Re: sad news

[Khazeh Fananapazir]

Dear Gilberto In the light of some very sad events this servant posted   http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu/msg05473.html   and you kindly posted in reply [methinks] this post quoting the book Imagining the End : Visions of Apocalypse from the Ancient Middle East to Modern America by Abbas Amanat (Editor), Magnus Bernhardsson (Editor) In your letter here:   http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu/msg05474.html   Gilberto Simpson Fri, 16 Sep 2005 06:51:10 -0700 History is often sad as well:   … The Babis do not appear initially to have planned out anything like a national revolt or rebellion, though once the uprising was in full swing in Zanjan the Babis seem to have become dedicated revolutionaries, and they minted coins in the name of the Lord of the Age.   Dear Gilberto   I am very impressed and most grateful. You are truly a well read student of Faith [all Faith] and Religious History and this lowly one does NOT say this patronizingly. It is refreshing to be reminded of so much erudition. The only thing I would add is this   That in relation to Babi History the documentation is out there. The way the early Babis found themselves is most difficult to imagine by us. The utterances of the Holy and Sanctified Imams had indicated that there must needs be a great struggle, a great eschatological struggle, a great chiliastic/millennial event.   They [the Imams] anticipated [following Qur’anic predictions a **Shay’in nukurin** And they told the believers that the coming of the Qa’im [=the Mahdi= the Exalted Bab] Would be associated with this self-same *Shay’in nukurin** Qur’an 54:6 yawma yadAAu alddaAAi ila SHAY-IN NUKURIN   The Day that the Caller will call (them) to a terrible affair On the day when the summoner shall summon to a stern business   So the struggles ensued in that early Babi History…   ** The heads of no less than two hundred victims of these outbursts of ferocious fanaticism were impaled on bayonets, and carried triumphantly from Shiraz to Abadih.  Forty women and children were charred to a cinder by being placed in a cave, in which a vast quantity of firewood had been heaped up, soaked with naphtha and set alight. Three hundred women were forced to ride two by two on bare-backed horses all the way to Shiraz.  Stripped almost naked they were led between rows of heads hewn from the lifeless bodies of their husbands, sons, fathers and brothers.  Untold insults were heaped upon them, and the hardships they suffered were such that many among them perished.        **** [in a correlative manner John the Baptist called the world of the Pharisees and Sadducees to a “STERN AFFAIR” ** Matthew 3:9  And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Matthew 3:10  And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. ]   BUT His holiness Baha’u’llah transformed all these dispositions, these possibilities, these potentialities ** For in those days no one knew that the Manifestation of the Bab would culminate in the Manifestation of the Blessed Beauty[Baha’u’llah] and that …the foundation-principle of the Law of God would be this, that "It is better for you to be killed than to kill"; that discord and contention would cease, and the rule of war and butchery would fall away   (`Abdu'l-Baha:  Memorials of the Faithful, Pages: 199-200) It was through the grace of God and with the aid of seemly words and praiseworthy deeds that the unsheathed swords of the Babi community were returned to their scabbards.  Indeed through the power of good words, the righteous have always succeeded in winning command over the meads of the hearts of men.  Say, O ye loved ones!  Do not forsake prudence.  Incline your hearts to the counsels given by the Most Exalted Pen and beware lest your hands or tongues cause harm unto anyone among mankind.    (Baha'u'llah:  Tablets of Baha'u'llah, Page: 85)   And now we are most faithfully engaged in this process God willing as indeed you are dear Gilberto   With kind regards and admiration khazeh                     The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by the Johnson County Community College ("JCCC") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. 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