[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'!. 

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        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.

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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,

•  `beauty',

• `excellence',

• `goodliness',

• `divine majesty',

• `radiant `glory', `splendor', `light', `brilliancy' ...  `beauty'...

 

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.

 

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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.

• An English-Arabic lexicon, in which the equivalents for English words and idiomatic sentences are rendered into literary and colloquial Arabic. Beirut : Reprinted by Librairie du Liban, 1967.

Reinhart Pieter Anne Dozy (1820-1883) : Supplément.

• Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes. 2 vols. Leyde: E. J. Brill, 1881.

 

 Régis  Blachère (1900-1973) :Dictionnaire.

• Dictionnaire arabe-français-anglais (langue classique et moderne) Arabic/French/ English dictionary, par Régis Blachère, Moustafa Chouémi et Claude Denizeau. Paris, G.-P. Maisonneuve et Larose. c1964 (?).

 

Dihkhuda, `Ali Akbar (1879-1955).

• Lughat'namah of `Ali Akbar Dihkhuda. Tihran : Danishgah-i Tihran, 1946>

 

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

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        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.

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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.  Hallelûyāh) 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 Gazzê, 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 Bah

ā' [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، اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ بِبَهَائِكَ كُلِّهِ

O my God!

I beseech Thee by Thy Bahā' (Splendor) at its most Splendid (abhā')

for all Thy Splendor (bahā') is truly resplendent (bahiyy).

I, verily, O my God! beseech Thee by the fullness of Thy Splendor (bahā').

Alternatively:

"O my God!

I beseech Thee by thy Bahā ' in its supreme splendour (abhā') for all Thy bahā ' is truly luminous (bahīyy).

 I, verily, O my God,  beseech Thee by the fullness of Thy bahā!"

The first line of the Dawn Prayer of Muhammad al-Baqir (text and trans above) contains no less than five forms derived from the same triliteral root from which the verbal noun bahā' and the superlative abhā (All-Glorious) are derived. Bahā'-Allāh drew attention to this in one of his Tablets.

        This alliterative Arabic prayer continues in like manner, substituting the word bahā' and its derivatives with all the other of the 19 divine Attributes utilized by the Bāb in the Bābī-Bahā'ī calendar -- first set forth in the (Bāb's) Kitāb al-asmā' ("Book of Names" c.1849) and later ratified by Bahā'u'll āh in the Kitāb-i-Aqdas ("Most Holy Book" c. 1873). The scheme of names within it, directly or indirectly, lies behind a good many Bābī-Bahā'ī scriptural uses of bahā' -- frequently, for example, in the Bāb's Kitāb-i-panj sha'n ("The Book of the Five Grades"). It is quoted in the (Persian) Dalā'il-i-Sab`a ("The Seven Proofs" c. 1848/9?) where its first five lines are regarded as an allusion to the Prophet Muhammad and the other "people of the cloak" (ahl al-kisā' see Qur'ā n 33:32; namely,`Ali, Fātima, Hasan and Ḥusayn; see pp. 58-9).

The following passage from the Bāb's writings is closely related to the above quoted Dawn Prayer  and to the Bābī messiah Man yuzhiruhu'llāh  ("Him Whom God shall make manifest" = Bahā’-Allāh);

"The glory of Him Whom God shall manifest is immeasurably above every other glory, and His majesty is far above every other majesty. His beauty excelleth every other embodiment of beauty, and His grandeur immensely exceedeth every other manifestation of grandeur. Every light paleth before the radiance of His light, and every other exponent of mercy falleth short before the tokens of His mercy. Every other perfection is as naught in face of His consummate perfection, and every other display of might is as nothing before His absolute might. His names are superior to all other names. His good‑pleasure taketh precedence over any other expression of good‑pleasure. His pre‑eminent exaltation is far above the reach of every other symbol of exaltation. The splendour of His appearance far surpasseth that of any other appearance. His divine concealment is far more profound than any other conceal ment. His loftiness is immeasurably above every other loftiness. His gracious favour is unequalled by any other evidence of favour. His power transcendeth every power. His sovereignty is invincible in the face of every other sovereignty. His celestial dominion is exalted far above every other dominion. His knowledge pervadeth all created things, and His consummate power extendeth over all beings." (SWB:I57 tr. text 110-111).

 There exists an Arabic prayer of Bahā’-Allāh -- headed "In the name of God, the All-Glorious (al-Abhā)"  -- which opens with reference to the Shī`ī Dawn Prayer,  the first line of which it subsequently quotes. By means of this Dawn Prayer,  God had been supplicated, Bahā’-Allāh meditates, by the tongue of His Messengers (rusul),  beseeched through the "tongues of those who are nigh unto God". All, in fact, were commanded to recite it at dawntimes for it contains the "Greatest Name"  and is a protection against being veiled from that Name (Bahā') which is the "ornament" of God's "Self". (see AQA, Majmū`a-yi munājāt  45-46). [22]

An untitled Tablet of Bahā'-Allāh identifying and celebrating the word Bahā' in the Du`ā al-saḥar with himself as the Greatest Name of God.

 بسمي الذي به اشرق نور البيان من أفق الامكان

يا أيها الناظر الى الوجه والمذكور لدى العرش ا مروز لسان برهان درملكوت  البيان باين كلمه^ء مباركه^ء عليا،  

 ،اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ بَهَائِكَ بِأَبْهَاهُ  وَكُلُّ بَهَائِكَ بَهِيٌّ

هذا اسم الله الاعظم الذي اخبر به حجة الله و برهانه ، لعمري ما ظهر ذكر ولا بيان اصرح من ذلك طوبى، للمنصفين،

 هدا اسم ارتعدت منه فرائص المشركين   واطمئنت به افئدة المقربين، أقبل وقل   الملك والملكوت فى فبضة  قدرة الله و رب العالمين

  الذي لم تمنعه الصفوف ولا اقوى جنود العالم يفعل  ما يشاء ويحكم ما يريد وهو العزيز الحميد.

        In My Name through which the Light of Exposition (nūr al-bayān) hath radiated forth from the Horizon of Possibility (ufq al-imkān).

        O Thou who gazest towards the Countenance and are one mentioned before the Throne! Today  the Tongue of the Proof  in the Kingdom of Exposition (malakūt al-bayān) giveth utterance to this Elevated, Blessed, Word (kalimat-i mubāraka-i `ulyā') :

"O my God! I beseech Thee by Thy Bahā' (Splendor) at its most Splendid (abhā') for all Thy Splendor (bahā') is truly resplendent (bahiyy)..."

This is the Greatest Name of God (ism Allāh al-a`ẓam) which was announced by the proof of God (hujjat Allāh) and His evidence [the messianic Imam]. By My Life! There hath not appeared  either any mention (dhikr) nor any evidence (bayān) more lucid (aṣraḥ) than this. Blessed then be such demand justice (ṭubā li'l-munṣifiyyin)! This is a Name through which the limbs of the unbelievers (farā'iṣ al-mushrikīn) hath been made to quake and whereby the hearts of those who are nigh unto God (afida al-muqarrabīn) hath been made tranqil. So draw ye nigh and say: `The Kingdom and the Kingdom of God (al-mulk wa'l-malakūt) are in the grasp of the power of God, the Lord of all the worlds! He it is whom the [ military] ranks (al-ṣufūf) cannot hold back nor the powers of the hosts of the world (junūd al-`alam) overpower him. He doeth whatsoever He willeth and ordaineth whatsoever He pleaseth for He is One Mighty, Praiseworthy"  (trans. Lambden from Behmardi, ed. La`ali-yi Ḥikmah II:183).

