[I]
بهاء
THE WORD BAHĀ' AS THE QUINTESSENCE OF THE GREATEST NAME
OF GOD
الاسم الأعظم
Stephen
Lambden [August 1992].
BEING REVISED AND UPDATED 2007-8
“O Peoples of the world!
He Who is the Most Great Name (al-ism al-a`ẓam) is come, on the
part of the Ancient King”
(Bahā'-Allāh, ESW:128)
“Let your joy be the joy born of My Most Great Name (ismī
al-a`ẓam), a Name that bringeth rapture to the heart,
and filleth with ecstasy the minds of all who have drawn
nigh unto God” (Bahā'-Allāh , Aqdas 38, para.
31)
1.0
Introduction
This paper is an attempt to explore some linguistic, historical and
theological aspects of the Arabic word بهاء
bahā' which is viewed by Bahā'īs as the quintessence of
the االاسم
الأعظم
(al-ism
al-a`ẓam = the Mightiest [Greatest] Name [of God]) OR اسم
الله الاعظم
( ism
Allāh al-a`ẓam = "the Greatest [Mightiest] Name of God), one form
of which they regard as the (Arabic) title بهاء
الله = Bahā’-Allāh (= Bahā’u’llāh) which could be correctly
translated in several different ways; e,g, the Glory-Splendor-Radiance-Beauty
of God though modern Bahā’īs, following the preference of `Abd al-Bahā’
and Shoghi Effendi, translate `the Glory of God’ where ‘glory’ is
expressive of the divine radiance and splendor personified in the person
of Mīrzā Ḥusayn `Alī Nūrī (b. Tehran [Iran] 1817, d. Acre
[Palestine] 1892 CE) who adopted the title Bahā’-Allāh while a
follower of the Bāb around 1848 CE. This title
Bahā’-Allāh thus basically indicates a radiant divine theophany, a
divine Manifestation attended and personified as a supernatural
radiance, emanating light, splendor and beauty.
The
linguistic history, semantic field and multifarious occurrences of the
word bahā’ in Arabic and Persian Islamic literatures have yet to be
systematically researched. It is a word which does not occur in the
Qur'ān and is not among the traditional ninety nine "most beautiful
names" of God (al-asmā' al-ḥunā ; see Qur'ān 7:179). For this and
other reasons it is "hidden". The Arabic word Bahā’ was not,
however, unknown prior to the advent of Bahā’u'llāh and his 19th
century adoption of this title or its identification by him with the
Greatest or Mightiest Name of God. It's explicit identification with
this "Greatest Name" however, despite Islāmic traditions to this effect,
was not at all widely recognized. As the secret of the hundredth name of
God, Bahā’ is often alluded to in Bahā’u'llāh's Tablets as both the
"Hidden Name" and the "Greatest Name".
At this point
it may be noted that the word Bahā' has occurred hundreds of times
throughout the Islāmic centuries as a component of Islāmic honorific
titles applied to eminent Muslims. Hundreds of Muslims have been
designated "Bahā' al-Dīn", the "glory/splendour of religion". [24]
Bahā' al-Dīn Walad of Balkh (d. 1230 CE), meaning "the splendour/glory
of religion from Balkh" is the designation, for example, of the father
of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (1207-1273 CE), famed author of the `Persian Qur'ān
[Bible]', the Mathnawī. The founder of the Naqshbandīyyah Sufī order was
Bahā' al-Dīn Muhammad Naqshband (d.1389 CE.) (See Appendix XXX).
Semitic Arabic
words are made up of various root consonants, occasionally 2, often 3
and less frequently 4 or 5 letters. The word bahā’
is probably derived from three ("B"+"H"+"A"/ "W") and made up of four
letters, "B"+ "H" + "A" + the glottal stop
(=
hamza).transliterated in English as ‘' Though this final glottal stop is
fundamental to the Arabic spelling, the ء (hamza)
is usually omitted in Persian spelling.
The Arabic
word and Persian loan word بهاء , bahā’,
in other words, is made up of the following four letters which have a
numerical (abjad ) value of nine -:
- [1] ب
"B" = 2 +
- [2]
ه
"H" = 5 +
- [3]
أ
"A"= 1 +
- [4]
ء (glottal
stop) ' = 1 (total = 9).
Thus, [1]
ب
"B" = 2 + [2]
ه
"H" =
5 + [3]
أ
"A"= 1 + [4]
ء
(glottal stop: ' =
1 Total abjad value = 2+5+1+1 = abjad ) total = 9. The number nine
as the abjad numerical of Bahā’ and the highest numerical integer
is regarded as a sacred number of Bahā’īs. This is the basic reason why
the number nine plays an important symbolic part in aspects of Bahā’ī
ritual, organization (9 Bahā’is on the Universal House of Justice and
various assembles) and theology.
The basic verbal senses
of the root of bahā are quite wide-ranging; indicating, for example,
that someone was (or became) sociable/ friendly / familiar towards him /
it. This perhaps so as to love or like his / its nearness. It may, in
addition, indicate `to be over-familiar with something so as to have no
reverence for it' or be in awe of it. On occasion the verb may signify
`to be or make beautiful.'
The word
بهاء bahā' as an Arabic
verbal-noun or Persian word can also, among other things, signify :
perplexity, incomprehensibility, poverty, goodness, greatness, perfection, majesty,
magnificence, grandeur, beauty, brilliancy, shining, luminosity -- even
`the sheen of the spittle of a lion' or `the calmness of a she-camel
used to her milker'!.
____________________
For details and examples see below on
Ibn Mansūr, Muhammad ibn Muharram, Lisān al-`Arab Vol. 1 (Revue et
Complete Youssef Khayat, Beirut: Dār Lisān al-`Arab) pp.35-6; R. Dozy,
Supplément aux Dictionnaires Arabes Vol.1 (Leyde: E.J. Brill, 1884),
p.123-4; E.W. Lane, Arabic English Lexicon
2 Vol. 1
(Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society Trust, 1984), pp.263-4. Hans Wehr, A
Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic [Ed. J. Milton Cowan],
Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1979 p.97; Dehkhoda, Lughat Nāmih, entry
Bahā' p.395f.
____________________
Various
grammatical meanings of the word
بهاء
bahā’
The word
بهاء
bahā’ has a considerable variety of meanings. Some of its numerous
senses are mundane or non-theological, while, for Bahā’īs (followers of
Bahā’-Allāh), others are seen as deeply, theologically meaningful.
Considered alone, the word بهاء bahā’
is a verbal-noun meaning, among other things,
It is these
above senses, especially as they revolve around concepts of brilliant
divine radiance and beauty, which are paramount for Bahā'is. They are
especially viewed as relating to the person of Bahā'u'llah or Bahā'-Allah
as the radiant latter-day manifestation of God. There exist a wide range
of other nominal and verbal senses also. They include a wide range of
non-theological verbal senses and significances as an Arabic verbal-noun
or Persian word. It can, for example, signify,
-
`poverty',
-
`goodness',
-
`greatness',
-
`perfection',
-
`majesty',
`magnificence', `grandeur',
-
`beauty',
`brilliancy', `luminosity' and even,
-
`the sheen
of the spittle of a lion' or
-
`the
calmness of a she-camel used to her milker'!
____________________
Muhammad ibn
Mukarram Ibn Manẓūr (1232-1311[12)] : Lisān al-`Arab.
لسان العرب
-
Lisan al-`Arab
li-Ibn Manẓūr ; ed. `Abd Allah `Ali al-Kabir, Muhammad Ahmad Hasab
Allah, Hashim Muhammad al- Shadhili]. Tab`ah jadidah muhaqqaqah
wa-mashkulah shaklan kamilan wa-mudhayyalah bifaharis mufassalah. Cairo:
: Dar al-Ma`arif,1981.
-
Beirut: Dar
Sadir, 1955-6.
