ALM Nicolas, the Bab and Baha`u'llah (Jesus, Creator, Moses)

[Popeyesays]

Nicolas' translation of The Seven Proofs by The Bab

For God is One in His Person [Self], as He is One in His Attributes, One in His works. Unique is the teaching which He gives to you since the origin of the ages, unique is He Whom He will give you in time to come [after the passing of times]. And you seem to believe that you can learn nothing [not learn anything] more. In your arrogance [pride], you think that you know everything and you think you have responded in a sufficient fashion when to the least


[p.VII]

question you have answered [with] 'Mystery'. There is not, there could not be any mystery, but the teaching which is given to you is proportioned to your forces [capacities]. And it is the secret which I come to unveil to you, for your intelligence was not able to penetrate it, even though all the terms[limits] of the problem had been submitted to you. In the “Psalms” [41] , God replies to David Who asks Him why He created humanity: “Because I was a hidden treasure and that it pleased Me to be known”. Is it then to know Him that one is stopped at every step by 'the mystery' in the path which leads to Him? Is it then to know Him that one makes an angry and jealous God like the Jews, a God of battles like the Christians, a partial [side-taking] God like the Muslims, an anthropomorphic God like the immense majority of men? Is He thus a liar, this God Whom you adore, would He forget His promises - this Creator before Whom all [things] incline [bow down] themselves? No not so, He has promised you that you will know Him and you will know Him, not in a single blow[all of a sudden], but by successive degrees. The “Professor” has not lacked in [the performance of] His task; He has come at diverse intervals, He has taught you the true law. Is it His fault that you have not recognized Him? As adorators of idols which you are, you have adored His body which is nothing [of no value], you were bent under His force when He was powerful, you were conquered by His sabre [sword] when He made use thereof. But you have not been able to comprehend from whence 'They' came, Who 'They' were and Muhammad told you “The Prophets, I am 'Them'”!! [42]


[p.VIII]

For all [of Them], whatever names They held [had], were but one and the same emanation from the primal [original] will [wish] of God to be known, they are the very incarnation of the first creation of God and you have not understood this: you have remained Israelites without recognizing Moses in Jesus, Christians without perceiving Jesus in Muhammad, you wish to remain Muslims without seeing in Me Muhammad!

Following [Corresponding to] the progress which humanity has accomplished [achieved], every prophet was sent with divers signs to prove His mission: material at first, these signs were elevated little by little towards immateriality. Adam shows you prodigies in teaching you to make service [use] of the earth and fire, Noah teaches you the qualities of waves and wind, others instruct you in the arts and in industry, and when, forgetful of the origins of your instruction [education], you boast that you accomplish miracles, Moses presents Himself Who exceeds them [the miracles you boast for yourselves] and destroys them [ibid.] with His rod. You advance in the sciences; you study yourselves in your bodies and when finally you have, according to yourselves, penetrated the secret of death and that of life, Jesus comes Who, with His breath, makes of a dead one a living one, of a living one a cadaver! [43]

Your schools of philosophy are opened, letters [literature] become your domain, you elevate yourselves to the most sublime beauties of the human genious, and Muhammad appears Who speaks to you the very language of God in its splendid and marvelous eloquence.

What more do you need and what [more] are you asking for?


[p.IX]

Do you believe thus to submit God to your caprices? Have you forgotten the obedience that you owe to Him? Have you become the masters? You can believe this in your arrogance [pride], but what would you think of Him if He would listen to your bawlings? Believe, do not believe, how can this matter to His Majesty, to His Power, to His Sublimity; your reasonings will they stop the working [forward march] of the world? Scorn each other, calumniate, excommunicate each other. May each one of you, enclosed in the narrowness of his sect, cry with arrogance in the [his] heart: Multi enim vocati, pauci vero electi [44] without comprehending that by that very thing he excludes himself from the number [company] of the elect!

What is this thus that the creature [has] and what madness leads him astray? Can she [45] not take a look at the past and bow down before the marvelous work of the Lord? What, these men, who after having ridiculed Muhammad have inclined themselves under [the reign of] His law, will thus not comprehend that they expel themselves today from Islám. Brought up in the idea that the verses are the work of God, convinced of this eternal truth against which nothing prevails, here they are who now turn themselves away from the verses of the Bayán."

http://bahai-library.com/file.php5?f...s&language=All

Regards,
Scott

PS The preface by Mr. Balyuzi is particularly good and puts Nicolas in perspective to the Revelation of Baha`u'llah.

[UnityNow101]

Thank you for that Scott. I have not had the chance to read many writings by the Bab, and this was a real awakening for me. He sets out the proofs in such beauty that one must believe that He came invested with power from God.