The above cited and translated scriptural Tablet of Baha'-Allah clearly identified the words baha' in the Dawn Prayer with the Mightiest or Greatest Name of God (ism Allāh al-a`ẓam). ADD HERE

        In many of his Arabic and Persian scriptural Tablets (alwāḥ) Bahā’-Allāh  cites or partially cites the opening lines of the Ramadan Du`a al-Sahar often utilizing its terminology in benedictions upon Babi-Bahā'i persons. In an untitled  Persian Tablet  headed  `He is the Powerful,  the Transcendent, the Sanctified, the Exalted, the All-Glorious, a benediction is uttered upon the young Bahā'i martyr Āqā Buzūrg-i Khurasānī (executed 1871 CE) who was entitled Badī` ("Wonderful") in which the slightly modified phrase (the 2nd person suffix and the bi are  omitted)  `alay-hu min kull bahā' abha-hu   ("upon him be all the Bahā' at its Most Splendid (abhā)      

هو المقتدر المتعالی المقدس العلی الابهی

  و اينكه مرقوم داشته بوديد كه در محبت اللّه انفاق جان محبوبتراست يا ذكر حق بحكمت و بيان  لعمراللّه

ان الثانی لخير چه كه بعد از شهادت جناب بديع عليه من كل بهاء ابهاه كل را بحكمت امر فرمودند

Certain passages within his Tablets addressed to the key Bahā'i entitled Samandar , for example,  quote sections of the first line of the Dawn Prayer Referring to Samandar  Baha’u’llah states,

if the substance of this letter were sent to the beloved of the inmost heart of his eminence Samandar, may the fire of divine love be upon him, through all of the Bahā' (Glory) at its Most Splendid (abhā-hu) ...  (Ayat-i bayyinat, No. 152 pp.[318-9], 319)

 Tablet to Mīrzā `Abbās of Astarābād

        In a Persian Tablet to Mīrzā `Abbās of Astarābād sometimes referred to as the Lawḥ ism-i-a`ẓam  ("Tablet of the Greatest Name")  Bahā’-Allāh quotes from the beginning of the above quoted Dawn Prayer  and observes that the  "people of al-Furqān" (= Muslims) have not heeded the fact that the "greatest name" was said to be contained within it; indeed, at its very beginning! (refer Mā'idah, 4: 22-23 cf. ibid, 7:97). For details see:

http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BAHA'-ALLAH/l-%60Abbas%20Astarabadi.htm

 Lawḥ-i ibn-i-Dhi'b  ("The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf",  c. 1891 CE)

     In his last major work the Lawḥ-i ibn-i-Dhi'b  ("The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf"  c. 1891 CE) Bahā’-Allāh refers to the Dawn Prayer.  He exhorts Shaykh Muhammad Taqī Najafī  (d.1914), should he enter the "Crimson Ark" (become a Bahā'ī), to face the "Kaaba of God" (Bahā’-Allāh) and recite the opening line of the Shī'ī Dawn Prayer (cited above). Were this to be carried out, He promises, even the "doors of the Kingdom" would be "flung wide" open before the face of the "son of the Wolf". This anti-Bahā'ī cleric did not read this prayer as directed; he never became a Bahā'ī.

Commentaries on the Dawn Prayer for Ramadan

Among those Muslims who wrote a commentary on this Dawn Prayer but remained both anti-Bābī/Bahā'ī was the third head of the Kirmānī Shaykhis, Ḥājjī Mīrzā Muhammad Karīm Khān Kirmānī (d. 1288 AH/1871 CE). In his Arabic Treatise in Commentary upon the Dawn Prayer   (written 1274 AH/1857 CE) he records the tradition that it contained the "Greatest Name". [23] Karīm Khān equates bahā' in its opening line with the synonym ḥusn (= `beauty, excellence, etc) and goes on to explain that "the bahā' of God (bahā' Allāh) signifies the first of the HERE CORRECT  Khān regarded the Bahā' of God as the primordial cosmological Reality. He was aware of the exegetical traditions and of their linguistic and theological import but remained heedless and antagonistic towards the Bābī and Bahā'ī religions until he passed away in 1871 CE.   

 See further :http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/03-Biblical-islam-BBst/dawnP.htm

     

The following paragraph introduces the Du'a al-saḥār  in Kitāb Zad al-ma'ād: ("Knapsack for the Eschaton") of Muhammad Baqir Majlisī' (d. 1111/1699-1700)

As for the worthy, greatly respected supplication (du'a)[al-saḥār] it has been related that his highness [ the tenth] Imam [`Ali al-] Riḍā [d. 203/818] stated that this is a supplication that his highness [the fourth] Imam Muhammad Bāqir [d. c. 126/743]  would recite in the mornings. He would say that if people knew the greatness ('azimat)  of this supplication before God, the speed with which it would [enable the devotee to] be answered, they would certainly kill each other with swords in order to obtain it  And if I took an oath that the ism Allāh aI-a`ẓam (Mightiest Name of God) is in this prayer, I would be stating the truth.  Thus, when you recite this supplication, recite it with all concentration and humility and keep it hidden from other  than his people [i.e. non-Shi'is]... (Majlisī,  K. Zad,  mss. folio 63b).

The prayer translated above is ascribed to the fifth Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (d. c.126/743). It exists in several versions. and is recited by Shi`i Muslims at dawn times during the fasting month of Ramadan.

        This Du'a al-saḥār was very precious to the Bāb who quoted or re-revealed it numerous times in his Kitab-i Panj Sha`n (Book of the Five Grades) and Kitab al-asmā’ (Book of Names). His naming of the months of the Babi-Bahā'ī year is closely related to the divine attributes found within this and related versions of the Dawn Prayer or Du`a yawm al-mubahilah (Supplication for the Day of Mutual Execration) which begins in an identical fashion.  Bahā'-Allāh several times commented upon the   Du'a al-saḥār   and frequently alluded to it. Certain passages within his Tablets addressed to Samandar (e.g. Ayat-i bayyinat, No. 152 see below), for example,  quote sections of the first line of this prayer . Referring to Samandar in one Tablet Baha’u’llah says,

if the substance of this letter were sent to the beloved of the inmost heart of his eminence Samandar, may the fire of divine love be upon him, through all of the Bahā' (glory) at its most splendid (abha-hu) ... (Ayat-i bayyinat, No. 152 pp.[318-9], 319)

The Du`ā' yawm al-mubāhala ("Supplication for the Day of Mutual Execration").

The Du`ā' yawm al-mubāhala ("Supplication for the Day of Mutual Execration") is a devotional supplication paralleling and closely related to the Du`ā' al-saḥar (Dawn supplication) of Imam Muhammad al-Bāqir (transmitted by Imām Ridā'; see Mafātīḥ 351). Their  opening lines are identical. A version of it is contained in al-Qummī's Mafātīḥ al-jinān ( 351-355).  Therein it is stated that it was transmitted  from Ja`far al-Ṣādiq (marwiyā `an al-Ṣādiq; ibid). The original transcript mss. (naskh) of this supplication contains numerous textual variants; the naskh ("version") of the Shaykh (al-Ṭā'ifa, Muhammad b. Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī, d.460/1067) differing from that of the Sayyid as it exists in his 'Ad`iya asār Ramaḍān (p.237). The version  printed in al-Qummī  follows that of the al-Ṭūsī in his al-Miṣbāḥ : (p.351).  

