The greatest obstacle in the path of investigating the truth is not hiding the material that can be used to do so, rather, it is deceiving the investigator by distorting and creating an inverted image of the truth.

Unfortunately, Baha’is actively engage in this act. The initiator of this act was Bahā’u’llāh himself who changed the original text of the book of Īqān once it was found that he had made multiple grammatical and Quranic mistakes in it. He had also forged and distorted a number of Islamic narrations to falsely prove that the Bāb was the Mahdi of Islam. `Abdu’l-Bahā followed his father’s footsteps and even distorted the Quran to prove that minerals are alive and have a spirit! We will analyze these in chapter 4.

Other forms of this act can be seen in deleting or changing problematic subjects in new editions of books. For instance, the Tablet of the Maiden (lauḥ Ḥūriyyah) which described Bahā’u’llāh sexually fondling the Holy Spirit was removed from the fourth volume of Āthār-i Qalam-i A`lā in later editions.[1]

After the death of Shoghi, once it became clear that Bahā’u’llāh and `Abdu’l-Bahā’s prophecies about the Guardianship were incorrect, a number of Baha’i books and texts which spoke about the responsibilities of the Guardian were distorted. In the new versions of these texts, the Guardians responsibilities were transferred to the Universal House of Justice! For instance, in the fifth edition of Aḥmad Yazdānī’s Nazar-i ijmālī dar diyanat-i Bahā’ī that was published by the Baha’i Publishing Trust of Iran in 129 B., distortions can be seen on pages 31 and 105 that speak about the institution responsible for resolving differences amongst Baha’is and also the recipient of Ḥuqūq Allah.

Vance Salisbury, in his article A Critical Examination of 20th-Century Baha’i Literature,[2] points to many other distortions of this kind. He brings up many interesting subjects. For instance, he refers to another unfulfilled prophecy from `Abdu’l-Bahā that was later removed from Esslemont’s book:

Perhaps the most important change in Bahā’u’llāh and the New Era was made on page 212 of the 1923 edition. Recorded as a Bahā’ī prophecy concerning the “Coming of the Kingdom of God,” Esslemont cited Abdu’l-Bahā’s interpretation of the last two verses of the Book of Daniel from the Bible. He stated that the 1335 days spoken of by Daniel represented 1335 solar years from Muhammad’s flight to Medina in 622 A.D., which would equal 1957 A.D.. When asked “‘What shall we see at the end of the 1335 days?’,” Abdu’l-Bahā’s reply was: “‘Universal Peace will be firmly established, a Universal language promoted. Misunderstandings will pass away. The Bahā’ī Cause will be promulgated in all parts and the oneness of mankind established. It will be most glorious!'” In editions published after his death, Esslemont’s words have been changed to say that Abdu’l-Bahā “reckoned the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy from the date of the beginning of the Muhammadan era” and one of Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets is quoted on the same subject in which he writes, “‘For according to this calculation a century will have elapsed from the dawn of the Sun of Truth . . . Esslemont recorded Abdu’l-Bahā as declaring explicitly that the prophecy was to be computed from the Hijra or 622 A.D. and that specific conditions would exist in the world upon it’s fulfillment in 1957. When it became apparent that this Bahā’ī prophecy would not be fulfilled, it was replaced with the ambiguous material which has remained in the text to the present.

Another form of distortion can be seen in translating Baha’i texts to English. For instance, in one his Tablets, Bahā’u’llāh refers to the Bāb’s order of beheading non-Bābīs. This has been translated to shedding blood in the official Baha’i translation.[3] In another instance, Bahā’u’llāh gives the order to hit a kebob seller in the mouth. His order is executed and one of Bahā’u’llāh’s followers grabs hold of the poor man’s beard and starts hitting him in the head. In the translated version of this story there is no reference to hitting. These examples and similar ones can be found with more explanations in chapter 9.

[1] The undistorted version can be found here: http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/areprint/baha/A-F/A/aqa4/aqa4.htm

[2] http://bahai-library.com/salisbury_critical_examination_literature (retrieved 22/2/2014)

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