The Claims of The Bab

MOHAMMED REZA ISFAHANI

At the introduction to this series, I had mentioned that the Bab is projected as a multi-faceted, multi-positioned individual who was a prophet, a messenger, the intermediary between the Hidden Imam and the people and the Hidden Imam himself. Readers must note that in the latter part of his life (a few days before his martyrdom), Bab even claimed to be God.

The sheer multiplicity of the claims of the Bab leave a bitter taste for an objective reader of the Baha’i Faith and its history. The Bab, Bahaullah, Shoghi Effendi, Abdul Baha all clearly appear to contradict each other. For example, while Shoghi claims that the Bab was the Baqiyatullah (Remnant of God), the Bab says that the Remnant of God is Mohammed ibnil Hasan (as).

The topic of the claims of the Bab is an interesting one - especially when one considers the fact that the Baha’is have actually attributed even those positions which the Bab did not claim for himself. For example, the \"official\" version of the Bab is that he was an independent prophet though he never made this claim in his lifetime and the fact that his revelation - the Bayan was incomplete at the time of his death. For the Baha’is, the position of the Bab is indeed extremely fluid - the Bab can be anything which you will accept. For the Muslims, he is the Mahdi even though he recanted from this claim at least twice in his life and cursed those who attributed this position to him. For others, he remained the door (Bab) to the Hidden Imam. As for Bab himself, as this section will prove, he simply considered himself as God.

Before delving into each of these claims, I wish to ask my readers to keep in mind what I believe are very pertinent questions - Why did the Bab make all these claims? Why did the Baha’is attribute all these stations to the Bab? The answers, I hope will be clear when an objective reading of this section is complete.

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