Signs:
Quranic Themes in the Writings of the Báb

by Todd Lawson

Photocopy of first page of oldest surviving copy of the Qayyum al-Asma, damaged by sword of religious official to whom it was presented.

The Báb was an independent Manifestation of God, Author of a discrete revelation and Founder of a new religion. He was also the Herald of the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh. He knew and loved the Quran thoroughly. Indeed, it is His intimate acquaintance with and love for the Quran that lends power and authority to His own Writing, in which His singular vision, teachings and laws have a strong Quranic elan and may be thought to be in deep and respectful conversation with that Book through the hallowed process of interpretation. With the composition of the unprecedented Qayyum al-asma — a consummate and simultaneously incisive and enchanting work of interpretation — the Báb demonstrated the truly incredible breadth and depth of His knowledge and that He had fully interiorized, indeed embodied, the Quran. It is very difficult, therefore, to choose just a few verses or surihs and claim that they are key to His teaching. One could say that every word of the Quran, every letter and every space in the text is key to the Báb’s vision.

In order to give some idea of the Quranic themes that occupied the Báb in His writing, a few verses have been singled out here, in addition to two short surihs. The translation used is the one by Arthur J. Arberry. Arberry’s translation is one of the most respected translations of the Quran by either a Muslim or a non-Muslim scholar. It is highly poetic and philologically sound. In this translation, Arberry employs King James English, with its archaic pronouns “thee,” “thou,” “thine” and so on, an English that is also used in translations of the Bahá’í Writings. The Arberry translation, however, does not reflect the perspective that might be gained on various fine points of translation offered by a knowledge of the revelation of the Báb and His immediate milieu and audience. On occasion, therefore, I have made very slight changes to Arberry’s translation. I have indicated these changes by the use of italics.

God's Ceaseless Love and Mercy and God's Unknowableness

The first two excerpts in this brief compilation consist of complete, short, surihs of the Quran that are important to the entire Muslim world, and, therefore, were important to the Báb. The first excerpt is the opening surih of the Quran. This surih is one of the first to be committed to memory by children, and is used throughout the Muslim world in the obligatory prayers and on many other occasions: births, deaths, and marriages. It is called “The Overture” or Opening. The Arabic word is al-fatiha. There is no more important surih in the Quran than the Fatiha. A well-known tradition from the Imam Ali says: “The Quran contains all the knowledge of all previous scriptures and the Fatiha contains everything in the Quran. The basmala (see below) contains everything that is in the Fatiha and the “b” (ب) of the basmala contains everything in the basmala. The point (nuqta) under the “b” contains everything in the “b” and I am that point.”

The first two items, the short surihs, have the same opening verse. In Arabic, this verse is called the basmala since it runs, in Arabic: bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim. Like virtually all translations of this important phrase, the one by Arberry here is woefully inadequate but it is retained largely out of habit and respect for the music of the language. A much better rendering would include the idea of unconditional love since the word “divine mercy” — here rahma — the word from which the two divine names, al-rahman and al-rahim derive, actually comes from the Arabic word rahim “womb”. Thus, the basmala indicates the unconditional love of a mother for her children. The divine attribute of rahma “unconditional, protecting and nurturing loving mercy” is the most frequent of all the dozens of other divine attributes and names mentioned in the Quran.

With the second surih, one of the more distinctive and characteristic Islamic spiritual ideas is articulated in matchless language rhythms. This surih is also frequently used in the obligatory prayers of Muslims, is memorized by virtually all believers as it is recited in times of special need and, like the Fatiha above, is the subject of countless commentaries or interpretations in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and all Islamic languages, among which English may now be counted. The important theological or spiritual and philosophical idea enunciated is that God is completely unknowable and utterly beyond and above all attempts to describe or characterize. This is to the extent that early Muslim thinkers spoke of God as being above both being and non-being. This orientation, needless to say, is one of the essential Bahá’í teachings as well. Surih 112, also known as the surih of purity or sincerity (al-ikhlas), is not the only passage in the Quran that teaches this divine unknowableness (termed apophatic theology by scholars); however, it is certainly the locus classicus for the idea.

Signs

In Islamic thought, everything other than God is God’s creation, and, therefore, a sign of the knowledge, creative power and existence of God. The Islamic theory of signs is very compelling and permeates the writings of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. The word for divine sign — aya — is also the word for a Quranic verse. Below are three important passages on this topic.

Interpretation as Revelation

The Quran makes it clear that one of the roles of the Prophet — what Bahá’ís refer to as a Divine Manifestation — is to interpret previous revelations. Indeed, this is one of the ways in which a new revelation occurs. There are numerous Quranic verses that speak of this. The interpretation of divine signs, including verses of revelation, is one of the prime means by which a Manifestation of God generates a new revelation and a new dispensation. The verse below is among those that have generated much commentary and controversy, depending on how it is punctuated. In general, Sunni commentators place a full stop after “save only God.” Shi‘i commentators punctuate it as follows to allow for the prophetic role of interpreter, as in the story of Joseph, which is shared by the Imams:

Divine Presence, Prophecy, Covenant, Oneness of Humanity and Judgment

In the remaining verses, a number of characteristic themes are presented: the unconditional love of God for humanity, the continuity of divine revelation, the oneness of humanity, that all humans have received divine revelation, that there is no chosen people, and that though God is utterly unknowable “He” is at the same time overwhelmingly “present” to creation. It is not really possible to use gender at all when referring to the Supreme Being, for whom the word Allah is perhaps the most convenient. This is done only out of habit and for convenience.

Todd Lawson

Bio: Todd Lawson has been a member of the Bahá’í community since 1968. He is Emeritus Professor of Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto, where he teaches courses on the Quran, Islam, Mysticism and Shi‘ism. He has published widely in these areas.