Christ and Bahá’u’lláh
Christ and Bahá’u’lláh
Some have asserted that, while mighty signs and marvellous deeds have appeared from Bahá’u’lláh, through which His greatness shines forth as resplendent as the sun, yet the Revelation of Christ is superior to and incommensurate with His.
Indeed, the signs of greatness in Christ are beyond the ken of mortal mind and the grasp of human imagination. And indeed, we are most humble and lowly before His sweet and beauteous countenance, and we love Him with all our heart and soul; nay, should it be called for and should divine confirmations assist us, we would readily lay down our lives for His sake. For we regard Him in the light of true greatness and bear allegiance to His truth. But should attention be drawn to this assertion, we will, in all sincerity and love, reply to their objection in the following manner.
Christ was raised among the people of Israel, who lived under Roman rule. Now, in those days the Romans were world-renowned for their attainments in every field of human civilization, and so it would not be a cause of great wonder if an eloquent utterance or a novel teaching were to issue from Christ. Bahá’u’lláh, by contrast, appeared in Persia, where useful sciences were entirely lacking, except insofar as religious laws and theological studies were concerned. And thus, the appearance of these divine teachings, of these mighty and momentous signs, from such an individual and in such a land, is indeed cause for wonder.
Moreover, the words and verses of Christ, when taken altogether, would comprise at most ten pages, whereas if the verses of Bahá’u’lláh were gathered together from beginning to end, they would fill several trunks. Aside from this, the utterances of Christ in the Gospel are solely concerned with spiritual admonitions and with the improvement and rectification of human character, whereas the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh encompass manifold expressions of wisdom and inner meaning, realities and sciences, counsels and admonitions, and explanations and exegeses of the Sacred Scriptures of old.
At the time of His ascension, Christ had raised up twelve men and four women. There were to be sure a few others beside these, but they had not reached the station of certitude. And among these twelve men, one became His sworn enemy: Judas Iscariot, who, notwithstanding his position as the chief of the Apostles, arose to have Him killed. The most prominent among the remaining eleven was Peter, and even he failed to stand firm in the face of trials, since, according to the explicit text of the Gospel, he thrice denied Christ at the hour of His martyrdom, to the point of entirely recanting his faith in the last instance. It was only after the cock crowed that he was reawakened and made contrite and repentant. Whereas from the inception of this Cause to the present day, perhaps close to twenty thousand men, women, and children have offered up their lives in the path of God. Many of them, under the threat of the sword, raised the cry of “Yá Bahá’u’l-Abhá!” Many were told that, if they publicly recanted their faith, they would keep both their lives and their possessions, and yet they answered with the cry of “Yá Bahá’u’l-Abhá!” Thus, at the time of Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension, more than two hundred thousand souls had taken shelter beneath His blessed shadow and had attained the station of certitude. The renown of Christ did not even reach, in His own lifetime, Assyria, Chaldea, Asia Minor, or the regions of Syria, whereas Bahá’u’lláh’s renown, in His own lifetime, had spread throughout East and West.
Christ was not widely known among the people—most would not recognize Him—and He would travel from village to village and from wilderness to wilderness; and so it was that when they set out to arrest Him they knew not where to find Him or how to recognize Him. Judas Iscariot came to them and said: “I will show Him to you.” They said: “When we enter that place, how will we know who is Christ?” Judas said: “The one whom I will kiss is Christ.” Bahá’u’lláh, however, was standing visibly and openly before His foes, was known to all, and withstood the onslaught of a mighty nation. The enemy arrayed against Christ was the feeble Jewish nation which suffered under Roman rule and which, like the present-day Jews of Tiberias and Safed, was a subjugated people. Bahá’u’lláh’s enemies, however, were the adherents of one of the most powerful nations of the world. When Christ was taken before the court, He was asked: “Art thou the King of the Jews?” And He replied in all meekness: “Thou sayest it.”19 But, in the great assemblage of Ṭihrán, the voice of Bahá’u’lláh was raised in address to the highest heaven.20
This is the truth of the matter. Consider it and ask the deniers to judge with fairness, to forsake blind prejudice, and to apprehend the truth by inference from the Sacred Scriptures. For instance, were you to tell the Christian clergy today that Christ was not known to the people during His own lifetime, they would be most astonished and deny it—whereas it is explicitly recorded in the Gospel that Judas Iscariot accepted what indeed was a paltry sum to reveal the whereabouts of Christ, and that since none among the crowd could recognize Him, he said that whoever he would kiss was Christ and was to be arrested. And so it came to pass.