Teachings of the Báb

The teachings of the Báb refer to the teachings of Siyyid ʻAlí Muḥammad who was the founder of Bábism, and one of three central figures of the Baháʼí Faith. He was a merchant from Shíráz, Persia, who at the age of twenty-four (on 23 May 1844) claimed to be the promised Qá'im (or Mahdi). After his declaration he took the title of Báb meaning "Gate". He composed hundreds of letters and books (often termed tablets) in which he stated his messianic claims and defined his teachings, which constituted a new sharí'ah or religious law. His movement eventually acquired tens of thousands of supporters, was virulently opposed by Iran's Shiʻa clergy, and was suppressed by the Iranian government leading to thousands of his followers, termed Bábís, being persecuted and killed. In 1850 the Báb was shot by a firing squad in Tabríz.

Summary

The teachings of the Báb can be grouped into three broad stages which each have a dominant thematic focus. His earliest teachings are primarily defined by his interpretation of the Qurʼan and other Islamic traditions. While this interpretive mode continues throughout all three stages of his teachings, a shift takes place where his emphasis moves to legislative pronouncements and to philosophical elucidation. In the philosophical stage, the Báb gives an explanation of the metaphysics of being and creation, and in the legislative stage his mystical and historical principles are explicitly united.

An analysis of the Báb's writings throughout the three stages shows that all of his teachings were animated by a common principle that had multiple dimensions and forms.

Three stages

Interpretation of the Qurʼan

In his earliest years the Báb focused on explanations and commentaries on verses of the Qurʼan, and on the teachings that represent "true Islam" "until the day of resurrection". During this time, while many Islamic injunctions remained in force in his writings, the Báb claimed that he had the authority to clarify issues relating to the details of Islamic Sharia. He used this genre against the grain of the established tradition, and he interpreted Islamic texts and traditions to transform, reverse and redefine the conventional meanings. For example, he tended to diverge from standard Muslim practices by making requirements stricter, such as enjoining additional prayers. Discussion of Shí'í millenarian themes were also an important part of the early works and gave his movement an apocalyptic edge; this was the day of the return of the Mahdi, of the victory and dominion of God. They gave the Bábí movement a widespread popular appeal.

His works frequently quoted and provided commentary on passages from the Qurʼan. Unlike classical Qurʼanic commentaries by theologians or Sufis, however, he usually commented on the meaning of the text letter by letter rather than the meanings of the words and sentences, allowing him to use a sacred text as a point of departure for revelation on a theme distantly related or even unrelated to the Qurʼanic passage. The Báb's overall approach to texts and many Islamic doctrines was symbolic and metaphorical, and he often rejected literal interpretations of apocalyptic doctrines. While he sometimes used Sufi terminology, his reasoning and approach are distinct from any other school of thought. The Báb taught that the realm of language, as well as all other aspects of phenomenal reality, including natural and cultural objects were symbolic of a deeper spiritual meaning. He taught that everything that exists in the world is a sign that proclaims the sovereignty of God. In this way, reality is a type of language that consists of words and letters that celebrate the divine revelation in all things.

Legislative pronouncements

The Báb's early doctrines started to change in 1848 when he abrogated Islamic shari'ah law. The Bábí shari'ah included its own form of pilgrimage to the Báb's house in Shiraz. A Bábí calendar of nineteen months of nineteen days was defined that started on Persian Naw-Ruz and included a four-day intercalary period (to raise the total days to 365, 19 times 19 being only 361). The last 19-day month, falling in March, was the Bábí month of fasting. Bábí obligatory prayer was different from Muslim practice as well, but was deemphasized compared to dhikr, repetition of various scriptural verses. Laws regulating marriage discouraged polygamy, forbade concubinage, and instituted a year of waiting before a divorce could be completed. Such laws, as well as the removal of any explicit need for women to veil themselves and the fact that the penalty for causing grief to women is double that of causing grief to men in the Bayán (Persian Bayān 7:18) potentially improved the status of women to a considerable degree. The Báb taught that, since God transcends the boundaries of male and female, God wishes that "neither men exalt themselves over women, nor women exalt themselves over men" and instructed his followers to not mistreat women "even for the blink of an eye". He also encouraged the education of women and didn't display a gender distinction in Bábi laws on education. Armin Eschraghi notes the context of 19th century Iran and that, "Modern western readers might not appreciate the revolutionary potential" of the Báb's teaching that "Those who have been brought up in this community, men and women, are allowed to look [at each other], speak and sit together" The Primal Will of God is also personified as the female figure of the maid of heaven.