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ بَهَائِكَ بِأَبْهَاهُ

وَكُلُّ بَهَائِكَ بَهِيٌّ، اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ بِبَهَائِكَ كُلِّهِ

O my God! I beseech Thee by Thy Bahā' ("Beauty-Splendor") in its utmost Glory (abhā') for all Thy Beauty (bahā') is truly brilliant (bahiyy);

I, verily, O my God! beseech Thee by the fullness of Thy splendor (bahā').

See further: http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/03-Biblical-islam-BBst/mubahala.htm

  

Raḍī al-Dīn ibn Ṭāwūs (1193-1266 CE).

         The The Muhaj al-da`wāt.. ("Lifeblood of the Supplications...")  is a compilation of prayers attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and the Twelver Imāms compiled by Raḍī al-Dīn ibn Ṭāwūs (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"). [18] This `Prayer of the Veils' has been transmitted in various recensions by, among others, Muhammad Bāqir Majlisī the compiler of the Shī`ī encyclopedia The Ocean of Lights (Bihār al-Anwār) and Bahā’ al-Din al-`Amili, Shaykh Bahā’ī (see below) who includes it in his Kashkūl or ("The Begging Bowl"). Some Muslim scholars have doubted its authenticity. The fourth leader of the Shaykhis, Hajī Zayn al-`Abidīn Khān Kirmānī (1859-1941 CE) wrote an over 300 page commentary on it in which its authenticity is discussed (see his Sharḥ du`a al-ḥujub, p.6ff.).  The Du`a al-ḥujub contains the following line which associates the word  بهاء   bahā'  with the Sinaitic theophany [19]:

  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). [20] 

        Bahā’-Allāh, 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 Qayyūm al-asmā sūra  LXXVII (77) he also reckoned the vehicle of this Divine manifestation the "Light of Bahā'" (cf. below).

        Tradition, furthermore, has it that Imām Ḥusayn related that the "Greatest Name" was said to be contained in the Prophet Muhammad's Du`ā al-Jawshan al-kabīr ("Greater Supplication of Jawshan").  In this prayer God is addressed as One possessed of bahā' ("Glory"; see Qummī Mafātīh, 131ff) -- it is likewise reckoned that Imām Ja`far al-Ṣādiq had it that the "Greatest Name" is contained in the so-called Du`ā Umm Dawūd ("Supplication of the Mother of David") near the beginning of which we read, "Unto Thee [God] be Bahā' ("Glory").." (Qummī , Mafātīh 199).

The Ramadan Supplication of the Celestial Pavilions

        Possibly based on and echoing the Dawn Prayer of Ramadan is the following spontaneous supererogatory supplication for the month of Ramadan transmitted by Abī `Abd Allāh (Imām Ja`far al-Ṣādiq, d.  ADD) as cited in Majlisi's Biḥār al-anwār from al-Iqbāl of Sayyid Raḍī al-Dīn ibn Tāwūs (589/1193-664/1266),

      "O my God!

I verily, ask Thee by Thy Name which is inscribed in the pavilion of Glory (surādiq al-majd)

and I beseech Thee by Thy Name which is inscribed in the pavilion of Splendour  (surādiq al-bahā'). 

I verily, ask Thee by Thy Name which is inscribed in the pavilion of Grandeur (surādiq al-`azamat) 

and I beseech Thee by Thy Name which is inscribed in the pavilion of radiance (surādiq al-jalāl).

I verily, ask Thee by Thy Name  which is inscribed in the pavilion of Might (surādiq al-`izzat) 

and I beseech Thee by Thy Name which is inscribed in the pavilion of Secrets (surādiq al-sarā'ir)  

which is Foremost (al-sābībq), Paramount (al-fā'iq), Beauteous (al-ḥusn),  and Splendid (al-nayyīr).

And by the Lord of the Eight Archangels (al-malā'ikat al-thamāniyyat)  

and the Lord of the Mighty Celestial Throne (rabb al-`arsh al-`aẓīm)." 

(Cited Majlisī, Bihar al-anwar 2nd ed. 58:43).

Six celestial pavilions surrounding the Divine are spoken about in this supplication relative to specific Divine attributes. They are occasionally mentioned in Bābī-Bahā'ī scripture.  

SOME USES OF THE WORD  بهاء  IN ISLAMIC SOURCES.

01. Islamic book titles incorporating the word bahā' or its derivetives.

Abū Zakariyya' Yaḥyā ibn Ziyād al-Farrā' (d.207/822) and others.

See Sezgin GAS VIII 123-5; Tehrani, Dharī`a IV 298; Kohlberg, A Medieval Muslim Scholar at Work, Ibn Ṭāwūs and his Library (Leiden: Brill, 1992); Carter, CHAL:123ff.

        The word bahā', as well as derivatives from the same Arabic root, are also found in the titles of certain Islāmic books and treatises. There existed, for example, a work about language called Kitāb al-Bahā' ("The Book of Bahā' = Glory-Beauty-Splendour") by the celebrated grammarian Abū Zakariyyā' Yayḥā ibn Ziyād [al-Aqa` al-Daylamī], known as al-Farrā' (d. 207/822). On al-Farrā' see  for example, Carter, `Arabic Grammar'  which is  chapter 8  in the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature (CHAL:123ff.). The Kitāb al-Bahā' is listed in the massive Shī`ī bibliography of Āghā Buzurg al-Tehrānī, al-Dharī`a .. (see vol. 3:157 No. 550). According to the Amal al-āmil fi 'ulamā' Jabal 'Âmil, (ed. al-Sayyid Ahmad al-Husaynî, Baghdad: Maktabat al-Andalus, 1385/1965, 2 vols) of Muhammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ḥurr al-`Āmilī (d. 1104/1694) another Kitāb al-Bahā' was written by a certain Shaykh al-Khalīl ibn Zafr ibn al-Khalīl al-Assadī (ADD/ADD) (vol. 2:111 No. 313).

        The Kitāb al-Bahā'  of al-Farrā'  is listed in the massive Shī`ī bibliography of Āghā Buzurg al-Tehrānī, al-Dharī`a ..  (Vol. 3:157 No. 550) as are  a number of others works whose titles are of interest; including three works entitled Risāla al-bahiyya ("The Luminous Treatise")(see ibid, Nos 587f.). Several Shī`ī writers composed books entitled, al-Anwār al-bahīyya ("The Glorious Lights") (for some details see ibid 3:420-1 Nos. 1661-1662 cf. also ). Examples of the Islamic use of bahīyya ("luminous") are numerous. The  al-Dharī`a of Aqa Buzurg Tehrānī also lists a number of others works whose titles are of interest; including, three works entitled Risāla al-bahīyya ("The Luminous Treatise"). They deal with various subjects (Nos 587f.) as works of Shaykh Ḥusām al-Dīn ibn Jamāl al-Dīn al-Tarīkhī (17th Century CE; on the Islamic Daily Obligatory Prayer); Sayyid Fatīḥ Mīr Muhammad `Abbās and Shaykh Abī `Alī Muhammad Ismā`īl al-Hā'irī al-Sīnā'ī (d. 1216/1801-2) (al-Dharī`a 3:165-6).

