chief, prelate or man of learning. Other persons are also called upon in the course of the work; the
people of the Bayán—those followers of
the Báb who failed to recognize
Bahá’u’lláh, reminiscent of those followers or
John the Baptist who failed to acknowledge Jesus Christ, are addressed. And
Hádí, a religious leader terrified of losing his rank when he was called a disciple of the Báb, and who tried to destroy every copy of the
Bayán, the Báb’s great book. And the
Wolf himself, in passages quoted from the “
Tablet of the Proof,” and
Queen Victoria and
Napoleon III and others, in quoted passages. Although the
Tablet is primarily directed to the
Son of the Wolf he seems almost incidental; Bahá’u’lláh is, rather, speaking beyond him to all humanity.
Some of the terminology will be familiar only to students of Islamics, for the
Bahá'í Faith comes out of
Islám as Christianity comes out of Judaism. For example the Arabic verse on
p. 17 contrasts the Sanctuary (
Ḥaram), the sacred place where no blood may be shed, with the place outside the Sanctuary (
Ḥill) where the shedding of blood is not unlawful, and refers to Bahá’u’lláh’s willingness to sacrifice His life anywhere and under any conditions. Or there is reference to the
Sadratu’l-Muntahá. This is the “Divine Lote-Tree,” the “Sidrah Tree, which marks the boundary,” the “Lote-Tree of the extremity,” the “Tree beyond which neither men nor angels can pass,” and which stands in the Seventh Heaven, the highest
Paradise, at the right hand of the Throne of God. Reference to it