Human Being in the Writings of the Báb

gives the name of 17 of them. Then the Báb says: “Verily God took the essence of these seventeen and placed it in this one soul who answered as the 18 th .” و ﻟﻘد اﺧذ ﷲ ﺟوھر ﺗﻠﮏ اﻟﺳﺑﻌﺔ واﻟﻌﺷر و اودﻋﮫ ﻓﯽ ﻧﻔس اﻟﺗﯽ اﺟﺎﺑت ﻓﯽ رﺗﺑﺔ اﻟﺛﻣﺎﻧﯾﺔ واﻟﻌﺷر. It is amazing that the Báb defines this one soul as Ṭáhirih. In other words, from the point of view of the Báb, the station of Ṭáhirih by herself is equal to all other 17 Letters of the Living combined. It is necessary to note that the Persian Bayán forbids causing sorrow for anyone, and commands to bring joy and happiness to the hearts of everyone. But then the Báb says that this duty is doubly binding in relation to women. My final example of the attitude of the Báb to women is the poem He wrote for His wife when He was in Búshihr. His letter begins with this touching word: O My Sweet Soul Think not that the interruption of letters is due to boredom Or, that anything else preoccupies My heart Rather, whenever My pen begins to write to you even a single word My tears precede it and wash it away. 4. Human Freedom As we noted, the Báb defines human beings as the mirrors of divine attributes. One of the implications of this idea is that the Báb completely rejects a fatalistic theory of human action, and instead emphasizes human freedom. Sunní Islám mostly supported a deterministic attitude where everything is determined by God and humans have no freedom of action. Shí’ah Islám, influenced by Zoroastrianism’s emphasis on human freedom, was more supportive of human freedom of action. The writings of the Báb bring a new perspective on this issue. According to this approach, all human actions are products of three factors. The first is existence, which comes from God. The second is essence (máhíyat), which is the specific choices and characteristics of a human being. The third is the coming together of the existence and essence. In other words, all human actions are simultaneously determined by God and also caused by human freedom and choice. In traditional theology and philosophy, this is understood as a contradiction. Namely, it is assumed that if God is the cause of our actions then we cannot be a cause of our actions. Conversely, if we are the cause of our actions, then God cannot be the cause of them. But the Báb solves this problem. As we saw in my previous discussion, according to the Báb, God is not a human-like God. Since God is absolutely transcendental, it means that causation by God is qualitatively different than the causation by humans. Since these two types of causation are absolutely different they have no contradiction with each other. Both are true. Emphasis on human agency is compatible with a modern society in which humans try to improve both their society and their individual selves because they believe that what happens in society is not an inevitable and predetermined event. People and their ideas shape their life and destiny. 5. Occultation (ghaybat) and return of the 12 th Imám