CLAIMS OF BAB.

Bahai house of worship at Panama. 

   

    The hostility (opposition) aroused by the claim of Babhood was redoubled when the young reformer proceeded to declare that He was Himself Mihdi/Mahdi (in popular Muslim belief, a spiritual leader who will rule before the end of the world and restore religion and justice) whose coming Muhammad had foretold. The Shi'ihs identified this Mihdi with the 12th Imam ( The Imam of the Shi'ihs is the divinely ordained successor of the Prophet whom all the faithful must obey. Eleven persons successively held the office of Imam, the first being 'Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet. The majority of the Shi'ihs hold that the 12th Imam, called by them the Imam Mihdi, disappeared as a child into an underground passage in A.H. 329, and that in the fullness of time he will come forth, overthrow the infidels (unbelievers) and inaugurate an era of blessedness) who, according to their beliefs, had mysteriously disappeared from the sight of men about a thousand years previously. They believed that he was still alive and would reappear in the same body as before, and they interpreted in a material sense the prophecies regarding his dominion, his glory, his conquests and the "signs" of his advent, just as the Jews in the time of Christ interpreted similar prophecies regarding the Messiah. They expected that he would appear with earthly sovereignty and an innumerable army and declare his revelation, that he would raise dead bodies and restore them to life, and so on. As these signs did not appear, the Shi'ihs rejected the Bab with the same fierce (cruel) scorn (contempt) which the Jews displayed towards Jesus. The Babis, on the other hand, interpreted many of the prophecies figuratively. They regarded the sovereignty of the Promised One, like that of the Galilean "Man of Sorrows," as a mystical (spiritual) sovereignty; His glory as spiritual, not earthly glory; His conquests as conquests over the cities of men's hearts; and they found abundant proof of the Bab's claim in His wonderful life and teachings, His unshakable faith, His invincible (unbeatable) steadfastness (loyalty), and His power of raising to newness of spiritual life, those who were in the graves of error and ignorance. 

    But the Bab did not stop even with the claim of Mihdihood. He adopted the sacred title of "Nuqtiy-i-ula" or "Primal Point." ( Primal means the ORIGIN). This was a title applied to Muhammad Himself by His followers. Even the Imams were secondary in importance to the "Point," from whom they derived their inspiration and authority. In assuming this title, the Bab claimed to rank, like Muhammad, in the series of great Founders of Religion, and for this reason, in the eyes of Shi'ihs, He was regarded as an impostor (fake), just as Moses and Jesus before Him had been regarded as impostors. He even inaugurated a new calendar, restoring the solar year, and dating the commencement of the New Era from the year of His own declaration.