The Báb also foreshadowed later developments in media, by emphasising the need for a rapid system of news communication, which would be available for all to access, no matter their wealth or social standing. He writes, regarding the news, that "until such a system is made universal, its benefit will not reach those servants of the kingdom unless there come a time when it will be accessible to all the people. Although today the kings have their own special couriers, this is fruitless, for the poor are deprived of such a service." Commenting on the extremes of wealth and poverty in society, the Báb also teaches that the true station of the rich should be as "the depositories of God" and enjoins generosity and charity. He says, "Should ye find one stricken with poverty, enrich him to the extent of your ability...should ye find one who is in distress, bring him tranquility by any means in your power"

The themes of jihad and martyrdom also remained important in the Báb's writings. The Báb often wrote theoretically about jihad in the sense of armed struggle, but he never explicitly announced the beginning of a jihad, and he completely undermines the concept of jihad by defining holy war in a way as to make it contingent on impossible conditions, thus nullifying it. The various Bábí struggles appear to have primarily involved defensive jihad. Martyrdom, an immensely important theme in Shí'ism, was important to Bábís as well, with the siege of the Bábí fort at Shaykh Tabarsí being viewed as a Bábí recapitulation of the events of Karbila. Hundreds of individual Bábís were martyred in public, usually in ways that inspired admiration or even allegiance to their cause.

Several of the Báb's writings following his return to Chiriq in August 1848 to his execution in July 1850, such as the Kitáb-i-Asmáʼ, discussed ritual practices largely unrelated to the actual circumstances of the Bábí community. The Báb's writings also contained many codified chronograms, cabalistic interpretations, talismanic figures, astrological tables, and numerical calculations, some of which appear to be similar to the Nuqtavi cabalistic symbolism. The number 19 appears in many parts of the Báb's writings, which also resembles Nuqtavi documents. While some elements found in the Nuqtavi school are confirmed in the writings of the Báb, the literal emphasis that the Nuqtavi school placed on letters as direct elements of divine creation are foreign to the Báb's teachings; his teachings have little to do with the issue of the actual letters or their literal divine character, but instead, concern a mystical world view where the sacred character of human beings is the image of God.

The Báb also developed legal principles that were intended to be implemented in a theocratic Bábí state if He whom God shall make manifest approved and implemented them. The rules of this state included the burning of non-Bábí books and the banning of non-Bábís from residence within its boundaries.

Jack McLean, summarising Nader Saiedi's analysis, writes that the Báb's writings "foresee current global issues of crisis, such as the protection of the environment and the commodification of natural resources". The Báb specifically calls for the absolute purity of water (Bayán 6:2) and as all substances return to the inland water table and the oceans, this could easily be interpreted as a general law for the protection of the environment. The Arabic Bayán (9:11) also forbids the commodification of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water.

Philosophical elucidation

In his later writings the Báb described the divine or eternal essence to be unknowable, indescribable and inaccessible. The Báb compared the divine to the sun which remains single, although it appears under different names and forms in the persons, prophets, whom it is in manifested in. Some of these teachings exhibit features common to earlier Shite sects such as the Ismailis and the Hurufis. However, his teaching on the need for successive "prophetic cycles" is completely an original conception. He also reinterpreted Shí'í eschatological terms, such as "resurrection", "Judgment Day", and "paradise" and "hell". He stated that "Resurrection" means the appearance of a new revelation, and that "raising of the dead" refers to the spiritual awakening of those who have stepped away from true religion. He further stated that "Judgment Day" alludes to the time a new Manifestation of God comes, and his acceptance or rejection by the Earth's inhabitants. Thus the Báb taught that with his revelation the end times had come and the age of resurrection had started, and that the end-times were symbolic as the end of the past prophetic cycle. Traditional Shí'í millenarian beliefs were reinterpreted so radically that few of the popular traditional expectations were left. Another constant theme in his works, especially in the Persian Bayán, is that of He whom God shall make manifest: a messianic figure who would come after him. Bábís were exhorted to leave a chair for him at all gatherings and constantly to be prepared to accept him.

The Báb also developed a distinct philosophy of Aesthetics, which emphasised Beauty and Refinement as governing principles, not only for Art but for our actions, and stressed the need to bring all things to their highest state of perfection, or paradise. Saiedi writes that, "The Bab makes it clear that He wants His community to be the embodiment of perfection in all things. Furthermore, He defines beautification and excellence in art as the means of the spiritualization of the world". The Báb himself writes, using calligraphy as an example of a universal principle, "Should he know of a higher degree of refinement and fail to manifest it upon that paper, he would deprive it of its paradise, and he would be held accountable, for why hast thou, despite the possession of the means, withheld the effusion of grace and favour?" Moojan Momen writes, regarding the word refinement, that The Báb "seems to have regarded this word as signifying the closest that physical reality can come to spiritual reality. As physical reality ascends and becomes closer to spiritual reality, it loses its qualities of thickness, denseness and impurity...and acquires the qualities of delicacy, purity and refinement"

References

• Saiedi, Nader (2008). Gate of the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Báb. Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 978-1-55458-056-9.

• Smith, Peter (1987). The Babi and Baha'i Religions: From Messianic Shiʻism to a World Religion. UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521317559.