p03 Babi foundations

Fundamentalism and the Bab

By John Taylor; 2008 May 24, 08 `Azamat, 165 BE

 

Today let us briefly examine the Bab's contribution to our understanding of what is now called fundamentalism.

 

Over the past several centuries, Islam, impotent in the face of change, confronted by Western culture and unable to regain its former ascendancy in science and technology, has responded by reverting to old ways and traditional answers. As we saw yesterday, the term "fundamentalism" was broadened in the late 1970's so as to describe the notorious radicalism and violence of Muslim radicals. Most countries in the Islamic world have had autonomous rule by Muslims for several decades; in spite of this, little progress has resulted. Unable to live up to their own ideals and expectations, leaders of thought in both Sunni and Shi'ih Islam resort to the plaintive rhetoric of victimization. Although Islamic history records the corruption of the faith very early on, followed soon after by an imperialist expansion unequaled in speed and territorial gain by any in history, including the conquest of the Americas; in spite of this, traditionalists yearn after an imagined early purity in Islamic civilization.

 

The just-released study of the works of the Bab, "Gate of the Heart; Understanding the Writings of the Bab," by Nader Saiedi, contends that the Mission of the Bab was designed primarily to cure this chronic wasting illness in the Faith from which He was the Mihdi, the One Who arose. The Bab redefined fundamentalism when He agreed with traditionalists that the key was a return to the creative spirit of the early Muslims.

 

"But this return to the source, as it unfolds in the Writings of the Bab, is the exact opposite of a return to the former rituals and practices. ... the creativity of the divine spirit involves not the preservation but the abrogation of the previous social laws and practices, and their periodic renewal in new forms." (p. 7)

 

The Bab, Saiedi points out, was concerned not with a wholesale rejection of either modernity or tradition but a thoughtful, critical re-examination of both.

 

"The Bab advocates adopting useful elements of Western modernity --for example, He encourages trade relations with the West, and urges learning from the sciences, arts and industries of the Christians (that is, Europeans). But he rejects the particularistic, materialistic, and morally harmful aspects of modernity that obstruct the progress of civilization." (Idem.)

 

The Bab in fact called for an intimate historical consciousness about spiritual teaching. He called upon Babis to have the utmost reverence for all our past origins, including that of past religions.

 

"This doth not mean, however, that one ought not to yield praise unto former Revelations. On no account is this acceptable, inasmuch as it behooveth man, upon reaching the age of nineteen, to render thanksgiving for the day of his conception as an embryo. For had the embryo not existed, how could he have reached his present state? Likewise had the religion taught by Adam not existed, this Faith would not have attained its present stage. Thus consider thou the development of God's Faith until the end that hath no end." (Selections, 89)

 

Just as the acceptance of evolution required careful documentation of the historical record of species variation by the likes of Darwin and Wallace, so the Bab called for a similarly scientific grasping after the meaning of past Faiths in order that the static received idea then known as the "perennial philosophy" might grow into what Baha'is now call progressive revelation. The latter would not have been possible without the Bab's groundbreaking disquisitions. But as with any ploughing operation, there had first to be much sifting and overturning of established doctrine.

 

"How vast the number of people who will, on the Day of Resurrection, regard themselves to be in the right, while they shall be accounted as false through the dispensation of Providence, inasmuch as they will shut themselves out as by a veil from Him Whom God shall make manifest and refuse to bow down in adoration before Him Who, as divinely ordained in the Book, is the Object of their creation." (Selections, 143)

 

In previous essays I suggested that instead of fundamentalism we use the word "false-fundamentalism" for reactionary movements in religion. This is because, as the parable of the house built on sand teaches, there really can be a good kind of foundation of fundamentals on which to build. Whatever religious activity comes out of the true fundamentals -- relationship with the God of love – has to be stable and good, like a firm foundation to a house. Whatever maintains this tie is a fundamental. The Bab was not reticent about exactly what this fundamental is,

 

"Thou hast asked concerning the fundamentals of religion and its ordinances: Know thou that first and foremost in religion is the knowledge of God. This attaineth its consummation in the recognition of His divine unity, which in turn reacheth its fulfilment in acclaiming that His hallowed and exalted Sanctuary, the Seat of His transcendent majesty, is sanctified from all attributes. And know thou that in this world of being the knowledge of God can never be attained save through the knowledge of Him Who is the Dayspring of divine Reality." (Selections, 115)

 

True fundamentalism, then, is the understanding that whatever I hold about God is not something I can put in my pocket. That would be presumptuous.

 

The relation is incomplete and requires humility, an intimate awareness that our conversation with Him is not yet over, that in our worldly life we are carrying it over into our relations with our fellow man. In His prayers, the Bab demonstrates the proper attitude. ".... I have been eager to worship Thee, yet have I failed to achieve Thy adoration, except by loving those who cherish Thy love." (Selections, 202) This bond between God and the Bab, further radiates out into the hearts of those who turn to them,

 

"Become as true brethren in the one and indivisible religion of God, free from distinction, for verily God desireth that your hearts should become mirrors unto your brethren in the Faith, so that ye find yourselves reflected in them, and they in you." (Selections, 56)

 

What property is worth more than this love? It is the most valuable jewel imaginable. Owning this invisible, ineffable jewel within the heart, it has to reflect out into the hearts of one's brothers and sisters in faith. Warmed by that feeling, it becomes impossible to regard anything, most of all the ties of religion, as a personal possession. Addressing the Shah, the Bab wrote,

 

"to possess anything of this world or of the next would, in My estimation, be tantamount to open blasphemy. For it ill beseemeth the believer in the unity of God to turn his gaze to aught else, much less to hold it in his possession. I know of a certainty that since I have God, the Ever-Living, the Adored One, I am the possessor of all things, visible and invisible..." (The Bab, Selections, p. 15)