ISRA

SOME BIBLICAL AND ISRĀ'ĪLIYYĀT THEMES AND MOTIFS IN BABI-BAHA'I PRIMARY SOURCES

The narrative portions of the Q. are mostly concerned with the pious example of twenty four or so all male prophet figures directly named therein (Q. 6:84‑9; 21:48‑91.). This number has traditionally been slightly extended to twenty‑seven or eight (still all male figures) by the addition of a few persons not directly named in the Q. (e.g. Seth; Uzair [Ezra]). Around this number of messengers consolidated itself fairly early on (pre‑12th cent. CE) through the mystical treatment of a listing of twenty‑seven figures in the influential Fuṣuṣ al‑ḥikam (Bezels of Wisdom) of Ibn al‑`Arabī (d. 638/1240). This number 28 for pre‑Islamic prophets became especially well‑known (cf. AB* FWU: 99,24). The disciple of the Great Shaykh, Ḥurr al‑Āmīlī (d.787/ 1385 ) also associated the stream of Islamic prophets with the number of letters in the Arabic alphabet (28).

Communicating messages from God, the twenty‑eight called humankind to piety, guiding from primordial times until the era of Muhammad whose own circumstances often coloured the largely non‑systematic qur’ānic presentation of past prophets. Roughly eighteen of these figures are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible though most of the major (and minor) biblical prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Habakkuk, etc) are not (directly) mentioned in the Q. Very few NT figures, aside from John the Baptist, his father Zechariah and Jesus along with his mother Mary, find direct mention in the Q.

Two major, sometimes synonymous terms exist in the Q. for persons who communicate the divine message. Firstly, agents of God may be nabī (nabiyy = prophet; pl. nabiyyūn / anbiyā’) meaning `one who speaks forth’ (cf. Heb. [Aram.] nāvī’, tr. Gk. [LXX] prophethês). The term nabī occurs around seventy‑five times in the Q. mostly referring to the prophet Muhammad. Those so designated are largely biblical figures mostly not considered prophets in the Bible. Apart from Abraham and Moses, Elijah, Elisha and Jonah, none of the qur’ānic prophets are so named in either biblical or mainstream post‑biblical, Judaeo‑ Christian tradition. The following biblical figures become qur’ānic prophets, Adam, Noah, Joseph and David.

Secondly, agents of God may be rasūl (pl. rusul), variously translated, `messenger’, `envoy’, `apostle,’ etc. This term is most probably rooted in Jewish Christian (Elchasaite) and / or Manichean terminology (Ar. rasūl = Syr. šÿlīḥa, Fossum, 1993149f). Rasūl occurs over 300 times in the Q., and is also implied by mursal (lit. `sent one’; Q. x 36 in 14 surahs ; Kassis, 807f; 1032‑3). According to the Q. "Every ummah (community) has its rasūl" (Q. 0:47) Aside from Muhammad himself, eight figures are specifically designated rasūl in the Q. [1] Noah, [2] Shu`ayb, [3] Hūd, [4] Ṣāliḥ, [5] Lot, [6] Ishmael, [7] Moses and [8] Jesus.

Like Muhammad, Jesus is explicitly designated rasūl Allāh (Q. 61:6). Several of these figures including Moses (Q.19:51), Ishmael (Q.19:54) and Muhammad (Q. 33:40; 7:157f) are also referred to as nabī. Not all the nabī (prophets), however, are also rasūl and not all rasūl also reckoned among the nabī. Taking into account a chronological arrangement of the sūras, many modern scholars see little or no distinction between the nabī and the rasūl [= mursal ]. Descendants of Abraham, however, are particularly designated nabī / anbiyā’ ( Q. 29:26; 45:15; 57:26‑7). Several Arabian, non‑Abrahamic figures sent to miscellaneous communities (see 05‑07 below) are counted among the rasūl (Q. 10:47; 16:38, etc ). The words, "And We did not send before you any rasūl or nabī" (Q. 22:52) have been taken by some to indicate differentiation (Rahman, 1980:82).

