LOL. You have a single verse that says "we perused not the books which men possess" and hundreds of attestations to Baha'u'llah reading stuff. Instead of adjusting your reading of the first text in line with the evidence of your eyes, you say that in view of [your understanding of a translation of] the first text, the evidence need not be considered !
Well, you surely know there are many statements from the Bab and Bahaullah, that His knowledge is divine revelation. Abdulbaha explained the statement of Bahaullah:
"We come to the explanation of the words of Bahá’u’lláh when He says: “O King! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing.”[72] This is the station of divine revelation. It is not a sensible, but an intelligible reality. It is sanctified from and transcendent above past, present, and future. It is a comparison and an analogy—a metaphor and not a literal truth. It is not the condition that is commonly understood by the human mind when it is said that someone was asleep and then awoke, but signifies a passage from one state to another. For example, sleeping is the state of repose, and wakefulness is the state of motion. Sleeping is the state of silence, and wakefulness is the state of utterance. Sleeping is the state of concealment, and wakefulness is that of manifestation. For example, in Persian and Arabic it is said that the earth was asleep, spring came, and it awoke; or that the earth was dead, spring came, and it found life again. These expressions are comparisons, analogies, similes, and figurative interpretations in the realm of inner meaning.
Briefly, the Manifestations of God have ever been and will ever be luminous Realities, and no change or alteration ever takes place in Their essence. At most, before Their revelation They are still and silent, like one who is asleep, and after Their revelation They are eloquent and effulgent, like one who is awake." Some answered Questions
And this is what Bahaullah is stating with regards to the Knowledge of the Manifestation of God:
"
As a token of His mercy, however, and as a proof of His loving-kindness, He hath manifested unto men the Daystars of His divine guidance, the Symbols of His divine unity, and hath ordained the knowledge of these sanctified Beings to be identical with the knowledge of His own Self." Gleanings from the Writings of Bahaullah
Similar statements are seen from the Bab:
"God beareth Me witness, I was not a man of learning, for I was trained as a merchant. In the year sixty God graciously infused my soul with the conclusive evidences and weighty knowledge which characterize Him Who is the Testimony of God—may peace be upon Him—until finally in that year I proclaimed God’s hidden Cause and unveiled its well-guarded Pillar, in such wise that no one could refute it. “That he who should perish might perish with a clear proof before him and he who should live might live by clear proof.” Selection from the Writings of the Bab
And this what Bahaullah says with regards to the Bab, and generally the Manifestation of God:
"Therefore, should a person arise and bring forth a myriad verses, discourses, epistles, and prayers, none of which have been acquired through learning, what conceivable excuse could justify those that reject them, and deprive themselves of the potency of their grace? What answer could they give when once their soul hath ascended and departed from its gloomy temple? " Book of Certitude
And even before the Book Certitude was revealed, Bahaullah in another Tablet had made similar statements with regards to His own knowledge:
"Should it be My wish to recount all that hath been revealed in the past, I would most certainly be able to do so by virtue of that which God hath bestowed upon Me of the wonders of His knowledge and power. " Gems of divine mysteries - Bahaullah
And there are many more statements like these, as you are surely aware. The point is, Baha'is who believe Bahaullah was All-Knowing, are not exaggerating about Him in a sense that they do not attribute more knowledge to Bahaullah, more than Bahaullah attributed to Himself.
"Know thou moreover that thy letter reached Our presence and We perceived and perused its contents. We noted the questions thou hast asked and will readily answer thee...."
(Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 183)
"Numerous letters from thee have been presented before Our Throne. We have perused them..."
(Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 196)
"THIS Wronged One hath perused thy letter in the Most Great Prison..."
(Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 266)
"Thine epistle was received, thy question was noted, "
(Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, p. 3)
"ince thy letter had not reached me then, I began with some words of reproach. Now, thy new missive hath dispelled that feeling..."
(Baha'u'llah, Four Valleys, p. 63)
"O thou wayfarer upon the paths of justice,... thy missive arrived. I was apprised thereby of thy question, " (Baha'u'llah, Jawahiru'l-Asrar)
"Your letter reached Us, and We have perused it, with all its allusions..."
(Baha'u'llah, Commentary on the Surah of the Sun - Cole 1994)
"I verily inhaled the pure fragrances of the garment of thy love, and " attained thy very meeting from perusing thy letter. And since I noted thy mention of thy death in God..." (Baha'u'llah, Seven Valleys, p. 2)
"Thy letter was received, and We perused it and heard thy call."
