Bahai faith and involvement of Foreign powers (Imperialism )
Sourced from: Bahaism and politics (1)
* Preface: behind the act of politics
From the beginning of the appearance of the Babi and Bahai dispensation, many were of the opinion that the czarina
Abd-ul-baha, the second leader of Bahais, had a very important role in the events of First World War especially in the occupation of
At the time of Shoghi, the third leader of Bahais, and after the establishment of
But, Bahais can not bear this bitter fact and always try to penetrate these relations as usual and in some cases as divine!
About the growth and expansion of Bahai dispensation, there are different points of view. Some people deny it, some emphasize it and some hesitate about it, some response positively and some response negatively. Any how, every body tries to prove the truthfulness of his beliefs.
But really how can we find the truth? How can we recognize it among these decisive partisanships?
I think we can find it only by such a fair research in which justice is observed and prejudice is avoided.
Is Bahai dispensation really originated from colonial countries to follow their goals or it is only a slander made by Muslims to accuse Bahais?
Bahais reject this claim and the first reason they give to get rid of it, is their religious order in which they are prohibited from interference in political issues. But this reason is not convincing because the mere existence of an order in a religion can not be a guaranty to obey it. If so, the Muslims will say that because accusation is illegitimate in their religion, they will never accuse others and therefore all of Bahais certainly are cooperating with colonial countries. In such a case there is no claim and it can be taken into account as a kind of fact.
By means of this logic, neither of the Bahais reasons nor of the Muslims responses is acceptable. So the best way for proving the accuracy or inaccuracy of a historical fact is referring to history and because the historical documents of Muslims are not accepted by Bahais completely, we use Bahai history books. In this case there is no reason for objection or protest.
Fortunately, in our studies we find convincing documents that can be useful for those who seek for the facts.
You can read the texts and judge yourself!
* Introduction
About the relations between Bahais and strangers we prepare two notes and each of them has two acts.
* The first note is named "the footprint of tzar" and is about the relation of Babes and Bahais with czarinas
* The second note is named "the old colonialism" and is about the relations of Bahais with
Both of them will prove the fact that even if the Babi and Bahai dispensation were not the generated by colonialism, they are certainly growing in the heart of strangers and colonizers.
*The first act: the footprint of tzar (1)*
* Escape from Shiraz
When Mirza Ali Mohammad claimed that he is "bab-e-baqiat Allah" i.e. the gate of Qaim Mahdi of Islam, he caused turbulence and unrest in Shiraz and was recalled by government and when was slapped in the face, he desisted from his claim and ascended a pulpit in Vakil mosque in Shiraz and confessed in front of people:
"Damn to the men who call me as the attorney of the Hidden Imam.
Damn to the men who suppose me as the denier of Imamate of Amir-Al Momenin Ali (A.S.) and other Imams.
Damn to the men who called me as the Bab of Imam." (2)
After this confession, Bab was under the surveillance of government. But when cholera was widespread in the city and anarchy prevailed, he found a good situation to escape from
Before entering
* Manochehr khan Gorgi
He was from
* The surprising support
Manochehr khan didn't know Bab but surprisingly, after receiving his letter, ordered the chief mullah of Friday prayers of Esfahan to prepare his house for Bab's settlement and entertainment and also ordered him to send his brother out of the gates of the city to welcome Bab.(4)
Why did Manochehr khan try to respect Bab highly while he didn't have any precedence about him?
Bab was under surveillance of the government of
So really what is the reason for such a support from such a guilty man?
Did they have friendly relationship before these circumstances? No.
Did the high ranking authorities urge the Christian and Georgian governor of
Because Manochehr khan had a Georgian nationality, he surely was attached to
* The hypocritical behavior
When Bab arrived in
After a time because of the request of the mullah, he wrote a commentary on Sourih of Val-asr in Quran. (5) The mullah admired the commentary and informed the governor about it. Manochehr Khan visited Bab and in a meeting where Bab and some religious authorities were present, the governor ordered all of them to prove the prophecy of the holy prophet of Islam (s.a.v.a) for him. The clerics couldn't do that convincingly and only Mirza Ali Mohammad (Bab) wrote a treatise by the name of "the special prophecy" and convinced the governor! Manochehr Khan studied the treatise and converted to Islam (6) and confessed in a loudly voice that he didn't believe in Islam sincerely up to that time. (7)
By this confession, it became obvious that he was a double-faced, liar and intriguing man who had deceived the Qajar government because at those days they never appoint a non-Muslim as governor of a city. he may also pretend this claim to deceive Bab and encourage him falsely and maybe both of these probabilities are correct.
