The Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n (= KPS) (The Book of the Five Modes [ or Grades]) is a fairly lengthy major work of the Bāb largely written largely in Arabic but with s As is well-known, the Bāb divided his writings into categories, modes, grades or types (sha`n, pl. shu`ūn). He often spoke of a five-fold division (cf. the word Bāb has an abjad numerical value of 5) which, though it sometimes varies a little, often includes the following categories of revealed verses : 

 

 (1) Āyāt = Qur’anic style verses;

 (2) Munājāt = Devotional pieces, prayers, supplications;

 (3) Khuṭbah = Sermons, Orations, Homilies /   or alternatively, Suwar-i `ilmiyya = "Surahs expressive of divine knowledge”;

 (4) Tafāsīr [sing. Tafsīr] = “Commentaries”, and

(5) Fārsī = Persian language revelations.

 

This pentadic (five-fold) configuration is clear from the Persian Bayān and other writings, especially Persian Bayan   III:17;  VI:1 and IX:2. It is on account of this five-fold division of the Bāb’s writings that the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n gets its name. Panj means “five” and sha`n (pl. shu`ūn) means “mode”, “category”, “grade”, etc. The KPS and related works and compilations are sometimes also referred to by the slightly abbreviated Persian equivalent Shu'ūn-i khamsa (= “Five Modes”). Volumes of works with this title can be found in mss. collections of the Bāb's writings existing in the British Museum [Library] ( Or. 5612 and Or. 6680), the Cambridge University Library (Browne Collection) and elsewhere (e.g. BBF.2 etc). It is significant that the Bāb included Persian as one of the specific languages of revelation as, of course, did Baha'u'llah himself. Within Islam the only language of qur'anic revelation is Arabic. Although some foreign language items of vocabulary such as the Persian words firdaws (Paradise) are found in the Qur'an, many if not most Islamic scholars tended to play down the existence and/or importance of such loan words or items of non-Arabic qur'anic vocabulary. It was argued by Muslims in the light of authoritative hadith that Arabic is supreme and that it is the language of God most fit for the revelation of the Word of God. The Bāb and Baha'u'llah added Persian to the Islamic Arabic language of revelation. An Indo-European language (Persian) was added to the Semitic (Arabic) language, rather like the Christian Bible which includes scripture in a Semitic (Hebrew-Aramaic) language (the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh) and an Indo-European language (Greek), the Greek New Testament.  The Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n is a work that the Bāb began writing at a very auspicious time, at the beginning of the Bābī year seven which falls in the spring of the year 1850 CE.  More precisely he commenced this work on the 1st of Bahā’ of the Badī` or Bābī (-Bahā’ī  ) year 7 (= 1850 ) which (in the Christian Gregorian calendar ) corresponds to the 19th of March 1850 CE  (= in the Islamic calendar to the 5th of Jumāda I  in the year 1266 AH). From this date onwards the Bāb wrote five Arabic-Persian grades daily in the name of specific  leading Bābī disciples (to whom specific groups were sent out) until 21st Jumada I (1266), about 4 months before the martyrdom of the Bāb in Tabrīz (NW Iran) on July 9th 1850.  In communicating these daily revelations  for 17 days the result was 17x5 or 85 grades constituting a lengthy book of   over 500 pages. The Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n was thus fairly speedily completed on the 4th of April 1850 or 21 Jumādā 1st 1266 AH, about 4 months before the martyrdom of the Bāb in Tabrīz (NW Iran) on July 9th 1850. Though many unpublished often incomplete mss. of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n are known to exist, no compete critical edition has to date been produced. Important   mss. have not yet been collected together and compared with one another in order to obtain a reliable or critical edition. The Azalī Bābī, only barely semi-critical printed edition dating to the 1960s, is not complete according to the Bāb’s own mss. description of his planned `Book of the Five Grades’. It contains twelve five-fold sections constituting (5 x12 = ) sixty divisions and thus lacks twenty-five grades or modes (5X5) which he apparently actually revealed. Something like a third of the KPS is absent from the Azali printed edition which is in part a pastiche from a variety of mss. The Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n fast became a much beloved compendium of deep at tinmes devotional or Dhikr-type revelations. It is full of richly meditative and rhythmic paragraphs as well as highly evocate theological materials. It is meant to be chanted and heard as well as intellectually experienced, being both meditative and rhapsodic as well as intellectually challenging for the Bābi or Muslim and other readers. The KPS includes many theologically challenging paragraphs as well as bewilderingly complex mystical details. It also messianic contains a large number of cryptic messianic references to the Bābī messiah man yuẓhir-uhu Allāh (Him whom God shall make manifest”). The Possible recepients of the Pentadic Divions of the KPS Several thought not all (?) of the seventeen major pentadic or five-fold sections of the KPS appear to be most centrally related to a particular disciple of the Bāb. This was often someone who held a leading position in the Bābi religion in the period immediately prior its times of writing (1850). The Names of God focused upon in the five-fold sections of the KPS often relate closely to the theological identity of a given Bābī leader as is indicated by the abjad or numerical value of that persons name or title. It is not currently known with any certainty which specific Bābī disciples are alluded or addressed in each of the 17 divisions of the KPS, the identity of only a proportion of them is tentatively known : exactly which persons are allusively indicated is not as yet known or is disputed. The following are among the individuals currently believed to be significant figures focused upon or allusively addressed in the Kitab-i Panj Sha`n with some indication of their identity (where known) and in a few cases a line or two addressed to them:

[1]

Pentad I.  KPS:1ff. Unknown .

بسم الله الاوحد الاوحد  بسم الله الوحد الوحد بسم الله الموجد الموتحد...

  In the Name of God, the Supremely Unique (al-awḥad), the Supremely Unique (al-awḥad)... 

[3]

Pentad III.  KPS: 67ff.

Sayyid Asad (= abjad 65) -Allāh Khū’ī  (d. 1856) through the Name of God Dayyān (= “Judge”, abjad  65).

بسم الله الاءِحد الاءِحد بسم الله الاحد الاحد بالله الله الاحد الاحد لا اله الا هو الاءِحدالاءِحد ...

  In the Name of God, the Supremely One (al-awḥad), the Supremely One (al-awḥad)

In God is God, the One, the One, no God is there except Him, the Supremely One, the Supremely One ,...

[4]

Pentad IV.  KPS:106ff. 

بسم الله الاحيی الاحيی

الله لا اله الا هو الاحيی الاحيی بالله الله الحيی الحيی  لله لا اله الا هو المحيی المحيی

 In the Name of God,the Supremely Alive, the Most Living.God, no God is there except Him, the Supremely Alive, the Most Living.

 In God is God, the Living One the One Alive.God, no God is there except Him, the Enlivener (al-muḥyi), the Regenerator (al-muḥyi).

[5]

Pentad V.  KPS: 138ff.

بسم الله الاقوم الاقوم

بسم الله القوم القوم بالله الله القوم القوم الله لا اله الا هو الاقوم الاقوم ...

[6]

Pentad VI.  KPS: 172ff.

 بسم الله الابهی الابهی

بالله الله البهی البهی الله لا اله الا هو الابهی الابهی  الله لا اله الا هو البهی البهی الله لا اله الا هو المبتهی المبتهی الله لا اله الا هوالمبهی المبهی

الله لا اله الا هو الواحد البهيان ولله بهی بهيان بهاءِ السموات والارض وما بينهما والله بهاءِ باهی بهی

بسم الله الاجلل الاجلل

بالله الله الجلل الجلل الله لا اله الا هو الاجلل الاجلل الله لا اله الا هو الجلل الجلل

In the Name of God, the All-Sublime (al-ajlal), the Most Sublime (al-ajlal).

In God is God, the Illustrious, the Illustrious.

God, no God is there except Him, the All-Sublime (al-ajlal), the Most Sublime (al-ajlal).

God, no God is there except Him, the Illustrious, the Illustrious. (KPS:213)

[8]

Pentad VIII.  KPS: 252ff.

بسم الله الاقدم الاقدم

بسم الله الواحد القدام بسم الله المقدم المقدم بسم الله المقدم المقدم

In the Name of God,

the Most Ancient (al-aqdam), the Most Pre-Existent (al-aqdam) .

In the Name of God the Unique (al-wāḥid) the Foremost (al-quddām) .

In the Name of God the Antecedent (al-muqaddam),  the Uppermost (al-muqaddam)

In the Name of God the Antecedent (al-muqaddam),  the Uppermost (al-muqaddam)...(KPS:327f)

    The persons for whom pentads XI- XVII were dedicated is unknown:

• Pentad XI.    KPS: 365f - Unknown akmal (The Most Perfect)   Pentad XII.  KPS: XXXf - Unknown aḥkam (The Most Regulated)  Pentad XIII.   KPS:XXXf - Unknown aqdar (The Most Mighty)

• Pentad XIV.  KPS: 405f - Unknown al-a`lam (The Most Learned)  Pentad XV.    Unknown ?? Pentad XVI.   Unknown ?? Pentad XVII.  Unknown ??