        Several Shī`ī writers composed books entitled, The Glorious Lights (al-Anwār al-bahīyya (for some details see ibid 3:420-1 Nos. 1661-1662). Bahā al-Dīn Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Mukhtārī al-Nā'īnī (d. ca. 1140/1727) wrote a commentary on a grammatical work of Shaykh Bahā'ī (see below) entitled, al-Farā'id al-bahīyya fī Sharḥ  al-Fawā'id al-Ṣamadiyya ("The luminous gems in exposition of the `Perpetual Benefits'). Examples of the Islamic use of bahīyya ("luminous") could be greatly multiplied.

        It can also be noted here that the great Sunni Qur'an commentator philosopher and theologian  Muhammad ibn `Umar, Abū al-Su`ud Muhammad ibn, Muhammad Fakhr al-Dīn (d. 606/1209 ) -- author of the Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb al-mushtahir bi'l-Tafsīr al-kabīr wrote an Arabic work entitled al-Barāhin al-Baha'iyya ("The Bahāī-Glorious-Proofs). Bahā’ al-Dīn Muhammad ibn Muhammad Naqshband (718-791 AH = 1318-1391 CE), the founder of the Naqshbandiyya  Sufi order, or one of his disciples composed a litany named after him entitled Awrād-i Bahā'iyya (see art. Algar EI² VII: 934). The Shi`i writer Ḥasan ibn `Alī ibn Muhammad ibn Ḥasan al-Ṭabarī al-Māzandarānī  (d. ADD/ADD)  wrote a book on kalām ("theology") entitled Kāmil-i Bahā'ī which might be translated "The Glorious Perfection" or "Radiant Fulfillment"... (Khuda Baksh Lib. 14. No. 1298). 

 

Abū  al-Ḥasan `Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qummī (d. c. 307/919)

Another early medieval Shi`i Qur'an Commentator  Abū  al-Ḥasan `Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qummī (d. c. 307/919) cited in his Tafsir a tradition in which ther word bahā' if found.

• Tafsīr al-Qummi, ed. al-Sayyid Tayyib al-Musawi al Jaza 'iri, 2 vols. Najaf: Matba'at al-Najaf, 1386/1966..
• Tafsīr =, Tafsīr, ed. Tayyib al-Mūsāwī al-Jazā'irī, 2 vols., Najaf 1387/1967  
• Tafsīr al-Qummi. Edited by al-Sayyid Ţayyib al-Jazā'irī. 2 vols. Qumm: Mu'assasah  Dār al-Kitāb lil-Tibā'ah wa al-Nashr, 1404/1984.
• Beirut 1991
• Rawḥ = Rawḥ al-jinān wa-rūḥ al-janān, 12 vols., Tehran I282-7/ 1962-5; 5 vols., Qumm  n.d.

 

Avicenna (d. 1087 CE) and Yaḥyā Suhrawardī (d.1192 CE)

A Persian work entitled Mi`rāj namah ("The Celestial Ascent") is attributed to both Avicenna (d. 1087 CE) and Yaḥyā Suhrawardī (d.1192 CE), the founder of the Illuminationist (Ishrāqī) school. Within it the Arabic word bahā is associated with the Persian farr (which may also signify radiant "glory"). It is stated that the Prophet Muhammad in a pre-visionary state, "between waking and sleep", recounted that "Suddenly Gabriel the Archangel descended in his own form, of such beauty [bahā], of such sacred glory [farr], of such majesty that all my dwelling was illuminated." The same association of bahā and farr occurs in an angelogical context in a subsequent line towards the end of this account of, and mystical commentary upon, the ascent (mi`rāj) of the Arabian Prophet,

"Over against the valley, I saw an angel in meditation, perfect in Majesty, Glory [farr], and Beauty [bahā]."

This angel is stated to have been named Michael, "the greatest of the Angels." (See Corbin, Avicenna..  Ch.IV: 165ff., esp. p.171 + fn.13 and p.175 + fn.25.)See Henri Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, Ch.IV "The Recital of the Bird" 14. The Celestial Ascent (Mi`rāj-Nāmah) 165ff esp. p.171 + fn.13 and p.175 + fn.25.

Abū Ḥāmid Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Ţusî,  al-Ghazālī ( d. 555 /1111).

        In his al-Maqṣad al-Asnā, fi Sharḥ asmā' Allāh al-ḥusnā ("Commentary upon the Most Beautiful Names of God") the philosopher, theologian and mystic Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazali commenting at one point upon the Divine attribute al-Jalāl (No.42) states

"Everything that is in the world is [expressive of]  Beauty (jamāl), Perfection (kamal) Glory (Bahā') and  Excellence (ḥasan)."

(ed Shehadi, p.127 cf. trans. )

 

 Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī (d. after 520/1126) and his early Persian Tafsīr work the Kashf al-asrār.

        In his lengthy,  ten volume (in the classic printing of the 1950s>)  commentary entitled Kashf al-Asrār, Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī explains Qur'ānic verses in terms of  their (1) literal meaning, (2) historical and doctrinal background and (3) spiritual signifīcance often exposing Sufī  teachings as reflecting the opinions of `Abd-Allāh al-Anṣārī of Herat (396- 1006-1089 CE).  His comments on the spiritual senses of the basmala of the Sūrat al-Fatiha includes some interesting statements oriented around the  (above cited) hadith in which Jesus interprets the "B" of the basnala as signifying the word Bahā'.

        The Third Section on the بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم (Bismillāh al-Raḥman al-Raḥmin (In the Name of God, the Merciful the Compassionate). The [letter] B (al-bā') is bahā'-Allāh and the "s" (al-sīn) is sanā'-Allāh ("The Radiance of God") and the "m" (al-mīm) is mulk-Allāh ("The Dominion of God"). Here there is allusion to the [modes of the] pleasantry  of the Godhead (madhāq-i khudawand) for the gnois of the [letter]  B (al-bā') of the bism-Allāh is allusive of the "Glory-Beauty of the Divine Oneness" (bahā'-i aḥadiyyat) while the  [letter] "s" (al-sīn) is [further allusive of the]  "Radiance of the Divine Perpetuity" (sanā'-i ṣamadiyyat) and the [letter] "m" (al-mīm)  is "The Dominion of the Divinity" (mulk-i ilāhiyyat).

        Alternatively, Bahā' may indicate  [the quality of being] Self-Subsistingness (qayyūmī) while sanā' (Radiance) [the quality of] Enduringness (daymūmī)  and mulk (Dominion),  [the quality of ]  Eternality (sarmadī).

       Again, alternatively Bahā'  may indicate Pre-existence (qadīm), sanā' (Radiance) karīm (Generosity) and mulk (Dominion) [as well as the quality of] `aẓīm (Grandeur).

        Then again  Bahā' may be associated with [the Divine] Jalāl (Glory), sanā' (Radiance), with  [the Divine] Beauty (jamāl) and mulk (Dominion) with [the Divine] Imperishability (bī zawwāl).

         Yet again  Bahā' may be allusive of the attracted heart (dil-i ribā), sanā' (Radiance)  the  augmenting love (mihr-i fazā) and mulk (Dominion) of non-finality (bī fanā').

