The Bābī-Bahāī Demythologization of Shī`ī messianism:

On the question of the reality of the twelfth Imam,

Muhammad al-Mahdi, the alleged son of the 11th
Imam, Ḥasan al-Askarī (d. 260/874) and Narjis
Khanum.

Stephen N. Lambden
IN PROGRESS 2006-7

The writings of the Bāb and Bahā'-Allāh are full of messianic

and eschatological proclamations, as well as intimations of

the non-literal realization of apocalyptic predictions. The

eschatology of the Bāb and Bahā'-Allāh is multi-faceted. It

exhibits some evolution over a fifty, eighty or 110 years

period, extending through the lifetimes of the Bāb, Bahā'-

Allāh, Abd al-Baha and Shoghi Effendi (1844-1957). A good

example of the complex manner in which Bābī-Bahā’ī

messianism has evolved is the question of the existence of

the youthful son of the the eleventh Imam Ḥasan al-Askarī (d.

Samarra c. 260/874) and his supposed concubine [wife]

variously named Saqīl, Sayqal or Narjis [Narcissus] Khatun.

She is sometimes reckoned a Byzantine princess, and a

descendant of Simon Peter, the apostle of Jesus. According to

Shī`ī tradition this son is the real twelfth Imam who

disappeared into occultation (ghaybat-i sughra) as a child

sometime in the later 1260s. For the orthodox twelver Shī``a

he is to appear from heaven at the termination of the

ghaybat-i kubra ("Greatest Occultation) in eschatological

times as the expected Qā’im.

Named Muhammad [al-Mahdī, al-Qā’im] the reality and

imminent parousia of this twelfth Imam was championed by

the Bāb at the outset of his mission. In his QA., Sūrat al-mulk

(1:1. 8a) and T.Kawthar (1262) the Bāb presupposed the

reality of the occulted twelfth Imam, even citing testimonies

of those who had visioned him during periods of his

occultation (T. Kawthar,78ff)

Twenty or so years later Bahā'-Allāh wrote his Jawāhir al-

asrār (The Jewels of the Mysteries, c. 1277 /1860-1) in respose

to a number of questions about the expected the Mahdī posed

by Sayyid Yūsuf-i Sidihī [Iṣfahānī], a one time resident of

Karbalā’ (Zarandī, Tarīkh mss. AQA 3:20). Therein Bahā'-Allāh

explains that Ḥasan al-Askarī is an archetypal, symbolic

figure, the advent of whose "son" was expected in every

religious cycle (Jawahir, XXX). In arguing that the Bāb fulfilled

the messianic prophecies contained in the Q. and traditions

about the expected Mahdī Bahā'-Allāh gave the traditions

relating to the twelfth Imam a spiritual interpretation. All

religions he stated, have it that the messiah Bāb is

Muhammad the son of Ḥasan al-Askarī is come from the

Jābulqā’ of "the power of God" (qudrat Allāh) and Jābulsā’ of

the "Mercy of God" (raḥmat Allāh, see AQA 3:41ff). The Bāb

came from these allusive realms, from these mysterious

"cities" where Shī`ī tradition locates the hidden messianic

imam. The hidden imam is essentially a symbolic figure. He

will also be manifested as the Bābī messiah figure man

yuẓhiru Allāh (AQA 3:43).

The twin cosmic realms of Jābulqā’ and Jābulsā Bahā'-

Allāh here argues in the Jawahir , are not concrete celestial

localities but symbolic expressions suggestive of aspects of

the divine Power and Mercy. In a Tablet to Varqā Bahā'-Allāh

later spoke of the fanciful nature of these two spheres,

referring to the "Jābulqā of idle fancy (mawhūm) and the

"Jābulsā of mere speculation (ẓunūn)" which led Muslim

traditionalists (ahl-i sunna) to decree the martyrdom of the

Bāb (Ma'idih 4:141).

Subsequently, both Bahā'-Allāh and `Abd al-Baha

explicitly denied the real existence of the messianic twelfth

Imam. In, for example, a Persian Tablet (to ??) `Abd al-Baha'

has written in response to a question about this matter as

follows:
You have sought an explanation regarding the [Shī`ī
messianic] twelfth Imam. As something conceived
[imagined] (taṣawwūr) as having its basis (aṣl) in the
corporeal world of bodily existence (dar `ālam-i jism-i wujūd)
this [figure] is non-existent (na-dashtih). Nay rather, [it was
the case that] some of the mighty ones (akābir) among the
Shī`ī [Muslims] at that [earlier] time (dar an zamān) were
categorical respecting the preservation [of the faith] of the
weak ones among the people and they thus upheld the
existence of that person [the 12th Imam] in the realm of the
unseen (ḥayyiz-i ghayb)... (cited Ghadimi, Sayyid-i
rusul, [1988], 210).

A brother of Imām Ḥasan al-Askarī came to be known among

the Shī`a as Ja`far the al-kadhdhāb ("Liar") on account of his

denial of the real existence of his brother’s allegedly occulted

son, the twelfth Imam. This Ja`far was referred to by both

Bahā'-Allāh and `Abd al-Baha as Ja`far the Truthful (Ma'idih

8:102; X:???). This on account of their own denial of his real

existence. In a lengthy 1293/1876-7 Persian Tablet of Bahā'-

Allāh it is stated that had it not been for the dishonesty of the

leading Shī`ī ulamā’ regarding the occulted son of Ḥasan al-

Askarī, "the Bāb, the Most transcendent Lord (rabb-i`alā)

would not have suffered martyrdom" (Ma'idih 7:185f).

Bābī-Bahā’ī doctrine thus ranges from a literalistic stand

regarding the ethereal figure of the twelfth Imam by the Bab,

to an outright denial of his existence by Bahā'-Allāh and Abd

al-Baha. The demythologization of this problematic messianic

figure is complete although this radical demythologization is

not often voiced by modern Baha’is (cf. SE*, GPB:xx; Ghadimi,

1988:206f).

As far as I am aware this issue was first raised by the

British anti-Baha'i Protestant missionary John Richard

Richards (b. d. [Wales] 198?) D. D. (one time Bishop of St.

David's [Wales]) in his 1932 publication The Religion of the

Baha'is ( SPCK: London, 1932 / New York : Macmillan, 1934)

http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/03-Biblical-islam-
BBst/IMAM12.HTM