The traditional `twenty‑eight’, the myriad prophets and the ūlū al‑`azm ("possessors of steadfastness") in Islamic and Bābī‑ Bahā’ī literatures

The annotated paragraphs set down below on the traditionally twenty‑eight prophets and envoy‑messengers sum up the qur’ānic references. They introduce a few basic aspects of the Islamic and Bābī‑ Bahā’ī positions respecting these figures. Islamic and Bābī‑ Bahā’ī sources for the most part assume the largely doubtful historicity of these twenty‑eight by arranging them in a partly traditional yet still highly speculative chronological order.1 The concrete human existence and / or precise dating of most of these figures accords with Islamic historical perspectives, although concrete historical information is for the most part unknown, if not historically meaningless. The dates sometimes given here for these twenty‑eight reflect either the theories of modern biblical scholarship or traditional (though often variant) Islamic chronological assumptions.

Where figures listed have originally Hebrew names found in the Bible they are also given in this language after the Arabic. A few unnamed pre‑Islamic figures of the Q. are loosely chronologically listed and identified by the double zero (= 00). Frequency of mention in the Q. is at times indicated by (= Q. x_) along with the number of qur’ānic surahs containing reference to these figures. The (usually) qur’ānic indicated status as nabī (prophet) is indicated by (N) and / or that of the rasūl (= mursal, `sent messenger’) by R and / or the speculative (M = R). Figures counted in developed Bābī‑ Bahā’ī doctrine as (Per.) maẓhar‑ i ilāhī (Manifestations of God) are indicated by an M with an asterisk (M*). Only a brief synopsis of the Bābī‑ Bahā’ī position regarding these twenty‑eight ( and a few others) will be registered below.

Ādam, آدَمُ R+N+M* (= Heb. אָדָם `ādām = "humankind’).

Adam Is reckoned the first man in mainstream biblical and Islamic tradition. He is mentioned twenty-five times in nine surahs of the (Q x 25 in 9 suras) and is believed to have lived and flourished soon after the creation of the world. Several of the genesis motifs and narratives about Adam / the first couple have qur’ānic parallels (Q. 7:20; 20:120ff, etc).1 Created from clay he was fit to be the primoridial father of humanity, a خَلِيفَةً khalīfa (`viceregent’, `substitute’) and a prophet‑Messenger on earth who was taught the names of all things (Q. 2:28f ). As in Genesis Adam married Ḥawā (Eve) who was created from one of his ribs (Q. 4:1b cf. Gen. 2:22), the first couple being caused to slip by Satan. They were ultimately expelled from paradise (Q. 2:36). On earth God forgave Adam guided him and made a covenant with him (Q. 2:36f; 20:115..etc). Influenced by Jewish, Gnostic, Christian and other traditions, post‑qur’anic Islam greatly elevated the first man. While his pre‑existence is implied in early Sunnī ḥadīth numerous Shī`ī sources additionally reckon Adam a major manifestation of the Logos‑like nūr al‑Muhammadīya ("Muhammadan Light"). It was preeminently through his "loins" that this pre‑existent "Light" which is the essence of the Prophet and the Imāms was transmitted (Biḥār 2, 15:1ff; Rubin, 1975).

For the Bāb Adam appeared 12,210 years before 1260 AH/1844 CE., an essentially composite (millennial + centennial + decadal) symbolic dating (11x1,000 + 12 X 100+ 10 [adjustment] = 12, 210) which cannot be fully unraveled here (Lambden, 1985). Though there were `awālim qabl‑i ādam ("worlds prior to Adam") (P.Bay IV:14; BA* L. Qabl‑ i ādam) he was the first maẓhar‑i ilāhī (divine Manifestation), emanated from the mashiyyat (Divine Will), the Dhikr‑i awwal [azal] ("Primal Remembrance") in a "prophetic cycle" which to some degree terminated with the advent of the prophet Muhammad (P-Dala'il., 2‑3). Adam brought a "book" and founded an "embryonic religion" such that all subsequent maẓhar‑i ilāhī (divine theophanies) stood in need of him and were his "spiritual" return (Per-Bayan, III:13, VI:11, Per-Dala'il,3).

As a primordial Bābī‑Bahā’ī messenger many narratives and details respecting Adam in Abrahamic and Islamic scriptural sources are given symbolic interpretations in the writings of the Bāb and BA*. The details of Gen.1ff are non‑literally interpreted, including the creation in six days and the biblical‑qur’ānic story of the fall of the first couple from an Edenic paradise (Gen. 3ff + qur’ānic parallels. Under gnostic and esoteric (`irfānī) Islamic and Shaykhī influences a multiplicity of exalted Adams are mentioned in Bābī‑ Bahā’ī scripture (T-Kawthar, 15b, 21b T-Qadr, 69:19; cf. K.Panj-S:100).

