CHAPTER 2 : THE BAB: THE FORERUNNER

"Verily the oppressor hath slain the Beloved of the worlds that he might thereby quench the Light of God amidst His creatures and withhold mankind from the Stream of Celestial Life in the days of his Lord, the Gracious, the Bountiful. "- BAHA'U'LLAH, Tablet to Ra'is.

BIRTHPLACE OF THE NEW REVELATION. 

   

Shrine of Bab

   Persia, the birthplace of the Baha'i Revelation, has occupied a unique place in the history of the world. In the days of her early greatness she was a veritable queen among nations, unrivalled in civilization, in power and in splendour. She gave to the world great kings and statesmen, prophets and poets, philosophers and artists. Zoroaster, Cyrus and Darius, Hafiz and Firdawsi, Sa'di and 'Umar Khayyam are but a few of her many famous sons. Her craftsmen were unsurpassed in skill; her carpets were matchless, her steel blades unequalled, her pottery world-famous. In all parts of the Near and Middle East she has left traces of her former greatness.

    Yet, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries she had sunk to a condition of deplorable degradation. Her ancient glory seemed irretrievably lost. Her government was corrupt and in desperate financial straits; some of her rulers were feeble, and others monsters of cruelty. Her priests were bigoted and intolerant, her people ignorant and superstitious. Most of them belonged to the Shi'ih sect* of Muslims, but there were also considerable numbers of Zroastrians, Jews and Christians, of diverse and antagonistic sects. All professed to follow sublime teachers who exhorted them to worship the one God and to live in love and unity, yet they shunned, detested and despised each other, each sect regarding the others as unclean, as dogs or heathens. Cursing and execration were indulged in to a fearful extent. It was dangerous for a Jew or a Zoroastrian to walk in the street on a rainy day, for if his wet garment should touch a Muslim, the Muslim was defiled, and the other might have to atone for the offence with his life. If a Muslim took money from a Jew, Zoroastrian or Christian he had to wash it before he could put it in his pocket. If a Jew found his child giving a glass of water to a poor Muslim beggar he would dash the glass from the child's hand, for curses rather than kindness should be the portion be the portion of infidels! The Muslims themselves were divided into numerous sects, among whom strife was often bitter and fierce. The Zoroastrian did not join much in these mutual recriminations, but lived in communities apart, refusing to associate with their fellow-countrymen of other faiths.

    Social as well as religious affairs were in a state of hopeless decadence. Education was neglected. Western science and art were looked upon as unclean and contrary to religion. Justice was travestied. Pillage and robbery were of common occurrence. Roads were bad and unsafe for travel. Sanitary arrangements were shockingly defective.

    Yet, notwithstanding all this, the light of spiritual life was not extinct in Persia. Here and there, amid the prevailing worldliness and superstition, could still be found some saintly souls, and in many a heart the longing for God was cherished, as in the hearts of Anna and Simeon before the appearance of Jesus. Many werr eagerly awaiting the coming of promised Messenger of God, and confident that the time of his advent was at hand. Such was the state of affairs in Persia when the Bab, the Herald of a new era, set all the country in commotion with His message.

* One of the two great faction- Shi'ih and Sunni- into which Islam fell soon after the death of Muhammad. The Shi'ihs claim that 'Ali, the son-in-law of Muhammad, was the first legitimate successor of the prophet, and that only his descendants are the rightful caliphs.