Kitab-i-Aqdas

Context

The Baha’i faith began from a small cult of believers called Babis, which was a group within another movement called Shaykhism. Shaykhis were Shia Muslims who followed a teacher named Shaykh Ahmad (1753–1826), who, like many other Shiites, awaited a “hidden imam” who would come to restore and revive Islam. For Ahmad, this hidden imam was coming very soon, and his coming would coincide with the Day of Judgment. Mirza ‘Ali Mohammad of Shiraz (1819–1850), who would be later known as “the Bab” (an Arabic word meaning “gate”), would be identified as the Mahdi—not the hidden imam but the teacher who would accompany Jesus at the end of days. The Bab taught that “He Whom God shall make manifest” was coming and that the Bab himself was only preparing humanity for the one who was coming. Baha’u’llah later proclaimed himself to be “He Whom God shall make manifest” and began writing what would be considered by many Babis and the Baha’is as new scripture for the new era of humanity.

Baha’u’llah’s writings were considered both politically revolutionary and religiously radical. The earliest followers of Baha’u’llah were exiled, imprisoned, and executed; those who were not were often persecuted and marginalized by the Islamic majority around them. Muslims found the beliefs of the Babis to be incongruent with mainstream Islamic beliefs, and, to be sure, the Bab’s writings intentionally negated many central teachings of the Qur’an, the Islamic scripture. In 1848 Babi leaders gathered for the Conference of Badasht, where a central Islamic law was formally abrogated during each day of the conference; the meeting ended when Muslim locals attacked the meeting. Baha’u’llah attended the conference and emerged as a leader in the Babi movement after the death of the Bab in 1850. Even the Bab’s appointed leader of the movement, Subh-i-Azal (1831–1912), went into hiding and often publically denied his religious affiliation with the Babi faith.

Baha’u’llah’s writings convey the voice of a suppressed and marginalized religion from a part of the world where those of the dominant religion were already considered economically oppressed and exploited by their own governments and the world community. His often bold and pretentious tone should be viewed in this context; the most important event of the world—that is, the revelation of Baha’u’llah—was occurring from a prison while the world was too busy with its own problems to pause to consider the solutions he offered. Most of Baha’u’llah’s major works, including the Kitab-i-Aqdas, were written in prison and for an audience that either had been imprisoned for religious or political reasons or understood the threat of being imprisoned for their beliefs.

The literature of Baha’u’llah also indicates, perhaps ironically, a keen fascination with the Western world, particularly American ideals of democracy and freedom, that was common among many aristocratic Muslims of the late nineteenth century. Some early Baha’is would later name Baha’u’llah’s vision of a world community as the “United States of the World,” and Baha’is’ support and involvement with the organization of the League of Nations and its successor, the United Nations, were a direct consequence of this influence.

A central Baha’i belief is that the Bab closed the Islamic era, during which the revelation of Muhammad (the founder of Islam) was the most recent and most important word of God for humanity. In turn, the Bab prepared the world, especially the Islamic world, for the revelation of Baha’u’llah. As such, Baha’u’llah is believed by Baha’is to be the fulfillment of the scriptures of all major world religions: He is the Second Coming of Christ for Christians, the Messiah for Jews, the Amitabha Buddha for Buddhists, the twelfth imam for Shia Islam, the Shah Bahram (messiah of prophecy) of Zoroastrianism, and the final incarnation of Vishnu for Hindus. In essence, Baha’u’llah is viewed by his religious faithful as the most recent and most important in a long line of messengers or “manifestations of God” from the Eastern and Western worlds, and he brings together a world divided by religion. The importance of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, then, is in its abrogration, its negation or replacement, of all other religious texts and laws. It offers a simple means for the world to begin to get along in a new age of religious peace.