Baha's Grounds of Pretensions
360 Derivations from the Word Baha

 

9.    360 Derivations from the Word Baha
9.1   The Traveler’s Narrative
In the Traveler’s Narrative, PP. 41-42, Sir Abbas Effendi says: “Now the Sayyid BÁB had disposed all his affairs before setting out from Chihriq towards Tabriz, had placed his writings and even his ring an pen-case in a specially prepared box, and sent it by means of Mulla Baqir, who was one of his associates, to Mulla Abd-al-Karim of Qazwin [otherwise known as Mirza Ahmad-i-Katib]. This trust Mulla Baqir delivered over to Mull Abd-al-Karim [of Qazwin] at Qum in presence of a numerous company. At the solicitation of those people he opened the lid of the box and said: ‘I am commanded to convey this trust to Bahaullah, more than this ask not of me, for I cannot tell you.’ Importuned by the company, he produced a long epistle in blue, penned in the most graced manner with the utmost delicacy and firmness in a beautiful Shikasteh handwritten in the shape of a man so closely that it would have imagined that it was a single wash of ink on the paper. When they had read this Epistle (they perceived that) he had produced three hundred and sixty derivations from the word Baha. Then Mulla Abd-al-Karim conveyed the trust to its destination.
This is a proof adduced by Sir Abbas Effendi in support of his father Mirza Husayn Ali’s pretensions, which he pins to the 360 derivatives from the word Baha contained in a writing of the Primal Point which he does not produce.

9.2   Nabil’s Narrativ
In the Dawn-Breaker Nabil’s Narrative, PP. 504-505, Nabil says “Mulla Baqir arrived in Qum towards the middle of Sha’ban [June-12-July-11, 1850, Shoghi Effendi’s footnote 1, P. 505]. He delivered the trust into the hands of Mirza Ahmad [i.e. Mulla Abd al-Karim of Qazwin, who at the instance of Shaykh Azim [i.e. Mulla Shaykh Ali], opened it before us. We marvelled when we beheld, among the things which that coffer contained, a scroll of blue paper, of the most delicate texture, on which the BÁB, in his own exquisite handwriting, which was a fine Shikasteh script, had penned, in the form of a pentack, what numbered about five hundred verses, all consisting of derivatives from the word ‘Baha’. That scroll was in a state of perfect preservation, was spotlessly clean, and gave the impression, at first sight, as being printed rather than a written page. So fine the writing and intricate was the penmanship that, viewed at a distance, the writing appeared as a single wash of ink on paper. We were overcome with admiration as we gazed upon a masterpiece which no calligraphist, we believed would rival.

That Scroll was replaced in the coffer and handed back to Mirza Ahmad, who on the very day he received it, proceeded to Teheran. Ere he departed, he informed us that he could divulge of that letter was the injunction that the trust was to be delivered to the hands of Janab-i-Baha in Teheran.” In ibid, P. 505, footnote 2, Shoghi Effendi says: “According to “A Traveler’s Narrative, P. 42 the BÁB had produced no less than three hundred and sixty derivatives from the word ‘Baha’.

9.3   Bahiyya Khanum’s Spoken Chronicl
According to the Spoken Chronicle of Bahiyya Khanum, daughter of Baha, the Chosen Highway by lady Blomfield, P. 49, “the BÁB gave into his [i.e. Mulla Abd al-Karim of Qazwin] custody of his remaining papers, his last tablets, in which Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri was referred to again and again as ‘Him-Whom-God-Will-Make-Manifest’ in which also the name of ‘Bahaullah’ was given to him. The BÁB also entrusted this devoted disciple and his seal and his Qalam-dan (pencil-box), charging him to deliver all into hands of Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri, Bahaullah, when ‘an event’ should have happened to himself. This charge was faithfully carried out by Mulla Abd al-Karim of Qazwin, and those precious things remained in the possession of Bahaullah until the days of Edirne. When Subh-i-Azal asked to be permitted to see them Bahaullah consented, but they were never returned.
Subh-i-Azal kept them to support his claim to leadership, asserting that the BÁB had given them to him!”

