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recognize Him upon His return on the Day of Resurrection. That covenant is the essence of each Revelation. In gate 16 of the sixth unity of the Persian Bayán, the Báb writes that “The Lord of the universe hath never raised up a prophet nor hath He sent down a Book unless He hath established His covenant with all men, calling for their acceptance of the next Revelation and of the next Book; inasmuch as the outpourings of His bounty are ceaseless and without limit.”26 We can see, then, why the Báb begins the Persian Bayán with a discussion of the beginning and return of revelation. Divine revelation is binding solely because it has proceeded from the Primal Will, and it returns to the Will on the Day of Resurrection, which is simultaneously the beginning of the new Revelation. Therefore, although the former Dispensation is abrogated by the new one, the new Dispensation is, at the same time, the fulfillment and exaltation of the past Dispensation. Contrary to the normal conception held by the people, rejecting the new religion does not affirm the previous religion but prevents it from realizing its paradise and exaltation. Each Holy Book longs to be exalted through the next Book, which is nothing but itself manifest in a fuller way. The followers of any Book who reject the next Book are the cause of the grief of that Book and its Revealer. The Báb writes that the Bayán hath no goal but Him Whom God shall make manifest, inasmuch as none save Him hath ever elevated/abrogated, or will ever elevate /abrogate, this Book. Indeed, none but Him hath ever revealed, or will ever reveal, it. The Bayán and such as are believers therein yearn more ardently after Him than the yearning of any lover after his beloved. Even as the Qur’án and such souls as pertain unto it yearned after the Revelation of its Revealer, and never had any goal, nor will ever have any end, but Him. Today the Furqán bestoweth salutations upon those letters who uplifted it and caused it to enter in the Bayán, while it beseecheth its Revealer to torment those souls that have turned away from the Bayán, failing to give the Furqán its due measure. . . . For in the Day of the Revelation of Him Whom God shall make manifest , the Bayán will fix its eyes upon its believers while saying unto them: ‘Is there any spirit related to me who would step forth in this Day to acknowledge Him Whom God shall make manifest, and thus be faithful to the covenant of his Lord that is established in me?’ It would rejoice if its faithful believers recognize its Revealer, and would be saddened if its 276 gate of the heart faithful believers cause its Revealer any grief. Thus, today, nothing is more afflicted with anguish than the Furqán. All recite it, yet they fail to receive its blessing, and attain naught but its torment, even as those who were reciting the Book of Alif in the day of the Revelation of the Furqán.27 Because of this paradoxical relation of abrogation and exaltation, the Báb has coined the term irtifá‘ (meaning both removing and elevating) for the idea of abrogation. Each Revelation, in simultaneously abrogating and exalting the previous Dispensation, is the return of the previous Revelation in the station of its perfection. Thus we can see why the idea of maturation and perfection is central to the Báb’s theology. Each thing’s paradise is the state of self-actualization, maturation, and perfection of that thing within its own station. The Báb uses the metaphor of a tree to express the concept. Each Revelation is a seed that is planted in the hearts of the people. The tree must grow and achieve perfection. Perfection is the state of yielding fruit, when the faithful have become ready to attain the state of paradise, as a higher stage of spiritual development. The divine Cultivator Who planted the tree returns to gather the fruits, which are the first believers in the new Revelation. Thus the first fruit of the Tree of Islam is Mullá H . usayn, the first Letter of the Living. The Báb explains: The “day” of Resurrection, unlike the “night” of divine Revelation, resembleth the planting of a tree whose time of fruition is the...

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