In this section we will now briefly discuss the rebellions which took place among the Babis after the execution of the Bab.

Let me remind you that, in his lifetime, Bab made numerous claims. Initially he claimed to be the 'Bab' (Gate) of Imam Mahdi, and then claimed to be Imam Mahdi himself. He is still referred to as Bab even by the Bahais which is actually testimony to the fact that he was not the Mahdi, just the Bab and even then a false one.

Not only this he also claimed to be the incarnation of Prophet Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) as also several other Prophets like Yahya (John), and then God Almighty himself. His followers who were blind in his devotion, accepted each of these claims as they were issued. After witnessing their leader making tall claims for himself without reasonable or sufficient proofs, they began making tall claims for themselves too. Thus a series of claimants rose, among the Babis on a first come first serve basis. Those who claimed earlier, could claim the better and lucrative positions whereas the late comers had to be satisfied with what was left. Unfortunately, no two persons staked the same claim. Here we present some of the claimants and their respective claims.

1. Mulla Hussain Bushrui, the first person to accept the Bab called himself 'Bab-ul-Bab' (Gate of the Gate).

Before continuing, it would be appropriate to discuss here the meaning of 'Raj'at'. This word means to return, and according to the Holy Quran and the Sunnah, it means that a group of persons of all times who were extremely oppressed, or were extremely evil oppressors, would come back to life before the Day of Judgement, and the oppressed one would have an opportunity to seek his revenge from the oppressor.

2. Haji Mohammed Ali claimed to be the Raj'at of Holy Prophet (pbuh).

3. Qurratul Ayn, Tahera Qazvini claimed to be the Raj'at of Janabe Fatematuz Zahra (pbuh).
(Ref: Nuktatul Qaaf by Mirza Jani, Page 141)

4. Bushrui claimed to be the Raj'at of Husain (pbuh), the grandson of the Holy Prophet (pbhu)
(Ref: Nuktatul Qaaf, Page 253)

5. Seven years after the claim of Bab, Baseer claimed to be the Raj'at of Hasan (pbuh), the grandson of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

6. Bab had predicted the advent of 'Man Yazharahullaho' (The one whom God will manifest) in Bayan (Persian), Chapter 17. This title was supposed to be referring to Mirza Yahya Nuri 'Subh-e-Azal', the younger brother of Mirza Hussain Ali 'Bahaullah'. However the first person who staked his claim for this title was Mirza Asadullah, a staunch Babi. Those who supported Mirza Asadullah in his claims were known as Ál-Hamdi's'. However Mirza could not defend his claim for long, and he was ruthlessly murdered. The question is - by whom?

According to Count Gobisnow, the Babis tied a rope around the neck of Mirza Asadullah's legs, and drowned him in the river Tigris in Iraq.

However a more accurate version can be found in the pages of Traveller's Narrative (pages 360-5) which, for example, say, "On the orders of Bahaullah, his servant Mirza Mohammed Mazandarani murdered Mirza Asadullah".

Later Mirza Yahya claimed this title and ultimately Bahaullah usurped it from him and today the Bahais address Bahaullah with the usurped title of "Man Yazharahullaho", 'The One whom Allah will Manifest'.

The crux of all what we said can be attributed to one simple observation made by Professor E. G. Browne while writing the foreword of Nuktatul Qaaf of Mirza Jani. He writes, "Matters had reached to such an extent that any Babi, as soon as he would get up from his sleep, would have a claim for himself to announce to the world."

This was about the various claims of the Bahais. Let us now talk about Mirza Yahya Noori, "Subh-e-Azal", and Mirza Hussain Ali, "Bahaullah".

Mirza Yahya "Subh-e-Azal: he was 13 years younger than Bahaullah. He became a Babi at the age of 14. According to Nuktatul Qaaf, when Mirza Yahya went in the presence of Qurratul Ayn at Barfarosh, "She truly nourished him with her milk until he became strong in manners and ethics under her training and guidance".

To understand the rather complex character of Qurratul Ayn - Tahera, we request readers to read the article on this topic.

Since Mirza Yahya was a favourite of Quddoos and Qurratul Ayn, hence all the other Babis also humoured him. Consequently, he became everybody's 'darling'. Even the Bab, the great master-deceiver, himself sent him prized personal possessions like his inkpot, papers, writings, dresses and rings to Mirza Yahya. Moreover in his will he clearly nominated Mirza Yahya as his successor.

