ii. Teachings

Modern Bahaʾi opinion tends to view ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ simply as an inspired interpreter (mobayyen) or expounder of his father’s teachings. While there is a fundamental truth in this, it obscures somewhat his own original contributions to Bahaʾi thinking, particularly as it came to be expressed in Europe and North America. Bahāʾallāh’s large corpus of writings deal in the main with a limited range of topics: ethical and mystical themes, the interpretation of traditional Islamic beliefs, the fulfillment of Bābī and other religious prophecy in himself, his replacement of Bābī use of force and intolerance with an ethos of human brotherhood, world peace, and inter-religious toleration, and the provision of a new šarīʿa for the Bahaʾi community.

ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ plays variations on many of these themes. But, in the course of his correspondence with European and American converts (from the mid-1890s), and, more particularly, his travels in the West, he began to introduce new concepts or, at least, to give prominence to ideas which had been mentioned only in passing by his father, although described as “the teachings of Bahāʾallāh.” Most notable among these are the principles of equality of the sexes, the need for independent search after truth (taḥarrī-ye ḥaqīqat), harmony of religion and science, oneness of all religions (an extension of the essentially Judeo-Christian-Islamic-Bābī-Bahaʾi progressive revelation of Bahāʾallāh), and the solution of the economic problem. His enumeration of these and other points termed “fundamental Bahaʾi principles”—often expressed as the ten or twelve principles—created one of the basic elements in the presentation of the Bahaʾi religion in later years, especially in the West. References to scientific and social progress, labor relations, socialism, education, or the problems raised by Western civilization and deteriorating international relations are increasingly common in his lectures and discourses in Europe and the United States and in the tablets (alvāḥ, tawqīʿāt) written after his return to Palestine. There is a similar increase in the amount of space devoted to the discussion of Christian doctrine, biblical prophecy, and, to a lesser extent, questions concerning reincarnation, astrology, faith healing, spiritualism, occult practices, vegetarianism, and so forth (which are generally condemned) raised by early Western Bahaʾis from a theosophist, spiritualist, new thought, or similar background (see particularly al-Nūr al-abhā fī mofāważāt-e ḥażrat-e ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ ).

In terms of style, ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ’s written works often stand in marked contrast to those of his father. Brought up for the most part in an Arab environment (Baghdad from 1852 to 1863, Palestine from 1868) and educated in Arabic literature, his Arabic style is purer than that of Bahāʾallāh; in both Persian and Arabic, he displays considerable skill in developing a consciously literary manner. Works such as the Resāla-ye madanīya and Resāla-ye sīāsīya show an affinity with the writings of many reformers of the period (such as Malkom Khan), although the question of influences remains to be studied in depth. The general atmosphere of early 20th century internationalism, pacifism, and humanitarian liberalism imbues the later lectures and letters (see particularly the Tablets to the Hague), while there is throughout a growing concern with the internal organization of Bahaʾi movement. By contrast with the letters, the talks are couched in a simple, almost naive style, partly influenced by the demands of speaking through an interpreter. In consequence, the Western Bahaʾi understanding of ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ , largely based on these talks and on translations of relatively straightforward letters to converts in Europe and North America, is ignorant of the more urbane, literary exponent of 19th century reformism.