* Disobedience from the king's order
After these events, Manochehr Khan supported Bab obviously and followers of Bab who had come to
When people understood that Bab is supported by the governor, they complained to the king against him and King Mohammad ordered the governor to send Bab to Tehran but Manochehr Khan used a trick to make the public silent and in the mid way sent Bab secretly to his roofed building in Esfahan. (8)
Now, by reading this part of history, some questions come to our mind which we can not find the answers!
-The insistence of governor to protect Bab and his disobedience from the king's order has some meaning. Doesn't it indicate some unusual relations between Bab and the governor of
- can a governor disobey a king's order in such a rude manner without the protection and encouragements of a stranger?
* The deceitful promises
Mirza Ali Mohammad (Bab) was entertained and respected worthily and obviously in the Sun palace (the mentioned governor's roofed building) and Manochehr Khan completed Bab's joy by concluding a marriage between him and a beautiful maiden.(9)
Every night, their friends and sometimes strangers were visiting him in the sun palace, listening to his speech and believing them. (10)
Bab, a cloth seller's son in Shiraz, was living in a glorious palace beside an affluent man and had a beautiful wife and was putting on the best cloth and eating the best food and his followers were visiting him here and now and publicizing his beliefs.
Manochehr Khan also tried a lot to encourage him and gave him futile promises such as follows:
- authorize all of his wealth to him; this was about 40 million frank. (11)
- request the king Mohammad to depose Mirza Aqasi who was the chancellor.
- persuade the king to follow him and expand "the Blessed Cause" in all around the world.
- conclude a marriage between Bab and the king's sister.
- Even he promised Bab to make all the kings of the world to obey him.
- overthrow the clerics and spiritual scholars of
- He also vowed to declare a war against the king of
* The questionable curiosity
Now, I request you to think about these questions:
- To which religion did the Georgian governor want to recall the king Mohammad? If he had converted to Islam at the mentioned meeting by reading Bab`s treatise, what does it mean that he wanted to recall the king to "the Blessed Cause"?
- How can his efforts in making civil war in
- Why did Manochehr Khan promise to conclude a marriage between Bab and the king's sister and for what reason he accepted to pay the spending money of this celebration?
- Did the king submit to the Bab's order in such a silly manner?
- And finally what's the fault of the clerics who were condemned to death?
Remember that
They received another order and sent him to
* The falsely weep
Mirza Ali Mohammad-e-Bab pretended the claim of a special relation with Imam-e-zaman and simultaneously he issued some stimulant commands such as jihad for his followers. These commands generated three civil wars in
The questionable incidents After Bab's execution are as follows:
• The Russian consul attended in his execution compliment in
• He was very upset and shed tears for Bab.(14)
• The next day he came back again while a skillful drawer accompanied him and portrayed executed Bab.(15)
• According to Bahai history, the dead body was stolen by Suleiman Khan-e-Afshar, who was appointed by Mirza Hussein Ali(Baha'u'llah),(16) and then was brought to the silk wearing factory of Ahmad Milani-e-Babi and then brought to Tehran and after a long time (nearly 60 years) it was transferred to Haifa and was buried in a especial place named "Bab's shrine"
Now, these questions will come to our mind:
• Why did the czarina Russia pay a special attention to Bab's execution compliment?
• Why did the Russian consul cry for Bab? Are these falsely tears shed for missing one of the influential agents of the most exalted government?
• Or maybe he was weeping eagerly for making sedition in
• Why was the dead body transferred to the factory of Ahmad-e-Milani who was under the official protection of the czarina Russian government?(17)
*The second act: the trust of Russian government
* The king's assassination
The unsuccessful terror of King Nasser al-din was important for Bahais and its circumstances are expressed in their books.
After Bab's execution and suppress of his followers who were starting civil wars in Mazandaran and Neiriz, they harbored enmity against the king and his chancellor, Amirkabir, and when he was killed, they decided to revenge the king and they planed to terror him.
Although the Bahai historians try to prove the innocence of their leaders especially Bahaullah in this incident but when we pay attention to the following events, it becomes obvious that such an innocence and ignorance is just expressed because they couldn't achieve their goal in this assassination and such a condemnation after failure is usual and indispensable.
Now let's read the story as it is narrated by Nabil in his book:
"…in Lavasan, the exalted Baha'u'llah was informed about the king's assassination. Two lights headed Babis decided to kill the king and when the king was moving to his camp, these two silly young men made an attack to him. One of them was Sadeq Tabrizi and the other was Fathullah Qomi and they attacked the king to take the vengeance of their oppressed coreligionists."
The hidden things in man's heart finally will be obvious in his speech!
