From: hakim@bigq.enet.dec.com (Kamran Hakim)
Subject: Re: Some more info on the Baha'is (8)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 17:13:34 GMT


Continuation from part 7:

farzin@apollo3d.apollo3.ntt.JP (Farzin Mokhtarian), you write:

>Abbas Afandi was pretending to be a muslim to the last day of his life (real
>meaning of hypocracy!). This is because of what Shoughi Afandi writes in
>his book entitled " God passes by" and I qoute from the persian translation
>which is called "Gharn-e- badi'e", page 318.... " .....hatta dar akhareen jome
>tawaghofe ishaan dar jahan, ba za'fe faravan jehate adaye namze zohr dar
>masjede jame'e shahr hazer gardeedehand...".  

Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha used to visit the mosque which is a place for
worship. Please allow me to present you with the proper quotation of this
event:

"A month before His death (which occurred in the 78th year of His age, 
in the early hours of the 28th of November, 1921) He had referred 
expressly to it in some words of cheer and comfort that He addressed 
to a believer who was mourning the loss of His brother. And about two 
weeks before His passing He had spoken to His faithful gardener in a 
manner that clearly indicated He knew His end to be nigh. "I am so 
fatigued," He observed to him, "the hour is come when I must leave 
everything and take My flight. I am too weary to walk." He added: "It 
was during the closing days of the Blessed Beauty [i.e. Baha'u'llah], 
when I was engaged in gathering together His papers which were strewn 
over the sofa in His writing chamber in Bahji, that He turned to Me 
and said: 'It is of no use to gather them, I must leave them and flee 
away.' I also have finished My work. I can do nothing more. Therefore 
must I leave it, and take My departure." Till the very last day of His 
earthly life 'Abdu'l-Baha continued to shower that same love upon high 
and low alike, to extend that same assistance to the poor and the down-
trodden, and to carry out those same duties in the service of His 
Father's Faith, as had been His wont from the days of His boyhood. On 
the Friday before His passing, despite great fatigue, He attended the 
noonday prayer at the mosque, and distributed afterwards alms, as was 
His custom, among the poor; dictated some Tablets - the last ones He 
revealed -; blessed the marriage of a trusted servant, which He had 
insisted should take place that day; attended the usual meeting of the 
friends in His home; felt feverish the next day, and being unable to 
leave the house on the following Sunday, sent all the believers to the 
tomb of the Bab to attend a feast which a Parsi pilgrim was offering 
on the occasion of the anniversary of the Declaration of the Covenant; 
received with His unfailing courtesy and kindness that same afternoon, 
and despite growing weariness, the Mufti of Haifa, the Mayor and the 
Head of the Police; and inquired that night - the last of His life - 
before He retired after the health of every member of His household, 
of the pilgrims and of the friends of Haifa."
					God Passes By, pages 310-311

>It is interesting to note
>that there is no "Namaze Jamaat" in Bahaii way of life and thus he was
>showing to the muslims that he was a muslim.

It is correct that Baha'i law abrogates congregational prayer, except 
for the prayer for the dead. Your deduction is a representative of your
lack of knowledge and prejudice on this issue. Neither The Bab, nor 
Baha'u'llah, and most certainly Abdu'l-Baha ever claimed to be Muslims.
This is very clear from their Writings.

"In conclusion of this theme, I feel, it should be stated that the 
Revelation identified with Baha'u'llah abrogates unconditionally all 
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
the Dispensations gone before it, upholds uncompromisingly the eternal
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
verities they enshrine, recognizes firmly and absolutely the Divine 
origin of their Authors, preserves inviolate the sanctity of their 
authentic Scriptures, disclaims any intention of lowering the status 
of their Founders or of abating the spiritual ideals they inculcate, 
clarifies and correlates their functions, reaffirms their common, their 
unchangeable and fundamental purpose, reconciles their seemingly 
respective contributions to the gradual unfoldment of one Divine 
Revelation, unhesitatingly acknowledges itself to be but one link in 
the chain of continually progressive Revelations, supplements their 
teachings with such laws and ordinances as conform to the imperative 
needs, and are dictated by the growing receptivity, of a fast evolving 
and constantly changing society, and proclaims its readiness and ability 
to fuse and incorporate the contending sects and factions into which 
they have fallen into a universal Fellowship, functioning within the 
framework, and in accordance with the precepts, of a divinely conceived, 
a world-unifying, a world-redeeming Order. 

A Revelation, hailed as the promise and crowning glory of past ages and
centuries, as the consummation of all the Dispensations within the Adamic
Cycle, inaugurating an era of at least a thousand years' duration, and a 
cycle destined to last no less than five thousand centuries, signalizing 
the end of the Prophetic Era and the beginning of the Era of Fulfillment."
				Shoghi Effendi, "God Passes By", p. 100

Their appearance in the mosque, the place of worshiping God, represents 
Their deep respect for what Muslims had long lost. Once again I quote 
for you Imam Ali's depiction of the EMPTINESS, IGNORANCE and HYPOCRISY 
of the Muslims at the time of the appearance of Mihdi. Look in the mirror 
of Ali's utterance then you might witness the ugly reality of fulfillment 
in the Muslim attitude all around you:

"Verily, a time will come upon you [i.e. Muslims] wherein nothing will 
be more concealed than the truth, nothing more manifest than falsehood, 
and nothing more than lies about God and His Apostle [i.e. Muhammad]. 
The people of that time [i.e the Time  of the End] will possess no 
commodity more difficult to sell than the Book  when it is correctly 
recited, or one more in demand when its passages are misinterpreted. 
There will be throughout all lands nothing  more detested than good 
deeds, or more renowned than evil ones. The reciters of the Qur'an will 
have cast it away, and those who memorize it will have deliberately 
erased it from  their minds. The book and its disciples will, on that 
day, be ostracized and outcast, two friends together on the road, to
whom no one will offer shelter. The Book and its disciples will be, in 
that age, among the people and yet neither among them nor with them. 
For error is incompatible with guidance. 

Even though the Book and its disciples might come together, the people 
would agree to keep separate [i.e. Muslims and the sects of Islam will 
be disunited among themselves.]. They would disperse from the community 
-as if they were the leaders of the Qur'an rather than it being their 
leader. Nothing will remain of it among them save the name; they will 
know nothing of it save its calligraphy and script. Before, they had 
not made an example of the righteous by maiming them, or called their 
sincerity towards God a lie, or  punished good deeds with the penalties 
for crimes. They who preceded you  perished because they  went on hoping 
for too long and their allotted terms  expired. Then the Promised One 
[i.e. Mihdi or the Lord of the Age or the Qa'im] descended, by whom 
excuses are rejected and upon whom repentance has no effect, and with 
whom are the calamity and the affliction." 

			Imam Ali "Nahj-ul-Balagha [The Path of Eloquence]

Ponder on this saying of Imam Ali and attempt to clarify your mind.

						Part 8 of 12
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