Bab: Persian Bayan

Impact

Although the religious movements that the Bab directly began were never large, he was a controversial figure during his lifetime and remained influential following his death. His writings’ influence continues as an important element of the Baha’is’ understanding of revelation, history, and the theological significance of Baha’u’llah, the “manifestation of God“ in the Baha’i faith. To this end, perhaps the single most important claim of the Bab is in his description of “He Whom God shall make manifest,” the coming manifestation of God whom Baha’is believe Baha’u’llah to be.

This claim finds its most significant and fully expounded realization in the Persian Bayan. But beyond this, among the Bab’s writings, the Persian Bayan is the most important of Babi sacred literature because of the deep symbolism in the organization of the document itself and because of its revolutionary, if not radical, mystical style. The whole text of the Persian Bayan, read outside its Baha’i interpretations, remains a fascinating example of schismatic movements within Shia Islam in the nineteenth century. The text itself influenced Baha’u’llah, who took it upon himself to complete the Persian Bayan in his landmark text, Kitab-i-iqan, now considered the primary theological text of the Baha’i faith. To this end, the Bab and the Persian Bayan had a deep impact on the beginnings of the Baha’i faith as the only significant religious movement spawned by Islam that survived a century of existence.

For Baha’is today, the writings of the Bab, particularly the Persian Bayan, are held as having supreme authority over previously written world scripture, especially the Qur’an. In other words, Baha’is recognize the authority and importance of other religions’ holy texts, such as the Bible, but they hold the Bab’s writings to have authority over those. Within Baha’i theology, the Persian Bayan has particularly important significance in that the Bab abrogated much of the Qur’an and by default all other previous divine revelations, so that the next manifestation of God, Baha’u’llah, could begin a revelation completely new for a new era of humanity with as little scriptural baggage as possible remaining from the old eras.

Today the Baha’i faith claims millions of members. Statistics for Babi Azali adherents are difficult to estimate because they are often persecuted and thus secretive: They hold the Shia practice of taqiyya, or dissimulation, as an essential component of the religion. In other words, Azalis will deny their religion publicly for their own safety.