God hath decreed, in token of His mercy unto His creatures, that semen
is not unclean. Yield thanks unto Him with joy and radiance ¶74
Bahá'u'lláh is said to have written the Kitáb-i-Aqdas
in 1873,
or perhaps
several years earlier. This was relatively early in his ministry, so much
was added or ammended afterward, but the Aqdas stands as the book that Bahá'u'lláh
intended to serve as the foundation of his scriptures. The Aqdas, when viewed
with its Islamic, Shi'i, Iranian, and Bayanic origins in mind, presents very
little original material, and is hence a very traditional book in the Shi'i
style, and it contains much that western Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís
might find hard to swollow. It is therefore no surprise that the Bahá'í
authorities did not complete an
authoritative English translation until
120 years after its release in Arabic. Its release in English, along with the
advent of the Internet, preceeded a surge in fundamentalism in the previously
liberal western Bahá'í community.
First and foremost, the Twin Duties assigned by the Aqdas to all men are (1)
belief in Bahá'u'lláh and (2) obedience to his laws and ordinances.
¶1 The Aqdas states quite clearly that good
deeds—without satisfying these two duties—are worthless. This fundamentalist
doctrine of salvation leaves no room for the unbeliever and those who cannot
manage to live by the entirety of Bahá'u'lláh's rules and regulations,
which are—as well shall soon see—quite hard to swallow hole. The
Bahá'í community, in fact, does not follow many of the directives
of the Aqdas, though they claim they will one day when mankind has reached a
sufficient level of maturity.
The Foundation: Original Sin
The Bahá'í doctrine of the Twin Duties rests upon the foundation
of the Bahá'í version of the doctrine of original sin. The Bahá'í
idea is not that
Adam and Eve blew it for the rest
of us, but rather that we are inadequate by design, and not just morally, but
we are futhermore incapable of discerning right from wrong. Our only hope is
to fear God, recognize Bahá'u'lláh, and obey him.
O people of the world! Follow not the promptings of the self, for it
summoneth insistently to wickedness and lust; follow, rather, Him Who is the
Possessor of all created things, Who biddeth you to show forth piety, and
manifest the fear of God. ¶64
Regard men as a flock of sheep that need a shepherd for their protection.
This, verily, is the truth, the certain truth. We approve of liberty in certain
circumstances, and refuse to sanction it in others. We, verily, are the All-Knowing.
¶124
Bahá'u'lláh makes this point in different ways throughout his
writings:
man is unable to comprehend that which hath streamed forth from the Pen
of Glory and is recorded in His heavenly Books. Men at all times and under
all conditions stand in need of one to exhort them, guide them and to instruct
and teach them.
Lawh-i-Maqsúd (Tablet to Mirzá Maqsúd)
Thus the Aqdas states in no uncertain terms that we are to follow Bahá'u'lláh
strictly according to his own terms:
Weigh not the Book of God with such standards and sciences as are current
amongst you, for the Book itself is the unerring Balance established amongst
men. In this most perfect Balance whatsoever the peoples and kindreds of the
earth possess must be weighed, while the measure of its weight should be tested
according to its own standard, ... ¶99
Thus it follows that one cannot rest ones conscience on good deeds alone, because
one cannot distinguish good from evil in the first place.
Blessed is the man that hath acknowledged his belief in God and in His
signs, and recognized that "He shall not be asked of His doings".
Such a recognition hath been made by God the ornament of every belief and
its very foundation. Upon it must depend the acceptance of every goodly deed.
¶161
This, of course, puts men in a position of being incapable of measuring the
appropriateness or fairness of any of Bahá'u'lláh's laws and ordinances,
or for that matter, anything Bahá'u'lláh has said. Therefore,
men must simply believe and obey:
The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition
of Him Who is the Dayspring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws,
Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world
of creation. Whoso achieveth this duty hath attained unto all good; and whoso
is deprived thereof hath gone astray, though he be the author of every righteous
deed. It behoveth every one who reacheth this most sublime station, this summit
of transcendent glory, to observe every ordinance of Him Who is the Desire
of the world. These twin duties are inseparable. Neither is acceptable without
the other. ¶1
Unbelievers
There are certainly passages in Bahá'í scripture that exhibit
tolerance of the unbeliever, but there are certainly passages that exhibit a
less than complimentary attitude:
The peoples of the world are fast asleep. ... So bewildered are they
in the drunkenness of their evil desires, that they are powerless to recognize
the Lord of all being, Whose voice calleth aloud from every direction ...
