A Study of Baha’u’llah’s
Kitab-i-Iqan, The Book of Certitude
|
An Account Regarding
Reading the Book of Certitude with the Eye of the Faith
From The
Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, by Adib Taherzadeh, vol. 2, 219-20
The following story in the life of Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl, the outstanding scholar of
the Cause and its famous apologist, is one which demonstrates that reading the Word
of God with the eye of intellect can lead a man astray. He himself has
recounted the story that soon after he came in contact with the believers, they
gave him the Kitáb-i-Íqán to read. He read it with an air of
intellectual superiority and was not impressed by it. He even commented that if
the Kitáb-i-Íqán was a proof of Bahá'u'lláh's claims, he himself could
certainly write a better book.
At that time he was the head of a theological college in Tihrán. The following
day a prominent woman arrived at the college and approached some students
asking them to write an important letter for her. The students referred her to
Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl saying that he was an outstanding writer, a master of
eloquence and a man unsurpassed in the art of composition. Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl
took up his pen to write, but found himself unable to compose the first
sentence. He tried very hard but was unsuccessful. For several minutes he
scribbled in the corner of the page and even drew lines on his own fingernail,
until the woman realized that the learned scribe was unable to write. Losing
her patience she arose to go and mockingly said to Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl, 'If you
have forgotten how to write a simple letter why don't you say so instead of
keeping me here while you scrawl?'
Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl says that he was overcome with feelings of shame as a result
of this incident, and then suddenly remembered his own comments the night
before about his being able to write a better book than the Kitáb-i-Íqán.
He had a pure heart and knew that this incident was nothing but a clear answer
to his arrogant attitude towards that holy Book.
However, it took Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl several years to be convinced of the truth of
the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh. He reached a stage where he accepted the Faith
intellectually, but for years his heart was not convinced. The only thing which
caused him to recognize the truth of the Cause of God after having struggled
for so long was to submit himself and surrender his intellectual gifts to God.
One evening he went into his chamber, and prayed with yearning as tears flowed
from his eyes, beseeching God to open the channels of his heart. At the hour of
dawn he suddenly found himself possessed of such faith that he felt he could
lay down his life in the path of Bahá'u'lláh. The same person who once had said
he could write a better book than the Kitáb-i-Íqán, read this book many
times with the eye of faith and found it to be an ocean of knowledge, limitless
in scope. Every time he read it he found new pearls of wisdom within it and
discovered new mysteries which he had not come across before.