As the last sentence of this historical narration indicates this event was not inconsistent with the desire of Bahais and the condemnation is just because of the failure they had.
Let's continue the narration from Nabil history:
"These two young men were very silly because instead of using an efficient weapon, they had used a shotgun which made only a small scratch in the king's body and if they had been appointed by an efficient manager, they would use bullet instead of pellet. And it shows that they did such a coarse action without consultation."
It means the assassination of king is not unpleasant by itself; their dissatisfaction is just because of using a futile pullet instead of a useful bullet!
* A political asylum or a familial party
After the thwarted assassination of king, order of the arrest of Bab's followers such as Mirza Hussein Ali (Bha'u'llah) was issued.
The incidents after the king's terror are very surprising and we narrate them according to the speech of Nabil Zarandi and Shoghi Effendi.
Shoghi Effendi:
"The exalted Baha'u'llah were in Lavasan when the attempt against the king's life occurred, he was the chancellor's guest over there and was informed about this horrible attack in Afje village" (18)
Nabil Zarandi complemented Shoghi's speech:
"The exulted Baha'u'llah decided to go to the king's camp the next day and he was riding to go there. In his way to camp, he went to
Now let's follow the story by Shoghi's narration:
"In Zargande, Mirza Majid who was his sister's husband and was in the employment of the Russian ambassador as a secretor visited Baha'u'llah and invited him to his house which was next to the ambassador's house."
Up to now every thing is usual. after hearing the news of the king's terror, Baha'u'llah is moving from Afje to the king's camp in Niavaran and in the way of Afje to Niavaran, he goes to the house of his sister's husband who is the secretor of the Russian ambassador in Zargande.
* The king's surprise from that party
Now let's read the sequel of the story to find the noteworthy points:
"The servants of Hajj Ali Khan Hajebodole informed him when they were aware of Bahaullah's entrance and Hajebodole informed the king.
The king was very surprised and sent his trusted men to the embassy to arrest Baha'u'llah and brought him to the king."
It is clear that the story is not such a simple one because the king sent his trusted men to the embassy not to the house of the secretor, Mirza Majid, and ordered to arrest Baha'u'llah and bring him under the surveillance of the agents of the government.
* The emperor's sympathetic ambassador
The sequel of the story will surprise us more than before:
"The Russian ambassador refused to submit Baha'u'llah to the king's agents and requested from Blessed Perfection (Bha'u'llah) to go to the chancellor's house and asked the chancellor officially and obviously to protect this precious trust."(20)
"The footprint of tzar" is obvious here and the Russian ambassador disobeyed the king's order rudely and called Bahaullah "a precious trust" in his message and asked for his protection officially. Nabil Zarandi narrated it proudly and added that the Russian ambassador threatened the chancellor also as follows:
"The Russian ambassador refused to submit Bhaullah to the agents of the king and requested Bahaullah to go to the chancellor's house and sent a letter to him and ordered him to entertain Bahaullah and protect him carefully and threatened him that if something happen to Bhaullah, he himself is responsible for the Russian embassy." (21)
If the story was as Bahais try to penetrate and Bahaullah didn't have any role in these circumstances, the king would not insist in his arrest in such a severe manner despite of the ambassador's warning.
* The sympathetic supports of the ambassador
The generous supporting of the Russian ambassador, according to his mission from
"Mirza Agha Khan…refused to help him."(22)
And the end was as Shoghi says:
"When he was arrested, they imprisoned him in a dungeon which was the chest of a bath before that."(23)
But prance Dalguraki didn't complete his mission and even after the arrest of Bahaullah he was trying a lot to achieve his goal. The narration of Nabil is considerable:
"The Russian consul was very careful, he was aware of the Bahaullah's imprisonment so he sent a message to the chancellor and ordered him to search completely about Bahaullah in the presence of representatives of Russian consul and
The Russian ambassador was very persistent in proving Bahaullah's innocence and it is questionable. Maybe he fall in love with "the Blessed Cause" just the same as Motamed'u'doleh who fell in love with Bab!
Nabil Zarandi reported the final decision of
"The government of
The reaction of the Russia Empire to this decision is considerable:
"When the Russian consul heard the news, he requested Bahaullah to go to
We don't know whether his speech is a compliment or it is a real invitation. Maybe he followed a purpose by such a compliment, because finally Bahaullah went to
He is narrating those events in the "Ishraqat"(splendors) as follows:
"This oppressed (Bahaullah) was exiled to
It was glorious for Bahaullah to be accompanied by a representative of Russian ambassador. In this case, the persistent support of
* Appreciating the Russian emperor
Baha'u'llah was aware about the important mission of the Russian ambassador in
"The all-highest Bha'u'llah revealed a tablet and appreciated the emperor Niklavich, the second Alexander, as follows:
One of your ambassadors helped me when I was imprisoned in Tehran and because of this assistance, God will give you a high position which can not be known by anybody except Him."
