Dearest John Smith
Nothing, absolutely nothing can replace the perusal of the Iqan Itself but I
thought a brief review of Chris Buck's book may be helpful to you. Please
forgive my presumption in sharing it with you
**** Well may it be claimed that of all the books revealed by the Author of
the Baha'i Revelation, this Book alone [the Kitab Iqan], by sweeping away
the age-long barriers that have so insurmountably separated the great
religions of the world, has laid down a broad and unassailable foundation
for the complete and permanent reconciliation of their followers.
(Shoghi Effendi: God Passes By, Page: 139)***
http://bahai-library.com/books/symbol.secret/
***
This claim [the claim of finality], consistently upheld by Islamic
orthodoxy, not only militates against the notion of prophetic continuity but
also hinders any attempt at the renovation of doctrine. No intellectual
current in the course of Islamic history-not even the Sufis' claim to
intuitive inspiration or the philosophers' rational exposition of the
fundamentals of the Islamic faith-has ever escaped this predicament. 15
Bahá'u'lláh overrides the obstacle of the "Seal" from several
directions. In so doing, he defines the designation as an attribute common
to all messengers of God. The concept of the "Seal" as "Last" is kept
intact, but "Last" indicates importance rather than temporality. Bahá'u'lláh
sets up his argument by citing a tradition in which Muhammad is reported to
have said, "I am Jesus."16 Enlarging on the Qur’anic theme of the oneness of
the prophets, Bahá'u'lláh writes:
Hath not Muhammad, Himself, declared: "I am all the Prophets."? Hath He not
said as We have already mentioned: "I am Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus."? Why
should Muhammad, that immortal Beauty, Who hath said: "I am the first Adam,"
be incapable of saying also: "I am the last Adam."? For even as He regarded
Himself to be the "First of the Prophets"-that is Adam-in like manner, the
"Seal of the Prophets" is also applicable unto that Divine Beauty. It is
admittedly obvious that being the "First of the Prophets," He likewise is
their "Seal."17
Viewed in this light, they [the Prophets] are all but Messengers of
that ideal King, that unchangeable Essence. And were they all to proclaim:
"I am the Seal of the Prophets," they verily utter but the truth, beyond the
faintest shadow of a doubt. For they are all but one person, one soul, one
spirit, one being, one revelation. They are all the Manifestation of the
"Beginning" and the "End," the "First" and the "Last," the "Seen" and the
"Hidden"—all of which pertain to Him Who is the innermost Spirit of Spirits
and eternal Essence of Essences.18
Having linked Qur’anic concepts of prophetic unity with this Qur’anic
distinction (Quran 33:40), a tenable leap in logic for Bahá'u'lláh was to
suggest that if the prophets share the same essence, they should also share
the same attributes, including that expressed by the title, "Seal of the
Prophets." (Bahá'u'lláh does allow for distinctions in station and intensity
of revelation, however.) By the force of this argument, Jesus is fully equal
with the prophet Muhammad, since Jesus is considered "the Seal of the
Prophets" as well. The same is likewise the case with the prophet Adam and
the Patriarchs of yore: "Behold, O concourse of the earth," Bahá'u'lláh
exclaims, "the splendours of the End, revealed in the Manifestations of the
Beginning!"
In fine, Bahá'u'lláh applies Qur’anic concepts of the oneness of the
prophets to relativize the idea of the "Seal of the Prophets." The accepted
notion of the "Seal" as meaning "last" is kept intact, but "last" indicates
authority rather than succession. Through an associative equivalence
grounded in the Qur'án's message of prophetic oneness, the "Seal of the
Prophets" distinguishes all the Messengers of God. …In The Book of
Certitude, Bahá'u'lláh shows orthodox claims to Muhammad's ultimacy as
trading on notions of triumphalism to the exclusion of the Qur’anic concept
of prophetic unity. Bahá'u'lláh has used one Qur’anic doctrine as a
constraint on another.
Bahá'u'lláh opens up a whole new line of interpretation by drawing a simple
Qur'anic equation: The Qaim of Islamic tradition is the "presence of God"
in the Qur'án. Throughout The Book of Certitude, Bahá'u'lláh consistently
identifies the figure of the Qá'im with the Qur'anic "presence of God," in
which Gods "presence" (not essence) is incarnated in the person of an
eschatological fulfiller whose charisma is the numinosity of God. The latter
identification is not exclusive to the Qá'im for good reason, since it
equally applies to the messenger foretold by the Báb.
... Just as Muhammad manifests the Will and Presence of the transcendent
Deity, so also must the Qur'anic eschatological "God" be a mediated Deity.
According to Bahá'u'lláh, the Qur'án refers to this deputy of God in various
ways, ONE OF WHICH IS ITS CRYPTIC REFERENCES TO "THE PRESENCE OF GOD":
Even as the Lord of being hath in His unerring Book, after speaking of the
"Seal" in His exalted utterance: "Muhammad is the Apostle of God and the
Seal of the Prophets," [Qur'án 33:401 hath revealed unto all people the
promise of "attainment unto the divine Presence." [Qur'án 33:44] To this
attainment to the presence of the immortal King testify the verses of the
Book, some of which We have already mentioned. The one true God is My
witness! Nothing more exalted or more explicit than "attainment unto the
divine Presence" hath been revealed in the Qur'án ...
Bahá'u'lláh attaches great importance to the Qur'án's forebodings of
the eschatological encounter with God. Every reference to "presence of God"
(liqá' Alláh) in the Qur'án has particular significance for Bahá'u'lláh, who
suggests that the "Seal of the Prophets" verse at Qur'án 33:40 is eclipsed
four verses later by the ESCHATOLOGICAL EVENT OF "MEETING GOD."... Where,
one might ask, is there precedent in Shí'í exegetical tradition for
Bahá'u'lláh's supersedure of the assumed finality of "Seal of the Prophets"
(Quran 33:40) by the eschatological certainty of encountering God (Qur'án
33:44)? Here, the singlemost crucial prophetological verse in the Qur'án is
overruled, in Bahá'u'lláh's exegesis, by another verse just four verses
later in the same sura. This latter verse is glossed as the refraction of
beatific vision realized in the "Manifestation of God" who is the
eschatological "God" by proxy, even as Moses was said to be "as God unto
Pharaoh."... In an Islamic context, this exegetical innovation is
unacceptable... The traditional exegesis of verse 33:40 is too entrenched
for any fresh perspective to be seriously entertained by orthodox Islam. No
matter how persuasive Bahá'u'lláh's argument may have been, that argument
was a dangerous one to make in a Muslim context. It still is.
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