The Bab and the Perspective of the Heart

Surih of Joseph, interprets the Quranic words. However, interpretation belongs to either the Imams or the scholars who try to explain the meaning of divine verses, the words of God. No Imam can bring divine verses, rather it is only the prophet of God who can receive divine verses. But in the case of the Bab we see that it is not the Imam or the scholar who interprets the divine verses. Rather it is the prophet, the Bab, who interprets his own words. From the point of view of the Bab all prophets are one and the same. Therefore, the Bab is the truth of Muhammad who is the source of the Qur’an. Now that same reality is interpreting his own words. In the case of interpretative writings of the Bab we see that the writer of the book and the interpreter of that book are one and the same. This becomes even more obvious when we note that the work of the Bab, Commentary on the Surih of Joseph, is written itself in the form of divine verses. Therefore, divine verses are being interpreted by divine verses, and this means that the work of the Bab is the same as the Qur’an and all other scriptures of God in the past. But the way the Bab interprets anything including the Qur’anic surihs is qualitatively different from the way others have interpreted Qur’an or other texts. The Bab says that to truly interpret a word one must show the truth of that thing that the word refers to it. Therefore, the purpose of interpretation is to unveil the hidden truth of things. But according to the Bab the real truth of everything is nothing but the divine revelation within that thing, or it is the divine attributes that is the hidden reality of that thing. Since everything is ultimately a mirror of God, therefore the ultimate and highest truth of everything is divine revelation. That is why when the Bab interprets anything they refer to the supreme unity of divine revelation. For example, let’s see how the Bab interprets the story of Joseph. In the interpretation of the Bab, joseph is Joseph but then he becomes the Imam Husayn and then he becomes the Bab. This interpretation is already expressing one of the most important expressions of the perspective of the heart, namely that the truth of all prophets of God is one and the same reality. The interpretation of the Bab is very intriguing. We know that the brothers of Joseph wanted to get rid of him and therefore left him in a dark well, and then returned to their father. But in the interpretation of the Bab, the brothers of Joseph become the other eleven Imams. But why the eleven Imams who are sacred people want do such a terrible thing to Imam Husayn? However, the Bab interprets the story of Joseph from the perspective of the heart. What he says is that Husayn symbolizes the truth of Islam which was beyond understanding of the people at that time. Martyrdom of Imam Husayn symbolizes the station of the heart, and the absolute unity of God (Ahadiyyat) where God is above any description or attribute. The Imams knew that people in the age of Islam are not yet ready to understand the truth of Islam, and therefore Islam had to be presented in a symbolic language so that people could understand. Therefore, they left Husayn, the divine secret, in the dark well of Ahadiyyat or in the realm of the heart, where God is above any description and therefore there is nothing to see or know. Then the Imams went back to their father and presented Islam in the realm of vahidiyyat namely the realm of unity of God where God has various attributes like Omniscient and Omnipotent and Merciful. This Husayn remains in the hidden and dark realm of the heart till humanity becomes ready to enter the perspective of the heart. It is at this time that Husayn comes out of the well in the form of the Bab and teaches the people the divine absolute unity or ahadiyyat. In order to understand the logic of interpretation in the writings of the Bab it is necessary to know that according to him everything and particularly the divine words possess infinite