The Theology of the opening lines of the KPS.

These above opening few lines (heading this abstract)  of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n ( I-1) of the Bāb  commence with a very bold “Day of God”  basmala  (“In the Name of God”) formula in which the qur’ānic personal Name of  God   الله  Allāh -- itself a contraction of the definite article = al (the) + ilāh (Deity) forming Allāh and meaning literally = the God) seems to be twice expressed in the elative or superlative (af`al). This bearing in mind that the word  اله    ilāh  (= a Deity) if  (ungrammatically) made into a superlative (preceded by the a vowel) prefixed (in line with the style of the Bāb) by the definite article. This (quasi-) superlative form thus also indicates Allah or God  as "a Supreme Deity" hence the translation "the Supreme Deity" as representing a'lah (= a + ’ilāh). As it occurs twice here (and elsewhere) I have (loosely) translated “Deity Most Divine” then "Supreme Godhead" or something similar.

These opening words cannot be taken literally as being indicative of a Deity superior to the Ultimate Godhead  but probably expresses the fact that the Godhead has been `transcendentalized' or set even higher in His-Its Ultimate Essence. This in a manner way beyond any claim to divinity made by the Bāb himself. Hence the Bāb is actually highlighting God’s absolute transcendence not claiming anything but distinctly subordinate divinity. Hence his words bi-Allāh Allāh   or "through God is God". The (quasi-) superlative of God is a fitting way for the Bāb to refer to God since he is  representing the Godhead as being utterly transcendent while himself claiming a subordinate or lesser level of divinity. The Transcendent Unknowable God is known through him as the knowable (lesser) Deity or Divinity. The Bāb implies that God the Transcendent or Unknowable and Ultimate Being, is way beyond even Divinity although He-it is known through (the secondary) "Godhead" or divinity of the Manifestation of God (maẓhar-i ilahī) who is the Bāb. As a divine Messenger of God representative of the eschatological Presence of God Himself, the  liqā’-Allāh or "Encounter with God"  on the Day of God (yawm Allāh), it is fitting that the Bāb both associate  himself with and disassociate  himself from the Ultimate Deity. He represents himself only as “God” in a secondary sense and as the Deity through whom the Deity can be known.

For both the Bāb and Bahā’u’llāh all the great Messengers or Manifestations of God can legitimately claim “divinity” by saying something like (Arabic) innanī anā Allāh, oe "I, verily am God" (see Kitāb-i iqan, XX). In saying this they never mean to claim ontological  identity with the absolute Essence (dhāt or dhāt al-dhāt) of the Godhead. The Manifestation of God never becomes the Absolute Godhead  on the level of Essences but only represents the Godhead  on the level of manifestation. Theologically it is  maẓhar (manifestation) not ḥulūl  (incarnation).

God’s transcendence is thus safeguarded in view of the Bāb’s claim to (secondary) Divinity in the opening of the Kitāb-I Panj Sha`n. These kinds of deep theological issues inform many parts of the highly theologically meaningful Kitāb-I Panj Sha`n.  I have only loosely translated this superlative of Allāh (which actually is a contraction of the basically femine al-ilāh  meaning "the God") as  “Deity Most Divine” and “Supreme Deity” though other renderings might also be equally accurate. The references to twin Deities are not intended to be polytheistic but expressive of the Ultimate Deity giving rise to the Deity of His Manifestation. The Divine Oneness (tawḥīd) is maintained in a complex and highly creative and theologically meaningful Arabic. In many of his works the Bāb commenced with a celebration of the sublime transcendence of the Ultimate Godhead. It is of course highly significant that he altered the Muslim basmala  (In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate) formula  by replacing the two words "Merciful" and "Compassionate" with two Arabic the two Arabic superlatives  al-amna`  (the most Inaccessible, ultimately Withdrawn") and  al-aqdas (the Most Sanctified [Holy]): thus, "In the Name of God, the Most Inaccessible, the Most Sanctified".  