(Maybudi, Tafsir,  vol.1: 26-27)

•  تفسير كشف الاسرار

• Kashf al-asrār wa`uddat al-abrār [The Unveiling of he Mysteries and the Preparation of the Pious], 10. vols ed. `Alī Asghar Ḥikmat.  Tehran: Intishārāt Dānishgāhī, 1952-1960.*

 

`Alī ibn Ahmad (Muḥyī al-Dīn) al-Būnī (d. 632/ 1225 CE)

 A stunning, and for some Bahā'īs prophetic, occurrence of the word bahā'  in a mystical text, is its use in the work Shams al-ma`ānī  ("The Sun of Mystic Meaning")  of `Alī ibn Ahmad al-Būnī (d.1225 CE) where some words about a Divine theophany associated with Acre in Palestine  are commenting in connection with  "the name Bahā' ("Glory/Splendour"). This passage has been cited and translated into Persian by `Abd al-Hamid Ishraq Khavari from the Istidlaliyya text entitled Dala'il al-`Irfan of the learned Baha'i apologist Hajji Mirza Haydar `Ali Isfahani (d. Acre 1921):

از جمله شيخ بونی در فصل يازده كتاب شمس المعانی در ذيل شرح اسم بهاء ميفرمايد:

... سوف يشرق الله اشراقا من الوجه البهی الابهی باسم البهاء فی اليوم المطلق و يدخل مرج عكا و يتحد علی من علی الارض كلّها

God will cause a radiant sunbeam  (ishrāq ^an) to shine forth from His splendid (al-bahīyy), all-Glorious (al-abhā') Countenance  (al-wajh)  with the name of Bahā'  (bi-ism al-bahā') on the Universal Day  (yawm al-muṭlaq). And He shall enter the meadow [vicinity] (marj)   of Acre (Akkā' in Palestine now Israel) and unite all the peoples of the earth" (cited Ishraq Khavari, Raḥiq-i makhtum 1:365-6)

Much better known than al-Būnī's Shams al-ma`ānī  is his Kitāb Shams al-ma`ārif wa laṭā'if al-awārif ("The Sun of Gnosis and the Subtleties of the ..") which exists in various recensions and has several times been printed.

        Another work of al-Būnī is his his quite lengthy (over 220pp) volume entitled Sharḥ al-jululūtiyya al-kubrā ("Commentary upon the Greatest Reverberating Soundl" [?]) which is printed in the volume Manba` uṣūl al-ḥikma' ("The Fountainhead of the Foundations of Wisdom"; pp. 91-322). This work includes many magic squares and talismans and much on a complex magico-occult level. This text incorporates several graphical and other forms of the Mightiest Name of God associated with Solomon and Imam `Ali (d. 40/661). At one point  there is an incantatory text incorporating a  "mighty mystery" (al-sirr al-`azīm). It takes the form of a rythmic poetical line in which the word بهاء   occurs twice  possibly with the meaning "Beauty-Majesty-Glory" causing the bewilderment or astonishment of the poeple. This text which a loose translated reads as follows:

       * وأبهتت كل العالمين ببهتت بهاء بهاء الهيبت الناس وأبهتت *

 "Let all the worlds be astonished! through an astonishment (bi-bahta) at the Bahā' (Majesty-Beauty-Glory),  the Bahā' (Majesty-Beauty-Glory) of the dreadful awe of the people. So be astonished!" (Manba` uṣūl al-ḥikma', 262).

        Exactly how بهاء بهاء  is to be understood in this magical formula and the wider context is uncertain. One is reminded of Zulaykha's astonishmet at the stunning beauty of Joseph (cf. Q. 12: ADD). It is stated by al-Būnī that after knocking upon his gate or door the above line should be repeated three times by someone who desires to enter into the presence of a Ruling Sovereign (ḥākim). Similar incantatory formulas are given for other specified tasks or to actualize other ends.

`Abu `Abd-Allah Muhammad Ibn al-'Arabī (d. 638/1240), Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn al-`Arabī.

         The Great Shaykh, Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn al-`Arabī (1140-1240), in his magnum opus, the lengthy al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya ("Meccan Revelations (Openings")  which was  partially orally commented upon by Bahā’-Allāh during his two year sojourn in Sulaymāniyya (1854-56) (see GPB: 122), occasionally uses the word bahā'  or a related derivative of the same Arabic root. In, for example, Futūḥāt  chapter 65, on the `Gnosis of Paradise', there is reference to the appearance of God unto certain inmates of Paradise. In the course of a Divine colloquy, mention is made of such as are angelically clothed with  or whose "faces" are radiant with,  bahā' ("glory"), jamāl  ("beauty") and nūr ("light").

ADD Mi`raj rooted references…   

 

`Abd al-Qadir Jīlānī (d.1165 CE),

     In a lengthy prayer (salāt al-kubrā)  contained in the volume entitled  Fuyūḍāt al-Rabbānī  ("Lordly Graces")   ascribed to `Abd al-Qadir Jīlānī (d.1165 CE)the founder of the Qadirī Sufi order, the Prophet Muhammad is called al-nūr al-bahīyy ("the luminous or glorious light")  (Jīlānī, Fuyūḍāt.. 148).

al-Miqdād ibn `Abdu'llāh al-Ḥillī (d.826/1422-3),

     The word bahā' is furthermore, sometimes contained in numerous Islāmic theological, mystical and other literatures. al-Miqdād ibn `Abdu'llāh al-Ḥillī (d.826/1422-3), for example, in the course of discussing the impossibility of an anthropopathic Essence of Divinity -- God's having such emotions as joy and anguish -- in his Irshād al-ṭālibīn ilā nahj al-mustarshidīn ("The Guidance of Seekers unto the Path of Travellers")  writes that the "Necessarily Existent" (wājib al-wujūd  = God) by virtue of His being "the origin of every perfection and the cause of all bahā'  ("glory") and  jamāl   ("beauty") has the perfection of perfections and  the bahā' al-ajmal   ("most beauteous glory")." Furthermore, "all bahā'   ("glory"),  jamāl   ("beauty") perfection (kamāl) and rational good are God's, for He is the Beloved One and the One Adored... the Necessarily Existent is He Who is in the acme of kamāl  ("perfection"), jamāl   ("beauty").

`Abd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (d.c. 832/1428)

The Shī'īte Sufi `Abd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (d.c. 832/1428) in the prolegomenon to his important al-Insān al-kāmil..  ("The Perfect Man..")  refers to God as being clothed in  both "glory and  splendour" (al-majd wa'l-bahā) (see al-Insan vol. 1:4). 

Muhammad ibn Ḥusayn al-Āmilī = Bahā' al-Dīn al-Āmilī (b. Baalbeck c.1547, d. Isfāhān 1622 CE).

