The Bab and Modernity

most “materialistic” level of social life, namely in the realm of economics and work. This spiritualization of economic activities turns the realm of economy into a moral domain. In the writings of the Báb, the idea of seeking excellence in work is inseparable from the imperative of refinement and beautification in all things. It is necessary to beautify the world, to make it a mirror of the kingdom of God. 8. Reconstruction of the Millenarian Culture (Farhangi intizar) I finish this talk by contrasting the culture of awaiting for the coming of the Promised One in the writings of the Bab with the prevalent culture of awaiting of the Qa’im among Shi’ih clerics. Writings of the Bab are all devoted to the idea that his religion is not the last religion and that the purpose of all his writings is to prepare people for recognition of the next prophet. But this culture of expectation becomes the exact opposite of the culture of awaiting among Shi’ih Muslims. The Shi’ih concept sees the Promised One as one who takes back humanity to past Islamic traditions. They think that the clerics are the experts who will recognize and support him and therefore the believers must obey the clerics. They take the idea of awaiting as the duty to reject, kill, persecute, and kill those who would pretend to be the Qa’im. Finally, the Qa’im comes to kill all the infidels and make shi’is the ruler of the world, and this is their concept of justice. The Bab reverses all these concepts. The Promisd One of the Bab is a new prophet whose advent means abrogation of the Babi religion. It is a rejection of traditionalism altogether. The Promised One can only be realized by independent thinking of each individual. Therefore, no one should follow any cleric in searching after truth. In fact, the clerics are the defenders of tradition, and they are the first to oppose the Promised One. All Babis must get used to the culture that they should refrain from causing sadness to anyone so that when someone makes a claim to be the Promised One, true or false no Babi would ever cause harm or sadness to him. Absolute religious tolerance and love is the rule of the new culture of expectation. Finally, the coming of the Promised One is intended to actualize spiritual potentialities of human beings, rather than return humans to the beastly culture.