¶39
Islamic Legalism
One of the most striking characteristics of the Aqdas, especially in light
of the fact that such gravity is given to its laws and ordinances, is that a
number of important issues are omitted while several less important topics are
addressed in great technical detail. What the Aqdas chooses to address appears
to follow the pattern of Islamic tradition and Bábí law more than
issues that concern modern civilazation. Indeed, the Aqdas itself indicates
that Bahá'u'lláh wrote the Aqdas to appease the many contemporary
Bahá'ís who saw great importance in addressing Islamic law.
¶98
Severe Punishments
It is not enough to say that the Aqdas endorses capital punishment. In many
parts of the world where capital punishment is used, it is reserved for extreme
crimes. In the Aqdas, the application of capital punishment is more straightforward:
if one kills (with intent), one is to be killed.
¶62
Even stronger is the punishment for arson, which appears to be the equivalent
of burning at the stake.
¶62 Not to imply
that arson is not a dreadfully serious crime, but isn't that a bit cruel and
unusual? Is there no other crime that calls for a punishment of proportionate
cruelty?
Unfair Penalties and Allotments
Though Bahá'u'lláh dealt with a handful of topics in great detail,
his handling of these topics left something to be desired with regard to fairness.
One example of this are the flat monetary fines applied to fornication
¶49
and manslaughter
¶188 and flat amounts assigned
to dowries
¶66: did it ever occur to Bahá'u'lláh
that this approach favors the wealthy? It has the effect of making fornication
and manslaughter similarly minor offenses for those who can easily part with
a little gold.
I have, on occasion, stopped to wonder how a modern criminal court system might
be served by the additional load of fornication cases. I also wonder how people
might come to be accused of fornication. It's good for a laugh or two.
Manslaughter is treated as a civil offense for which the
blood money
is set to about 11 troy oz. of gold. The fine for first offense adultery is
about an ounce.
Marriage and Inheritance
The passages of the Aqdas on marriage
¶63-70
are noticeably gender-biased. Men are permitted to have two wives
¶63
(`Abdu'l-Bahá later abrogated this allowance of bigamy). Men are presumed
to be the sole bread winners, so no consideration is given to the likelihood
that a woman might work
¶67. Whereas adultery
is considered to be an offense that men
and women can commit
¶49,
divorce appears to be justifiable by female adultery only, for, in keeping with
Islamic tradition, divorce is not a two-way street: the man divorces the wife;
not the other way around.
¶68.
Dowries are set to a couple ounces of gold for city urban Bahá'ís
and a couple ounces of silver for rural Bahá'ís.
¶66
Silver is, of course, worth much less than gold. This system favors rural residents
whether they are rich or poor, but more importantly, why even bother with such
detail? Why require dowries in a modern age in which wives are presumably no
longer possessions?
Bahá'u'lláh's rules for inheritance clearly favor men over women.
¶20–29 The only defense Bahá'ís
have for this is that Bahá'u'lláh's rules are merely a default
to be used when Bahá'ís don't leave a will (which would be illegal).
Is this to suggest that Bahá'u'lláh's inheritance rules are not
to be used, even as a model? Of course they are to be used! If failing to leave
a will is forbidden, why else would Bahá'u'lláh have specified
these allotments? To punish the female descendants only?
Important Topics Avoided
It seems a bit peculiar that, having dealt with incidental topics in great
detail, Bahá'u'lláh found his way to sidestep some important issues,
such as circumcision—especially the female variety practiced in parts
of the Muslim world. He must have been aware of the practice, yet he did not
seem to believe it was an issue deserving of his attention.
Some heinous crimes are not touched by the Aqdas. Thievery is addressed in
detail, but robbery—the violent equivalent—is not touched.
The Aqdas does not address sexual crimes such as molestation and rape. These
heinous offenses may not have been considered as serious from Bahá'u'lláh's
Islamic perspective, but of course that's no excuse for a
universal manifestation.