        Perhaps the most famous Bahā' al-Dīn was the Safavid theologian, mystagogue and man of letters, Bahā' al-Dīn Muhammad ibn Ḥusayn al-Āmilī  author of around 100 works including a  well-known anthology entitled Kashkūl ("Begging-Bowl"). A one time Shaykh al-Islām of Isfāhān appointed by Shāh `Abbās the Great, he adopted the takhalluṣ (pen-name)   Shaykh Bahā'ī. [25]

         In an untitled Persian Tablet mostly concerned with the exercise of wisdom (hikmat) in proclaiming the Bahā'ī religion and making reference to the supreme martyrdom of Āqā Buzurg Khurasānī known as Badī`  ("Wondrous") who delivered the Tablet of Bahā'-Allāh to Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh, Bahā'-Allah refers to "Shaykh Bahā'ī and his poetry" though he does not seem to alot him any exalted station:

و اينكه در اشعار شيخ بهائی مرقوم داشته بوديد اين عبد شهادت ميدهد كه اسراريكه اليوم در وسط آسمان و زمين كشف شده و آن جناب بر آن مطلع گشته صد هزار مثل شيخ مرحوم وفوق فوق آن بان عارف نبوده و مطلع نگشته چنانچه مشاهده نموده ايد كه علمای اعلام چه اوهاماتی در ظهور قائم مجسّم نموده اند و چه مقدار از اوراق لطيفه ممرّده را بذكر ظنونات لا يسمن لا يغنی سياه نموده اند كتب متعدده در اينمقام نوشتهاند و كلمه از آنرا ادراك ننموده اند

"As to what thou hast registered in the  poems of Shaykh-i Bahā'ī. This servant (`abd = Bahā'-Allah) giveth testimony (shahādat) to the mysteries (asrār)  that are today unveiled throughout  the expanse of the heavens and of the earth, as  realized by that eminent one (ān jināb) [the addressee]!  Indeed, one hundred thousand the like of that late Shaykh [Bahā'i] and many more beyond even that one never did come to realize anything of significance. It is thus the case, as thou have  born witness, that the informed `ulamā'  either entertain imaginary fancies (awhāmāt) regarding the manifestation of the Qā'im or repeatedly produce numerous specious pages (awrāq-i laṭīfah) thus blackening things in refutation [of the Babi-Bahā'i Cause] by mentioning  all manner of fanciful notions (zannunat) that are of no lasting value.  Numerous books have been composed regarding these matters from which nothing touching upon true understanding is generated."

[The above translation is under revision and correction]

Further miscellaneous examples of the use of the word Bahā'

        An example of a non-religious, geographical usage, it may be noted that the noun Bahá' indicates "one of the hamlets of the [minor] district of Shahriyār which is an administrative division of Tehran which one had a population of 194" (Dehkhoda, Lughat Námih, entry Bahá' (p.395 drawing upon a Persian Geographical Dictionary).

The word Bahā' in early Shaykhism (al-Shaykhiyya):

        Treatises on the significance of the "Greatest Name" are also found in the writings of Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsā'ī (d. 1243/1826 CE) and Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī (1259/1843). Regarded as the two most important Muslim harbingers of the Bābī-Bahā'ī Faiths (see GPB:97) Bahā'is find statements propetic of the Babi and Bahā'i religions in their writings and here and there find allusions to the importance of the word bahā' or the person of Bahā'-Allah. The fountainhead of al-Shaykhiyya (Shaykhism), of the Shaykhi school of Shi`i Islam (see further below), Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsā'ī (d. 1826) is believed by Bahā'is to have alluded to the date of the advent of Bahā'Allah in a cryptic use of the qur'anic phrase "after a while" (ba`d al-hin). This in that the abjad numerical value of this (hin) is sixty-eight: H= 8 + Y= 10+ N = 60 totals 68 and after 68 is 69 which is seen as an an allusion to the year 1269 AH. This year corresponds to 1852-3 which is the year in which Bahā'-Allah received his prophetic call in the Siyah Chal ("Black Pit") dungeon in Tehran.   

In the writings of Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Din al-Ahsa'i (d. 1243/1826)

TO BE ADDED

        In his Tafsīr sūrat al-tawhīd (Commentary on the Sūra of the Divine Unity) as noted above,  Shaykh Ahmad  quotes Imām Ja`far al-Ṣādiq in exposition of the letters of the basmala by the child Jesus. He   adds an alternative explanation for its third letter "M" aside from the usual mulk (="Dominion"). It is again said to be something indicative of a radiant phenomenon like Bahā' (splendour) and sana' (Brillliance), namely  majd (Radiance). al-Ahsa'i also continues to comment on the relationship between Bahā' and Ḍiyā' in the Light of the Logos-Self of God and the Genesis of Reality through the Divine Will:

"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-Allah (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 (ibtida') 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) ....   (T-Tawhid, 3-4).  

 

Sayyid Kāẓim Rashti  (d. 1259/1843)

19th centrury lithograph edition of the Sharḥ al-qaṣīda al-lāmiyya of `Abd al-Baqi Afandi [Mawsuli]...

شرح قصيده لاميه عبدالباقى افندى

Sharḥ al-qaṣīda al-lāmiyya `Abd al-Bāqī Effendi [Mawsuli]  

        Sayyid Kāẓim is reckoned by Bahā'īs to have prophetically alluded to the mystery of the word bahā' in the opening cosmological sentence of his recondite commentary on a poem of `Abd al-Bāqī Afandī al-Mawsulī (d. 1278/1861), the Sharḥ  al-qaṣīda al-lāmīya  ("Commentary on the Ode Rhyming in the Letter "L")(cf. Lawson, "Remembrance", 43 fn.6.) The Shaykhi bibliographer and leader Kirmānī in his Fihrist (= No. 149 p. 293) states that the original, 16,000 verse mss. is lost but refers to the old lithograph printing which is presumably the very rare ([Tabriz] n. p., 1270/1853). Sayyid Kazim Rashti, in somewhat cryptic fashion, also mentions the "Point" -- which on one level indicates the essence of the hidden letter "B" (cf. the dot of the Arabic/Persian letter "B") -- is related to the letters "H" and "A". For Bahā'īs these letters, in conjunction, indicate or spell the proper noun and greatest name Bahā'. These opening words in the Qasida al-lamiyya have been referred to, for example, by Bahā’-Allāh in a Tablet to Mullā `Ali Bajistānī (see Mā'ida 8:139)  This work commences (cf the scan above) as follows:  Loosely translated the opening words might be loosely translated, 

"Praise be to God Who hath ornamented the brocade of existence with the mystery of differentiation (sirr al-baynūnat) 

by virtue of the ornament of the emergent Point (irāz al-nuqat al-bāriz) from whence cometh the letter "H" (al-hā') through the letter "A" (bi'l-alif),  without filling up (ishbā`) or segregation (inshiqāq)" (see Sharḥ al-qaṣīda, p. 1 also cited `Abdu'l-Bahā’, Makātib  1:41).

     At a much later section of the Sharḥ  al-qaṣīda   (unpaginated) Sayyid Kāẓim, commenting on the exalted status of Mūsā al-Kāẓim (d.799, the seventh Imām) in connection with the divine "Light" mentioned in the Medinan Qur'ānic  `Light Verse'(24:35), explains that this "Light" is (on one level) synonymous with the  "Radiance" (al-ḍiyā') and the "Glory" (al-bahā). At one point he writes, "the Bahā'   ("glory") is al-Diyā'   ("Radiance")." In reality it is the "Primordial Light" and the "Greatest, Greatest Name" (al-ism al-a`ẓam al-a`ẓam) through which God created the "heavens and the earth" and whatsoever is therein.

 

 

Sayyid Kāẓim on some terms in the  al-Khuṭba al-ṭutunjīya ("The Sermon of the Gulf").

