As was also mentioned in the first principle, the Bāb and his book, Bayān hold a special importance for Baha’i’s. This is what Bahā’u’llāh says, about the book of Bayan:

Refer to it, for a letter from it will suffice the entirety of the people of the earth. And surely God has stated all things in the evident book.[1]

He also says:

I [swear by] He who in His hand is my soul and my essence, a single letter from the Bayān is dearer to me than everything that is in the heavens and the earth.[2]

Even though Bahā’u’llāh abrogated the book of the Bayān, he had stresses many times that he had no intention to do so. Rather, he had stated that he intended to reinforce its decrees:

 Say: The polytheists thought that we might want to abrogate what was revealed unto the Point of Bayan (Nuqṭat al-Bayān which means the Bab). Say: By my Merciful Lord, even if we had intended [to do] what they had thought, no one was allowed to object to God who has created everything . . . but God has desired by this manifestation [meaning Bahā’u’llāh himself] to reinforce what has been revealed by the Point of Bayan . . . thus we will reinforce his decrees and will prove his writings [or signs] on earth with power and authority.[3]

This is while many of the laws that have been put forth by the Bab in the book of Bayan are unacceptable to any sound mind. We have already mentioned a few of these in the previous chapters. We will repeat them here accompanied by a few more samples:

a- Destroy Anything and Anyone non-Bābī

You must destroy everything [non-Bābī?] that you have written and you must argue using the Bayān.[4]

Chapter six of the sixth unit which is about destroying all books but those that have been written or will be written about this Order (meaning the Bab’s creed). [5]

The fifth chapter of the fifth unit which is about the decree of taking the property of those who do not believe in [the religion] of Bayan and giving it back if they become believers in this religion, except in the lands where taking [property] is not possible.[6]

The sixteenth chapter of the seventh unit which is about [the decree] that all rulers who rise who are [followers] of the religion of the Bayan, leave no-one in their land who is not a follower of this religion. This is compulsory upon all the people too.[7]

He who acquires a position of ruling is a manifestation of God’s wrath and if possible for him, must not leave [alive] on earth anyone but the Bābīs![8]

Make everyone accept the [religion of] Bayān and do not accept from them jewels that would amount to the whole earth as payment so that they are excused from becoming Bābīs.[9]

As we previously noted both Bahā’u’llāh and `Abdu’l-Bahā had announced what the essence of the Bab’s religion was:

The unbelievers and the faithless have set their minds on four things: first, the shedding of blood [beheading][10]; second, the burning of books; third, the shunning of the followers of other religions; fourth, the extermination of other communities and groups. Now however, through the strengthening grace and potency of the Word of God these four barriers have been demolished, these clear injunctions have been obliterated from the Tablet and brutal dispositions have been transmuted into spiritual attributes.[11]

The utterance of the [book or religion] of Bayān in the day of the appearance of his Highness A`lā (meaning the Bāb) was to behead, burn the books, destroy the monuments, and massacre [everyone] but those who believed [in the Bāb’s religion] and verified it.[12]

These are the orders of the herald to Bahā’u’llāh: behead, burn, destroy, massacre, and exterminate!

b- Books, Writings, and Teaching

Teaching a book other than the book of Bayān is not allowed unless it has in it what is related to speculative theology (kalām). [Teaching] those [sciences] which have been invented such as logic (manṭiq), principles of jurisprudence (uṣūl), and other [sciences], are not permitted for those who have faith.^[13]

You have been prohibited in the Bayān from having more than nineteen books. If you do so, you will be fined 19 mithqāls[14] of gold.[15]

Do not argue but by the verses [of the Bayān] for whoever does not argue using them has no knowledge, and do not mention any miracle [but this book]![16]

The best trade is to acquire all of the Bāb’s books. Once this is fulfilled sustenance will flow down like rain:

If possible acquire all the writings of the Point (meaning the Bāb) even if they are in printed form (not hand-written) for sustenance will descend upon those who possess these like rain. Say O my servants, this is the best trade![17]

And finally some very disturbing words:

Say O Muḥammad, my teacher. Do not hit me before my age finishes five even for a moment for my heart is very very soft. After that discipline me but not more than I can bear. If you want to hit me do not [hit me] more than five times. And do not hit me on my flesh (laḥm) unless there is a covering over it. If you exceed [these guidelines] your wife will be illegal for you for nineteen days. If you forget and if you don’t have a companion, then you must give in charity for every beating nineteen mithqāls[18] of gold if you want to be faithful.[19]

These words are very disturbing because he is giving orders to his teacher to do something not in the future, but in the past! He is telling his teacher to not hit him until his age passes five. These words were uttered when the Bab was about 29 years old! He then threatens the teacher that if he surpasses these orders he will make his wife illegal for him for nineteen days (!) or if he doesn’t have a companion (wife) he would have to pay nineteen mithqāls of Gold. Are these words in conformity with reason and science?

c- Food and Medicine

Using medicine is forbidden:

You must not possess, buy, sell, or use medicine, intoxicants, and higher than those![20]

Drinking donkey milk is also forbidden and by not drinking it people will become pious:

Do not drink donkey milk! And do not load it and other animals with what they cannot bear. This is what God has made incumbent upon you so that you may become pious![21]

Do not spoil eggs for they are the Bāb’s food on the Day of Resurrection:

Do not hit eggs on something that will spoil their insides before they are cooked, for this is the food of the Primal Point (the Bāb) and his followers in the Day of Resurrection (Qiyāma) so that you may be grateful.[22]