-
ADD HERE 1:
571; Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-'Arab, 18 vols. (Beirut: Dar Ihyab al-Turath
al-'Arabi, 1997), 6: 203.
For a pdf of the bahā' entry of the
Lisān al-`Arab
see :
This important dictionary defines the
verbal noun (maṣdar) derived from the root letters B-H-A as bahā'
and refers to three synonyms العظم
= al-`izam or `uzm, meaning : "Mighty",
"Greatness", "Magnitude", "Grandeur", "Sublimity",
etc (2)
الجلال
al-jalāl = "Weighty",
"Lofty", "Momentous", "Sublimity", "Splendour", "Glory", etc and (3)
الحسن
al-ḥusn
= "Beauty",
"Handsomeness", "Prettiness", "Loveliness",
"Excellence","Superiority", "Perfection", etc. (Hans Wehr definitions).
"And as for al-bahā'
(بهاء
)
it refers to a she-camel (al-nāqa) which is comfortable with its milker (al-ḥālib)..."
____________________
Fīrūzābādī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʻqūb
Fīrūzābādī (c. 1329-1414-5).
-
al-Qamus
al-muhit The comprehensive dictionary, with the glosses of Nasr al-Hurini,
rev. by Mustafa Anani. 2d ed. Cairo, al-Matba`at al-Husainiyah al-Missriyah,
1344 /1925-26.
-
al-Qamus al-Muhit,
2 vols. Beirut: Dar Ihya al-Turath al-'Arabi, 1997.
__________________
Muhammad ibn Muhammad Murtaḍā́ al-Zabīdī (1732-1791). Tāj al-`Arūs min
Jawāhir al-Qāmūs ("The Crown of the Bride from the Jewels of the Lexicon").
-
تاج
العروس من جواهر القاموس
-
Tāj al-`Arūs
min Jawāhir al-Qāmūs. Kuwayt: Maṭbaʻat Ḥukūmat al-Kuwayt, 1965-1997.
-
Freytag,
Georg Wilhelm (1788-1861) : Lexicon.
-
Lexicon
arabico-latinum ex opere suo maiore in usum tironum excerptum edidit
G. W. Freytag. Halis, Saxonum, apud C. A. Schwetschke et filium,
1837.
-
_______________
Edward William
Lane (1801-1876 CE): Arabic English Lexicon (1st ed.
The Cambridge
Arabist Arthur J. Arberry (d. 1969 CE) has written that "The Englishman
Edward William Lane (1801-1876) was the third son of the Rev. Dr. Theopholus
Lane, a grand nephew of the painter Gainsborough on his mother's side"
(Oriental Essays, 87). Needing warmer climes after contracting tuberculosis
("consumption") and quitting Cambridge University Lane travelled to Egypt in
1825 where became fluent in Arabic and a subsequently a master Arabic lexicographer. He
consulted many important and bulky Arabic dictionaries in putting together
his own Arabic-English Lexicon which was 30 years in the making, occupying
him from 1963 until his death in 1876. After his passing his nephew S.
Lane-Poole managed to have the lexicon published, the first paty of the
first edition coming out in 1893. The work was of very
considerable magnitude being partly based on the famous Arabic lexicon named Tāj al-'Arus of the 18th century polymath Muhammad Murtada al-Zabedi
(1732-1791) printed in the early 19th century in Cairo in ten huge
folio volumes. Lane's lexicon has become a standard reference work for
Western academics as well as Arab scholars. It was composed "with the
munificent assistance of the Duke of Northumberland [Lord Prudhoe] and the
bounty of the British government". It remains in print and electronically
available on CDRoms and in cyberspace.
-
An
Arabic-English Lexicon. Book I, Parts 1-8. London 1863-93.
-
An
Arabic-English lexicon, London: Edinburgh, Williams and Norgate,
1863-93.
The English
orientalist and linguist Edward Lane (d.1876 ) compiled a now very
famous lexicon primarily during the several years of his 19th century
sojourn in Cairo (Egypt) which he entitled ADD . Therein he condensed
the contents of several of the major Arabic lexica which had come to be
regarded as authoritative including
The entry for بهاء
and associated words can be found in volume 1 p 263ff esp. 270: refer
PDF
George Percy
Badger (1815-1888). Lexicon.
Reinhart Pieter
Anne Dozy (1820-1883) : Supplément.
Régis
Blachčre (1900-1973) :Dictionnaire.
-
Dictionnaire arabe-français-anglais (langue classique et moderne)
Arabic/French/ English dictionary, par Régis Blachčre, Moustafa
Chouémi et Claude Denizeau. Paris, G.-P. Maisonneuve et Larose.
c1964 (?).
Dihkhuda, `Ali
Akbar (1879-1955).
Steingass,
Francis Joseph (1825-1903).
-
A
comprehensive Persian-English dictionary, including the Arabic words
and phrases to be met with in Persian literature. Being Johnson and
Richardson's Persian, Arabic, and English dictionary, revised,
enlarged and entirely reconstructed. Beirut, Librairie du Liban
[1970].
Lists the word
bahā as meaning "precious, valuable" (p.210).
Under Persian
بها bahā (without hamza, not the Arabic
bahā') Steingass gives the meaning "price, value " then lists
various Persian verbal phrases associated therewith including: ADD
...... Bahā'ī khūn = "The price of blood (which is payed to
the relations of a person killed, as an atonement) (p.209). In his ESW
Bahā'u'llah address Shaykh Muhammad Taqi Najafi and at onr point refers the Bahā'i martyr Najaf `Ali who was faithful to Bahā'-Allah in martyrdom
and thus kept his khun-bahā or "bloodmoney":
"O Shaykh!
If things such as these are to be denied, what shall, then, be
deemed worthy of credence? Set forth the truth, for the sake of God,
and be not of them that hold their peace. They arrested his honor
Najaf-'Ali, who hastened, with rapture and great longing, unto the
field of martyrdom, uttering these words: "We have kept both Baha
and the khun-baha (bloodmoney)!" With these words he yielded up his
spirit. Meditate on the splendor and glory which the light of
renunciation, shining from the upper chamber of the heart of Mulla
Ali-Jan, hath shed. He was so carried away by the breezes of the
Most Sublime Word and by the power of the Pen of Glory that to him
the field of martyrdom equalled, nay outrivalled, the haunts of
earthly delights. Ponder upon the conduct of Aba-Basir and Siyyid
Ashraf-i-Zanjani. They sent for the mother [74] of Ashraf to
dissuade her son from his purpose. But she spurred him on until he
suffered a most glorious martyrdom." (Bahā'u'llah, Epistle to the
Son of the Wolf, 73)
Lists the word
bahā'ī as meaning "xxx, xxx" (p.00).
The Arabic
Wordbook of Hans Wehr (1909-1981), ed.
J. Milton Cowan. "Modern Written Arabic".
In the German dictionary entitled Arabisches Wörterbuch (1952) by
Professor Hans Wehr (d. 1981), an Arabist at the University of Münster
from 1957-1974, which was edited in English as ` A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic' (4th
edition, Weisbaden: Otto Harrasowitch, 1979 ) by J. Milton Cowan
(Add) (= ISBN 3-447-02002-4 ISBN-13 978-3-447-02002-2) definitions
of the triliteral verbal root B-H-A/W (بهو
and بها)
forms I III and VI including the verbal noun bahā' =
بهاء
and seven or so other
derivatives occupy just over twenty lines of the right-hand column
on page 97. The root form and transliteration are set down
as follows then the meaning of the verbal forms III and VI:
"(بها
(بهو
bahā
u, bahuwa u and بهى
bahiya
a بهاء
(bahā') to be beautiful.
III [3rd form= ] to
vie, compete ( ب
, with someone in something.. ADD HERE
It can be deduced that Has Wehr
(Milton Cowan) understood form III of the root
B-H-A/W
(which has an alif after the initial consonant, hence ADD) has meanings revolving around engaging in competing, exhibiting
personal pride and the act of boasting. Form VI has very similar
senses.