          Also worth noting here is the fact that Sayyid Kāẓim, commenting on a phrase containing the word "splendour" (Diyā') in al-Khuṭba al-ṭutunjīya ("The Sermon of the Gulf"),   attributed to Imām `Alī, identified it with bahā' ("radiant glory") and wrote, "it is the light of lights, the very Light which illuminates the lights". This was alluded to in Jesus' words related by Imām Ja`far al-Ṣādiq, "the "B" (bā') of `In the Name of God the Merciful the Compassionate' (Bismi'llāh al-Ramān al-Rahīm)  which is Bahā’-Allāh (see above). This is the bahā', Sayyid Kāẓim adds, which is mentioned in the opening line of the Shī`ī Dawn Prayer (cited above; refer, Sayyid Kāẓim, Sharḥ
 al-khuṭbat.. 20).

  

Some notes on later Shaykhi leaders and thinkers

 

 

Kirmānī,  Ḥājjī Mīrzā Muhammad Karīm Khān. (d. 1288/ 1871)

• Risāla fī shar

Du`ā 'al-sahar ("Treatise in Commentary upon the Dawn Prayer").   Kirman: Sa`āda, n.d.

This Treatise has been twice printed. Firstly in 1317/ 1899-1900 and secondly in 1351/1932-3. See Kirmānī, Fihirist p.367, No.323.

Among those Muslims who wrote a commentary on this Dawn Prayer but remained both anti-Bābī/Bahā' ī, was the third head of the Kirmānī Shaykhis, Ḥājjī Mīrzā Muhammad Karīm Khān Kirmānī (d. 1288 AH/1871 CE). In his Arabic Treatise in Commentary upon the Dawn Prayer (written 1274 AH/1857 CE) he records the tradition that it contained the "Greatest Name". Karīm Khān equates bahā' in its opening line with the synonym ḥusn (= `beauty, excellence..') and goes on to explain that "the bahā' of God (bahā' Allāh) signifies the first of the tajalliyāt Allāh ("effulgences of God").. higher than which there is nothing else". It is the cause of the emergence of everything other than itself and is "the Essence of Essences". It was by virtue of it that all existence originated for "it is the station of the [first letter] "B" (Bā') of Bismi'llāh.." (Commentary,19).

        Though antagonistic to the person of Bahā’-Allāh, Karīm Khān regarded the Bahā' of God as the primordial cosmological Reality. He was aware of the exegetical traditions and of their linguistic and theological import, but reMa’idihined heedless and antagonistic towards the Bābī and Bahā'ī religions.

 

Kirmānī, Ḥājjī Zayn al-`Abidīn Khān Kirmānī, [5h Kirmani Shaykhi leader] (1276-1360/1859-1942).

Sharḥ du`a al-ḥujub.   Kirmān: al-Sa`āda, n.d.

 

 

Kirmānī, (Shaykh) Āqā Ḥajjī `Abu'l-Qāsim b. Zayn al-`Ābidīn Khān, [6th Kirmani Shaykhī leader] (1314-1389/1896-1969).

• Fihirist kutub mashāyikh `izām.  Kirmān: Sa`ādat, n.d. [1976]

 

---

APPENDIX  1

Gold coin of Bahā' al-Dawlah, Būyid "king in Rayy".

        Here it may be noted that the word the word baha’ 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 Naqshbandiyyah Sufi order was Bahā’ al-Dīn Muhammad Naqshband (d.1391 CE ).

        Perhaps the most famous Bahā’ al-Dīn was the Safavid theologian, mathematician, Sufi mystagogue and man of letters, Bahā’ al-Dīn Muhammad ibn Ḥusayn al-Āmilī  (b. Baalbeck c.1547, d. Isfāhān 1622 CE),  author of around 100 works including a  well-known anthology entitled Kashkūl ("Begging-Bowl"). A one time Shaykh al-Islām of Isfāhān appointed by Shāh `Abbās the Great, he adopted the pen-name (takhallus)   Shaykh Bahā’ī. [25] There exists a Persian mathnawi  mystical poem attributed to him which celebrates and highlights the mystery of the "greatest name". He, for example, has it that the "greatest name" is the Name, by virtue of a sunburst of which, Moses experienced the luminous Sinaitic theophany. By reciting it Jesus resurrected the dead. Indeed, it enshrines the "treasures of the Names" (kunāz-i-asmā') 

 For details see Lambden at URL: http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BIBLIOGRAPHY-HYP/15-SAFAVID/Shaykh%20Bahā'i.htm

According to Ishrāq Khāvarī, Shaykh-i-Bahā'ī adopted this pen-name in the light of the traditions of the Imāms about the Greatest Name and the occurrence of the word Bahā in both the Dawn Prayer of Muhammad Bāqir (see above) and the Supplication of the Mother of David (Du`a-yi Umm Dawúd) -- in which the sixth Imām Ṣādiq said the Greatest Name was contained (see Ishrāq Khāvarī, Jannāt-i Na'īm 1:469; cf. Noghabai,149).

A Chronological Listing of Select Persons accorded the title Bahā' al-Dīn in Islamic history.

The following are a few examples of the many persons whose titles or names included the word bahā' in the form of the title Bahā' al-Dīn; some very well known others not so famous:

[1]  Bahā' al-Dawlah, wa-Ḍiyā' al-Malla, Abū Nasr Fīrūz Khārshādh ibn `Aud al-Dawla Fanā-Khusraw (379 /989-90-- XXX/1012 CE) a Būyid "king in Rayy" who invaded Fars where he subsequently died  (see Coin above)

. See also Tunukabūnī, Qisas al-'ulama' ed. 2004, p. 531. Da'irat al-ma`arif 13:62-63; Add

[2] Bahā’ al-Dīn Karaki = Abu Bakht Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abu Be'r Kharaqi (Marvaze) (d. 533/1138-39). According to Pingree he "was born in a village named K¨araq near the city of Marv, where he apparently spent his professional life and where he died in 533/1138-39. His name is sometimes given as Abū Moḥammad `Abd-al-Jabbār b. `Abd-al-Jabbār b. Moḥammad; and he is sometimes identified with Bahā’-al-Dīn Abū Moḥammad K¨araqī, a philosopher and expert on the mathematical sciences of whom a biography is given by Bayhaqī (Wiedemann, pp. 72-73 [Aufsätze I, pp. 654-55]) " from D. Pingree EIr. art. ; See also Brockelmann, GAL Supp. I, (Leiden, 1937), X.

[3] Bahā’ al-Dīn Muhammad Walad ibn Husayn ibn Ahmad Katib Balkhi (546-628 AH = 1151-1231 CE), father of the famous poet Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (1207-1273 CE). See art. H. Algar, EIr. ADD , "In his lifetime he was generally known as Bahā’-e Walad, and often referred to in addition by the title solṭān al-`ulamā’ (king of the scholars)".

[4] Bahā' al-Dīn Zakariyyā, known as Bahā' al-Ḥaqq, ("the glory of the True One") a Suhrawardī saint (c.1182-3-1262 CE).