The Emperor of Iran had executed the Bab. Naturally, the Babis bore a lot of animosity towards him. They were thirsty for revenge. All this resulted in an unsuccessful attempt by the Babis to assassinate the Emperor. This failed and the Emperor rounded up the culprits and imprisoned all those involved in the assassination attempt. In this connection, Bahaullah was imprisoned, whereas, Mirza Yahya escaped to Baghdad posing as a Sufi.

After spending 9 months in prison, Bahaullah was released after the intervention of the Russian Embassy. The intervention of the Russians and their interest in his release is a matter the significance of which would come to light later. After his release, Bahaullah went to Baghdad. For 10 years the two brothers lived in Baghdad. During this period, since Mirza Yahya was appointed as the successor by Bab, Bahaullah also surrendered to his orders and executed his commands as his agent. The matters which he wrote during this period were full of expression and devotion to Mirza Yahya and of the announcement of his obedience to him. (Book of Iqaan, by Bahaullah, Page 195) This continued until a dispute arose between the brothers over the leadership of the Bahais and this led to an intense struggle for power between them. Bahaullah abandoned obedience to Yahya's orders and represented himself as the envoy of God and the sole undisputed leader of the Bahais. This claim which was in contradiction with the beliefs of and the sayings of the Babis caused disunion and in this manner a conflict arose between Yahya and Bahaullah and consequently among their followers.

In this conflict, all etiquette, courtesty and politeness, not to mention blood relations were forgotten. Bahaullah called his brother as 'lamb' (Asrar al Athar-e-Khususi, Vol 4 page 197), 'Satan' (Ibid. Vol 4, page 101 and Vol 5, page 346) and entitled him as 'bull' (Bahaullah, the Book Badi, page 772). He abused him under the name 'deceptive snake' (Asrar al Athar-e-Khususi, vol 4 page 34) and called his followers as 'dogs' (Ibid. Vol 5 page 177) and considered their sayings as the calls of the 'wolf' and the 'pig' (Ibid. Vol 5 page 177). By this time the brothers started divulging their well-preserved secrets. Consequently a lot of unsaid issues many of them unspeakable and unknown to the Babis were out in the open.

The disunion and conflict between the brothers and the followers did not cease with the name calling and mud slinging. After a while the followers of Bahaullah began to massacre the adherents of Mirza Yahya at his command. They trapped the opponents through foul lots and swooped down upon then and murdered them in cold blood (Ishraq Khavari, Abd-al-Hamid, Tarikh-e-Amr. page 245).

Bahaullah had a sister by the name of Iziyah Khanum, who wrote a book entitled "Tambihun Naemeen" (Awakening the Sleepy). She points out to the inhuman massacres of the Bahais in various parts of the book and names many people who had been killed through cutting off their necks or ripping off their bellies, or suffocating them in the river or shooting them, because of not believing in Bahaullah.
(Ref: Tambihun Naemeen, page 15-16)

This is not a discussion of the inhuman acts of the group. The aim of the investigation has not been to prepare a report of their crimes, because that would involve writing a voluminous book. I wanted to see investigate and inform my readers particularly the Bahasi, how this ideology which claims to be divine, has met the needs of men for unity and solidarity. From the mails I receive I know I can take credit for enlightening several Bahais.

We saw that the foundation of this religion was essentially built on opposition to unity and correlation. When Bahaullah could not reconcile with his own brother and opposed him openly it personally perplexes me how he can to be the return (read reincarnation/avatar) of Jesus and/or a Yehuda for the Jews and/or Behram to the Zorastrians, and/or Kilankari Avtaar to the Hindus. I don't know much about the other faiths, but I can tell say with confidence with what little I know that their followers would be extremely disappointed and even amused to find their saviour in the form of a person who was so bloodthirsty that he did not spare his own brother. I have personally mentioned about Bahaullah, the Bab and the Bahai Faith to some of my non-Muslim friends who are into religios and theological research and they think he is the biggest fraud to come out of that part of the world.

It is now time to consider the Bahaii beliefs regarding God. These are just a few examples highlighting the Bahai beliefs which are in contrast to those of the earlier faiths, particularly Islam.