In the most recent (5th?) edition
of this dictionary published in Arabic-German only in 1995..
-
A
Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. Otto Harrassowitz, Publisher,
Weisbaden, 4th Edition, 1979, 1301 pages,
1.1 Mīrzā Ḥusayn
`Alī Nūrī and بهاء the title (Jinab-i)
Bahā' and Bahā’-Allāh.
It
was at the 1848 Bābī conference of Badasht (in Khurāsān, Irān) that
Mīrzā Ḥusayn `Alī Nūrī (1817-1892), the founder of the Bahā'ī religion
and a one-time leading Bābī, bestowed upon each of the 81 (=9X9)
participants, a new name. He himself, to quote the Tārīkh-i Zarandī (=
the History of Mullā Muhammad [=Nabīl] Zarandī, d. 1308/ 1892), known in
its partial translation (by Shoghi Effendi) asThe Dawn-Breakers, "was
henceforth designated by the name of Bahā" (Dawnbreakers, 211).
Bahā’-Allāh thus, from very early on (1848 or earlier ), whilst
outwardly a leading Bābī or to some a Sufi dervish sometimes used the
epithet or title (Jināb-i-) بهاء (His
eminence) Bahā' as a personal designation or proper name. It shall be
illustrated below that the word bahā’ was a term of considerable
importance in Islamic and Bābī literatures. On occasion it occurred in
contexts which had, or came to be interpreted as having, prophetic,
messianic, import.
Using Sufi language in the eighth or ninth couplet of his very early
revelation, the nineteen couplet Rashḥ-i `amā' ("The Sprinkling of the
Divine Cloud", Tehran late 1852 CE), Bahā’-Allāh probably alludes to his
power of revelation when he states that a "cup of honey" poureth forth
out of the "vermilion lips of Bahā'" (cf. couplets 10 [11] & 18 [19],
Mā'idih 4:184-6). Again, in the early Lawḥ-i kull al-ta`ām
("Tablet of All Food" c. 1853/4) he refers to the "fire of love"
surging in his heart, "in the heart of al-Bahā'"; and also to the "dove
of sorrow" in the "breast of al-Bahā'" (see Mā'idih 4:265f).
In hundreds of subsequent Tablets, whether communicated in Ottoman Iraq,
Turkey or Palestine, there occurs the use of Bahā' as a proper name. In
the "Fire Tablet" (Qad [Lawḥ]-i Iḥtarāq al-mukhlisūn (c. 1870), for
example, we read:
"Bahā is
drowning in a sea of tribulation: Where is the Ark of Thy salvation,
O Saviour of the worlds?" (A Selection of Bahā'ī Prayers.. 99).
It is thus
that In certain of his letters Shoghi Effendi the Guardian of the Bahā’ī
religion indicated that the "Arabic term Bahā" is "the name of
Bahā’-Allāh" (Directives, No. 86 p. 33).
Bahā’-Allāh taught that he came in the station of divinity and
represented the Godhead in the worlds of creation. The word he used to
designate his divine Logos, Reality, huwiyya (Ipseity, Identity) or
"Logos-Self" (Ar. nafs) was the Arabic word bahā'. In the following
letter, Shoghi Effendi summed up the theological significance of the
word Bahā', "By Greatest Name [= Bahā / Bahā’-Allāh] is meant that
Bahā’-Allāh has appeared in God's Greatest Name, in other words, that He
is the Supreme Manifestation of God." (cited Lights, 1551).
Various derivatives of bahā, it should be noted at this stage, are
significant in Bābī-Bahā'ī scripture. The superlative form of bahā'
("[radiant] splendour/glory") is abhā, signifying `most' or
`all-glorious' and a title of Bahā’-Allāh (God Passes By, 97) -- in
Bahā'ī texts this word is often linked with the term "Kingdom" and can
be indicative of the spiritual world, the realms of the afterlife.
Bahīyyih ("Beautiful", "Luminous", "Radiant", "Splendid") is a feminine
noun derived from the same root letters as bahā' (see below). It, among
other things, was the title given to Bahā’-Allāh's daughter Fāṭima,
Bahīyyih Khānūm, (1846-1932 CE).
The
laqab or honorific title adopted by Mīrzā Ḥusayn `Alī Nūrī was
بهاء bahā’ or
جناب بهاء
= Jināb-i
Bahā’ meaning `His eminence the [Divine] Glory-Splendour’. In later
years especially in alwāḥ (scriptural Tablets) of the mid. to late
Acre (=`Akkā’) or West Galilean period (1868-1892 CE), this title was
more fully theologically was expressed as بهاء
الله
Bahā’-Allāh, the Glory-Beauty-Splendor of God [4] This latter
title follows an early Islamic pattern. Grammatically, it is a genitive
construction made up of the two closely linked words, [1]
بهاء
= bahā' and [2]
الله
= Allāh. = God [5] It thus signifies "The Glory-Beauty or Splendour of
God". Its pattern is just the same as such phrases as Ḍiyā'-Allāh (=
"the Radiance of God") and Dhikr-Allāh (= "The Remembrance of God")
which can also be personal names adopoted in the Middle East and
elsewhere. In a certain sense, moreover, Bahā’-Allāh is a double
greatest name. A good many Islamic writers follow traditions in which
the designation of God, الله Allāh is reckoned the greatest name.
Bahā’-Allāh himself, at one point in his Tafsīr ḥurūfāt al-muqaṭṭa`ah
("Commentary on the Disconnected Letters [of the Qur'ān]" c. 1857?),
explains the letter "A" (alif; the first of the qur'ānic disconnected
letters) relative to its being the herald of the greatest name, Allāh (Mā'idih,
4:67).
For Bahā'īs the word بهاء Bahā' is an
extremely powerful and theologically significant word. As a proper name
it designates the one they consider God's Universal Manifestation (maẓhar-i
kulliyya). In this new age it refers to the nafs, the "Logos-Self" of
God. In esoteric and poetical writings it is said to have been
communicated in secret to Moses on the mystic Sinai. According to
tradition partial knowledge of this Mightiest Name of God bestowed
supernatural, miraculous powers upon the prophets and Messengers of
Israel and upon other ancient sages. For Bahā’īs it is the name of the
"Father" who is the spiritual "return" of Christ. By virtue of its
power, Bahā'-Allāh has intimated, Christ, the "Son", was raised from the
"dead", the "body" of his religion revived and revitalized.
The word بهاء
in
the sacred literatures and prophetology of the Pre-Islamic era..
Following various statements of Bahā’-Allah and `Abd al-Bahā’
Bahā’ī apologists have found many intimations of the person and title of
bahā’/ Bahā’-Allāh or cognates in various world scriptural languages, in
Islamic and pre-Islamic sacred writings; including, for example, various
books of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament as well as
associated Israelite-Abrahamic literatures. Allusions to the person and
titles of Bahā’-Allāh have likewise been foiund in Hindu, Zoroastrian
and Buddhist scriptures and related sacred literatures.
The alpha-beta
(= “A”-“B”) logion in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
The child Jesus,
the basmalah and the letter “B” as
Bahā’-Allāh.
The child
Jesus, the Alphabet and the Basmala in the Abrahamic and Babi-Bahā'i
religions
See:
http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/03-Biblical-islam-BBst/Jesus-ABC-Basmala.htm
Islamic
accounts of Jesus' first day at school and his expounding the basmala
A
well-known and much cited Islamic tradition ascribed to the prophet
Muhammad himself has it that Jesus interpreted the letter “B” (ب )
meaning "In" of the basmalah (= بسم
الله الرحمن الرحيم
“ In the Name
of God the Merciful, the Compassionate”) as indicating Bahā’-Allāh.
