The Bab's Persian Bayan
H-Bahai
Translations of Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Texts, No. 4 (July, 1997 - )


The Persian Bayan of Sayyid `Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bab

Unity One, Chapter One

trans. Dr. Denis MacEoin






In the first chapter of the number of All Things, the decree which God -
praised be He and glorified - has rendered obligatory is the declaration:
'there is no god but God, truly, truly'. Wherefore, the whole of the Bayan
shall return to this declaration, and the appearance of a new creation
shall take place from it. The recognition of this declaration is
conditional on recognition of the Point of the Bayan, which God has made
the essence of the Letters of the Seven. Whoever realizes that he is the
Point of the Qur'an in his end and the Point of the Bayan in his beginning,
and that he is the Primal Will that exists in its own self, through whose
decree all things are created and in whom they subsist, his essence has
borne witness to the singleness of his Lord. But whoever has not believed
in him is rekjected and shall enter the fire. What fire is further removed
than he who has not believed in him? And he who has believed shall enter
into affirmation. What paradise is more exalted than the one who believes
in him? It is a declaration that has praised and magnified and extolled and
sanctified and glorified its Lord at morn and eventide.

Regard not this declaration except as you lok upon the sun in the
heavens, and regard not him who believes in him except as you regard the
mirror. Indeed, whosoever believes in the essence of the Letters of the
Seven, his inner being shall be given assistance by one of the names of
God, praised be He and glorified, and his outer being shall be a leaf among
the leaves of the Tree of Affirmation. All things return to this one thing,
and all things are created through this one thing. This one thing shall be,
in the next resurrection, none other than he whom God shall manifest, who,
in every degree, utters the words, 'Verily, I am God, no god is there
beside Me, the Lord of all things. All save Me is my creation. Wherefore, O
My Creation, worship Me!' And know that he is the mirror of God, from whom
the mirror of the physical universe (mulk ) is rendered luminous, which is
made up of the Letters of the Living. In him none can be seen except God
Himself. Whoever in the Bayan utters the declaration, 'there is no god but
God', turns towards God through him, for his creation began in him and to
him his creation shall return.

The fruit of this knowledge is that, at the time of the appearance
of him whom God shall manifest, you should not say, 'we say "there is no
god but God" and this is the basis of religion'. For ewhat you say is but a
reflection from his sun, which has shone forth in his first manifestation.
He is more worthy of this declaration in his own self than are the
realities of all created things, for if the mirror should say 'the sun is
in me', it is evident to the sun that it is but its reflection speaking.

O creation of the Bayan, we have caused you to know the exaltation
of your existence in the declaration of your Lord, that you may not be
veiled by the truth from him whom God shall manifest on the Day of
Resurrection. That of which you speak resembles its appearance in your
hearts and that concerning which he speaks. That it is to which God has
borne witness in Himself, that there is no god but He, the Preserver, the
Self-Subsistent. In this day, whoever in the Qur'an should utter this
declaration, which is the essence of the faith, it cannot be doubted that
he shall have uttered what Muhammad, the Messenger of God, uttered before
this. The sun of this declaration was in his (Muhammad's) heart, and its
reflection shone forth in those who utter (that declaration) today.
Wherefore, it returns to him in his second appearance, which is the
appearance of the Point of the Bayan, not in his first appearance, for in
his first revelation the tree of oneness had not been raised up in the
realities of created beings. Now that one thousand two hundred and seventy
years have passed, this tree has reached the stage of fruition. Everyone
in whom there is a reflection of that sun of the Point of the Qur'an, which
is identical with the Point of the Bayan, must needs be manifested before
him.

I have used as an example the highest declaration, upon which the
faith of all men depends. The beginning of faith is confirmed through its
utterance, and all speak it at the moment of death and finally reurn to it.
Wherefore, the reflections of the mirrors return only to that in which they
had their origin. If the mirror should remove that portion of the sun's
reflection that lies within it, it will return to it [the sun], for that is
where it had its inception. Both its return and its going back exist in
nothing but the limitation imposed upon it by being nothing more than a
mirror.

Since the exaltation of the word of the Qur'an in former times and
the elevation of the word of the Bayan after it may be considered thus when
face to face with the Sun of Reality, what is the state of those matters
that are derived from that word, matters such as the recognition of God's
names, or those of the Prophet, the Imams of Guidance, the Gates of
Guidance, as well as secondary questions without number or end? Anyone who
has been veiled by one of these things from the reality that isn the source
of his existence, and unto which it returns, should he belong to the Tree
of Affirmation and should the sign of his oneness be a token of the Sun,
well and good; but, God forbid, should it not be a token of it, he would be
unworthy of any mention.

For how often did those individuals who associated themselves with
the Qur'an issue decress contrary to what God had revealed. This was
mentioned with respect to their realities, not with regard to what is
connected to the realities; for whatever connects itself to anything but
God will return to the reality of that thing. And since its reality is not
a token of God, it is not mentioned in His presence. But whatever is
connected to true realities will return to them. If they are signs
(naturally) situated within the mirrors of their own hearts and not
(artificially) placed there, they will return to their own seats in the
beginning and at the end. Since the sun has been shining from eternity,
those mirrors have at all times been tokens of it; God's grace has never
been interrupted under any conditions, nor shall it ever come to an end.

Whosoever says: 'God, God is my Lord, and I associate no-one with
my Lord. The Essence of the Letters of the Seven is the Gate of God [bab
Allah], and I do not believe in any gate other than him'; (whoever says
this) and believes in the one God shall manifest, such a man has attained
to this first gate of the first unity. Blessed be they who have attained to
the bounty of a mighty day, the day on which all shall bring themselves
into the presence of God, their Lord.




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