Bayan", "The Seven
Proofs", etc.
This book, better than anything else, will introduce the reader
to the majesty and sublimity of the Bab's revelation.
6. Of course, if one is familiar with the writings of
Baha'u'llah, in very many instances, He quotes from the various
works of the Bab. Indeed, He refers to the Bab on numerous
occasions as "Mine own earlier appearance", and words to that
effect.
7. If you would allow me, a personal note: Before delving into
the works of any Manifestation of the God, one must know
something of the history of the time, His environment, current
religious thoughts and practices, social norms and matrix, etc.,
in order to be able to properly grasp the significance of His
utterances. This is particularly true of the person of the Bab
who claims to be no less than the instrument of God to abrogate
the whole Islamic Dispensation and to inaugurate a new Theophony.
As such, I urge you to gain a good, detailed understanding of the
Babi history. For this, there are many books available. None,
however, will be more comprehensive, accurate and readable than
"The Dawnbreakers", by Nabil-i-`Azam, translated by Shoghi
Effendi. This is the one that I would recommend first. If
interested in other books, though, we can provide you with a
list.
8. There is a great deal of scientific, academic scholarship
that is taking place on the history and revelation of the Babi
Dispensation. If you are interested in some specific aspect of
this most unique period of human religious history, we'll be
happy to answer any and all your questions.
This note got way too long and I apologize.
deepest love, ahang. rabbana@bmoa.dnet.dupont.com