Both these words, "In" and "the Glory of God" commence with the
letter "B". Various Islamic Tafsīr (exegetical) writings and
Qiṣaṣ al-anbiya (Stories of the Prophets) literatures containing
ḥadīth traditions and other Islamic materials record versions
of the story of Jesus and the schoolteacher in which the young Jesus
expounds the letter ب
“B” at the
beginning of the basmalah as indicating Bahā’-Allāh, ( = the Glory-Splendour-Beauty
of God).
The Tafsir of
Muhammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/922).
One of the
most important early Sunnī Tafsīr works containing this tradition is
the massive and highly important Tafsir or Qur’ān Commentary entitled
Jāmi’ al-bayān ‘an ta‘wīl āy al-Qur ‘ān, (The Comprehensive Exposition
of the interprertation of the verses of the Qur’ān) of Abū Ja‘far
Muhammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/922). In the course of
commenting on the بسم
bism ([first letter
= b] ═ “In the Name of”) of the basmala of the Sūrat al-fatiḥah
(Surah of the Opening = Q.1) the following tradition is related through
following a long list of authorities ending with Abī Sa`īd relating a
tradition from the Prophet Muhammad himself:
حدثنا به إسماعيـل بن
الفضل، قال: حدثنا إبراهيـم بن العلاء بن الضحاك، قال:
حدثنا إسماعيـل بن عياش، عن إسماعيـل بن يحيى عن ابن أبـي
ملـيكة، عمن حدثه عن ابن مسعود، ومسعر بن كدام، عن عطية،
عن أبـي سعيد، قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم:
" إن عِيسى ابْنَ
مَرْيَـمَ أسْلَـمَتْهُ أُمُّهُ إلـى الكُتَّابِ
لِـيُعَلِّـمَهُ، فَقالَ لَهُ الـمُعَلِّـمُ: اكْتُبْ
بِسْمِ فَقَالَ له عِيسَى: وَما بِسْمِ؟ فَقالَ لَهُ
الـمُعَلِّـمُ: ما أدْرِي فَقالَ عِيسىَ: البـاءُ: بَهاءُ
اللَّهِ، وَالسِّينُ: سَناؤُهُ، وَالـمِيـمُ:
مَـمْلَكَتُهُ "
"He said, the
Messenger of God [Muhammad] said, `Jesus, the Son of Mary
was taken by his mother [Mary] unto the Teacher (al-kuttāb)
that he [the teacher] might instruct him [Jesus]. So
he [the teacher] said to him, `Read bism [“In the Name]!’.
Jesus replied to him and said, `And what is bism ?’ The
Teacher replied to him and said, `I do not know’. So Jesus
said, `The [first letter] “b” (al-bā’) is Bahā’-Allāh ( the
Splendour of God); the [second letter] “s” (al-sīn) is
His Radiance (sanā’) and the [third letter] “m” (al-mīm) is
His sovereignty (mamlakat)... "
Having cited
this prophetic tradition al-Ṭabarī dismissively writes the following
lines in which he expresses some doubts about its veracity, fearing
that it is something "erroneous" (ghalat an) transmitted
from the unreliable narrators (muḥaddith); he fears that it is an
erronous hadith expounding the first letters of the basmala
(B-S-M) after the manner of what is known by the originator of the
Sabeans (!) about the`Book of the Letters of Abjad' ....
فأخشى أن يكون غلطاً من الـمـحدث،
وأن يكون أراد: «ب س م»، علـى سبـيـل ما يعلـم الـمبتدى من الصبـيان
فـي الكتاب حروفَ أبـي جاد. فغلط بذلك، فوصله فقال: «بسم» لأنه لا معنى
لهذا التأويـل إذا تُلـي «بسم الله الرحمن الرحيـم» علـى ما يتلوه
القارىء فـي كتاب الله، لاستـحالة معناه عن الـمفهوم به عند جميع
ADD TRANSLATION
The 6th Imam, Ja`far al-Ṣādiq (d. c. 765 CE) and Jesus’ exposition of
the بسم (bism) of the basmala. Worth noting at this point is the
fact that in Shī`ī literatures it is often the sixth Shī'ī Imām, Ja`far
al-Ṣādiq (d.765 CE) who states that the child Jesus, explained the first
letter, the letter "B" of the basmala to his bewildered schoolteacher,
in terms of "The letter "B" signifiying Bahā’-Allāh". One of the most
important early Shi`i Qur'an Commentaries is the Tafsir of Abi al-Ḥasan
`Alī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qummi (d. / ). In its comments on the basmalah (of
Q. 1:1a) following a long and complex isnad (see below) tracing the
hadith back though a certain Abi Baṣīr it is stated that Ja`far al-Ṣādiq
said:
اقول تفسير "بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم" حدثنى(1) ابوالفضل العباس بن محمد
بن القاسم بن حمزة بن موسى بن جعفر عليه السلام قال حدثنا ابوالحسن علي
بن ابراهيم قال حدثني ابي رحمه الله عن محمد بن ابي عمير عن حماد بن
عيسى عن حريث عن ابي عبدالله (ع) قال حدثنى ابى عن حماد وعبدالرحمان بن
ابى نجران وابن فضال عن علي بن عقبة قال وحدثنى ابى عن النضر بن سويد
واحمد بن محمد بن ابى نصير(2) عن عمرو بن شمر عن جابر عن ابى جعفر (ع)
قال وحدثني ابى عن ابن ابى عمير عن حماد عن الحلبي وهشام ابن سالم وعن
كلثوم بن العدم(3) عن عبدالله بن سنان وعبدالله بن مسكان وعن صفوان
وسيف بن عميرة وابى حمزة الثمالي وعن عبدالله بن جندب والحسين بن خالد
عن ابى الحسن الرضا (ع) قال وحدثني ابى عن حنان وعبدالله بن ميمون
القداح وابان بن عثمان عن عبدالله بن شريك العامري عن مفضل بن عمر وابى
بصير عن ابى جعفر وابى عبدالله (ع) تفسير (بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم) قال
وحدثني ابى عن عمرو بن ابراهيم الراشدي وصالح بن سعيد ويحيى بن ابى
عمير بن عمران الحلبي واسماعيل بن فرار وابي طالب عبدالله بن الصلت عن
علي ابن يحيى عن ابى بصير عن ابى عبدالله (ع) قال سألته عن تفسير بسم
الله الرحمن الرحيم فقال الباء بهاء الله والسين سناء الله والميم ملك
الله والله اله كل شئ والرحمن بجميع خلقه والرحيم بالمؤمنين خاصة وعن
ابن اذينه قال قال ابوعبدالله عليه السلام " بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم "
احق ما اجهر به وهي الآية التي قال الله عزوجل واذا ذكرت ربك في القرآن
وحده ولوا على ادبارهم نفورا.
" I say
regarding the Tafsir of the بسم الله الرحمن
الرحيم
(Bismillah
al-Rahman al-Rahmin (In the Name of God, the Merciful the
Compassionate ...... (long isnad).... [relayed] from Abi Baṣīr from
Abi `Abd-Allah (= Ja`far al-Sadiq), He said, "I asked him about the
Tafsir of the بسم الله الرحمن
الرحيم
(bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahmin) and he [Imam Ja`far al-Sadiq] said,
" The [letter] "B" (bā') is Bahā’-Allāh ("the Glory of
God"), the [letter] "s" (sīn) is Sanā'-Allāh ("the Brightness
of God") while the [letter] "M" (mīm) is the Mulk-Allāh ("the
Dominion of God") and Allāh is [is indicative of] the God of
everything. "The Merciful" الرحمن
is [pertinent to] the totality of His creatures and "the
Compassionate" الرحيم
[pertains to] such as are
specifically believers (al-mu'minīn)...". ADD
Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsā'ī (d. 1826)
on the basmala, B and Bahā' in his Tafsir
Surat al-Tawhid.