Good Old-Fashioned Homophobia
The Aqdas fails to discuss rape, sexual assault, or molestation, but it does
express great abhorrance for something it ambiguously calls
the subject
of boys. ¶107 Shoghi Effendi interpreted
this as a general forbiddence of sexual relations between males. As ambiguously
grossed out as Bahá'u'lláh appeared to be by
the subject of
boys, Shoghi Effendi was probably reading Bahá'u'lláh right.
Silly Stuff, But Not Harmless
Though the Bahá'ís claim to respect cultural diversity, the very
fabric of the Bahá'í Faith threatens cultural diversity, because
the Bahá'í Faith is no mere code of international and interracial
good will as it has been sold to us; rather it is a complex set of behavioral
codes that dictate manner of dress, eating, worship, marriage, and on and on.
One directive that drives this point home is Bahá'u'lláh's directive
on the trimming of hair:
Shave not your heads; God hath adorned them with hair, and in this there
are signs from the Lord of creation to those who reflect upon the requirements
of nature. He, verily, is the God of strength and wisdom. Notwithstanding,
it is not seemly to let the hair pass beyond the limit of the ears. Thus hath
it been decreed by Him Who is the Lord of all worlds. ¶44
It's a good thing Shoghi Effendi clarified the prohibition against long hair
to be directed only toward men! Still, given the apparent spirit of this passage,
consider how Bahá'u'lláh kept his own hair. We have included a
photo to assist the reader.
This question ought to also be put to `Abdu'l-Bahá's appearance.
Still, this lack of integrity is not the most troubling aspect of the twin directives
on hair. The keeping of hair is a part of many cultures. What are the Bahá'ís
to say people who have used the grooming of their hair as part of their cultural
and religious heritage for thousands of years? For example, in many Native American
cultures, the cutting of ones hair is a sign of grieving or shame. Are the Bahá'ís
prepared to follow in the footsteps of the Christian missionaries of old?
This is certainly not the only place where the Bahá'í
Faith imposes on perfectly harmless cultural practices. The Bahá'í
Faith requires burial of the dead, for instance, and the Bahá'í
Faith brings its own set of rules and form of ceremony to marriages and funerals.
Even the dinner table is not spared:
Take heed lest, when partaking of food, ye plunge your hands
into the contents of bowls and platters. ¶46
Does this mean we must eat pizza with a fork?
And in keeping with the
Tidiness-is-Godliness principle, we have another
gem:
Should the garb of anyone be visibly sullied, his prayers shall not ascend
to God, and the celestial Concourse will turn away from him. ¶67
Well, I should say: what if the garment is
invisibly sullied by some
horrible bacteria? Then his prayers would be welcome because there is no
visible
dirt?
And finally, another silly rule:
If ye should hunt with beasts or birds of prey, invoke ye the Name of
God when ye send them to pursue their quarry; for then whatever they catch
shall be lawful unto you, even should ye find it to have died. ¶60
The obvious question here is: what if one hunts with a gun, a net, or a bow?
This is a discussion about the culturally insensitive nature of the Bahá'í
Faith that goes beyond the Aqdas itself, but the Aqdas is a prominant part of
the problem.
The Roots of Shundamentalism
Shundamentalism, the distictly Bahá'í practice of shunning other
Bahá'ís who follow another Bahá'í leader, was put
forward again and again by Bahá'u'lláh, and an example is to be
found in the Aqdas:
Erelong shall clamorous voices be raised in most lands. Shun them, O
My people, and follow not the iniquitous and evil-hearted. This is that of
which We gave you forewarning when We were dwelling in Iraq, then later while
in the Land of Mystery, and now from this Resplendent Spot. ¶37
Later, in
Questions and Answers, Bahá'u'lláh utters
this remarkably divisive statement regarding non-Bahá'í family
members, giving great legal weight to the practice of shunning apostates:
Any heir, from whichever category of inheritors, who is outside the Faith
of God is accounted as non-existent and doth not inherit.
Answer #34
Why one should not become—or remain—a Bahá'í, according
to the Aqdas
Finally, here are some selections from the Aqdas to help motivate good people
to keep clear of the Bahá'í Faith:
It is inadmissible that man, who hath been endowed with reason, should
consume that which stealeth it away. ¶119
Burden not an animal with more than it can bear. ¶187
_____________________________________________________________________________
How much really changed in the Aqdas?
Courtesy : The National Spiritual Assembly of the Covenant-breakers of Eastern Oregon and Tiajuana.
