The Bab and Modernity

divine attributes. Consequently, all things are beautiful and sacred, and nature is also endowed with moral rights. All things yearn to attain the state of their own perfection, which is their paradise. Humans are obligated to help everything, including the realm of nature, to achieve its paradise. In regard to human beings, paradise is the state of the realization of one’s spiritual potentialities. Since humans are historical beings and since there is no end to their spiritual advancement, therefore, heaven and hell are also dynamic and historical phenomena. The Day of Resurrection is not the end of history. Instead, it is the day of the revelation of a new prophet of God who begins a new stage of development of human history. Living in accordance with new spiritual values implies resurrection from the graveyard of ignorance and stagnation. Those traditionalists who oppose the advancement of culture and history are depriving themselves and others from realizing their spiritual potentialities. This deprivation is hell itself. 6. Reinterpretation of the Occultation and Return of the 12 th Imam Another reflection of the creativity of the Báb is his new interpretation of the concepts of the Twelfth Imam, his occultation, and his return. Although the prevalent and literal understanding of these ideas contradict both reason and ethical values, the Báb reinterprets the same ideas in ways that affirm rationality and the nobility of human beings. Needless to say the Báb considers himself to be the Return of the Twelfth Imam. However, as it is explicated in his later writings, by Twelfth Imam he means the common spiritual truth he shares with all other sacred figure of Islam. Yet, in one of his mystical works, Commentary on the Occultation Prayer, he provides an alternative interpretation for the occultation of the Twelfth Imam. This work of the Báb is a commentary on a prayer attributed to the 6 th Imam, called the Prayer of Occultation. This prayer consists of three sentences and the Shi’a believers are encouraged to recite this prayer in order to hasten the return of the Twelfth Imam. The Báb interprets this prayer in a mystical and philosophical way. According to him, the Twelfth Imam, his occultation, and his return do not refer to any particular historical event, rather they are symbolic expressions of the dynamics of human self-alienation and self- consciousness. According to the Báb, God has created the primordial truth of human beings in the utmost state of perfection and nobility. This idea, namely the original spiritual perfection and powers of all human beings is symbolically represented as the birth and the childhood of the Twelfth Imam. However, despite its potential nobility and glory, human beings in the course of their ordinary pursuits, become preoccupied with selfish and materialistic concerns, forgetting their own spiritual identity and truth. This state of self-forgetfulness and self-alienation is symbolized by the idea of the occultation of the Twelfth Imam. The age of occultation is the age of tyranny and injustice because the essence of tyranny is none other than the negation of spiritual values and the reduction of self to the level of beasts. That is why the emancipation from tyranny and the realization of the age of freedom require the reawakening of human spiritual consciousness in such a way that one’s potential spiritual powers become operative at the level of one’s concrete life. This return to one’s spiritual identity is symbolically presented as the return of the Twelfth Imam. For such overcoming of tyranny, it is necessary to engage in prayer, since the spirit of prayer is the dynamic of discovering the infinite within one’s own finite reality. 7. Spiritualization of Ethics