The
fountainhead of al-Shaykhiyya (Shaykhism), of the Shaykhi school of
Shi`i Islam (see further below), Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsā'ī (d. 1826) in his
Tafsīr sūrat al-tawhīd (Commentary on the Sūra of the Divine Unity)
quotes Imām Ja`far al-Ṣādiq in exposition of the letters of the
basmala; with an alternative explanation of the letter "M" as majd
(Radiance) which is normally mulk (Dominion, see above)
"I [Shaykh
Ahmad] say that the reality of the Surat al-Tawhid (= Q. 112)
relative to its befitting exposition has many facets such that our
level of knowledge proves incapable of penetrating its depth... it
is relayed from Imam al-Sadiq -- upon him be peace --- that "The
[letter] "B" (al-bā') is Bahā’-Allāh ("the Glory of God"), the
[letter] "s" (al-sīn) is Sanā'-Allāh ("the Brightness of God") and
the [letter] "m" (al-mīm) is the Majd-Allāh ("the Radiance of
God")". It is [normally] relayed [in the tradition] that it [the
letter "m"] is the Mulk-Allāh (Dominion of God) for [in reality]
this corresponds to His (God's) Logos-Self (nafs) for such is indeed
possessed of Bahā'' (Glory...) which is the [reality of the Divine]
Splendor (al-ḍiyā'). And the intention of this is what precipitated
His-its [the Logos-Self's] Genesis (ibtidā') from existence by means
of the Divine Will (min al-wujūd bi-mashiyyatihi). It [the
Logos-Self, etc] is allusive of the Universal Intellect (al-`aql
al-kullī) as is indicated through His [God's]-- exalted be He--
[qur'anic] saying, مَثَلُ نُورِهِ
كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ
"The likeness of His Light
is as [light streaming from] a Niche (mishkat) containing a Lamp
(al-miṣbāḥ), etc." (=Q. 24:35a) as well as what is before it of the
Masters ( ) or of Intellect generated Existence (?) (al-wujud
al-`aqliyya).... ADD (T-Tawhid, 3-4).
`Abdu'l-Bahā' in his Arabic commentary on the Basmala printed in the
compilation Makātib-i ḥadrat-i `Abdu'l-Bahā' (Vol.1:46) [15]) also cites
this tradition from Ja`far al-Ṣādiq.
ADD TEXT HERE
Another
tradition from the sixth
Imam Ja`far al-Sadiq (d. c. 148/765)
is worth citing at
this point:
قال وفيه
الاسم الأعظم، تدعو به كل صباح وهو على حروف المعجم اللهم إني آسألك بالف
الإبتداء بباء البهاء
"And in it is the Mightiest [Greatest]
Name [of God]. Every morning thou should supplicate thereby for it
is in line with the [supplication of the] letters of the alphabet
[as expressed in],
"O my God! I beseech Thee
through the [letter] "A" of الإبتداء
( al-ibtidā' ), the
Genesis, and the [letter] "B" of
البهاء
=( al-bahā') the Splendor-Beauty" .
This
statement highlights the Islamic affirmation of the supreme power of the
Mightiest Name of God
The radiant
Divine Glory motif the Greatest Name: Some intimations and Baha’i
Interpretations of pre-islamic Scripture
The
Arabic word bahā' is not directly or fully contained in pre-Bābī sacred
scripture; not in the Hebrew Bible (tawrat), Greek [Aramaic] Gospel[s]
(injīl) or Arabic Qur'ān. As noted, the noun bahā' is composed of three
or four letters -: [1] "B", [2] "H", [3] "A" and, counting the final
letter hamza, [4] = `. The numerical (abjad) value of bahā' is nine:
2+5+1+1 = 9; a "sacred number" symbolic of perfection as the highest
numerical integer {6} and corresponding to the "First Man", Adam ( "A" =
1 + "D" = 4 + "M" = 40: total = 45 = 1 + 2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ 6+ 7+ 8+ 9).
Similarly, the Bāb corresponds to the "First Woman", "Eve".
These observations seem to have first been made by Bahā' al-Din al-`Amili
(d. Isfahan 1031/1622), known as Shaykh Bahā'i in his Khulasat al-Hisab
("The Quintessence of Calculations") over 400 years ago, was adapted
by `Abd al-Bahā' in his explanation of the deeper, numerological senses of
the words Bāb and Bahā'.
According to certain Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bahā, most notably his well-known
Tablet in explanation of the Greatest Name symbol (which was very probably designed by
`Abdu'l-Bahā himself) addressed to a Bahā'ī resident in Paris (see Ma'idah,
2:100-103), Bahā’-Allāh and the Bāb may be considered the new "Adam"
and "Eve" (respectively). The word Bāb has a numerical (abjad) value of
5. The sum of its integers is 15 : 1+2+3+4+5 = 15. Fifteen is also the
numerical (abjad) value of "Eve" (Arabic, ḥawā). These numerical
statements then, echo those made by Bahā' al-Bahā' al-Dīn al-`Āmilī, Shaykh
Bahā'ī (d. Isfahan 1031/1622) in his famous mathematical treatise
Khulāṣat al-ḥisāb [al-Bahā'iyya] ("Summa of Arithmetic") which includes
some gnostic or esoteric type material (cf. Bausani, 1981: ADD).
The twin Manifestations of God
in this eschatological age are viewed as the "parents" of a new
spiritual humanity. In certain Tablets Bahā’-Allāh indicated His "Self"
by means of the first two letters of the greatest name, Bahā'; that is,
"B" and "H". In the colophon at the close of the Kitāb-i-Īqān, for
example, we read, "Thus hath it been revealed aforetime.. Revealed by
the "Bā" and the "Hā" (trans. Shoghi Effendi, 164). While the earlier
Tablet of the Disconnected Letters also contains such a self-designation
when it refers to this writing as a "Book" from "B" before "H" (Mā'idih
4:52), the fourth line of the Lawḥ-i nāqūs ("Tablet of the Bell", 1863
CE) allludes to it when there is a command to the "Angel of Light"
(malak al-nūr) to blow in the eschatological "Trumpet" (al-ṭūr) in view
of the new theophany in which the letter "H" rides upon a mighty
pre-existent letter "B".
Bahā’-Allāh has stated that
various portions or "letters" of the word Bahā' as the greatest name are
contained in pre-Bābī Holy Books. In past religious dispensations there
was a progressive disclosure of "letters" of various forms or
conceptions of the greatest name. Certain traditions attributed to the
Shī`ī Imāms (rooted in Jewish notions) allocate "letters" of a 73 letter
greatest name to past sages, prophets or Manifestations of God --
reckoning that one of the "letters" remained hidden (73-1=72). In some
lists, Adam received 25 letters, Noah 25, Abraham 8, Moses 4 and Jesus 2
(Majlisī, Biḥār.. 11:68). Certain writings of the Bāb and Bahā’-Allāh
reflect such traditions.
Drawing on Qur'ān 21:78f and
(probably also) those Shī`ī traditions (aḥadīth) which reckon that
certain of the Israelite prophets received a few letters of knowledge or
of the greatest name of God the Bāb, in Qayyūm al-asmā' LIX explains how
David and Solomon were inspired with two letters of the "greatest word"
(kalimat al-akbar) adding that Dhu'l- Nun (= Jonah), Idris (= Enoch),
Ishmael and Dhu'l-Kifl (Job or Ezekiel?) were in darkness until they
testified to the truth of the "point of the Gate" (nuqtat al-bāb) or the
Bab.
In his Tafsīr laylat al-qadr
("Commentary on the Sūra of the `Night of Power'", Qur'ān 97) the Bāb
refers to 3, 4, and 5 portions of one of the forms of the greatest name
existing in the Pentateuch (tawrat), Gospel[s] (injīl) and Qur'ān
(respectively; see INBMC 69:17). Similarly, in a Tablet commenting on
the basmala {8} and first verse of the Qur'ānic Sūra of the Pen (Sūra
68), Bahā’-Allāh mentions that God divulged something (a "letter"/
"word" harf an) of the "Greatest Name" Bahā' in every dispensation. In
the Islamic dispensation, He states, it is alluded to through the letter
"B" (bā'; the first letter of the basmala see below) and in the Gospels
(injīl) through the word Ab (= "Father") -- which, in the Arabic Bible,
contains two of the letters of Bahā' ("A" & "B"). Bahā' is clearly
intimated in Bābī Scripture, the Bayān. It is representative of the Self
(nafs) of God in this, the Bahā'ī dispensation (see INBMC 56:25).
