From: Juan R Cole
Subject: Aqdas Pillar I, K41

Cole's comments: The duty laid upon humankind to recognize the Manifestation of God for the Age is particularly challenging and onerous for the clergy of past religions. This difficulty parallels that of the propertied, alluded to in K39. Indeed, it is worse. A clergyman has invested his entire "cultural capital" (Bourdieu) in his profession. For one of the Shi`ite ulama to become a Baha'i in the 19th century meant the loss of his profession and livelihood, the ridicule and hatred of his erstwhile friends, perhaps even the loss of his family and his life. Former clergymen like Muqaddas-i Khurasani, who attempted to keep preaching in mosques and to subtly teach the Faith in their sermons, faced opposition everywhere they went and were run out of large numbers of towns on a rail! Other clerics who became Baha'is were forced to change their professions, becoming physicians or entering government service. If it is harder for religious professionals to adopt a new religion, those who do are especially valuable, bringing all their skills and prestige to the propagation of the new faith. One thinks of Mirza Abu'l-Fadl Gulpaygani, or, in another mode, George Townsend. Baha'i intellectual culture in Iran would have been completely impoverished without such persons of clerical background as Fadil-i Mazandarani and Ishraq-Khavari. From 1936, when the beloved Guardian abolished the institution of salaried teachers of the Faith, such persons faced even more difficulties, since there was no way to make a living any more from being a Baha'i religious professional.

The reference to Nimrod has to do with Islamic "Stories of the Prophets." In the Haggada, it was said that Abraham faced persecution at th hands of a ruler named Nimrod, who attempted to have the prophet burned to death. This story was adopted into Islam and became a favorite literary trope. Baha'u'llah here invokes Nimrod as a symbol of pride and power in the face of God's Revelation. He says, ironically, that it was Nimrod who ended up in the flames (of hell), not Abraham. He warns the clergy against following Nimrod's path.

Juan Cole, History, Univ. of Michigan