In
http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist/m43013.html
Gilberto writes:
Gilberto:
Do you have any insight as to why that might be appealing? Personally,
I don't think the religion is so much about authority or that
individual anyway. I like religions more based on principles, like
Taoism and Buddhism, and I think it probably shows up in how I see the
prophetic religions as well. That's probably why Perennialism appeals
to me. The message is more important than the messenger. There are
timeless principles which are more fundamental than a timeless
sequence of persons.
Gilberto::
I understand that. Bahais say there will be future prophets. Muslims
say there won't be future prophets. Christians seem really open to the
idea that there will be future "prophets"
**
Dear Gilberto
I always read your emails with great interest and affection
I read again what you write with great interest.
The necessity for Progressive Revelation and the absolute need for the Bab
and Baha'u'llah to have come is that the Sacred Pledge of Islam re the
Latter Day [Yawm il aakhir] must needs be fulfilled.
****
034.029
YUSUFALI: They say: "When will THIS PROMISE (come to pass) if ye are telling
the truth?"
PICKTHAL: And they say: When is this promise (to be fulfilled) if ye are
truthful?
SHAKIR: And they say: When will this promise be (fulfilled) if you are
truthful?
034.030
YUSUFALI: Say: "The APPOINTMENT TO YOU IS FOR A DAY, which ye cannot put
back for an hour nor put forward."
PICKTHAL: Say (O Muhammad): Yours is the promise of a Day which ye cannot
postpone nor hasten by an hour.
SHAKIR: Say: You have the appointment of a day from which you cannot hold
back any while, nor can you bring it on.
022.047
YUSUFALI: Yet they ask thee to hasten on the Punishment! But God will not
fail in His Promise. Verily a Day in the sight of thy Lord is like a
thousand years of your reckoning.
PICKTHAL: And they will bid thee hasten on the Doom, and God faileth not His
promise, BUT LO! A DAY WITH GOD IS AS A THOUSAND YEARS OF WHAT YE RECKON.
SHAKIR: And they ask you to hasten on the punishment, and God will by no
means fail in His promise, AND SURELY A DAY WITH YOUR LORD IS AS A THOUSAND
YEARS OF WHAT YOU NUMBER.
A thousand lunar years after the year 260 after Hejra was 1260 AH [which is
1844 AD the year of the inception of the Bahai Faith]
*** Give ear to His voice calling aloud over land and sea, announcing to all
mankind the advent of this Revelation - a Revelation through the agency of
which the Tongue of Grandeur is now proclaiming: `Lo, THE SACRED PLEDGE
hath been fulfilled, for He, the Promised One, is come!'"
(Baha'u'llah)***
So in addition to the Teaching that God is One, the Light that shineth from
His Divine Essence [Dhaat] is One, we have the sacred notion in the
Babi/Bahai Revelations of the Sacred Pledge and the thousand year duration
after the setting of the star of the Imamate.
[( The Muhammadan Dispensation must have, therefore, lasted no less than one
thousand years, which is precisely the period that has elapsed from the
SETTING OF THE STAR OF THE IMAMATE [260AH] to the advent of the Dispensation
proclaimed by the Bab. [1260 AH]
(Shoghi Effendi: World Order of Baha'u'llah, Page: 102))]
Further it is evident that many bad things happened in Islamic history after
the Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad was not accorded dur recognition.
For a review see the utterances of the Imam 'Ali in His Sermon the
Shiqshiqiyyah and the all-important consequences of this episode see...
http://majalla.org/books/balagha/003.htm
accessed 1/1/2005
1) al-Hakam ibn Abi'l-`As who had been exiled from Medina by the Prophet was
allowed back in the city not only against the Prophet's sunnah but also
against the conduct of the first two Caliphs and he was paid three hundred
thousand Dirhams from the public fund. (Ansab al-ashraf, vol.5, pp.27, 28,
125)
2) al-Walid ibn `Uqbah who has been named hypocrite in the Qur'an was paid
one hundred thousand Dirhams from the Muslim's public fund. (al-`Iqd
al-farid, vol.3, p.94)
Etc etc.
The great Promise of the Holy Qur'an is that on THAT DAY all will be
gathered
*** 003.009
YUSUFALI: "Our Lord! Thou art He that will gather mankind Together against a
day about which there is no doubt; for God never fails in His promise."
PICKTHAL: Our Lord! Lo! it is Thou Who gatherest mankind together to a Day
of which there is no doubt. Lo! God faileth not to keep the tryst.
SHAKIR: Our Lord! surely Thou art the Gatherer of men on a day about which
there is no doubt; surely God will not fail (His) promise.***
That Day dearest Gilberto is now...The Day of the Covenant mentioned in Sura
3 verse 81
******
003.081
YUSUFALI: Behold! God took the covenant of the prophets, saying: "I give you
a Book and Wisdom; then comes to you a messenger, confirming what is with
you; do ye believe in him and render him help." God said: "Do ye agree, and
take this my Covenant as binding on you?" They said: "We agree." He said:
"Then bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses."
PICKTHAL: When God made (His) covenant with the prophets, (He said): Behold
that which I have given you of the Scripture and knowledge. AND AFTERWARD
there will come unto you a messenger, confirming that which ye possess. Ye
shall believe in him and ye shall help him. He said: Do ye agree, and will
ye take up My burden (which I lay upon you) in this (matter)? They answered:
We agree. He said: Then bear ye witness. I will be a witness with you.
SHAKIR: And when God made a covenant through the prophets: Certainly what I
have given you of Book and wisdom-- then an messenger comes to you verifying
that which is with you, you must believe in him, and you must aid him. He
said: Do you affirm and accept My compact in this (matter)? They said: We do
affirm. He said: Then bear witness, and I (too) am of the bearers of witness
with you.****
This Covenant was with all the Prophets [Nabiyyin] and this Covenant would
have included the Seal of these Nabiyyin [Khaatam un Nabiyyin] then there is
the great THUMMA [Then] and then a Messenger [ Baha'u'llah].
I am offering some thoughts most lovingly on this new day of the Christian
calendar. I have no desire to convince but these thoughts are like the straw
in the proverbial wind so that we may appreciate whence the wind cometh
humblest khazeh
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