1. It is mentioned in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics under the title 'Bab', that the Bahais called Mirza Alimohammed Bab as "Rabbi-ul-Ala (The Most Elevated Lord) [View online] and Bahaullah as "Haqqe Taála (The True God). [View online]

2. Bahaullah mentions in Aqdas, page 43, "There is no God but I the Honoured , the Wise".

3. He again writes in Aqdas, page 144 "Accept whatever is commanded by Baha (himself) the Lord of Eternity".

4. In Aqdas, page 8, "We have sent down all the Messengers and we have revealed all the Books".

5. In Istadaaraat, page 34, Bahaullah writes, "The Master of Eternity lies in prison".

6. In his Tablets, Page 217, Bahaullah writes, "All save me are created from my command".

7. In his Al-Mubeen, page 34, Bahaullah writes "All praise is for you O Bahaullah, the Creator of existence".

8. In the same book, page 190, he says, "Obey the commands of your Elevated, Splendorous God, Bahaullah.

9. Again in Al-Mubeen, page 297, he again refers to himself as, "You Most beneficent Lord, Bahaullah",

10. In his Tajalliyaat (Tajalli number 4), page 5, Bahaullah decrees, "Most surely I am Allah. There is no God save me. I am the Lord of everything. The O my creatures, you worship me alone".

11. Abdul Baha writes in Badaaiul Aasaar, page 139, Bahaullah is unique, Incomparable. It is necessary for everyone to turn towards Bahaullah in his prayers. (View the page online)

12. In Maftoon, page 15, Bahaullah writes to his son Abdul Baha, "This s a letter from Allah, the Honoured and the Wise (Bahaullah) to Allah the Gracious, the Aware (Abdul Baha)." This is interesting - one God greets another one!

These are indeed surprising beliefs!

Now, let us look at some of the examples from the Shariat (Laws) of Bahaullah. All these religious edicts are taken from the book of laws "Al-Aqdas", written by Bahaullah himself. For the Aqdas he says, "A lot of requests and supplications from my followers reached 'My' Arsh wherein they have asked many questions from me. Thereupon Baha has revealed Epistles upon them. There was a request for revealing the Ahkam (Laws). But due to some wisdom, I withheld My pen and did not accede to their requests. Having received innumerable such requests from them, I have now acceded to their requests so that their hearts may remain alive" Thus after such a flattering introduction, the first law that was revealed, "It is obligatory upon you that you cut your nails". (Aqdas, page 24)

On page 34 of Aqdas, he says, "Surely the number of months in the Book of Allah is 19 (the number 19 is chosen because according to the Huruf-e-Abjad, the word of Bab totals 19) and every month is of 19 days. This comes to 361 days in a year. For the remaining 4 days (5 in a leap year), the Bahais are told that there would be accounting for their actions committed during these days and they are free to do as they please.

On the same page, Bahaullah writes about the burial of a person such, "The dead are to be buried in beautiful graves of stone or wood and a special ring on which the name of Bahaullah is etched is to be worn by the deceased at the time of burial."

Let us now take a look at how lightly the Bahais consider sins. A glaring example in the case of adultery is as follows:, On page 15 of Aqdas, Bahaullah writes, "It is a must for every adulterer and adulteress that they must pray to Baitul Adl (Universal House of Justice) and give 9 mithqals (a unit of measure) of gold. And should they repeat the act, the atonement will be doubled. "However if he cannot afford it, then all poor are in the protection of Allah". So the rich can pretty much 'afford' (in every sense of the world) to commit adultery and the poor can't afford the adultery penalty, so they can commit adultery as well. What this means is that the entire Baha community has a relatively free hand in fooling around. It is little wonder that Islam, the religion that the Bahai Faith has 'abrogated' appears so unreasonable and backward to the Bahais since it imposes the death penalty on adulterers. That is the difference between divine laws and man-made laws, the former works at reforming and restraining, the latter works at making a mockery of every thing.

On page 22 of Aqdas, Bahaullah declared a truly amazing edict by saying that urine, stool, semen, menses, dog, pig etc. are all clean. He says, "When We cast a glance over the things, We placed all of them in the sea of humanity".

Also read: Bahai Religious Teachings: Confusion Compounded?