[5] Malik Bahā' al-Dīn Tugrul (late12th-early 13th cent CE), Indian slave born architect associated with the Sultans of Delhi. See Abū 'Umar Minhaj al-Din 'Uthman ibn Siraj al-Din al-Awzjani, known as Minhaj-i Siraj, Tabaqāt-i Nāṣirī (Calcutta, 1864), pp. 144-46; H. G. Raverty's notes on Baha alDin Tughrul in his translation of the Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī (London, 1881), vol. 2, pp. 554-57; Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah, Tārfkh-i Firishata, vol. 1 (Lucknow, 1864), p. 59; Mehrdad and Natalie H. Shokoohy, The Architecture of Baha al-Din Tughrul in the Region of Bayana, Rajasthan' 1987 In Muqarnas IV: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture. Oleg Grabar (ed.). Leiden: E.J. Brill. 1987. http://archnet.org/library/documents/one-document.tcl?document_id=3589.

[6] Bahā’ al-Dīn Juwaynī, Muhammad ibn Shams al-Din,  the father of the 13th century CE. historian.

[7] Bahā' al-Dīn Baghdādī or Baghdādakī  = Muhammad ibn Mu`ayyad Baghdādī (Baghdādakī) Khwārazmī (d. after 688/1289). He was a "master of the art of Persian letter-writing (tarassol) in the 6th/12th century...from Baghdādak, a place in Khwārazm...His rise to fame began when he took charge of the dīvān-e enÞā' (chancellery) of the Kúarazmshah `Alā' al-Dīn TekeÞ b. Èl Arslān (r. 568/1172-596/1200). In the Haft eqlīm (I, p. 106) he is said to have also been the secretary of the next K¨úarazmÞah, Sultan Mohammad  (596/1199-617/1220), but this is hard to verify"  ( Z. Safar EIr. vol. ADD ).

[8] Bahā' al-Dīn Zuhayr = Abu'l-Faḍl Muhammad al-Muhallabī al-Azdī, a celebrated courtier  and official Arab poet of the Ayyūbids (581-616 AH = 1186-1258 CE). He is several times cited by Shaykh Baha'i in his Kashkul (e.g. ed. Beirut: al-A`lami,1420/1999, vol.3:32-3, 289-90).His Diwan has been published (Brockelmann, GAL I:307-8 +Supp. I:465-6; J. Rikabi art. in EI² 1:912-3).

[9] Baha al-Dīn Aslam ( d. ADD/ADD), a Mamluk who rose to the rank of silahdar (sword bearer) in Cairo during the reign of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (               ). See Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. 1989. Islamic Architecture in Cairo. Leiden: E. J. Brill. Williams, Caroline. 2002. Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press: 93-94.  http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/silhdarmosque.htm

[10] Bahā’ al-Dīn Muhammad ibn Muhammad Naqshband (718-791 AH = 1318-1391 CE ). The founder of the Naqshbandiyya  Sufi order "Bahā' al-Dīn left behind no writings  (with the possible exception of a litany named after him , Awrād-i Bahā'iyya)" (VII: 934). See art. Algar, EI² VII:  93   -934; cf. idem, EI² VII Nakshbandiyya, VII:934-939 and idem., EIr. `Bahā' al-Din Naqshband ADD.  

[10] Bahā' al-Dīn Yusuf Ibn Rafi Ibn Shaddad (d. ADDD / ADDD) author of a history of Salah al-Din (Saladdin). See H. A. R. Gibb, The Life of Saladin: From the Works of Imad ad-Din and Baha ad-Din. Clarendon Press, 1973. More recently published as `The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin' by Baha Al-Din Yusuf Ibn Rafi Ibn Shaddad and trans. Donald S. Richards. Ashgate Pub Ltd ,2001) ISBN-10: 0754601439.

[11] Bahā' al-Dawlah, Muhammad  Ḥusaynī Nūrbakshī (d.c.1507 CE) an outstanding physician of the Safavid era. He received the title Bahā' al-Dawlah from the then Shāh.

[XX] Shaykh Bahā' al-Din al-`Āmilī (      ??) Tunukabūnī, Qisas al-'ulama' ed. 2004, pp. 267,317, 324, 351, 371-2, 380, 425, 603.

[13]  Bahā' al-Din al-`Āmilī   = Shaykh Bahā'i =  Muhammad ibn Ḥusayn al-Āmilī  (b. Baalbeck c.1547, d. Isfāhān 1622 CE) (see above).

See http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BIBLIOGRAPHY-HYP/15-SAFAVID/Shaykh%20Baha'i.htm

[XX] Bahā' al-Din Jubba`i (d. ADD/ADD).      

[14]  Bahā' al-Din al-Nabāṭī son of `Ali Āmilī  (d. Addd/Addd) See Aqa Buzurg Tehrani, Tabaqat 5:88.

[15] Bahā' al-Dīn Muhammad ibn Hasan Isfahani, Fāḍil Hindī (1062-1134 AH =1652-1722). See  Add           ; Henry Corbin, 1976 [Anthologie des Philisophes Iraniens: XVIII] 29-33; Tunukabūnī, Qisas al-'ulama' ed. 2004,  No. 74 pp. 404-416.

[17] Bahā' al-Dīn Muhammad ibn Khwajah Shams al-Din Muhammad...  Tunikabūnī, Qisas al-'ulama' ed. 2004, pp. 493-4.

____________________

On the origins and relationship of names including _____al-Dīn (i.e. Bahā’ al-Dīn) see J. Kramers, `Les noms musulmans composés avec Dîn', Acta Orientalia V (1926) 63-67. See  further J. Kramers, `Les noms musulmans composés avec Dîn',  Acta Orientalia  V (1926) 63-67.  See also Dehkhodā, Lughat-Nāmih, Bahā' al-Dawlih/ Bahā' al-Dīn..(397f); Bustani, Da'irat al-Ma`raf ADD HERE.See also Dehkhodā, Lughat Nāmih, Bahā’ al-Dawlih/ Bahā’ al-Dīn..(397f); Butrus al-Bustani, Da'irat al-Ma`arif, `Bahā'' vol. 5: 633-5.

___________________

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ABBREVIATIONS

`Abd al-Bahā’, (`Abbas Effendi eldest son of Baha’-Allah) (d. 1921 CE).

• Makātib-i hadrat-i `Abd al-Bahā  [= MAB] Vol.1 Cairo, 1910.
• A Traveller's Narrative... (Trans. by E.G. Browne), A New and Corrected Edition, Wilmette, Illinois: Bahā'ī  Publishing Trust, 1980.
• Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas. [=TAB] Comp. Albert R. Windust. Vol. III Chicago: Bahai Publishing Society, 1919.

Abrahams, Israel.

• The Glory of God. Humphrey Milford: Oxford University Press, 1925.

al-Aḥsā'ī, Shaykh Aḥmad (d. 1243/ 1826)

• Tafsīr sūrat al-tawīd (“Commentary on the Sūra of the Divine Unity”)

• 2nd ed. Kirmān: Maba‘a al-sa‘āda, 1379/1959-60.

Afnān, Dr. Muhammad.

• Bahā’-Allāh dar āthār-i nuqa-yi bayān, in Mahbūb-i-`Alam.. pp. 209-19.

Afshār, Ḥājjī Mīrzā Muhammad,

• Baḥr al-`Irfān.  n.p. [Bombay / Tihran] n.d.

Albee Mathews, Loulie.

• Not Every Sea Hath Pearls.  2nd Ed. Happy Camp, California: Naturegraph Publishers, Inc., 1986.

`Andalib Editorial Board of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahā'īs of Canada.

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