This order is itself very unique for according to the Baha’is, the Day of Resurrection, is the proclamation of Bahā’u’llāh. The Bāb had been dead for many years when this occurred so how could his food be eggs on that day?

d- Going on Journeys

Unreasonable punishments:

Whoever forces anyone in a journey—even one step—or enters someone’s house before permission is given, or forces him out of his house without his permission, or unlawfully summons him from his home, then his wife will be illegal for him for 19 months![23]

Permission is given for going on journeys for one of three reasons:

Do not go on journeys but [1] for the sake of God and [2] if you are going to (visit) He Whom God Shall Make Manifest or [3] (visiting) those who have faith in him. And He orders you to take the leaves of trees and eat them [!] and walk above [!] the earth with your legs![24]

The order has been given to eat the leaves of trees and to walk above the ground with the legs! Pay attention, he says above (fauq) the ground not on the ground!

e- Some Miscellaneous Laws

I have given permission to every soul to carry one thousand lines [from my books] with them so that they may have great pleasure![25]

Do not make more than 95 doors for the Point’s (the Bāb’s) house![26]

Do not wear clothes that will frighten children![27]

At the age of eleven all children must marry. The consequence for ignoring this order is the annihilation of their good deeds:

It is incumbent upon all souls to leave from himself a soul (meaning to have children) and you must bring them close to each other (i.e. make them marry) after they have turned eleven and whoever can marry but doesn’t, then his [good] deeds will be annihilated![28]

Buying and selling air, fire, water, and earth is prohibited:

Do not buy or sell the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water)![29]

Do not ride cows and do not put loads on them if you (truly) believe in God and His signs![30]

In every dispensation, God loves that everything becomes renewed. It is because of this that he has ordered that once in every 202 years every person renew what books he possesses by either putting them in fresh water or bestowing them to someone else![31]

It is incumbent for every person to leave for his inheritors 19 pieces of soft paper and 19 rings inscribed on them a Name from the Names of God![32]

If anyone can, they must recite 700 verses from the Bayān every day and night and if they can’t they must repeat ‘Allahu Aẓhar’ 700 times![33]

You must accept as guests 19 people in 19 days![34]

These are only a handful of the Bāb’s orders. We have sufficed with these as to not elongate this section. This is how the Bāb praises these laws:

What has been descended (i.e. revealed) in the Bayān from the verses, a single one of them is a proof over everyone that is in the skies and the earth and what is in between them. And if all those who are in the skies and the earth and what is in between them come together so as to put forth anything like it, they will be incapable.[35]

Bahā’u’llāh had also praised these laws by these words:

I [swear by] He who in His hand is my soul and my essence, a single letter from the Bayān is dearer to me than everything that is in the heavens and the earth.[36]

When Bahā’u’llāh was praising these irrational statements, had he forgotten what he had uttered about religion being in conformance with science:

[That which causes] distinction between humans and animals is reason and science. If religious beliefs contradict reason and science, then of course [they are] ignorance.[37]

Irrespective of the Bayan being abrogated or not, most if not all of the aforementioned decrees clearly contradict reason. Thus, according to Baha’i principles, Bābism is not a religion and consequently Baha’ism too is not a religion.

[1] Asad-Allāh Fāḍil Māzandarānī, Asrār al-āthār khuṣūṣī, vol. 2, p. 102.

[2] Asad-Allāh Fāḍil Māzandarānī, Asrār al-āthār khuṣūṣī, vol. 5, p. 333.

[3] Bahā’u’llāh, Badī`, p. 390.

[4] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 6, chap. 6.

[5] The Bāb, Farsi bayān, unit 6, chap. 6.

[6] The Bāb, Farsi Bayan, unit 5, chap. 5.

[7] The Bāb, Farsi Bayān, unit 16, chap. 7.

[8] The Bāb, Lauḥ haykal al-dīn, unit 4, chap. al-Bahā.

[9] The Bāb, Lauḥ haykal al-dīn, unit 5, chap. al-Lād.

[10] The Farsi word used in the original tablet translates to beheading not shedding blood.

[11] Bahā’u’llāh, Tablets of Bahā’u’llāh Revealed After the Kitāb-i-Aqdas, p. 91.

[12] `Abdu’l-Bahā, Makātīb, vol. 2, p. 266.

[13] The Bāb, Farsi Bayān, unit 4, chap. 10.

[14] Every mithqāl is equal to about 3.6 grams.

[15] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 11, chap. 7.

[16] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 6, chapter 8.

[17] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 9, chap. 10.

[18] 3.6 grams.

[19] Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 6, chapter 11.

[20] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 9, chap. 8.

[21] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 10, chap. 15.

[22] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 10, chap. 15.

[23] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 6, chap. 16.

[24] The Bāb, Lauḥ haykal al-dīn, unit 6, chap. al-Badī.

[25] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 6, chap. 1.

[26] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 6, chap. 13.

[27] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 7, chap. 6.

[28] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 8, chap. 15.

[29] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 9, chap. 11.

[30] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 10, chap. 15.

[31] The Bāb, Farsi Bayān, unit 7, chap. 1.

[32] The Bāb, Farsi Bayān, unit 8, chap. 2.

[33] The Bāb, Farsi Bayān, unit 8, chap. 14.

[34] The Bāb, Arabic Bayān, unit 9, chap. 17.

[35] The Bāb, Lauḥ haykal al-dīn, unit 1, chap. 3.

[36] Asad-Allāh Fāḍil Māzandarānī, Asrār al-āthār khuṣūṣī, vol. 5, p. 333.

[37] `Abd al-Ḥamīd Ishrāq Khāwarī, Payām-i malakūt, p. 92.