revealing verses as proof because otherwise they would have had to accept
Bahá’u’lláh’s claim. Bahá’u’lláh, however, demonstrates that the Báb has made
it clear in all his writings that the only evidence of the Báb’s station is his
ability to reveal the verses of God, and that the same would constitute the sole
evidence of the Promised One (
Kitáb-i-Badí‘
347–50). We can now understand
the reason why Bahá’u’lláh in the Book of the River refuses to accept the
relevance or necessity of miracles, rejects the rumors of miracles about himself,
and emphasizes instead the revelation of verses as the true divine standard.
And yet, in the Book of the River, even while Bahá’u’lláh rejects the relevance of
miracles for his authority, he implicitly identifies himself as the source of all
miracles. He writes: “If anything else appeared from the mine of bounty and glory
[Bahá], that was but a token of God’s grace.” Here again, the apparent “humility”
at the beginning of the tablet is nothing less than the mysterious evidence of
his exalted station. It is in a beautiful way the fulfillment of the Imám’s
statement that “Servitude is a substance the essence of which is Divinity.”
Bahá’u’lláh’s discussion of miracles has a parallel in the Báb’s insistence that
he should not be judged in terms of the literary rules and conventions of
scholars and grammarians because his own station is far superior to the makers
of those rules and traditions. Bahá’u’lláh himself is surprisingly generous in
accepting as true all the miracles attributed to any famous Bábí, even while he
differentiates himself from all of them. He is so generous because he is really
saying that miracle making is no extraordinary feat! His gracious affirmation of
the miracles attributed to various Bábí Mirrors is most interesting. It suggests
that Bahá’u’lláh did not wish to provide a pretext for disunity and conflict
within the Bábí community by denying the miracles attributed to prominent
Bábís, even while at the same time he affirms his superior authority over all of
them.
In addition to indicating that many can perform miracles but the revelation of
divine verses is the unique ability of the Manifestations, he refers to Qur’ánic
passages to the effect that all created beings are truly the miracles of God. Since
a great number of Qur’ánic statements affirm the miraculous nature of all
things, Bahá’u’lláh very likely does not intend reference to any one specific
verse but indicates the general meaning of those numerous verses on this theme.
Of all miracles, the greatest and most amazing is the creative act of God, Whose
Word brings all reality into being—and this ability belongs only to the Primal
Will. Here, Bahá’u’lláh implicitly equates himself with God’s creative act. His
evidence and justification is the same as God’s supreme miracle: the creation of
the world and the revelation of a new spiritual reality.
To see more clearly this mysterious paradox of Bahá’u’lláh’s tablet, let us
consider these five related points.
1. In his justification of his own station, Bahá’u’lláh asserts that the same
thing that the Bábís accept as true with regard to the Báb’s Bayán applies to
Concealment and Reve lat ion
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