Seth is unnamed in the Q. (Q.x 0) and is the biblical third son of Adam and Eve (Gen. 4:25ff.). This son of Adam is often considered an important post‑Adam prophet figure in extra‑qur’ānic Islamic sources. He is pictured as one of the recipients of waḥy ("divine revelation"). In Shī `ī and other sources his progeny in particular, as opposed to that of his brothers Cain and Abel (Ar. Ḥābīl and Qābīl, unnamed, cf. Q. 5:27) are seen to constitute the truly "righteous" primogenitors (Quinn, 1962; Klijn, 1977; Huart [Bosworth] EI2 IX:489‑90). Seth is very seldom mentioned in Bābī‑Bahā’ī sources. Baha'-Allah briefly narrates the story of this son of Adam in his late, Iraq period, Surat al-nuṣḥ (`The Sūra of the Counsel', 244). Therein he is represented as a rejected messenger of God to his contemporaries who failed to orient themselves in the direction of the wajh al‑jamāl, ("the beauteous Divine countenance").

Idrīs إِدْرِيسN (= ? Heb. חֲנוֹךְ, ḥānōk), Enoch (Gen 4:17f; Q.x 2 = 19:57; 21:85)

Idrīs إِدْرِيس is reckoned an "upright man and a prophet" (Q.19:57‑8; 21:85) (nabi) in the Q. He is most frequently identified with the biblical (Heb.) חֲנוֹךְ, ḥānōk or Enoch (Gen 4:17f; Q.x 2 = 19:57; 21:85) the son of Jared who "walked with God" (Gen. 5:21‑4). Numerous legends are related of Enoch in Jewish and Christian literatures (Vajda, EI2 III:1030‑1; Fraade, `Enoch’ Enc. Rel.5:116‑118). Legends about Idrīs similarly proliferate in Islamic sources. This figure is "said to have introduced several sciences and arts, practised ascetic piety, received revelation, and entered paradise while still alive" (Fraade, `Enoch’ Enc. Rel. 5:116‑118). Enoch is occasionally mentioned in Bābī‑Bahā’ī sources as the father of ḥikmat (wisdom‑philosophy, etc). As in Islamic sources, is equated with the first of the thrice born Hermes’ (Martin, `Hermes’ DDD:771‑783; `Hirmis’, EI2 III:463; BA* L.‑Ḥikmat, tr.148; Ma’idih 7:143)

Noah (fl. [trad.] fl. 3000 BCE??) the biblical son of Lamech who in both the Bible and the Q. is reckoned to have lived at least 950 years (Gen. 9:29; Q. 29:13‑14) and to have survived the flood along with his family (Q. x 43 in 28 surahs). As an prototype of Muhammad and one blessed with waḥy (divine inspiration, Q. 11:36) the legend of Noah and the associated story of the all‑encompassing "flood" and salvific "ark", is important in the Q., one sura of which is named after Noah (Q. 71 [title]). He is mentioned 43 times in 28 suras of the Q. his story being repeated around ten times. The Noah story is frequently told in Qiṣaṣ al‑anbiyā’ and other post‑qur’ānic literatures.

Little concrete information about Noah, the maẓhar‑i ilāhī is given by the Bāb or BA* though motifs deriving from his story are frequent in many primary texts. Much utilized is the Islamicate motif of the "Ark" of salvation providing refuge from the "flood" or "storms" of ungodliness.1 Important rewritten exegetical accounts of the story of Noah are found in the Qayyūm al-asmā' of the Bāb and in Baha'-Allah’s Surat al-Nuṣḥ (`Sūra of the Counsel’, 244‑6). Early on the Bāb understood the "Ark" to be the salvific "Ark of the [quasi-messianic] Dhikr" (safīnat al‑dhikr), the refuge of the eschatological ahl al‑bayt, the truly believing "people of the House" (of Shī`īsm as proto‑Bābism, QA 82:333). In the QA and elsewhere the Bāb also used the motif of "the crimson‑coloured and ruby arks" (sufunan min yāqūta al‑raṭba al‑ḥamrā’, QA 57:226) assigned to the "people of bahā’" whom BA* subsequently identified as his followers, the Bahā’īs (lit.`characterized with radiance’).