(Tabernacle_of_Unity Oct2014)
"When this wronged one was a child, he read about the subjugation of the Banu-Qurayza, in a book attributed to Mulla Baqir Majlisi, and immediately became so grieved and saddened that the Pen is unable to recount it,.." (Tablet of Banu Qurayza).
"Although We never felt disposed to peruse other peoples' writings, yet as some had questioned Us concerning him, We felt it necessary to refer to his books, in order that We might answer Our questioners with knowledge and understanding. [If he didn't read the book, he would not give a knowledgeable answer] His works, in the Arabic tongue, were, however, not available, until one day a certain man informed Us that one of his compositions, entitled Irshadu'l-'Avam, could be found in this city. ... We sent for the book, and kept it with Us a few days. It was probably referred to twice. The second time, We accidentally came upon the story of the "Mi'raj" of Muhammad, ... We gathered from his statements that unless a man be deeply versed in [20 sciences], he can never attain to a proper understanding "
(Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 184)
Yes, Bahaullah according to these statements appear to have said He read the letters He received.
But we also have accounts when Bahaullah knew what other people had said or prayed to God, without actually Bahaullah being present there. Even an account when a man who had never gone to school wanted to write a letter to Bahaullah and ask questions, but because he did not know writing, he just sent a blank paper, and when Bahullah received it, He was very pleased. He said that when a person’s heart is pure, there is no need for words. He knew what the old man wanted to say even though he had not written anything. Then Baha’u’llah wrote him a loving letter in reply, and answered all of his questions. (
Stories of Baha'u'llah - Baha'i Blog)
And such stories are compatible with the Writings of Bahaullah. For example Bahaullah wrote:
"O Czar of Russia! .... We, verily, have heard the thing for which thou didst supplicate thy Lord, whilst secretly communing with Him. Wherefore, the breeze of My loving-kindness wafted forth, and the sea of My mercy surged, and We answered thee in truth. Thy Lord, verily, is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise." The summon of the Lord of the Host
"Thus have We informed thee of that which lieth concealed within the hearts of men. Verily, thy Lord is the Almighty, the All-Knowing." Bahaullah, Surrah of Fuad
So now the question is, if Bahaullah's knowledge is identical with God as He said, and He knows the secrets in the hearts of men, and we do have many historical accounts from the Bab and Bahaullah where they knew the question of people, before they ask, then why we still see in Bahaullah's writings He read the letters? Is it possible a person already knows a particular saying in a book from his memory, and still read it from a book, just because someone made a request? Or in the case of Bahaullah, is it possible He wrote that He read their letters, as a way to just inform them He is giving a reply to their questions?
Perhaps another option is, both the claims of Bahaullah, and all those accounts are false?
But if that is the case, what are we going to do with all those prophecies which are compatible with Manifestation of the Bab and Bahaullah? What are we going to do, with all the wise ideas Bahaullah wrote? These are false too? But, I think to declare them false we need to prove Him wrong. What are we going with the fact that, no body can actually find and prove there is any errors in the writings of Bahaullah, though He has about 17000 works. Could a man, write so many volumes of books from His own mind, yet, no body can prove errors in them?
Now I had spent quite sometime researching the Traditions Bahaullah referred to them in the Book of certitude, while using online libraries of Islamic Traditions as well as others having the text searching tools. I can tell, that those traditions are not from 1, 2 or 3 brief books. They are from at least 15 books of religious traditions. One of these books is a collection of 110 volumes of books, called Bihar alanwar. And these books are each from some hundreds to more than a thousands pages. It means, if Bahaullah was to refer to these traditions from these books by actually having to physically read, find and quote them, He had to go through tens of thousands to several hundreds thousands of pages to get the info, and put them together. This is because, the traditions Bahaullah is referring to, are well spread as pieces of information within all these books. So, the question is, why then among all the companions of Bahaullah, there is not even a single witness that Bahaullah had these books or He had written His Books, while having all these Books around Him to look up the traditions in them?
Now consider that, for instance when Shoghi Effendi wrote the book "God passes by" , which also has many historical and religious traditions, he had to actually gather 200 books around him in order to get the info he needs to put in his book, but with regards to Bahaullah and the Bab, all those who witness Them writing Books or Tablets, have said, They wrote their Books from their own mind?