MESSIANISM 

 قل الله اله فوق كل ذی الهه

 لن يقدران يمتنع عن اليه الهان ائتلائه من احد لافی السموات ولا فی الارض ولا ما بينهما

 انه كان الاها موءِتلها اليها هذا كتاب من الله الی من يظهره الله علی انه لا اله الا انا الموءِتله الالهان

 واننی انا الله لا اله الا انا

لن يقدر احد ان يحبنی ومن اراد ان يحبنی فليمجدن من يظهره الله

يوم ظهوره فان هذا صراط حق مجتمل جميل اننی انا الله لا اله الا انا

I, verily, I am God, no God is there except Me. It is impossible that anyone should befittingly love me. Thus, whoso desireth that he should love me [the Bāb], let him glorify 'Him whom God shall make manifest' on the Day of his Manifestation (ẓuhūr) for such is indeed the Path of the True One (ṣirat al-ḥaqq) which is Beauteous, Beautiful.  I, verily, am God, no God is there except Me.

        In the above, again (loosely translated) deeply theological extract from the opening page of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n (I/1), the Bābi messiah is associated with the Godhead, the Supreme Deity. When the Bāb composed the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n messianism was very central to his thought. In the second extract also translated above from the opening section of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n, the Bāb asks the reader to show his love for him by glofifying ' Him who God shall make manifest' (KPS I/1). References to the future advent of the Bābī messiah    من   يظهره الله  ‘Him who God shall make manifest’ (man yuẓhiru-hu Allāh)  are scattered throughout the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n as in other latest works such as his Haykal al-Dīn (The Temple of Religion) (1850 CE).

        The Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n very strongly underlines in several paragraphs  the fact that religion will ever be renewed. It is today a central Bābī‑Bahā’ī teaching that future divine messengers (rusul) or maẓhar-i ilāhī  (divine manifestations) will, for many thousands of years, found  and progressively renew  the eternal religion of God (= "Islam"). The Bāb’s claim to be the Shī` ī messiah did not prevent or inhibit his also predicting numerous future messianic advents using the terminology derived from Sufīsm  by referring to man yuẓhiruhu‑Allāh = `Him Whom God shall make manifest’.  The endless advent of this figure seems to be indicated in the following passage from the Kitāb-i Panj  Sha’n : 

.. And after the [Dispensation of the Bayān] it is [the manifestation of]  [1] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  (Him whom God will make manifest).  And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [1] man yuẓhiruhu Allāh [2].  And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [2] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  [3]. And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh,  [3] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [4]  And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  [4] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  [5] And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [5] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  [6] And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  [6]  man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [7].  And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [7] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [8] And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [8] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [9]... (K. Panj: 314‑5, cf. 397).

         The position of the Bāb indicated here is the exact opposite of the Islamic proponents of the doctrine of the finality of prophethood, who hold that divine revelation will terminate in human history. The mention of nine successive theophanies in the passage translated above most likely indicates the endless future appearance of elevated Prophets.

Various  theological, messianic and mystical-esoteric dimensions of the Kitāb-I Panj Sha`n can only be tentatively sketched here, including the nature of references to the Bābī messiah     من يظهره الله ‘Him who God shall make manifest’  (man yuẓhiru-hu Allāh)  and some aspects of such Islamic rooted “sciences” as  jafr  (gematric prognostication; numerological divination), talismans and the Names and Attributes of God. In approaching these subjects it must be borne in mind that some concepts dealt with in the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n of the Bāb may seem strange and obscure.  Such, however, was not at all the case for pious Shi`i Muslims living in Persia (Iran) in early Qajar times and   throughout the Islamic world in various other periods and locations. The Qajar Islamic `universe of discourse' in which the Bab lived and operated as a Messenger of God was in many ways very different from the often non-religious, westernized world of today. This must be appreciated, otherwise subjects like alchemy and talismans are difficult to grasp; even though they were much appreciated and widely studied and practiced in earlier centuries. Indeed, the wearing of talismans and charms of diverse kinds was commonplace in Qajar Iran. In the regions around Shiraz, for example, there were groups of Persian Jews who earned their living making and selling talismans and charms. The Ottoman Sultans had for long worn vests or cloaks  embedded with talismanic designs and symbols in order to keep protected from evil and mindful of matters spiritual (cf. the Talismanic garment above).

        As the promised Shi`i messianic Qa'im, the Bāb's was expected to have a knowledge of numerology and the esoteric sciences. He was was expected to have a mastery all kinds of occult sciences as was claimed by the fountainhead of al-Shaykhiyya (Shaykhism) Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ahsa'i (d. 1826) and others. Like the first twelver Imam `Alī (d. 40/661) who is credited with a mastery of all such inner sciences, the Bab as the `Ali  from Shiraz living in eschatological times had to prove a like knowledge. Yet, in this respect the Bab often made knowledge of amulets talismans and the like, serve another purpose. He often made such devices vehicles of messianic mindfulness, items for focusing upon the imminent new era of messianic "resurrection"' and "justice".