Chapter 5
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Conflicting writings on the Prophethood (Dependent/Lesser) of Imam Husayn. Baha'u'llah is the Return of Imam Husayn.
In passage 1 below,
Shoghi Effendi indicates Imam Husayn was not a Prophet
(Dependent/Lesser), which conflicts with the writings of Baha'u'llah,
Abdu'l-Baha and the Bab. Passage 2 on "the station of
pure abstraction and essential unity" of the Manifestations of God
includes Muhammad, Adam, Noah, Moses and Jesus, who are Independent
Prophets; Imam Ali and the Holy Imams, who are Dependent/Lesser
Prophets of Muhammad; who "are all invested with the robe of
Prophethood [are all Prophets]". In passages 3 and 4 below, Imam
Husayn and Imam Ali are named "chosen Ones of God",
also indicating
they are Prophets (Dependent/Lesser Prophets of Muhammad, one of the two classes of Prophets). At the following link are over a dozen references on the Prophethood of the Holy Imams.
1)
1673. Imam Husayn
"The names of those cited in Bahá'u'lláh's prayer in the Dispensation are quite correct as you have them.
"The Prophets 'regarded as One and the same person' include the Lesser
Prophets as well, and not merely Those Who bring a 'Book". The station
is different, but they are Prophets and Their nature thus different
from that of ours.
"In the prayer mentioned above Bahá'u'lláh identifies Himself with Imam Husayn. This does not make him a Prophet, but his position was very unique,
and we know Bahá'u'lláh claims to be the 'return' of the Imam Husayn.
He, in other words, identifies His Spirit with these Holy Souls gone
before, that does not, of course, make Him in anyway their
reincarnation. Nor does it mean all of them were Prophets.
"Your constant and devoted Bahá'í services are deeply valued by the
Guardian, you may be sure, and he will pray in the Holy Shrines that
your labours may be blessed and your power to confirm the souls
increased."
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, February 8, 1949)
-- Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 498
2)
These Manifestations of God have each a twofold station.
One is the station of pure abstraction and essential unity. In this
respect, if thou callest them all by one name, and dost ascribe to them
the same attributes, thou hast not erred from the truth. Even as He
hath revealed: "No distinction do We make between any of His
Messengers." For they, one and all, summon the people of the earth to
acknowledge the unity of God, and herald unto them the Kawthar of an
infinite grace and bounty. They are all invested with the robe of prophethood,
and are honored with the mantle of glory. Thus hath Muhammad, the Point
of the Qur'án, revealed: "I am all the Prophets." Likewise, He saith:
"I am the first Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus." Similar statements have
been made by Imam Ali. Sayings such as these, which indicate the essential unity of those Exponents of Oneness,
have also emanated from the Channels of God's immortal utterance, and
the Treasuries of the gems of Divine knowledge, and have been recorded
in the Scriptures. These Countenances
are the recipients of the Divine Command, and the Day Springs of His
Revelation. This Revelation is exalted above the veils of plurality and
the exigencies of number. Thus He saith: "Our Cause is but One."
Inasmuch as the Cause is one and the same, the Exponents thereof also
must needs be one and the same. Likewise, the Imams of the Muhammadan Faith, those lamps of certitude, have said: "Muhammad is our first, Muhammad is our last, Muhammad our all."
-- Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 50
I shall restate here My theme, that perchance this may assist thee in
recognizing thy Creator. Know thou that God - exalted and glorified be
He - doth in no wise manifest His inmost Essence and Reality. From time
immemorial He hath been veiled in the eternity of His Essence and
concealed in the infinitude of His own Being. And when He purposed to
manifest His beauty in the kingdom of names and to reveal His glory in
the realm of attributes, He brought forth His Prophets from the
invisible plane to the visible, that His name "the Manifest" might be
distinguished from "the Hidden" and His name "the Last" might be
discerned from "the First", and that there may be fulfilled the words:
"He is the First and the Last; the Seen and the Hidden; and He knoweth
all things!" Thus hath He revealed these most excellent names and most
exalted words in the Manifestations of His Self and the Mirrors of His
Being.
-- Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, p. 33
3)
Were the verse "And verily Our host shall conquer" to be literally
interpreted, it is evident that it would in no wise be applicable to
the chosen Ones of God and His hosts, inasmuch as Husayn [Imam Husayn], whose heroism
was manifest as the sun, crushed and subjugated, quaffed at last the
cup of martyrdom in Karbila, the land of Taff. Similarly, the sacred
verse "Fain would they put out God's light with their mouths: But God
hath willed to perfect His light, albeit the infidels abhor it." Were
it to be literally interpreted it would never correspond with the
truth. For in every age the light of God hath, to outward seeming, been
quenched by the peoples of the earth, and the Lamps of God extinguished
by them. How then could the ascendancy of the sovereignty of these
Lamps be explained? What could the potency of God's will to "perfect
His light" signify? As hath already been witnessed, so great was the
enmity of the infidels, that none of these divine Luminaries ever found
a place for shelter, or tasted of the cup of tranquillity. So heavily
were they oppressed, that the least of men inflicted upon these
Essences of being whatsoever he listed. These sufferings have been
observed and measured by the people. How, therefore, can such people be
capable of understanding and expounding these words of God, these
verses of everlasting glory?
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 126
4)
In like manner, two of the people of Kufih went to Ali [Imam Ali], the Commander
of the Faithful. One owned a house and wished to sell it; the other was
to be the purchaser. They had agreed that this transaction should be
effected and the contract be written with the knowledge of Ali. He, the
exponent of the law of God, addressing the scribe, said: "Write thou:
'A dead man hath bought from another dead man a house. That house is
bounded by four limits. One extendeth toward the tomb, the other to the
vault of the grave, the third to the Sirat, the fourth to either
Paradise or hell.'" Reflect, had these two souls been quickened by the
trumpet-call of Ali, had they risen from the grave of error by the
power of his love, the judgment of death would certainly not have been
pronounced against them.
In every age and century, the purpose of the Prophets of God and their
chosen ones hath been no other but to affirm the spiritual significance
of the terms "life," "resurrection," and "judgment." If one will ponder
but for a while this utterance of Ali in his heart, one will surely
discover all mysteries hidden in the terms "grave," "tomb," "sirat,"
"paradise" and "hell."
-- Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 119
Know then that "life" hath a twofold meaning. The first pertaineth to
the appearance of man in an elemental body, and is as manifest to thine
eminence and to others as the midday sun. This life cometh to an end
with physical death, which is a God-ordained and inescapable reality.
That life, however, which is mentioned in the Books of the Prophets and
the Chosen Ones of God is the life of knowledge; that is to say, the
servant's recognition of the sign of the splendours wherewith He Who is
the Source of all splendour hath Himself invested him, and his
certitude of attaining unto the presence of God through the
Manifestations of His Cause. This is that blessed and everlasting life
that perisheth not: whosoever is quickened thereby shall never die, but
will endure as long as His Lord and Creator will endure.
-- Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, p. 48
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