In a Persian Tablet Bahā’-Allāh
states that in past ages the greatest name (Bahā') was hidden in the
"knowledge of God" but recorded or intimated in the scrolls of past
Messengers of God (suhuf al-mursalīn see Iqtidārāt, 275). In one of
the Hidden Words (Kalimāt-i maknūnih, Persian No.77; revealed some five
years prior to his declaration in 1863) Bahā’-Allāh mystically intimated
the manifestation and power of the greatest name, Bahā', (see below)
through the disclosure of its first two letters! (i.e. "Bā" and "Hā").
{9} In hundreds of subsequent Tablets the power and importance of the
word Bahā' is spelled out.
Intimations of
بهاء
Bahā’ in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
The word bahā' seems to have no
precise equivalent or cognate in Biblical Hebrew. Theologically, it is
represented by the Hebrew word kabôd = `radiant glory'. Translated
into Biblical Hebrew the title بهاء الله
= Bahā’-Allāh would be כְּבוד
יְהוָה
=
(Heb.) Kabôd YHWH [`Adonai]. Bahā'-Allāh himself and several early
Bahā’ī apologists found intimations of this title in several verses in
the book of Isaiah. They were thought to predict the manifestation of
the person of Bahā’-Allāh as a theophanic incarnation of the radiance of
the divine "glory". This "gloty" was also thought to be evident in
the believing Bahā'ī follower. There follows the Hebrew (MT), Arabic
(Van Dyck) and English translations (AV = KJV) of Isaiah 40:5 then
Isaiah 60:1,2b and 5 which are cited by Bahā'-Allah himself in this
connection:
וְנִגְלָ֖ה כְּבֹ֣וד יְהוָ֑ה וְרָא֤וּ כָל־בָּשָׂר֙ יַחְדָּ֔ו כִּ֛י פִּ֥י
יְהוָ֖ה דִּבֵּֽר׃
فيعلن
مجد الرب ويراه كل بشر جميعا لان فم الرب تكلم
"And the glory of the Lord (Heb. kabôd YHWH
= Ar. majd al-rabb = Bahā'-Allāh) shall be revealed, and all
flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it" (Isaiah 40:5).
ק֥וּמִי אֹ֖ורִי כִּ֣י בָ֣א אֹורֵ֑ךְ וּכְבֹ֥וד יְהוָ֖ה עָלַ֥יִךְ
זָרָֽח
...
וְעָלַ֙יִךְ֙ יִזְרַ֣ח יְהוָ֔ה וּכְבֹודֹ֖ו עָלַ֥יִךְ יֵרָאֶֽה...
אָ֤ז תִּרְאִי֙ וְנָהַ֔רְתְּ...
"Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the
Lord (kabôd YHWH) has risen upon you ... the Lord (YHWH)
will arise upon you, and his glory (kabôd) will be seen
upon you.. Then shall you see and be radiant..." (Isaiah 60:1,
2b; 5a).
Many
other Biblical texts contain references to the kabôd ("glory") or kabôd
YHWH ("Glory of the Lord"). Probably alluding to Bahā’-Allāh,
Ezekiel described the "Glory of God" in the form of a man (Ezek 1:26;
see also Ezekiel chapters 1, Ch 10 & 43:1ff cf. Daniel 7). [10] Israel
Abrahams (1858-1924), Reader in Rabbinic and Talmudic Literature at
Cambridge University, in the second of his three lectures on The Glory
of God (entitled `Messianic' and delivered in the U.S.A. in the spring
of 1924), among other interesting observations, wrote,
"The expectation that the
divine Glory will be made splendidly manifest with the coming of
the Kingship of God is not only a natural hope, it is also a
solid foundation for optimism." (p.42).
That kabôd
("glory") is of paramount eschatological (`latter day') importance in
the Hebrew Bible prompted Arthur M. Ramsey (1906-1988; Archbishop of
Canterbury, 1961-74, and one-time (regius) professor of Divinity at
Cambridge (and Durham, UK) to write,
"one
day Israel will have the vision of the kabôd of her
God, whether by His dwelling with man upon the stage of history
or by the coming of a new heaven and a new earth bathed in the
light of the divine radiance... No reader of the Old Testament
would believe that there was a coming of the Kingdom and of the
Messianic age which did not include a manifestation of the
glory..." (Ramsey, The Glory.. 18,37).
The theophanic secrets of the Divine Glory (kabôd) have been, and
are, a matter of central importance in Jewish mysticism. So too the
mysteries of the tetragrammaton (`four lettered word', which occurs some
6,823 times in the Hebrew Bible), = YHWH (trans. "Lord"; also loosely
transliterated, "Yahweh", "Jehovah"). It is the personal name of the
Biblical God of Moses. Bahā’-Allāh claimed to be a manifestation of the
God, the Lord Who is YHWH (see Lambden, Sinaitic Mysteries 154f);
the very radiance of His Presence, His divine "Glory". Qabbalistically
speaking or in the light of Jewish mysticism, the first two letters of
the divine name YHWH (the "Y" and the "H") correspond to the first
two letters of the word Bahā' ( the "B" and the "H"). Quite frequent in
the Hebrew Bible is a short form of YHWH composed of its first two
consonants Y and H read Yāh. The well-known exclamation Hallelujah (Heb.
Hallelűyāh) meaning
`Praised be Yāh [God]' uses this abbreviated form of the Divine
Designation. The two letter abbreviated form of Bahā' and this two
letter form of the Hebrew name of God coincide. According to various
mystics the first of their two letters ("Y and "B") were considered the
"Primal Point" from which certain dimensions of existence sprang forth.
[11]
Jewish traditions
have it that in the "last days" the radiant eschatological "glory" of
the (symbolic) "First Man" or `first couple' would be regained (cf. Gen
3:21). The new humanity will, it is predicted in numerous texts, be
"clothed" in the primordial "glory" . This, symbolically speaking, the
`first couple' lost at the time of the "fall". A variety of religious
traditions reckon that primordial conditions will again be experienced in
the new, messianic age of paradise. For Bahá'ís the emergent "new heaven and
earth" is radiant with the "glory" of the divine presence reflected in the
renewed status of the first couple in the new Eden of the age of Paradise
(cf. Lambden, `From Fig-Leaves to Fingernails').
Intimations of
Bahā’ in the New Testament and Christian literatures..
The Arabic
word bahā' obviously does not occur directly in the Greek New Testament.
Its theological equivalent is the Greek word doxa = radiant "glory"
which translates the Hebrew kabôd (in one sense also, radiant "glory").
[12] Some millennial or more old (early medieval, probably
pre-9th century CE?) Christian uses of the word bahā' can be found in
various medieval (or earlier, perhaps pre-Islamic) Arabic writings. In,
for example, Arabic recensions of an originally Syriac work, The Book of
the Cave of Treasures (Me'ârath Gazzę, original Syriac c. 4th
cent. CE?; see Bezold, Die Schatzöhle), ; namely, in the "Book
of the Rolls" (Kitāb al-majāll). [13] This work includes an
account of the story of Adam and Eve. Reference is made to the First
Man's pre-fall "mighty glory" (bahā' al-aīm, Bezold Vol. 2:14);
his "wondrous glory" (al-bahā' al-`ajīb, Gibson, Apocrypha,
6). According to the "Book of the Rolls" the first couple were both
clothed in glory and "splendour" (bahā')" (Gibson, 7). [14]
The Arabic word bahā' is, however, found at certain points in Arabic
versions of the New Testament and in other Arabic writings. A good
example occurs in Revelation 21:23 where John of Patmos predicts,
"And I
saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the
Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon
to shine upon it, for the glory of God (= Bahā’-Allāh) is its
light, and its lamp is the Lamb."
