Baha's Grounds of Pretensions
The Remnant of God

 

11.    The Remnant of God
11.1  Kitab-i-Iqan
In his pre-declaration Kitab-i-Iqan of 1862 of the Baghdad period; Shoghi Effendi’s translation, P. 231, Mirza Husayn Ali says:
“Gracious God! In His Book, which he entitled ‘Qayyum-al Asma’, the first, the greatest and mightiest of all books, he prophesied his own martyrdom. In it this passage: ‘O thou Remnant of God! I have sacrificed myself wholly for thee; I have accepted curses for thy sake; and have yearned for naught but martyrdom in the path of thy love. Sufficient Witness unto me is God, the Exalted, the Protector, the Ancient of Days!”
The Iqan was written by Mirza Husayn Ali as a proof of the BÁBi doctrine and the divine inspiration of their Founder the Primal Point, supported by arrangements drawn from the Pentateuch, Gospel, Quran and Traditions.

11.2  Nabil’s Narrative
In the Dawn-Breakers, Nabil’s Narrative, P. 14, Nabil quotes the passage from the First Book, see above, identifies Mirza Husayn Ali with the Remnant of God and says that “It was he, the BÁB, who, in his first, his most weighty and exalted Book, revealed this passage concerning Bahaullah.”
In ibid, Glossary, P. 674, “the Remnant of God”, is stated to be a “title applied both to the BÁB and to Bahaullah”.

11.3  Nabil’s Narrative
In the Traveler’s Narrative, PP. 3-4, Sir Abbas Effendi quotes the same page, and identifies the Remnant of God, with Mirza Husayn Ali,” still behind the veil of glory, possessor of countless and boundless perfections, by whose will the BÁB moved, and to the bond of whose love he clung.”

11.4  Shoghi’s E.S.W
In his Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Shoghi Effendi’s Translation, P. 141, Mirza Husayn Ali apparently identifies himself with the Remnant of God and says that “My Forerunner [i.e. the Primal Point] laid down his life for this great announcement, this Straight Path.”

11.5  Mirza Muhammad Ali’s Will & Testament
In his Will and Testament of 1925, Mirza Husayn Ali’s son, Mirza Muhammad Ali identifies his father with the Remnant of God (P. 9).

11.6  Merits of the Claim
The twelfth or absent Imam, who had mysteriously disappeared from the sight of men more than a thousand years previously, and whose return, as the Mahdi “the Qaim, the Shia are expecting, is also called the Remnant of God (Baqiyyatullah) and the proof of God (Hujjatullah).

In the First Book of 1844 the Primal Point appears to be a Gate (BÁB) of the Expected Mahdi or the Qaim, with whom he identifies at a later stage of his mission. But his claim to Point-hood (Nughtiyyat), the place of the Manifestation of Divinity and the Primal Volition, is read between the lines in the First Book.

Any doubts entertained in this respect are set at rest once and for all in the Point’s Dalail-Sab’a, Farsi (Seven Proofs, Persian). In PP. 29-30, the Primal Point says to his questioner: “and behold the grace of His Holiness the Expected One to what extent he has been liberal in his mercy towards Moslems, so that he may secure their salvation; How he in the Station of the First Creation, and the place of the Manifestation of ‘verily I am God’ revealed himself under the name of the BÁB-hood (Gateship) of the Qaim al-i-Muhammad (He Who Shall Rise of the Family of Muhammad), and prescribed in the First Book the Quranic ordinances, that men may not be troubled by the New Book, and the new Command, and may observe that they are similar to their own, haply they may not be shut as by a veil [from the New Book and the New Commands], and may not continue heedless of that for which they have been created.”

In the presence of this specific provision the allegation that “the BÁB had revealed the passage,” see Mirza Muhammad Ali's Testament (This link is not provided yet!), concerning Mirza Husayn Ali” is devoid of historical foundation.
The Dalail-i-Sab’a was written by the Primal Point in Maku subsequent to the Persian Bayan.
The Remanent of God referred to in the passage denoted no other person than the Primal Point himself, who laid down his life in the path of his own Cause.


Please select one of the following:
to view the next section on this topic,
to view the next section on this topic,
to return to the main page, or
to close this window.