I was engaged in a conversation the other day with the Hindu wife of a new Bahá’í friend over coffee, and she wanted proof that Bahá’u’lláh’s prayers were Divinely revealed, not jut the products of an artistic imagination. (It should be noted that Hindus make a distinction between shruti (“that which is heard”) and smriti (‘that which is written”), the former having the greater spiritual authority. She complained that Bahá’ís she had conversed with over Zoom had failed to answer this question and when pressed, simply ended the conversation. I love these kinds of challenges and set to it. I mentioned, among other things, that Muhammad only considered what He recited while in the throes of Divine possession as part of the Qur’án, while the Báb told his followers to consider everything He said as coming from God. Bahá’u’lláh loved poetry, His Revelation being highly poetic, and He wrote poetry Himself, the most spectacular example being “The Clouds of the Realms Above,” written in a classical Persian form before He declared His mission to humanity. That was all in the way of background. As to the main question, Bahá’í Scripture is authenticated by having the originals in the handwriting of the Author or His secretaries, but as to the question at hand, Bahá’ís believe that the prayers are revealed because they come from the Central Figures and we are assured that they are revealed. So an element of faith is indispensable, and as far as I know, there is no firmer proof. That was my best answer, and of course not proof enough for my listener, and I just added that like big questions such as the existence or non-existence of God, this cannot be proven or disproven by rational argument. If I read her reaction right, she was pleased that at least I had tried, though it left her unconvinced.
I have
noticed over the years that at Bahá’í talks, when confronted with direct
questions, Bahá’í speakers tend to give indirect answers with a lot of
contextualization, and often with good reason. But the questioner often remains
mired in that sticking point. My now third ex-wife (you read right, I am
ashamed to say) had once declared herself a Bahá’í, but backpedalled and became Catholic
with a vengeance. Her reason for rejection of the Faith was her claim that the
Bible retains its validity and Bahá’u’lláh’s name appears nowhere in the text.
Our many discussions of the Bible have not moved her an inch from this conviction,
but to her credit, she defends and promulgates the principles of the Bahá’í Faith
to a surprising degree in many a conversation with those who make comments
about it in ignorance.
A more public
example is in a book by the comedian and magician Penn Jillette (spelling
correct). His book God, No! is marketed as a book of humour (and
it is at times very funny) but in fact is his Atheist Manifesto and he levels
his weightiest arguments against religion and faith in scathing, crude, and vulgar
language, which is at the same time both clever and sincere. His ace in the
hole, what he believes is his irrefutable argument is his question: would you
kill your child if asked to do so by God? – and if you cannot answer with an
immediate and wholehearted yes! then you are already an atheist. He doesn’t
seem to realize the speciousness of this ridiculous argument but is deaf to all
entreaties without the answer he’s looking for. Respect to him both for his
sincerity, articulateness, and his intelligence, but like the examples
mentioned above, it seems to me he’s stuck on a single point that has closed
all doors to further investigation. I won’t say I’ll pray for him, for that is
the kind of sanctimony non-believers abhor, but I’ll continue to recite what I
believe are revealed prayers which contain pleas to God to open the hearts of
everyone to His Revelation, and I shall continue to revel in answering the most
difficult questions the best way I know how.