And he said also:
"when the wronged one, Baha'u'llah, was captured, the ambassador of that generous government tried a lot to release me and the command of my egression was issued several times but some of the religious authorities inhibited the execution of the command but his insistences leaved an impression on them and finally I released so I thanked the exalted emperor who made a generous effort to release me just for the sake of God."(27)
By reading this part of history, it became obvious that the main supporter of Baha'u'llah was the
* The wise judgments
1- It was mentioned that Baha'u'llah was in Lavasan when king Nasser-al-din was assassinated and he decided to go the king's camp in Niavaran and he arrived in Zargande in his way and went to the
2- Nabil and Shoghi stated that Baha'u'llah was going to Zargande to visit his family because his sister's husband was a secretor in the
In addition, the king ordered his trusted men to take him from the embassy not from his sister's house and it indicates that the king knew everything about his refugee in the embassy to escape from his incrimination.
3- The ambassador's refusal to give Baha'u'llah to the king's men proved the claim that there had been a secret relation between Baha'u'llah and the
4- Another question will be emerged in our mind when the ambassador invited Baha'u'llah to
5- After some circumstances and when he was finally obliged to go to
6- Baha'u'llah only appreciated the Russia emperor in his mentioned tablet not any body else and it indicates that the emperor had encouraged the ambassador to do all his efforts to release Baha'ullah from prison so the ambassador's efforts wasn't because of personal reasons such as atoning his daughter as it was mentioned by Bahais.
If it was so, Why did Baha'u'llah grant certain privileges for the emperor which can not be measured by anybody except God?!
Certainly, this kind of devotions and appreciation is a sign of friendly relations between them.
In addition we should be careful about the time interval of these circumstances. Such a friendly relation between Baha'u'llah and the emperor became obvious after the battles of
If we pay attention to this confession, we would find out that these relations were not meaningless:
"The blessed Bahaullah was unique in the world and it should be mentioned that all of his companions in the prison were executed except the blessed Baha'u'llah and he was released. And the efforts of the
So as it was mentioned by Bahais also, the uniqueness of Baha'ullah in the world was because of the fact that all of his companions in the prison were executed for they had a hand in the terror of the king except he which was released by the efforts of the Russia ambassador and later "the blessed beauty" revealed a tablet to thank the emperor and said that God would give him a high position which can not be known by anybody except Him.
* The prayer which was not complied!
Up to now, we learn about the friendly relationship between Baha'u'llah and the Russian ambassador, emperor and government. The other historical event which we want to review is about Bahaulla's son, Abdul-baha (Abbas Effendi). It indicates another kind of divine and spiritual relation between Bahai leaders and
The reference is the previously mentioned Bahai books.
The first
"The friends should pray for the endurance of emperor's life. We should pray for third Alexander to be more glorious and more magnificent. This is the thing that was emphasized in the exalted Tablets which has been sent from the holy land .The summary of the contents is as follows:
This oppressed group (Bahais) should never forget the justice and protection of the Russian government. They should devote permanently for the success of the great emperor and the general". (29)
It proves the trustworthiness of our claim about the relation between Bahai leaders and
Although it should be mention that their prayers for the Russian empire wasn't compiled and it was overthrow after a short time because of the Bolsheviks revolution.
* The summary and the end *
We explain every thing about the open and secret relation of Babi dispensation and Russia Empire according to Bahai references.
Now let's review them:
• Bab was living secretly in the Sun palace when he escaped from
The governor, Motamed-uldoleh, had promised him to authorize all of his wealth to him, to persuade the king to follow him and spread "the Blessed Cause" in all around the world, to conclude a marriage between Bab and the king's sister and Even he promised to overthrow the clerics and spiritual scholars of
• The Russian consul attended in the execution of Bab and wept for him and he came back again the next day with a skillful artist to portray the dead body.
• Bahaullah was accused of having a hand in the king's assassination.
• Bahaullah took a refugee in the
• King Naser-aldin was very surprised when he heard the news about Bahaullah's refugee in
• The king sent his trusted men to the embassy to arrest Bahaullah.
• The Russian ambassador disobeys the king's order decisively and refused to surrender Bahaullah.
• The ambassador requested Bahaullah to go to the chancellor's house.
