It would indeed be no exaggeration to say that nowhere in
the whole compass of the world’s religious literature, except in the Gospels,
do we find any record relating to the death of any of the religion-founders of
the past comparable to the martyrdom suffered by the Prophet of Shíráz. So
strange, so inexplicable a phenomenon, attested by eye-witnesses, corroborated
by men of recognized standing, and acknowledged by government as well as
unofficial historians among the people who had sworn undying hostility to the
Bábí Faith, may be truly regarded as the most marvelous manifestation of the
unique potentialities with which a Dispensation promised by all the
Dispensations of the past had been endowed. The passion of Jesus Christ, and
indeed His whole public ministry, alone offer a parallel to the Mission and
death of the Báb, a parallel which no student of comparative religion can fail
to perceive or ignore.
- In the
youthfulness and meekness of the Inaugurator of the Bábí Dispensation;
- in the
extreme brevity and turbulence of His public ministry;
- in the
dramatic swiftness with which that ministry moved towards its climax;
- in the
apostolic order which He instituted, and the primacy which He conferred on one
of its members;
- in the
boldness of His challenge to the time-honored conventions, rites and laws which
had been woven into the fabric of the religion He Himself had been born into;
- in the
role which an officially recognized and firmly entrenched religious hierarchy
played as chief instigator of the outrages which He was made to suffer;
- in the
indignities heaped upon Him;
- in the
suddenness of His arrest;
- in the
interrogation to which He was subjected;
- in the
derision poured, and the scourging inflicted, upon Him;
- in the
public affront He sustained; and, finally,
- in His
ignominious suspension before the gaze of a hostile multitude—
in all these we
cannot fail to discern a remarkable similarity to the distinguishing features
of the career of Jesus Christ.
-Shoghi Effendi ('God Passes By)