9.4   Shoghi’s God Passes By
In ‘god passes by’ by Shoghi Effendi says:
(P. 51) “Forty days before his [i.e. Point’s] final departure from Chihriq he had even collected all the documents in his possession, and placed them together with his pen-case, his seal and his rings, in the hands of Mulla Baqir, a Letter of the Living, whom he instructed to entrust them to Mulla Abd al-Karim of Qazwin, surnamed Mirza Ahmad who was to deliver them to Bahaullah in Teheran.”

(God passes by, P. 69): “It was exclusively to his [i.e. Mirza Husayn Ali’s] care that the documents of the BÁB, his pen-case, his seals, and agate rings together with a scroll on which he had penned, in the form of a pentack, no less than three hundred and sixty derivatives of the word ‘Baha’, was delivered, in conformity with instructions he himself had issued prior to his departure from Chihriq”.

(P. 167) [In Edirne after the separation] He [i.e. Mirza Husayn Ali] instructed Aqa-i-Kalim [i.e. Mirza Husayn Ali’s full brother, Mirza Musa] to deliver to him [i.e. Subh-i-Azal] certain relics he had long coveted, such as the seal, rings, and manuscripts in the handwriting of the BÁB.”

9.5  Baha’s Risala
In his Risala Mirza Husayn Ali says:
P. 103: “This servant at the time of separation from my brother [i.e. Subh-i-Azal in Edirne] sent him a coffer, containing the Primal Point’s autograph writings, Circles and Temples (Dawarr and Hayakil), accompanied by a message to the effect that ‘I have sent these to you as you are very desirous, after your turning aside from Creative Truth (Haq), of priding yourself on its works.”

9.6  Nuqta-al-Kaf
In the Nuqta-al-Kaf, the New History, Appendix II, Mirza Jani tells the truth: “So he [i.e. the Primal Point] sent his personal effects, such as pen-cases, paper, writings, his own blessed raiment, and his holy rings, according to the number of the Unity [Wáhid = 19], that the outward form might correspond with the inward reality. Now the mystery of his bestowing his effects on [Subh-i-Azal] according to the number of the Unity is perfectly evident, namely that he intended the inner meaning thereof, that it might be known to all his followers that after himself [Subh-i-Azal] should bear the Divine influences.”

It is indeed unfortunate that Mirza Husayn Ali’s pretensions, should be pinned to the Point’s personal effects which were not after all meant for him.

9.7  The Primal Point’s Diary
An entry posted by the Primal Point himself in his autograph personal Diary, (see ), runs as follows:

Page 4 of the Diary:
“Saturday 10” The Fruit and his brother
[Rajab 12, 1266 A.H] “The Tablet” “The Tablet”
[May 24, 1850] “of Al-Baha]” of Nur”

This entry indicates that the Tablets were written on May 24, 1850 shortly before the martyrdom of the Primal Point on July 8, 1850 (Sha’ban 27, 1266 A.H)
.
The word “Fruit” in the entry denotes Subh-i-Azal, and “his brother” presumably Mirza Husayn Ali.
Mulla Baqir arrived in Qum in “Sha’ban (June 12-July 11, 1850) (see above (8.1)), with the chest of the Point’s writings, which included the epistle in which the Primal Point had produced three hundred and sixty derivatives from the word ‘Baha’.
The entry clearly proves that the Epistle or Tablet of Baha, on the 360 derivatives of which Mirza Husayn Ali’s pretensions hinge, was not meant for him.

On the strength of the entries posted in the Primal Point’s personal Diary, namely,
the entry dated March 27, 1850, which relates to the Point’s epistle addressed to Mirza Husayn Alias “238” [i.e. the numerical value of Husayn Ali], the brother of the Fruit [i.e. Subh-i-Azal],” and the entry dated May 24, 1850, which relates to the Tablet of Baha and the Tablet of Nur, having regard to the fact that the remaining entries in the Diary are blank, with the exception of three entries which bear no reference to Mirza Husayn Ali, and in the absence of documentary evidence from the Primal Point, the grantor of titles as the Manifestation in the Bayanic Dispensation, Persian Bayan, Wáhid V, BÁB 8, Mirza Husayn Ali had no title bestowed upon him by the Primal Point.


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