Baha'-Allah also frequently and in a number of different ways glossed the term "Ark" as, for example, the "Ark of the Spirit" (safīnat al‑rūḥ) in his Lawh-i Bahā’ where he also speaks of the "Ark" motif as being his eternal religion:

Say: O people! Embark on the Ark of Eternity (safīnat al‑baqā’) which traverseth the crimson sea…" (L. Bahā’, 72 ; cf. L. Ruh, L. Tuqa)

In 1949 SE*’s secretary explained that for Bahā’īs the story of Noah’s "Ark" and the "Flood" are "both symbolical" (LG: 509 No. 1716).

For Shī`īs the issue of the length of Noah’s lifetime went beyond scriptural norms (over 950 years). This in part in connection with their desire to justify going to extreme lengths for the ghayba (occultation) of the hidden, messianic Qā’im. Several symbolic Bahā’ī interpretations of Noah’s longevity also exist especially in view of BA*’s mentioning the figure 950 years in his K. īqān (KI:6/7).

Yūnus or the biblical Jonah may have been the (mythical?) son of Amittai or Mattai (8th cent. BCE?; II Kings 14:25). One biblical book and one qur’ānic sūrah bear the name of Jonah (Q.10); Jonah is both the name of a book of the Hebrew Bible (one of the `minor prophets’) and of a sūrah of the Qur’ān (Q.11). As an individual Jonah is presented as a legendary (?) figure (cf. II Kings 14:26 + New Testament refs.). In the Q. Jonah appears as a sent messenger and a prophet and is 4 [+2] times mentioned in 4 [+2] sūrahs. He seems once designated dhu’l-nūn (“Lord of the fish”, Q. 21:87) and once ṣāḥib al-ḥūt (“Man of the Fish”, Q. 68:48).

Having been swallowed but cast out of a large fish (al-ḥawt) he was called by God to prophesy against a people (100, 000 or so Assyrians of Ninevah) whom he induced to faith (Q. 37:139ff).

The story of Jonah is frequently interpreted allegorically in esoteric (irfānī) Shī`ī-Shaykhī sources and occasionally in Bābī-Bahā’ī primary texts. In his commentary upon the basmalah and letter “n” (nūn) prefixed to Sūra 68, Both a name of a book of the Hebrew Bible (one of the `minor prophets’) and a sūrah of the Qur’ān (Q.11) are after this legendary (?) figure (cf. II Kings 14:26 + New Testament refs.).

Bahā’-Allāh explained that among the innumerable significances of “N” is “fish” (al-ḥūṭ) a sense it also has according to the Hebrew of the jafr alphabet of Ibn Sīnā (Massignon 1997:70). Figurative understanding of the story of Jonah and the fish is reckoned to indicate Muhammad as one “drowned in the ocean of ecstatic revelation (baḥr al-mukāshifat) and mystical insight” (INBMC 56:38-9). Abd al-Bahā’ gave allegorical explanations to the story Jonah and Dhū’l-Nūn. In one text he states the “fish” (ḥūt) represents the human propensity to materiality, the danger of being engulfed in the dark “ocean” of contingent existence (Mā’idih 5:21).

1 Certain qur’anic sūrahs and texts and later Sunnī and Shī`ī sources provide numerous loosely chronological lists. The Meccan Sūra Hūd (Q. 11), for example, gives the succession Noah, Hūd, Ṣālih, Abraham, Shu`ayb, Moses and Jesus. Muhammad Bāqir Majlisī also, for example, cites from earlier sources an interesting extended chronological list contained in a lengthy ḥadīth qudsī , the Du`a’ Umm Dawūd (see below)

1 Ḥawwā (Heb. חַוָּה, Havvah = Eve the wife of Adam) is not named in the Q. but is twice referred to as his "spouse" (7:18f; 20:120f). Also unnamed are their sons Cain (Qābīl), Abel (Hābīl) and Seth (Shīth, see 02). The sroty of the first couple is related in the probably late Medinan fifth Sūra (al‑Mā’idah, Q. 5:27[30]f).

1 BA*, KI:5f/7‑8; S. Aḥsāb AQA 4:ADD; K. Badī`, 214 (mss.); cf. Buck,1999:114f.