Community of Jihad

That obligatory prayer is a central element of Baha’i identity has already been established. Furthermore it has been shown that Bahá’u’lláh regards the purpose of religion to be the unity of the human race. What remains to been seen though, is what Bahá’u’lláh regards as the particular destiny of the people of Baha[1] in sacred history. In other words, it remains to be seen what he thinks of His community in particular, rather than just religion in general. The Suriy-i-Haykal, a writing of Bahá’u’lláh from the mid 1860’s, is an indispensable resource on this matter. In its 2002 printing, the Suriy-i-Haykal runs at 51 pages. In that space He prophecies in ten separate places the emergence of a community that would emerge in spite of His persecutions to follow His teachings and espouse His cause. At the time when this was written Bahá’u’lláh had been exiled three times in just over a decade, the first from native Iran to Baghdad in 1853, the second from Baghdad to Istanbul in 1863, and the third from Istanbul to Edirne in European Turkey. Not long after writing it, He would be exiled for the fourth and final time, this time to Akka, in what is now northern Israel. Around ten years after writing the Suriy-i-Haykal Bahá’u’lláh was at work establishing the religious law that would set the Bahá’i community apart from that of His predecessor, the Bab, and from the surrounding Muslim community. A central feature was the revelation of specifically Bahá’i obligatory prayers. Below is one of Bahá’u’lláh’s ten prophecies regarding the future of His community. It is one of the only ones to employ the provocative imagery that it does. But it is in no way uncharacteristic of the other prophecies. It is written in the voice of Divine Revelation with himself in the third person.

Erelong shall God raise up, through Thee, those with hands of indomitable strength and arms of invincible might, who will come forth from behind the veils, will render the All-Merciful victorious amongst the peoples of the world, and will raise so mighty a cry as to cause all hearts to tremble with fear. Thus hath it been decreed in a Written Tablet. Such shall be the ascendancy which these souls will evince that consternation and dismay will seize all the dwellers of the earth.

Beware lest ye shed the blood of anyone. Unsheathe the sword of your tongue from the scabbard of utterance, for therewith ye can conquer the citadels of men’s hearts. We have abolished the law to wage holy war against each other. God’s mercy, hath, verily, encompassed all created things, if ye do but understand. Aid ye your Lord, the God of Mercy, with the sword of understanding. Keener indeed is it, and more finely tempered, than the sword of utterance, were ye but to reflect upon the words of your Lord. Thus have the hosts of Divine Revelation been sent down by God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting, and thus have the armies of divine inspiration been made manifest from the Source of command, as bidden by God, the All-Glorious, the Best-Beloved.

The first section of this passage employs an image of the prophesied Bahá’i community as a legion of holy warriors, (mujahiden) engaged in religious struggle (jihad). It calls to mind the wars of conquest launched by Muhammad and His followers to expand the domain of the faith in the earliest years of Islam. Like Bahá’u’lláh, Muhammad encountered persecution and was driven out of his hometown of Mecca. But these early abasements were more than compensated by the political and religious dominance He gained in the region once He became established in Medina. Bahá’u’lláh invokes this proud moment in Muslim memory, while at the same time warning his Bahá’i readers of the difference between the two situations. He specifies that this jihad is to be fought with swords of utterance and understanding. In this way can his followers conquer the citadels of men’s hearts. Persuassion is the means of struggle, not physical violence. This is because the objective is the establishment of unity in the affairs of humanity and not the triumph of a particular religious state. Wars of conquest and terrorism must then fade into the background. Thoughtfulness, dialogue, and education would then become the new instruments of jihad. This is the image that Bahá’u’lláh presents of his future followers, one of stalwart mujahiden with hands of indomitable strength and arms of invincible might. A decade later, he wrote the Long Obligatory Prayer for them to perform daily.

In the above passage one of the prophesied achievements of these Bahá’i mujahiden is that they will render the All-Merciful victorious amongst the peoples of the world. God’s dominion then would become manifest in creation by way of human beings. But it is not the human beings that are victorious. It is the All-Merciful. His weapons of choice are swords of utterance and understanding: the spiritual powers of servants committed to producing peace where otherwise there is hatred and complacency. How this plays out in the Long Obligatory Prayer will become clearer in some of the later sections of the prayer. But as for now, it is imporant to keep in mind that passages such as this are some of the few in Bahá’u’lláh’s writings from that time that show what he was imagining for the Bahá’i community in the more-than-immediate future. Study of these passages is then a glance into the earliest illustrations of a specifically Bahá’i community identity.

[1] In Arabic Baha’i means people of glory (Baha). Throughout most of his life Bahá’u’lláh was known simply as Baha. Thus, his followers by association were called people of Baha, Baha’is. It was only late in his life that he began to be referred to as Bahá’u’lláh (Glory of God).