IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE MOST BENEFICENT, THE MOST MERCIFUL |
1- Confiscating the wealth of all non-Babis: 2- All kinds of outrageous fines for Babis He who deliberately saddens another [follower of the Bab], must pay a fine of nineteen mithqals (3.6 gms) of gold, or else silver, or else must repent to God nineteen times.
It has been destined in the sixth chapter to remember God’s Oneness nineteen times [every day] from the beginning of night to the end of day. If you do not perform this [deliberately] after you have been informed, a fine of 19 mithqals of fine diamonds will be imposed.
After the aforementioned decree, he continues to order the remembrance of himself, and other figures every day for nineteen times and imposes the following fines if such an act is not performed: nineteen mithqals of gold, five mithqals of red rubies, and five mithqals of yellow rubies. The Bab’s writings are replete with fines of this form. 3- Loans with Interest and Usury Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit.
And for taking interest, which was forbidden, and for consuming the people's money unjustly, we have prepared for the disbelievers among them a painful retribution.
Although lending with interest and usury are profitable for the lender, they are a pain and cause of hardship for the borrower who is usually in need and has financial problems. Bahaullah, without foreseeing the outcomes of his actions, announces that loans with interest are permissible: Bahaullah’s justification for allowing interest is "If there is no profit [in the loan] the affairs will not move forward." Didn’t God know this when He prohibited this act in all other religions? He further claims that lending with interest is a favor from God so that people would become engrossed in remembering him with peace and tranquility. The only thing that is clear is having a loan with interest neither brings peace nor tranquility. Apparently, this new law decreed by Bahaullah had a devastating effect on the livelihood of Bahais who adhered to it. This effect was such that Abdul Baha ordered his followers to refrain from these kinds of loans in the strictest sense: From now on do not give loans with interest to anyone because Abdul Baha dislikes interest even though it is legitimate. Only give [loans] without interest and take no loan with interest from anybody.
Again, there is a clear contradiction between Bahaullah and his son. It is not clear why Abdul Baha, who is only allowed to interpret Bahaullah’s laws, directly orders his followers to disobey his father’s orders and deprives them of the "favor to [God’s] servants." 4- Outrageous fines for fornication and adultery Unmarried people who engage in acts of sexual intercourse - especially teenagers - will likely frequently perform such acts. The number of times copulation occurs in a year can easily reach one hundred times if this shameful act is performed only twice a week. The amount of gold payable by each of these two people equals to: 3.6 grams * 9 * 2^100 = 41,071,879,447,394,632,608,493,183,854 kilograms, which is fairly equal to 8,000 times the weight of the earth. Just in case you are wondering, the fine will be about 34,000 kilos of Gold if copulation is performed only 20 times. We’ll leave it to up to the readers to judge the practicality of these luminous laws. One wonders how a society governed by this law will ever be able to get closer to economic justice and attaining a means of livelihood for all people. In fact this law is so outrageous that, as is standard for problematic Bahai laws, its implementation has been postponed until a future time: 5- Excommunication and Shunning 6- Deceased’s living residence How can the Equalization of the Means of Livelihood for All Humanity be achieved by such laws? 7- Treatment of Thieves Exile and imprisonment are decreed for the thief, and, on the third offence, place ye a mark upon his brow so that, thus identified, he may not be accepted in the cities of God and His countries.
If a thief is caught for the third time a mark must be put on his brow so that he will not be accepted in any city or country. Thus he will be completely deprived of all means of livelihood! Is this law problematic? No problem, this is how it is resolved: Read More:
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