Dear Michael,
A very informative note indeed.
> Nabil
> for example represents Quddus in a Christ-like way which helps convey
the
> greatness of his station.
I agree with this, but would state it slightly differently. Nabil was
echoing and in fact down-playing Babi sentiments. Quddus represented
himself, both in writing and apparently orally, as the return of Christ.
For the Babis that was a critical point since in Shi'a eschatology, the
Mihdi had to appear with the Christ. Therefore the claim of the Bab to be
the Mihdi was incomplete by itself and the return of Christ had to
accompany it, which Quddus fulfilled. Towards this, for instance, Quddus
named his sister Maryam (Mary) to evoke that "Christian" connection and he
modeled his life after the Christ (wearing the same type of clothing,
etc). Baha'u'llah often linked Quddus with Christ, for instance, stating
that in his martyrdom no one suffered more than Quddus, "not even Christ".
The station of Quddus is really somewhat different than Ali's. Ali never
had the station of Manifestationhood, which Quddus enjoyed. That is,
while he did not bring about a new Shari'a, and reflected the light of the
Bab, he ranked as a Manifestation. Again, this was in fulfilment of
Qur'anic prophecy about the "two liars" (the Bab and Quddus) and the
"third one" (Baha'u'llah).
There is much more on this, as we've discussed before. May be we do a
paper on this someday.
Regards,
ahang.
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06/09/2004 03:20 AM
Please respond to
"Baha'i Studies" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Subject
Re: Rev. 11:3
In a message dated 6/8/04 11:21:22 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< I am still trying to understand why Shoghi Effendi specifically says
Quddus was ONE OF THE TWO WITNESSES whose appearance was ANTICIPATED IN
THE
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. Is the Book of Revelation in this chapter
informing us that
there are TWO WITNESSES for the first woe and TWO WITNESSES for the second
woe?
If this is true, somehow this message is escaping me in my reading of it.
Thank you. >>
Dear Larry,
You are correct. The Book of Revelation is saying that there are two
witnesses for the first woe and two for the second woe. The two who appear
in the
second woe are the return of the former.
The first woe after the Day of Jesus is that of Muhammad. The second
woe
is the Day of the Bab, and the third, that of Baha'u'llah. In the Day of
Muhammad, the two greatest "witnesses" were Muhammad and Ali and this,
according to
'Abdu'l-Baha's explanation can be correlated with the Book of Revelation.
In
the Day of the Bab, these two witnesses return in the persons of the Bab
and
Quddus. In the early history we can observe that the station of Quddus was
the
highest in the Babi community after that of the Bab. When the Bab was in
captivity, it was Quddus who led the Babis and reflected the light of the
Bab. He
became the Mihdi, and in way, he even became the Bab.
In a sense any Manifestation is the return of all the former
Manifestations. One could correlate Quddus too with any former
Manifestation. But in some
respects they are more like particular Manifestations than other ones.
Nabil
for example represents Quddus in a Christ-like way which helps convey the
greatness of his station. The role of John the Baptist is very much like
that of
Elijah. Quddus' relationship to the Bab is unique in some ways but in
other ways
similar to that of Ali to Muhammad.
Michael
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