After praising God for His blessings and favors and giving salutation upon the
Intermediaries of His grace, the Focal Centers of His inspiration (waḥy)
and the Manifestations of His Grandeur, I shall now expound the fact that
all that the divine books constituting heavenly scripture agree regarding the
supreme matter of the announcement of the glad-tidings that, at a set time and
specified period, there will come about the advent of two Great Ones of
religion, the dawning forth of two Luminaries of the horizon
[heaven] of the Cause of His Holiness the Lord of the Worlds. This shall
be such that the differences [among the peoples] of the world will be
altered and transformed into unity and togetherness, and the conflicting
religious factions and variant religious ideologies, which are the cause of the
devastation of the world and the enslavement of its peoples, will
be changed into a unitative institution and single ideology. .. ADD
And
these two Manifestations [of God] (ẓuhūr) [the Bāb and Bahā'-Allāh] are
represented in the books of the prophets of the children of Israel as the
manifestation of Elias [Elijah] and the Manifestation of God (ẓuhūr Allah,
`divine theophany'). In the Gospels (injīl) also they have been confirmed with
these two names and appear, furthermore, as the return of John the Baptist
(rijat-i yaḥyā) and the parousia [lit. descent] (nuzūl) [second coming'] of
Jesus. In the Qur'ān this matter has been referred to as the theophany of the
Lord (rabb) and manifestation of God and in the [Shī`ī Islamic] tradition
literatures (aḥādīth) they have been referred to as the appearance of the Qā'im
[messianic "Ariser"] and the manifestation [eschatological "return"] of [Imam]
Ḥusayn (d. 661/680). Then in some of the prophetic traditions
[originating with Muhammad] (aḥādīth-i nubuwiyya) they have been represented as
the appearance of the Mahdi ("Guided One") and the [eschatological] descent of
Jesus (nuzūl-i `īsā). To every one possessed of wisdom it is perfectly clear
that the [figure of the aforementioned] Promised One[s] are all
expressions of a single Reality and the sole intended referents of every
designation, "Our explanations are diverse but Thy Beauty remains One".
The Day of the manifestation of these two Most Great Luminaries (nayyir-i a`ẓam)
mentioned in the heavenly Books has been designated the "Day of God" (yawm Allāh)
and the Day of Resurrection" (yawm al-qiyāma), the "Day of Distress" (yawm al-ḥasara)
and the "Day of Recompense" (yawm al-jizā') as well as the "Day of the Kingdom
[of God") (yawm al-malakūt) and the [final] "Hour" (al-sa`at) and more
besides of like nature. This because this "Day" is a great Day and a terrible
Day, when the whole world will be transformed and all things be clothed in a
special new garment; when the wicked will be differentiated from the righteous;
when the heavens of the religions will be wrapped up and the diverse religious
factions be transformed into a united phenomenon. Then will the various braches
of knowledge and higher wisdom, the arts and crafts advance such that war and
contention, by the command of His Holiness the One Independent, the Most High,
will be made to disappear from this world. Nay, rather, the instruments of
warfare will be transformed into the instruments of
These are some of the "signs" of the great [eschatological] "Day" which have
been specified by the Pen of His Holiness....
TO BE CORRECTED AND CONTINUED
