Claimants to The Office of He Whom God Will Make Manifest
Dayyan
Baha’s Letter to Sayyid Ibrahim
5. Dayyan
5.3 Baha’s Letter to Sayyid Ibrahim
Excerpts from Baha’s Letter marked No.60 addressed to Sayyid Ibrahim.
After a short preamble Baha addresses himself to Sayyid Ibrahim and says: “Consider bygone ages and reflect upon what god had inflicted on their peoples for having contended amongst themselves, for having turned aside from His Countenance, for having strayed away from His path, for having done wrong to His Cause, and for having associated any creature with the Sovereign of His Unity, for which they were of the perished. Have you ever heard religion of god to exist before it is confirmed, or commandment of god to be abrogated before it becomes manifest? ….. Nay, by my lord, the lord of heavens, no one can abrogate one letter from that which has been revealed in the Bayan …..
O Friend be fair by god, have you compiled the Bayan as you were commanded by God? … No, by your life, you have not compiled it, you have not obeyed him for which you were commanded by him and you are of such as tarry. Nay, you have sought to cause people to stray away from his injunctions and to be of such as stray.
Have you submitted to him [i.e. Dayyan] who mocked god, turned aside from His Holiness, strayed away from his path, neglected to make mention of him and is of such as have turned aside. Say: are you not eschewed of god, who created you, brought you up and made you an angel to make mention to people if the days of god and to be of such as make mention. You have followed that which your soul desires and have turned your back on the commandment of god, my lord, your lord, the lord of the worlds …. By the lord of the Heavens and the Earth, if all in the Heavens were to agree on divinity and all on the earth on lordship, they are not able, and never shall they be able, to reveal one letter of that which god has revealed in the Book …. Now, in these days it is his god pleasure that is beloved, and all are held captive in his grasp.
No place is there for anyone to flee to, think not of the god to be a thing lightly taken, in which anyone can display his fancy.
In various quarters a number of souls have, at the present time, set up this pretension. Before long, they will behold that the Tree of Independence has been from everlasting, and will everlastingly continue to be. The Ever-Abiding in its sovereign majesty and regal beauty, and every one of them will have perished and been lost, nay will have come to naught and became a thing un-remembered, even as the dust itself.
Verily, we are god’s and unto Him shall we return.”
Please note that the letter marked no. 60 is among documents a copy of which was also sent by Jalal Azal to W. M. Miller, see here. This document will be published here in due course.