Posted by Dawud on July 03, 2101 at 01:02:41:

In Reply to: Babi greetings posted by Sayfullah Quddusiyyah on July 02, 2101 at 22:27:22:

Thank you so much! Where did you find this information--did you just know it, or is it buried in the footnotes of Nabil's Narrative somewhere, or what?

Any idea as to when the greeting custom changed to the current form? It seems unlikely that they'd naturally settle on the female responsive form as the standard... Ajmal..."most beautiful," right? (Like "jamal"?) And what does Athar mean?

The whole concept of covenant-breaking can get confusing, because various Baha'i authorities have anathematized religious folks who weren't directly a part of the covenant being defended. Lots of vitriolic language against Muslim opponents of the Bab, for example, whose situation I guess is more or less analogous to that of the Azalis. It's a bit like the Christian idea (by no means universal) that those who have never heard of Christ may yet be saved, but those who have heard of him but rejected Christianity are in a whole lot more trouble.

More recently I've heard that some ex-Baha'is have been considered CB's--not for leaving the faith, but for being especially divisive or outspoken in criticizing it. Presumably those of us who were never in it would be ineligible for this designation, the Babi situation notwithstanding, though we might still manage to get named "enemies of the faith." (Come to think of it, members of one LSA *did* threaten to strip away my donut-eating rights if my Baha'i jokes didn't get better!)

I was under the impression that the Central Asian Babis/Bayanis were NOT Azalis, since the Baha/Azal split was something that happened mainly among the exiles in the Ottoman Empire, which this group sees itself as pre-dating. Some of them did seem to go into exile in the other direction too, though. I'm not sure what they make of the Bab's will (testament), or who they think should be running their religion.

That's one of the weird theological aspects of the Covenant--it basically damns people for misinterpreting hard-to-read legal documents, or choosing the "wrong" side of convuluted power relationships. For instance, which should have precedence after 'Abdul-Baha's death, in case they disagree--AB's own will, or Baha-Allah's will? Before you answer, you may want to know that choice (b) makes you a CB in the eyes of Haifa. It is entirely unclear to me how laypeople were supposed to arrive at the right conclusion--or were they expected to just follow whichever direction the wind was blowing?

I actually saw a short listing on the internet about Babis in Central Asia--I'll look for it, and post it when I find it again. It didn't look like it was based on terribly solid information, though.

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