The Baha'i Studies Listserv Dear Stephen, I am going to ask you one more time not to post material here which attacks the Faith. If you do it again I will ask Mark Foster to remove you from the list. If you are not sure *don't* post it! I say that as the manager of this list.
Your source writes: "The Bab did in fact teach a form or reincarnation called "return" in various books he wrote. These books have not been published by the Baha'is, and the Universal House of Justice in Haifa has refused to publish these books in full. They however publish certain carefully selected "selections" from them; leaving out all inferences of "return" as reincarnation. The UHJ has also denied Baha'i scholars photocopies of the originals for study from these books by The Bab, but a few have "leaked out" or were in possession of Baha'is in Iran for generations, and a few translations are coming forth from former Baha'i scholars." Can you name the scholars who have been refused access to works of the Bab which talk about reincarnation? Which works specifically have been 'leaked out'? Do you really think that Baha'i scholars who specialize on the Bab and teach at major research universities like Prof. Todd Lawson would not be familiar with such works if they existed? What about the Bayanis? Would they not believe in reincarnation if such were the Bab's teachings? They have their own website which contains most of the works of the Bab. You google for it if you like, but since they are Azalis do *not* post their URL here. This is just for your information. > > To justify their point, Daheshis empahsise that Baha'u'llah himself > proclaimed that he was the "return" of the Imaam Husein; the martyred > grandson of the prophet Muhammad. Baha'is believe in 'return.' We all know that. It is just that Baha'u'llah has made it quite clear what is meant by return and it is not reincarnation. "It is clear and evident to thee that all the Prophets are the Temples of the Cause of God, Who have appeared clothed in divers attire. If thou wilt observe with discriminating eyes, thou wilt behold them all abiding in the same tabernacle, soaring 154 in the same heaven, seated upon the same throne, uttering the same speech, and proclaiming the same Faith. Such is the unity of those Essences of being, those Luminaries of infinite and immeasurable splendour. Wherefore, should one of these Manifestations of Holiness proclaim saying: "I am the return of all the Prophets," He verily speaketh the truth. In like manner, in every subsequent Revelation, the return of the former Revelation is a fact, the truth of which is firmly established. Inasmuch as the return of the Prophets of God, as attested by verses and traditions, hath been conclusively demonstrated, the return of their chosen ones also is therefore definitely proven." (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 151) No offense, Stephen, but if you would spend more time reading the basic Baha'i scriptures and less timer surfing the internet for attacks on the Faith, you would realize how little merit there is in these kinds of arguments. > > There is ample of evidence that 'Abdu'l-Baha was NOT infallible, and never > claimed infallibility. In 1917, 'Abdu'l-Baha predicted that "universal peace" > would be established >by 1957. This prediction was contained in all editions > of the book Baha'u'llah and the >New Era before 1950. In the 1950 edition, > the prediction was removed without >explanation. But we know what the explanation was. The 1957 date mentioned in Baha'u'llah and the New Era was based on an interpretation of a prophecy in the Book of Daniel made in an unauthenticated pilgrim's note. Later a Tablet was discovered which interpreted the date for the fulfillment of that prophecy as 1963. There was no mention of universal peace being established that year. This prophecy, btw, was fulfilled with the establishment of the Universal House of Justice. > > In line with Reform Bahais, Daheshis question the authenticity of the Will > and Testament of Abdul Baha. They claim that it was doctored in favour of > Shoghi Effendi. That's a new one. Ruth White claimed the entire thing was forged. warmest, Susan __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:arch...@mail-archive.com Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-483499-274...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to ly...@list.jccc.edu Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai...@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