In one of his Tablets to a Jewish Bahā'ī, Bahā’-Allāh cites this verse
in Arabic exactly as it was printed in the London 1858 (1671) edition of
the William Watts Arabic Bible for the Eastern Churches.
It has been noted that Bahā’-Allāh associated the word "Father" with the
"greatest name". Several verses of the Gospels speak of the return of
Christ "in the glory of his Father" (Matt. 16:27 Mark 8:38 cf. Luke
9:26). Both the words "glory" (Greek doxa) and "Father" (Greek patār,
Hebrew Bible 'Ab, Arabic Bible Āb) could be regarded as alluding to the
"Greatest Name" Bahā'. In the New Testament the word "Father" occurs
over 200 times -- as opposed to around 15 times (as 'Ab) for "God"
in the Hebrew Bible. It is found in the two versions of the so-called
`Lord's Prayer' (see Luke 11:3-4 & Matt. 6:9-13). This prayer begins:
"Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come..". The "Father" referred to here is primarily the Godhead but
could also be understood to refer to Bahā’-Allāh Who has ever existed
(in his pre-existent Reality) in the "heaven" of the Will of God. The
"hallowed be thy name" verse might be understood to be an allusion to
the "glory" of the "Greatest Name" Bahā'; to One whose kingdom has been
long awaited by Christians expecting the return of Christ in the glory
of the "Father".
Numerous Christians have written volumes upon the subject of the
multi-faceted Biblical concept of the "Glory"/ the "Glory of God".
Christ's return "in the glory of the Father" has been meditated upon,
prayed for, and variously interpreted for many centuries. Some have
focused upon the mystery of the Biblical "glory" (kabôd / doxa) or
related expressions of the Divine splendour. A somewhat eccentric
Protestant Christian example of this, is the Rev. H. A. Edwards'
pamphlet, The Glory of the Lord, An Investigation into the significance
of the Shekinah [= "Glorious Dwelling"] Presence, the Reasons for its
Withdrawal and the Prophecies Concerning its Future Return. More recent
and much more important volumes have been written which contain valuable
information about the glorious Divine Presence in history and
eschatology; about the Kabôd and the Doxa. Details cannot be gone
into here. It must suffice to quote a few sentences from the entry
DOXA ("Glory") in Rahner and Vorgrimler's (Catholic) Concise
Theological Dictionary,
"In
principle, man has already acquired a share in God's
eschatological [end time] doxa through the
self-communication of God to man which has occurred in Christ
(the bestowal of the Spirit..).. but, under this soteriological
aspect, that doxa is still essentially a hidden
thing, to be revealed only when the sufferings of this age are
over (Rom 18:18)." (Concise, 136).
The Arabic word majd, which can also be translated by (radiant) "glory", is
the word which renders doxa ("glory") in certain Arabic translations of the
New Testament. In the Kitáb-i Íqán and in other Tablets, Bahá'u'lláh quotes
those New Testament verses which predict the return of Christ in "glory"
(doxa) (see Mark 13:26, Matthew 24:30, Luke 21:27 cf. Mark 8:38; Matthew
16:27; Luke 9:26). Here (Greek) doxa ("glory") is usually rendered in Arabic
Bibles by
majd ("glory"). It is thus the case that many
references in Bahá'u'lláh's Tablets to his coming with great "glory" (majd)
allude to his being the return of Christ "in the glory (majd =
doxa) of the Father" (For some details see Lambden, `In
the glory of the Father', unpublished essay).
2.0 The Word
بهاء
, Bahā’ in select Islamic
religious and other literary
texts
The linguistic history,
semantic field and multifarious occurrences of the word bahā' in Arabic
and Persian Islamic literatures have yet to be systematically
researched. It is a word which does not occur in the Qur'ān and is not
among the traditional ninety nine "most beautiful names" of God
(al-asmā' al-ḥusnā ; see Qur'ān 7:179). It is thus considered "hidden".
The Arabic word بهاء,
bahā' was not unknown prior to the advent of Bahā’-Allāh. The
explicit identification of بهاء as the "Greatest Name", however,
despite Islāmic traditions which indicate this, was not widely
recognized. As the secret of the hundredth name of God, Bahā' is often
alluded to in Bahā’-Allāh's Tablets as the "Hidden Name" and the
"Greatest Name".
Du`ā al-Jawshan
al-kabir of the Prophet Muhammad
Tradition, furthermore, has it
that the "Greatest Name" was said to be contained in the Prophet
Muhammad's Du`ā al-Jawshan al-kabār ("Greater Supplication of Jawshan").
In this prayer God is addressed as One possessed of Bahā’ ("Glory" )
(see Qummi Mafātih, 131ff) .
It is likewise reckoned that Imam Ja`far
al-Ṣādiq stated that the "Greatest Name" is contained in the so-called
Du`ā umm Dawud ("Supplication of the Mother of David") towards the
beginning of which we read, "Unto Thee [God] be Bahā’ ("Glory").."
(Qummi , Mafātih, 199).
Rūzbihān Baqlī Shirazi (d.1209)
and a
ḥadith ascribed to the Prophet
An interesting occurrence of the
word bahā’ in association with the rose
is to be found in a prophetic hadith ("tradition") attributed
to Muhammad as cited by the outstanding love-mystic and gnostic, Shaykh
Rūzbihān Baqlī Shirazi (d.1209). In
his
مشرب
الارواح
Mashrab al-arwāḥ ("The Tavern of
Souls") and elsewhere (e.g. Sharḥ-i shaṭṭḥiyyāt
= "Commentary upon the Ecstatic
Locutions") the Prophet Muhammad
reckons the
gul-i surkh ("red rose") a manifestation of
the bahā’-i khudā,
"The Glory-Beauty of God" a phrase could be seen
as a
Persian translation of Bahā'-Allāh :
هرگاه حق بخواهد
كسى را در عشق
مونس خود
قرار دهد ، انوار
بهاء جمال خودرا به او مى نما ياند تا به تمام
بسنديده ها عاشق شود .
پیامبرعليه ا لسلام فرمود : گل سرخ
از
بهاء خدا
است،
هركه می خواهد
بهاء خدا
نظرکند
بايد به گل سرخ
بنگرد
عارف گفت :
ديدن بهاء جا يگاه انس
وانبساط است *
"Whenever
the One True God (ḥaqq)
wishes to adopt someone as his loving intimate,
He
shows that person the lights of the Glory of His
Own Beauty (anwār-i bahā'-i jamāl-i khūd-rā), so that the person
is enraptured with everything beautiful. The Prophet
[Muhammad] said,"The red rose
(gul-i surkh) is
[a token] of God's Glory-Beauty
(az bahā’-i khudā). Whoever wishes to contemplate
the Glory-Beauty of God (bahā'-i khudā), let him behold the
Rose
(gul-i surkh)." The mystic
knower (`ārif) said: "The
vision of the Glory-Beauty [of God] (bahā')
takes place through intimacy (uns)
and interior openness
[delight] (inbisāṭ)"
(trans. Lambden
from Mashrab al-arwāḥ, 262; see
also Henri Corbin,
See Rūzbihān Baqlī, Mashrab
al-arwāḥ ( ed.
Nazif M. Hoca Istanbul, 1974) p.262, Cf. English trans. Nurbaksh, Sufi Symbolism 4:19. See also Rūzbihān Baqlī (ed.
and trans. Henri Corbin), Commentaire.. (Sharḥ-i Shaṭṭḥāt), paragraph
265.Commenting on this tradition in her Mystical Dimensions of Islam..