• The ambassador sent a message to the chancellor to protect Bahaullah as a precious trust of
• The ambassador emphasized that if something happens to Bahaullah, the chancellor is responsible and he should response to
• The ambassador's effort to prevent Bahaullah's execution was beneficial and finally he released from prison and was exiled to
• The Russian ambassador requested Bahaullah to go to
• Finally he went to
• Later on, Bahaullah revealed a tablet and thanked the
• The first
• Bahais were obliged to pray for the endurance of the czarina government of
All of these are among the important reasons which made the Iranians to hate Babi and Bahai dispensation. Iranians knew them as the pets of strangers after 160 years and they never recognize them officially.
Even if they were not generated by the colonizers, they were raised by the assistances of the
It should be taken into account that not only our reasons for discomfit of Bahaism are not based on these things but also we find their discomfit by means of their leaders' inconsistent and anomalous statements.
We believed in this verse of Quran:
"Don't they ponder in Quran? If it was revealed by somebody else except God, It would cause discord and division."(Nesa, 82)
This statement is true about Quran and about every claim. I mean if somebody claims that his speech is divine but he has many contradictions in his statements, it becomes clear that it is not divine and it is not revealed by God.
* * * * * * * *
Footnotes :
1-Tzar is a Slavic word for Russian emperors. It was originated from tzar which is "Kaiser" in German and "qaisar" in Arabic. The last tzar of
2- "The summary of Nabil history", p.131
3- "Al kavakeb Al_dorriah" i.e. the shinning stars, vol. 1, p.104. . This book was authored by 'Abdul Hussein Ayati' surnamed to 'Avare' who is among the famous Bahai teachers and authors and authored this book by the order of 'Abbas Effendi' which was confirmed by him. Later, he gave up Bahais and converted to Islam and wrote "Kashf Al-hial" (or unfolding the deceits) against them
.
4- "Summary of Nabil history", p.190. The original copy of this book is one of the most important history books of Bahais. It was authored by 'Mohammad Zarandy' surnamed to "the great Nabil". It has only one original copy which was approved by Mirza Hussein Ali (Baha-ullah). Shoghi Effendi, the third leader of Bahais, translated it to English and wrote a long preface for it and added some footnoted and then published it under the name of "the Dawn Breakers". This book was translated to Arabic by the order of the national assembly of
5-his claim in this commentary is "Babiat (the gate) of Imam Mahdi (a.s.)"
6-"Qarn-e Badii' or the new age, vol. 1, p.110
7-"the summary of the Nabil history", p.193
8-the summary of Nabil history, p.200
9-"exalted Bahaullah", p.10, authored by "Feizi, Mohammad Ali "." zohor-ul haq" or the appearance of truth, the third part, p.105, authored by "Mazandarani, Fazel". He was one of the famous Bahai writers. (Bab's first wife stayed in
10- "al-kavakeb al-dorrieh" or the shining stars, vol. 1, p.75
11- "Qarne badii" or the new age, vol.1, p.114
12- "The Persian matale-ul anvar" or the summary of Nabil history, p.201 and 202.
"The Arabic matale-ul anvar", p.67
13- " zohor-ul haq" or the appearance of truth, Vol.3, p.93.
14- "al-kavakeb al-dorrieh" or the shinning stars, vol.1, p.248
15- "Qarn-e- badii" or the new age, vol.1, p.257. "zohur-ulhaq" or the appearance of truth, p.25. "Al-kavakeb al-dorrieh", vol.1, p.248
16-"al-kavakeb al-dorrieh" or the shinning stars, vol.1, p.233 and 249
17- "Al-kavakeb al-dorrieh", vol.1, p.249. The people, who were under the protection of
18- "Qarn-e badii", vol.1, p.317
19- "The summary of Nabil history", p.593
20- "Qarn-e badii", vol.1, p.318, 319
21-"the summary of Nabil history", p.593, published in 134 Badi(Bahais established their calendar from 1260 a.h. at the 5th of Jamadi-al-ula when Bab pretended his claim as the Bab of Imam-e-zaman(a.s.).so it means 134 year after the mentioned year.
22- "The summary of Nabil history", p593.
23-" Qarne Badi" or the new age, vol.1, p.230, published in 124 Badi.
24-"The summary of Nabil history", p.611
25-"The summary of Nabil history", p.618
26-"eshraghat", p.103.in p.155, it was mentioned in Arabic.
27- "Qarn-e Badii" or the new age, vol.2, p.48, 49. Published in 125 Badii, vol.2
28- "Al-kavakeb al_dorrieh" or the shining stars, vol.1, p.336
29- " Masabih-e hedayat" or the lamps for guidance by "Soleimani, Azizollah", vol.2, p.282, published by the national polishing committee of bahais.
Sourced from: Bahaism and politics(1)
