Concealment and Revelation

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Concealment and Reve lat ion

thee, ere the moment We answered thy call. Wait thou until nine will have elapsed from the time of the Bayán. Then exclaim: ‘Blessed, therefore, be God, the most excellent of Makers!’” O thou who claimest to have seeing eyes and to be an upholder of justice and fairness! Open thou thine eyes to behold how a new creation hath come into being since the year nine and say: “Blessed, therefore, be God, the Most Excellent of Creators.” And again, “Hallowed be the Lord, the Most Excellent and the Most Wondrous of Creators.” Observe how He hath referred to both the maturation of the people of the Bayán and the superiority of the next Revelation through His explicit and unambiguous reference to the difference between “Qá’im” and “Qayyúm” and “A‘z. am” and “‘Az. ím . ” And when the period was consummated and the appointed time ordained by God completed, the Beauty of Nine was revealed with manifest dominion. ( Kitáb-i-Badí‘ 114–15; provisional translation) It should be mentioned that the numerical difference between “A‘z. am,” meaning “the most great,” and “‘Az. ím,” meaning “the great,” is nine—the same as the difference between “Qá’im” and “Qayyúm.” Bahá’u’lláh states that the Beauty of Nine (namely “Bahá,” which is equal to nine) appeared in the year nine as the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Bayán. That same point is made in many other tablets, such as the following: Ponder upon this exalted word revealed by the Dayspring of the utterance of the Lord of Names, the Primal Point, which is truly of the essence of the Bayán. He saith: “In the year nine ye shall attain unto all good and in the year nine ye shall attain unto the presence of God.” And addressing his honor ‘Az. ím, rest upon him the glory and the loftiness of God, He—may He be glorified—saith: “This, verily, is the thing We promised thee, ere the moment We answered thy call. Wait thou until nine will have elapsed from the time of the Bayán. Then exclaim: ‘Blessed, therefore, be God, the most excellent of Makers!’” Now be fair: who is the One Who appeared in the year nine? (Ishráq Khávarí, Qámús - i-Tawqí‘ 2 : 487; provisional translation) One of those to whom Bahá’u’lláh disclosed his station was Dayyán (Mírzá Asadu’lláh Khu’í). In some of his writings, Bahá’u’lláh mentions that the Báb had written of Dayyán as the third to recognize Him Whom God shall make manifest, and Bahá’u’lláh testifies that this did in fact happen in the early Baghdad period: The Primal Point has written to him, “O thou the third Letter to believe in Him Whom God shall make manifest,” and this is the station that supersedeth all stations, and then He mentioned something in this regard which implied that Dayyán would become blessed by the encounter with God in the next Revelation, and that the Eternal Temple would declare Himself to him, as in reality he attained the presence and the Tongue of God spoke to him . . . and the Most Glorious Beauty showered him with kindness and he attained the station ordained in the tablet. ( Kitáb-i-Badí‘ 102–14; provisional translation)