Annemarie Schimmel, writes, "It was Rūzbihān Baqlī who highlighted the
prophetic tradition according to which Muhammad declared the red rose to
be the manifestation of God's glory ([bahā’'] B 265). He thus gave the
rose loved by poets throughout the world the sanction of religious
experience; his vision of God is a vision of clouds of roses, the divine
presence fulgent as a marvelous red rose. Since this flower reveals
divine beauty and glory most perfectly, the nightingale, symbol of the
longing soul, is once and forever bound to love it and the numberless
roses and nightingales in Persian and Turkish poetry take on, wittingly
or unwittingly, this metaphysical connotation of soul-bird and divine
rose." (p.299).
The Du`a
al-ḥujub ("The Supplication of the Veils")
cited
in the Muhaj al-da`wāt..
("Lifeblood of the Supplications") of Ibn Tāwūs
(d. 1266 CE)
The Muhaj al-da`wāt.. ("Lifeblood
of the Supplications...") is a
compilation of prayers attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and the
Twelver Imams compiled by Radi al-Din ibn Tāwūs
(1193-1266 CE). Within it is an Arabic prayer attributed to the Prophet
Muhammad which came to be entitled Du`a al-ḥujub ("The Supplication of
the Veils").
It contains the following line which associates the
word bahā’ with the Sinaitic theophany
واسألك
بالاسماء التې تجيلت بها للكليم (موسى) على الجبل العظيم فلما
بدا شعاع نورالحجب
من
بهاء
العظمة خرت الجبال متدكدكة لعظمتك و جلالك و هيبتك و
خوفا من
سطوتك راهبة منك فلا اله إلا انت فلا اله إلا انت
فلا اله إلا انت
*
"I
beseech Thee [God] by the Names (al-asmā')
through which Thou didst manifest Thy glory (tajallayta)
before the Speaker (al-kalām, Moses) upon the mighty mountain
[Sinai]. So when
radiant beams were generated from
the Light of the Veils [of Light hiding
the Divinity] through
the Bahā’ ("Splendour")
of
the Divine Grandeur (al-`azimat) the mountain was
levelled in pieces, before, that is, Thy Grandeur, Thy
Magnitude (jalāl) and Thy Awesome Tremendum (haiba). And such was out of fear
before Thy Gravitas (saṭwat) which exudes dreadful terror from
Thee. There is indeed no God save Thee. Indeed there is no God
save Thee. Indeed there is no God save Thee." (cf. Qur'ān 7:143).
Bahā’u'llāh, it will be recalled, mystically identified himself with the
Divine Being Who conversed with Moses on the Sinai of inner realization.
Relative to Bābī-Bahā’ī scripture the use of the word
Bahā’
("splendour/glory") here for the divine theophany upon Sinai, is
prophetically significant (see below). It is of interest that in one of
his writings the Bāb identified the "Greatest Name" with the Divine
Reality which appeared to Moses on Sinai (INBA. MS 6003C 173-188).
Indeed, in his Qayyum all-asmā sura 77 he also reckoned the
vehicle of this Divine manifestation the "Light of Bahā’" (cf.
below).
2.1 The word Bahā’
in select traditions of the twelver Shi`i Imams.
ADD HERE
The Khuṭba al-ṭutuniyīya (The
Sermon of the Gulf)
ascribed to Imam `Ali (40/661).
A variety of Bābī and Bahā'ī
scriptural sources have been influenced by an Arabic oration attributed
to Imām `Alī (d.656) which is said to have been delivered between Kufah
and Medina and is known as Khutba al-ṭutuniyīya [taṭanjiya] (loosely,
"The Sermon of the Gulf") (cf Lambden, Sinaitic 84-5, 160).
It was very highly regarded and quite frequently cited or alluded to by
the first two Shaykhī leaders and by the Bāb and Bahā’-Allāh. Towards
the end of this
Khutba reference is made to the latter-day sign of the
miraculous transformation of the pebbles [gravel] of Najaf (near Kūfa
in Iraq; the site of the shrine of Imām `Alī) into precious jewels
(jawhar an).
These
treasures, which God will scatter under the feet of the true believers,
will render other precious stones relatively valueless. This
unparalleled sign is associated with the radiant, confirmatory
manifestation of the Divine ḍiyā' ("splendour") and bahā ("glory") (Bursī, Mashāriq, 169).
See Further:
http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/03-Biblical-islam-BBst/TTNJ.HTM
Supplication
of Imam Ḥusayn on the 9th Day of `Arafa...
In the concluding section of a
Du`a ("Supplication") of Imam Ḥusayn (d.61/680) uttered on the
pilgrimage `Day of `Arafa' (9th of Dhu'l‑Hijja (see
Tehrani, al‑Dharia 4:193) as
recorded in (an apparently unique recension) in the Kitāb al‑bilad
al‑amin ("The Book of the Secure Land") of al‑Kaf`ami we read:
"And Thou
[God] made Thyself known to all things such that not a single thing
was left in ignorance of Thee. Thou made Thyself known unto me [Imam
Husayn] in everything such that I visioned Thee outwardly in all
things (fa‑ra'aytuka zahir an li‑kulli shay'). And Thou was One
Apparent unto everything (zahir an li‑kulli shay in; cf. Q. )!
O
the One Who seated Himself through His Mercifulness (istawa
bi‑rahmaniyyatihi) (cf. Q. 20:5; 53:6) such that the [Heavenly]
Throne (al‑arsh) became concealed in His Being (`Essence' ghayb
an fi dhatihi); Thou didst annihilate the traces through the traces
(al‑āthār bi'l‑āthār) and didst obliterate the externalities
(al‑aghyār) by means of the circumferences of the [heavenly] spheres
of the Lights (bi‑muāāt aflāk al‑anwār).
O the One
Who art veiled in the Pavilions of His Throne (surādiqāt al‑`arsh)
beyond the perception of the eyes.
O the One Whose theophany was
realized (tajallā cf. Q. 7:143) through the perfection of His Bahā'
[Splendor-Beauty] (bi‑kamāl bahā'ihi)! Thereby was His Grandeur
(`azamat) established through His being enthroned (min al‑istiwā').
How then can Thou become hidden when thou art One Evident (zāhir
cf. Q. )? Or how can Thou become concealed when Thou art the
Overseer (al‑raqāb al‑zāir)?
Thou indeed art One Powerful over all
things. And praised be unto God in Himself alone" (al‑Qummi,
Mafatih, 343).
The Divine theophany
is here realized bi‑kamāl
bahā'ihi. It takes place through the "perfection"
or fullness of His bahā'
" ("Splendor-Beauty").
Perhaps it is the Sinaitic theophany which is realized through the
perfection of the His divine Bahā' as is also the case in various scriptural
writings of the Bab amd Bahā'-Allah. The Siniatic theophany is associated
with a manifestation of the Bahā' of God.
The Du`ā al-bahā'
("The Supplication of Glory-Beauty") or Ramadan Dawn Prayer (Du`ā
al-saḥar ).
The traditions of the Twelver Shi`i Imams are viewed
positively and often cited by the Bāb and Bahā’u'llāh. Among the
most important occurrences of the word
bahā’ in Shi`i Islāmic literatures is in an Arabic invocatory prayer
attributed to Imam Muhammad al-Bāqir (677-732 CE) the fifth of the
Twelver Shi`i Imams. The eighth Shi`i Imam, `Ali al-Riḍā' (d. 818 CE.),
who transmitted this prayer, reckoned that it contained the "Greatest
Name" of God (al-ism al-a`zam). It is a prayer to be recited at
dawn (Du`ā Sahar), during Ramadan the Muslim month of fasting. The
word bahā or a derivative of the same root occurs five times within it's
opening lines;
دُعاء
البَهَاء
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ
بَهَائِكَ بِأَبْهَاهُ
وَكُلُّ بَهَائِكَ بَهِيٌّ،
اللَّه¡ |
